Summary
MinecraftHardcore is a difficult but incredibly rewarding experience; everything feels more meaningful and valuable because all it takes is one death, and everything you’ve worked for is gone. This isn’t meant to be discouraging either; you’d be surprised at how exhilarating it can feel to fear even the most common mobs again, like skeletons, zombies, and spiders.
If you’re on the fence about starting your first Hardcore playthrough, or you’ve gone through a few different worlds already and you’re still struggling to survive, here are a number of tips, tricks, and general guidelines that can help increase your odds.
For this list, we decided to focus on tips that were practical in order to help players of any skill level have a more rewarding and enjoyable gameplay experience.
9Make A Shield As Soon As Possible
If there’s anything you’re going to rush in the early game, please make it a shield. For the extremely cost-effective price ofsix wood planks and a single iron ingot, you gain access to a defensive piece of gear that can completely negate the damage of a Creeper explosion, even if you don’t have armor.
Plus, shields let you block melee attacks, deflect projectiles like arrows and crossbow bolts, and significantly reduce knockback from a variety of damage sources, like explosions or Hoglin and Ravager attacks.
8Try Not To Get Caught Outside At Night
This is an obvious tip, but if anything, this is about the principle of mindfulness. When you’re playing on the hardest difficulty, and you only have one life, you have to get accustomed to a risk-averse mindset, playing more carefully, and being mindful of the damage that enemies and the environment can inflict on you.
As you’re exploring for villages and cool spots to set up a base in the first few in-game days of your playthrough, attempt to get a bed crafted as fast as possible. If you have no other option, there’s no shame in digging a hole in the ground and covering the top with a block until sunrise.
7Use Settings To Your Advantage
This isn’t a necessity, but if you want to be extra safe, go into options, music and settings, and at the bottom-left, turn on subtitles. Now, as you play the game, you should see some information in the bottom-right of your screen that updates based on what’s happening around you.
You’ll see a variety of information, such as when footsteps are heard or when blocks are being broken, but on the more useful side, it’ll also tell you when you’re near lava or a hostile mob. It even has directional arrows near the text to point you in the direction of potential danger.
6You Can Use A Fortune Pickaxe On More Than Just Ore
While it’s nice to see a bunch of ore plop out of a single block, some players don’t realize that the Fortune enchantment effect applies to other resources too. If you’re struggling to get food, for example, you can use a Fortune pick on melon blocks and sweet berries, or planted crops like carrots, potatoes, and beetroot.
Also, if you’re planning on brewing a bunch of potions, you may use a Fortune pick on Nether Wart to increase the yield of your harvest. If you want to, you can make a second Fortune pick specifically for non-ore harvesting.
5Villagers: Vital Business Partners
Considering you can trade for diamond weapons, tools, and armor, Mending enchantment books, golden carrots, and plenty of other useful items, setting up advantageous trades is a great mid to late game goal for your Hardcore world.
If you’re completely new to villager trades,check out this useful guide. If you want an easy way to get emeralds, just mass produce sticks from wood planks. Then, find villagers with the Fletcher profession; some of them will be willing to trade an emerald for 32 sticks.
4Get Acquainted With Potions
You don’t have to become a master alchemist, but learning about and stocking up onthe most helpful potions in the gamewill go a long way in terms of survivability. Ideally, you’ll want to farm relevant resources and start crafting:
While these potions are universally useful in practically any situation, they are especially helpful for the more dangerous areas and content in the game, such as the End, Nether, Deep Dark, or Illager structures.
3It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Frugal
While this arguably becomes less important as time goes on and you start to become more well-established, reigning in any unnecessary wastefulness can go a long way, especially in the early game when coal, food, and other resources are highly sought after.
Being more frugal could look like growing and turning bamboo into sticks to use as a fuel source instead of coal, eating food only when you get the maximum amount of saturation from it, or using a campfire instead of a furnace to cook food.
2Think Critically And Plan Accordingly
You can never be too prepared. There’s no need to enter a vast cave system, for example, before you have armor, a shield, tools, weapons, torches, food, and anything else that fits your goals and needs.
As another hypothetical, if you’re going into a very dangerous area, like the Nether, you’d want gear and items that make sense to bring, and to abide by risk-averse behaviors, such as:
1Learn From Your Mistakes
Sometimes, even with careful planning and preparation, things can go awry quickly. With Minecraft being such an open-ended and dynamic experience, it’s only a matter of time before you encounter a unique situation or problem you’ve never dealt with before.
Ultimately, the more you play, the more scenarios and problems you’ll experience, and thus, the more you will learn, adapt, and overcome. Take breaks when you need to, but don’t let the end of a Hardcore run discourage you from mastering different aspects of the game.
