Game mode

A game mode dictates how a player may interact with a Minecraft world.

List of game modes

Animation summarizing the game modes in *Java Edition*.

The number of different game modes in Minecraft depends on the exact definition of a game mode. In practice, there are most commonly considered to be four. They are all controlled by the "gameType" variable, and all are accessible in-game via the /gamemode command or the game mode switcher.‌

Survival

In this mode, players have to gather all their materials to build, craft items and tools and gain experience points. There is a health, hunger, and armor bar, an inventory, and also an oxygen bar when underwater, suffocating,‌ or in lava.‌ If a player runs out of hearts (health), the player dies and returns to the spawn point. Upon death, the player emits smoke, loses all experience and items, and leaves a death message explaining how the player died. Max reach is 5 blocks.

Demo Mode, which may also be counted as a game mode, is Survival with the --demo attribute, which defines if the game is from a trial version or not.

Creative

The player has access to an infinite amount of almost all blocks and items available, and can destroy them instantly. Players are invulnerable, unless they fall into the void,‌ and do not have health, armor, or hunger, and can fly. The player has access to items not available in Survival mode, e.g. spawn eggs. The player cannot see command blocks if they look through the Creative GUI - they need to spawn command blocks with the /give or /setblock commands. Alternatively, the Operator Utilities Tab can be turned on via the Controls Tab in Options, containing command blocks.‌ Max reach is 6 blocks.

Adventure

Players can interact with objects such as levers and buttons, and can interact with mobs. However, they can break blocks only with tools having a CanDestroy data tag, and place blocks only if the block they are holding has a CanPlaceOn data tag, making this mode good for adventure maps. Max reach is 5 blocks.

Spectator

When in Spectator mode, players can clip through blocks and fly freely. The player can't interact with blocks, entities or their inventory.

Spectators are invisible to all players and mobs except for other spectators. When in third-person mode, a spectator looks like a transparent, floating head with no body. The player can use the scroll wheel to adjust the flying speed, unlike flying in Creative mode.

In Java Edition, the player can enter the perspective of other entities by left-clicking on them.

Other game modes

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

Default

The "Default" game mode can be accessed by typing /gamemode default, which sets the player's game mode to the world's default game mode. This corresponds the game mode set in the Create New World menu under "Default Game Mode".

Invalid game mode

Any invalid game mode functions similarly to Creative, with the following differences:

The health and hunger bars are visible, like in Survival.
The Creative inventory is still accessible, but blocks and items cannot be taken from it.

Invalid game modes are only accessible using third-party software.

Changing game mode

The /gamemode command can be used to switch between game modes. For example, /gamemode creative puts the player into Creative mode.

In Java Edition, a player with operator permissions on a server or have enabled commands is able to cycle between game modes quickly by pressing F3 + F4, which then allows the player to cycle through the four available game modes available with /gamemode by pressing F4. Alternatively, player may be able to switch to Spectator mode using F4 + N.

In Bedrock Edition, the game mode can also be changed by quitting the world, going to Edit World, tapping either Creative or Survival, and then returning to the game if cheats are enabled.

Game states

Game state dictates how the game plays with different rules and gameplay mechanics compared to a typical Minecraft game. They are different from game modes, as they modify how the game works in each world, rather than specifying how each player interacts with the game. For example, Hardcore mode makes player unable to respawn after dying. These rules are enabled for everyone playing the world, regardless if they play in Survival, Adventure, or Creative mode.

There are two game states in Minecraft: Hardcore and Demo mode.

Hardcore

In this mode, which plays in the same way as Survival mode, the difficulty level is locked to "Hard", and when the player dies, they are unable to respawn and must either leave the world or permanently switch to Spectator mode, effectively preventing them from interacting with the world ever again.

Players cannot get Creative mode in a normal Hardcore mode game, unless "Allow Commands" option is enabled through Open to LAN feature and setting their game mode using /gamemode,‌ or editing the level.dat with external programs and tools. Players who have died in the Hardcore mode game with different game modes (Creative, Adventure, Spectator; typically via usage of /kill command or by void death), will be met the same fate of being unable to respawn in the world, just like in a normal Hardcore mode game.

