Minecraft Difficulty Settings Guide
Choose between peaceful, easy, normal, and hard difficulty, and understand what each level changes.
Setting the Difficulty
/difficulty [peaceful|easy|normal|hard] - Changes the difficulty immediately without a restart. This is the easiest way to change it.
You can also set difficulty in the Settings tab (default easy). That is written to server.properties, which Minecraft reads at startup, so it takes effect at the next restart - which is why /difficulty is the quicker route.
The difficulty affects mob spawning, damage, hunger, and other gameplay mechanics. It applies to the entire world.
What Each Level Does
Peaceful: No hostile mobs spawn. Hunger drains very slowly and regenerates health. Spiders still spawn but are neutral. Endermen don't spawn. Good for building-focused servers.
Easy: Hostile mobs spawn but deal reduced damage. Zombies don't break doors. Hunger drains but cannot kill you. A good starting point for new players.
Normal: Standard difficulty. Mobs deal normal damage. Zombies can break wooden doors on Hard, not Normal. Hunger can drain to 0.5 hearts. The default Minecraft experience.
Hard: Mobs deal maximum damage. Zombies break wooden doors and can spawn reinforcements. Spiders can spawn with status effects. Hunger can drain to 0 and kill you. For experienced players.
Hardcore Mode
hardcore in the Settings tab (default false) locks the server to Hard difficulty and enables permadeath. It is restart-required, so saving it on a running server restarts it for you.
This is the most punishing mode. It's popular for challenge servers and community events, but not recommended for standard public servers.
Hardcore mode is a server-wide setting - it affects all players. You can't have some players in hardcore and others in normal.
If a player dies and gets banned, you can unban them with /pardon [player], but their world data (inventory, location, health) is lost. They respawn fresh if unbanned.
Recommended Difficulty by Server Type
Building/creative server: Peaceful. No mob interference with builds.
Casual survival server: Easy or Normal. Accessible for most players.
Standard survival server: Normal. The intended Minecraft experience.
Hardcore/challenge server: Hard or Hardcore. For players who want maximum difficulty.
You can change difficulty at any time with the /difficulty command - no restart needed. This is useful for events (e.g., switch to Hard for a boss fight, then back to Normal).