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How to Enable Hardcore Mode for your Minecraft Server

Managing your Server

·

Sep 24, 2024

Hardcore mode is a Java Edition exclusive variant of survival. In this mode, the world is locked to the Hard difficulty and players cannot respawn after being killed. The only available options on the death screen will be to enter the Spectator mode or return to the main Minecraft menu.

How to Enable Hardcore Mode

Step 1:

Access your control panel and Shut Down your server.

stopping a paper Minecraft server
Step 2:

Navigate to the Files Tab

Gif opening the files tab.
Step 3:

Open up server.properties

Example
Step 4:

Set the hardcore option to true

Setting hardcore to true
Step 5:

Click Save and Start your server

Changing settings

Changing your World to Hardcore

If your world has already been generated, you will need to edit a few extra settings to activate hardcore mode. You can do this by using NBTExplorer.

Step 1:

Follow up to step 5 of our guide on NBTExplorer.

You can find a link to our guide here, you will only want to follow steps 1-5, then come back here: How to use NBTExplorer to edit Minecraft World Data.

Step 2:

Start NBTExplorer and open the level.dat downloaded from your server.

NBTExplorer opening level.dat
Step 3:

Double click on hardcore and set the value to 1.

Enabling hardcore with NBTExplorer
Step 4:

Click Save All Modified Tags in the top-left corner.

Saving changes in NBTExplorer.
Step 5:

Upload and overwrite the modified level.dat file back to your server.

Uploading the file back to the server.
Step 6:

Restart your server.

Zach's Avatar
Zach Lowery

Game Experience Engineer