The difficulty in a Hardcore mode game cannot be changed, even with the usage of /difficulty command.^{[note 1]}

In a multiplayer game, a player who dies gets put into Spectator mode, while all other players remain in Survival mode. When looking at a Hardcore singleplayer world, the game mode text is written "Hardcore Mode!" in red.

In Bedrock Edition, hardcore mode is a toggle, that locks the game mode to Survival and the game's difficulty to Hard. When looking at a Hardcore singleplayer world, the game mode is Survival-Hardcore.

Demo mode

Demo Mode functionally serves to allow the players to try out the game before deciding to buy Minecraft. It allows players to play on a single world for a 100-minute (5 in-game days) period before the map is locked and required to be reset. The game is locked to Survival mode and cheats are off by default. While the demo version does not expire, it comes with certain restrictions, by others, as its sole purpose is to allow new players to try out Minecraft.

Demo Mode is not technically a game mode as it cannot be enabled with the /gamemode command.

Summary

Below is a brief summary of the different available features in each game mode.

Feature	Survival	Creative	Adventure	Survival (Hardcore)	Spectator
Available in Demo	Only singleplayer^[a]	No	No	No	No
Multiplayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Crafting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Smelting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Brewing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Enchanting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Flying	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Inventory	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial
Health	Yes	Hidden^[b]	Yes	Yes	Hidden^[b]
Respawn after death	Yes	Yes	Yes	After death you can only enter Spectator Mode or return to the title screen	Yes
Block placing/breaking	Yes	Yes	No, unless the player has a CanPlaceOn data tag	Yes	No
Mobs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum amount of blocks (so far)	Partial^[c]	Yes	No	Partial^[c]	No
Daylight cycle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cheats	Preset to no, but changeable	Yes	Preset to no, but changeable	No	Yes
Preset difficulty	No	No	No	Yes	No
Hunger	Partial^[d]	No	Partial^[d]	Yes	No
Can phase through blocks	No	No	No	No	Yes

↑ Demo Mode allows gameplay of only the Survival game mode without a premium account, and only in singleplayer. This does have a time limit though.
↑ ^a ^b In Creative or in Spectator, health is still there but hidden from GUI, the player can show this by falling into the void.
↑ ^a ^b In Survival, there are methods to obtain unlimited amounts of specific renewable resources such as logs, cobblestone, and water. In addition, the vast map area allows one to gather plenty of anything with enough effort.
↑ ^a ^b Hunger mechanics are implemented, but only kill the player if the difficulty is set to Hard mode and do not affect players on Peaceful.

Data values

In the level.dat file, Survival mode is gametype=0, Creative is gametype=1, Adventure is gametype=2, and Spectator is gametype=3. Hardcore can be toggled with hardcore=1 (a normal world uses hardcore=0 instead). This knowledge allows hacking to change game modes by editing the world's level.dat.

Gallery

Creative Mode icon from Bedrock Edition.
Survival Mode icon from Bedrock Edition.

Notes

↑ Changing the difficulty using /difficulty results in a successful message, but rechecking it afterward indicates that it is left unchanged from Hard difficulty.

External links

All Game Modes in Minecraft – Minecraft Help Center

Navigation

[demo-2] Demo Mode allows gameplay of only the Survival game mode without a premium account, and only in singleplayer. This does have a time limit though.

[creative-health-3] In Creative or in Spectator, health is still there but hidden from GUI, the player can show this by falling into the void.

[survival-blocks-4] In Survival, there are methods to obtain unlimited amounts of specific renewable resources such as logs, cobblestone, and water. In addition, the vast map area allows one to gather plenty of anything with enough effort.

[hunger-5] Hunger mechanics are implemented, but only kill the player if the difficulty is set to Hard mode and do not affect players on Peaceful.

[1] Changing the difficulty using /difficulty results in a successful message, but rechecking it afterward indicates that it is left unchanged from Hard difficulty.

[note 1]

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]