So we installed Minecraft, learned about biomes, and explored the creatures found in them. Now it’s time to go beyond the safety of Creative Mode exploration and learn about all the game modes that Minecraft has to offer.
In the first lesson, we spent quite a bit of time covering the things that made Minecraft unique, with a focus on how you can turn Minecraft into the game you want to play based on your own interests.
Game modes play a very big role in helping you shift the focus of the game to whatever outcome you want. Whether you’re craving a Zen sandbox to calmly build, a long-distance adventure where you explore the ends of the Earth, or you want to fight to save the world heading towards the Ender Dragon, the game mode you choose fully supports your playstyle. There are four possible game modes: Creative, Survival, Hardcore and Adventure.
When creating a new world, you can select Creative, Survival, and Hardcore modes on the Create New World screen. You can also switch your game to Creative, Survival, or Adventure from the Open-to-LAN screen, which allows you to share your local game for LAN multiplayer. Adventure is a special mode designed for multiplayer maps and servers. Let’s take a look at each game mode and then come back to the next lesson to learn more about survival mode.
creative mode
Creative Mode is, as the name suggests, a game mode with a focus on content creation. Unlike other game modes, players in creative mode have unlimited access to resources, and every craftable item is already available in the creative inventory. You can still craft things like a pickaxe if you want to, but it’s not necessary. Imagine, if you like, that creative mode is like the unlimited tab in the LEGO Store ® .
You can build, build and build more without worrying about actually working for raw materials. If all you’re looking for is crazy building stuff without having to collect thousands of resource blocks, this is the mode for you.
While access to infinite resources is the main attraction of Creative Mode (making it the perfect mode for those who want to build to their heart’s content), another huge benefit is that the player is invulnerable and will not be harmed by falls, creatures or monsters. in the game, from being underwater for too long, or from touching lava.
In fact, the only way to die in Creative mode is to burrow into the «Void» under the game base layer (akin to falling into the center of the Earth) or use the console command /kill [playername] actually kill the player.
In addition to all the blocks you could ever want and the ability to fall to the ground without a scratch, there are two other huge bonuses in Creative Mode. As we learned in the movement section, a simple double-tap on the space bar turns on flight mode, and you can zoom in like a superhero.
Flying is especially useful for quickly exploring and admiring your subjects from the best height. The second big advantage is that blocks break instantly when you click on them (as opposed to survival mode where all blocks take time and/or tools to break).
Creative players also have access to content that is completely unavailable in other game modes, such as spawn eggs (which allow players to spawn in-game creatures at will to populate their creations).
Fun Creative Fashion Trivia: If you want to cut randomly breaking blocks while admiring your creations or research, arm yourself with a sword. When wielding a sword in creative mode, the instant break feature is disabled.
survival mode
Survival Mode is Minecraft’s default game mode and the mode that most closely resembles traditional gameplay. In the very first versions of Minecraft, there were no set goals, and the game was purely a sandbox. As the game has evolved, goal-type elements have been introduced simply to provide a loose line structure for players who wished to achieve a set goal.
In survival mode, the player is like a shipwrecked person or shelter. They are wanderers in a foreign land, with no identity or tools. Minecraft has always been deliberately light on true backstory, so feel free to fill in your own explanation for why your character is where they are.
The biggest contrast between survival mode and creative mode is the transition from god-like powers to a decidedly mortal existence. In survival mode, you don’t have access to infinite on-demand resources; You must collect resources from the environment around you. Need wood for stairs? Better start cutting down trees to get this!
In addition, you are subject to physical damage and need just as you would in real life. You take damage if you fall from a great height. You may drown. Monsters can (and will) attack you. You are also hungry and need to collect and prepare food.
The screen shown above highlights these survival mode elements. Hearts show how much health you have. Small turkey/mutton legs indicate your current hunger. The narrow bar separating the hotbar and the health/hunger bars is your experience bar. Many in-game activities, such as hunting and mining, provide experience that can be used for later difficult tasks, such as crafting enchanted weapons.
The difficulty of survival mode can be adjusted using the in-game options menu. By default, the game is set to Normal difficulty. You can adjust the difficulty between Peaceful, Easy, Normal and Hard. The biggest difference between peaceful and other difficulty modes; in peaceful mode hostile mobs will not spawn and you will never get hungry, but you will still take fall damage, drown and get injured in the lava.
Easy, Normal and Hard all have hostile mobs and hunger with the only difference between hard levels being how much damage and how aggressive the mobs are and how hunger affects you (for example in Easy you will get hungry and need to eat but hunger will never kill you, whereas in Hard you can starve to death).
Many players enjoy the challenge that Survival Mode presents and find it more rewarding to create complex structures and designs in Survival Mode. For example, building a huge castle is always fun, building it using scaffolding and actually risking falling to your death adds a certain thrill and sense of accomplishment.
For example, the unfinished castle complex was built entirely in survival mode:
It may lack the style of the more stylized Creative Mode builds, but it’s extremely satisfying to build a big project in Survival Mode and actually put it together.
If you want to play Minecraft like a traditional video game with a clear «end game» goal, here’s a rough outline of what the experience would look like:
You start the game from scratch, being somewhere on the so-called overworld (a traditional map that is completely similar to our world with mountains, rivers, meadows, etc.). You then need to survive in the Overworld by first gathering enough resources to build a simple shelter and craft simple tools, and then eventually move on to more advanced shelters and tools, such as mining resources from underground.
Eventually, using sufficiently advanced tools and weapons, you will be able to build a portal to another part of the game known as The Nether, which is essentially a Minecraft version of Hell (as spacious as The Overworld, but filled with creatures). like lava, fire, and the underworld). There you can find even more resources to continue the quest.
Using resources only available in The Nether, you can continue to expand your reach throughout the game world until you can access the final area known as «The End», which is essentially a back and forth purgatory place of sorts. . time. There you will find Ender the Dragon, which if you want to have the last big boss you have to defeat at the end of the game, this is the guy you are looking for.
