Death and Rebirth

Despite your best plans and intentions, you will get killed at some point in Minecraft. A lucky Creeper, a fall into Lava, or some other curse will befall you. When that happens, the game is not necessarily over. Let’s see what happens.

Hardcore Mode

If you’re playing Minecraft in Hardcore mode, well, then I guess the game is over. You get only one life in Hardcore mode, so death is the end of all things. You have to play very conservatively to survive on this setting. When your character does die, it’s time to start over with a new game.

If you’re really naughty, it’s possible to create a copy of your save file and then restore that when your character dies. We don’t mind telling you that this is possible, but we won’t mention exactly how to do it. It’s your responsibility if you choose to skirt the rules!

Death Penalties

The Cost of Dying

• Huge loss of experience
• Potential loss of equipment and resources that you were carrying
• Time spent getting back to where you were

For any other mode, death is not the end. Your character drops everything that he or she is carrying when something reduces his or her health to zero. Unless you’re on a tile that destroys objects, your inventory is still available to be retrieved for several minutes.

The clock has started! (Or not—we’ll talk about this in a moment.)

Your character is reborn with full health and a full hunger bar at the last place you slept. Hurry toward your Chests of goodies and grab at least a full set of basic tools, a Sword, any armor that you still have, and a mix of food and Torches. Backtrack to the place where you died, keeping in mind the threat that took you down. If it’s night outside and that’s where you died, quickly sleep on your Bed to start the next day. This doesn’t count against your timer; your loot is still out there.

If you make it back to your items in time, you get to keep them, along with some of the experience that your character had at the time of death. It isn’t a great amount, but you won’t have to start from scratch without any levels. Yay?

Lava deaths are the worst, because your items fall into the Lava and are burnt to cinders. There won’t be anything left when you return, unless a few pieces flew up and out and then landed safely on a nearby shore. It’s worth checking, but don’t get your hopes too high. Lava is evil, and that’s why you need a Bucket of Water wherever you go.

Explosive deaths can be nasty, too. Depending on the circumstances, some of your items might be destroyed by subsequent explosions or fires.

If you don’t make it back to the place where you died within five minutes, everything goes away. Take a deep breath, remember that you can always mine more treasure, and get back to doing what you like—that’s Minecraft.

But Wait! There’s Still a Chance

There is a slight catch here, in your favor. You have to get close to the area where you died for the timer to really begin ticking down. Those five minutes don’t start until you’re in the same region (called “chunks”) as your body.

Characters that die far away from home aren’t always doomed. Get prepared before you enter the region that has your body, and then beeline toward your corpse. There’s still some hope.

We still recommend trying to get to your body as soon as possible. It’s easy to forget where you were, and the longer you wait, the more likely it is that you take a wrong turn and lose time trying to find the location.