How to Change Difficulty, Gamemode and Gamerules

There are two ways to change these settings, and picking the right one is the whole trick.

Most things (difficulty, PvP, keepInventory) are changed with a command you type into the panel. They work instantly, with no restart.

A few things (hardcore mode, the starting difficulty for a new world) are changed in Server Properties instead.

If you have ever changed a setting in the panel, restarted, and found nothing happened, this article explains why.

Which one do I need?

• Difficulty: use a command. Changing it in the panel does not affect a world you already play on.
• Gamemode (survival, creative): use a command, or Player Manager. It is set per player.
• Gamerules (keepInventory, PvP, mob griefing, coordinates): use a command. There are dozens of these.
• Hardcore mode: use Server Properties, and start a fresh world.

How to run a command

You can type commands in two places. Both do the same thing.

1. Open your server in the panel and click Console in the left sidebar. Type the command in the box at the bottom and press enter.
2. Or join the server in Minecraft and type the command in chat. You need to be an operator first. See how to give yourself OP.

In Console, leave off the slash. In chat, include it.

Change the difficulty

Run this:

difficulty hard

You can also use easy, normal or peaceful. It applies straight away.

This is the fix for the most common complaint we see: someone sets difficulty in the panel, restarts, and the world is still easy. The panel setting only decides the difficulty for a new world. Your existing world keeps whatever it was created with until you run the command.

Change someone's gamemode

Run this:

gamemode creative PlayerName

Swap creative for survival, adventure or spectator. This changes one player at a time.

Change a gamerule

Gamerules are the on/off switches for how your world behaves. Run this:

gamerule keepInventory true

Some useful ones:

• keepInventory true keeps your items when you die
• pvp false stops players hurting each other
• mobGriefing false stops creepers and endermen wrecking your builds
• showCoordinates true shows player coordinates on screen
• doDaylightCycle false freezes the time of day

Turn on hardcore mode

Hardcore is different. It is locked in when a world is created, so it will not apply properly to a world you have already been playing.

1. Open Server Properties in the left sidebar.
2. Set hardcore to true and save.
3. Reset your world so a new one generates. See how to reset your world.

Back up before you reset anything. Once a world is gone it is gone. See how to back up and restore your server.

Still stuck?

If a command runs without error but nothing changes, a plugin or mod is probably overriding it. That is common with plugins that manage deaths, claims or minigames. Open a ticket through the Support center link at the top of the panel and tell us which command you ran, and our team will take a look.