As a game with truly countless possibilities, the Minecraft experience is diversified with the existence of unique game modes. When the player is on the game’s main screen, they may select a game mode as they generate a new world. These include survival, creative and hardcore, which are explained in greater depth below.
Some game modes, however, can only be accessed through commands ingame. This includes adventure and spectator modes. Each of these modes adds a new challenge, and switches up the gameplay of ‘normal’ Minecraft to create a new experience for the player.
Survival
This is the default mode, and likely the most popular in singleplayer worlds. As the name suggests, the player’s ultimate goal in this game mode is to survive against the elements. One may also think of this as the mode with the features Minecraft is known for: the player is able to break blocks and interact freely with their environment, as well as take damage from entities and other events. Additionally, activities such as running will cause the player to lose hunger bars, meaning they must keep themselves fed to survive.
Similarly, the player is subject to death in this game mode, which results in being teleported to the world’s spawn point. Overall, survival is what most players use to get an authentic Minecraft experience by requiring them to work hard while building, exploring and surviving.
Creative
A popular way to bypass the lengthy time required to gather resources for building is by using creative mode. In this mode, the player has unlimited access to every material and item in the game, all of which can be utilized through the player’s inventory menu. Some items, such as spawn eggs, are only accessible in creative mode. Blocks are also destroyed instantaneously.
Another important highlight is the player’s access to commands that they wouldn’t otherwise have in survival: they may switch between game modes with /gamemode, set the time with /time and weather with /weather; among other commands, they can also teleport themselves and other players while remaining invincible to the environment around them. Additionally, one is able to fly by double pressing their jump button, making travel significantly easier.
Creative is typically used by players focused on building structures or contraptions who don’t want to spend large amounts of time mining and collecting materials. A majority of staff members on servers utilize creative frequently as well.
Adventure
Before Minecraft was officially released, singleplayer maps were highly valued to add more excitement to the game. Players could create adventures and puzzles for others to enjoy, but realistic elements of these maps were lost. Players could easily cheat by destroying blocks, potentially breaking the mechanics that made such adventures and games functionable.
Hence, the solution was adventure mode. In this game mode (specifically designed for map creators), players cannot destroy the environment around them. By default, they may interact with mobs, levers, buttons and pressure plates, but cannot break any blocks unless the creator gives it a CanDestroy data tag. Overall, adventure mode makes maps more challenging, as well as realistic, to ensure the player does not cheat.
Hardcore
Hardcore exists to simulate reality as much as possible: when the player dies in this game mode, the entire map is instantly deleted. They are not, under any circumstances, allowed to respawn. On top of this, the difficulty is permanently set to “Hard”, meaning the player takes more damage than on other game modes. Hardcore cannot be disabled, and cannot be accessed via commands in creative or survival. Although it aims to make Minecraft more realistic, no other game mechanics or altered in hardcore.
One popular use of this game mode is seen on multiplayer servers. While the world itself cannot be deleted, the player is either permanently or temporarily banned from the server upon death. This definitely makes PVP more risky, as well as forces the player to be more alert and cautious of their surroundings.
Spectator
Spectator mode is less of a gamemode when compared to survival, adventure or hardcore, because it rather just modifies the gamemode one is already in. Spectator allows the player to “enter” the bodies of other mobs and view the world from their perspective. Additionally, it creates a sort of no-clip access to the game, allowing one to fly directly through all blocks while being invisible to other entities.
This game mode is accessed by the command /gamemode [spectator or 3]. By left clicking on a mob, they can see what the entity “sees”, but are not able to control it. While in this game mode, the player has no access to items, health, aspects of their environment, as they are simply spectating the world around them.
