In Minecraft, what advantage do you have, playing on any difficulty, other than easy? Are there better rewards?

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6 Answers

The reward is a bit more challenging gameplay:

• Mobs hit for more damage
• Much larger no-cancel radius for creeper explosions
• If your hunger bar depletes, you will die (your health stabilizes on lower levels)
• Zombies break down doors
• Only way to play "hardcore" mode (i.e., you die, your world's deleted)

5

The only reason to play on Hard mode is for the challenge or sense of danger. The extra difficulty may make the game a more rewarding experience, but it doesn't give any extra loot. The same number of enemies spawn on Hard as on Easy, and they drop the same amount of stuff.

In Hard mode, according to the Minecraft wiki:

• Enemies deal more damage
• Creepers will not cancel their explosion unless you move further away
• You can die from starvation (on Normal difficulty you can only be reduced to half a heart of health from starvation).

2

In hard mode, there is a higher chance of mobs holding gear like armor and weapons. And a higher chance of them being enchanted items. These items might be dropped on death for you to pick up.

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The following is based on MC for PC version < 1.7.x, and no facts have been checked against a higher version of the game, at this time. I will attempt to update it as soon as possible.

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The different difficulties change the over all feel of the game in terms of difficulty. Whether or not the game seems more difficult is a personal opinion.

If you are the type of person who prefer to set goals and challenge themselves, then you might be more inclined to play hard mode. If you played through the game, killed the dragon, and really didn't break a sweat, then trying hard mode may provide a more enjoyable and challenging experience.

Its not so much advantages or rewards, just slightly different mechanics and experience.

Strictly speaking of Hard Difficulty, the following things make the game a different experience:

Exclusive to Hard difficulty

• All hostile mobs have increased HP
• All hostile mobs have increased damage
• Creepers explosion no-cancellation range is increased (meaning you have to back off further than normal or easy to have them cease exploding)
• Hunger decreases, and you die immediately, when it depletes
• Poison will kill you
• Withering can kill you
• Spiders will have higher chance of spawning with positive a status effect (Strength, Speed, Invisibility etc.)
• Zombies have higher chance spawning with a weapon
• Zombies spawning with armor have higher chance of having additional armor
• Explosions deal more damage
• Villagers killed by Zombies have higher chance of converting to Zombie Villager (rather than simply dying)
• Overworld Portals will spawn Zombie Pigmen more often
• Actions consume more satiation/hunger

In addition to your difficulty setting, there is a Regional or Local Difficulty, that affects certain aspects of the game. The calculation for this local difficulty partially depends on your set game difficulty. Some of these effects can occur on lower difficulty, due to how the calculations are done, however they are more likely on Hard difficulty.

Based on Local Difficulty, influenced by Game Difficulty

The phase of the moon also affects these chances

• Higher chance of Zombies spawning with armor
• Armor and weapons that Zombies spawn with will have higher level of enchants
• Zombies are more likely to break doors
• Zombies are more likely to pick up items from the ground (not like Endermen, who take blocks)
• A Zombie that spawns has a chance of receiving a HP bonus + additionally, a higher chance to break doors (stacks with existing chance)
• A Zombie that spawns has a higher chance of calling for reinforcements (when killed, see Zombie Packs)
• Slimes will spawn larger.
• Slimes are more likely to spawn in swamp biomes. (This is not affected by game difficult, only by moon phase difficulty)

Lastly, there is a MODE (separate from a difficulty) called Hardcore. in this mode death is permanent, your world will be deleted. Mobs spawn rates are increased. And your difficulty is locked to hard (hardcore is a mode and can't be changed in game) However, though you start in hard difficulty with Hardcore mode, this can be changed in game. As an interesting note, even though Hardcore is a mode and so is Creative, you can be in creative in a hardcore world (dying still has the same result).

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The following are changes in difficulty that either used to be true or were rumored to be true or which I have not found a reliable source to substantiate them.

• Crops grow slower (random game ticks is decreased slightly)
• Drowning and suffocation occurs faster
• Skeletons shot arrows faster
• Skeletons have better accuracy. Skeleton and other mob AI has been changing since at least version 1.7.2 and at the time the effect is same for all difficulties.
• Additional/Better Loot in dungeons and fortresses and strongholds Notch and Jeb has said they want and intend to implement this in a future version. But it is not true at present.
• Zombies can break down doors in easy mode if local difficulty is high enough This was fixed in a earlier version. Mojang claims it was unintentional according to bug tracker
• Multiple players makes the chunk age faster. Mojang has confirmed this to be false, the age rate is fixed regardless how many players occupy the chunk are because it is based on loaded time only.
• Killer bunnies have a greater chance of spawning, and even more on full moons Killer bunnies were removed prior to release version and this has not been confirmed for the snapshots it was present in.

Additional notes and clarifications:

• Zombies can break down doors in normal mode if local difficulty is high enough
• Chunks have 'age' based on how long they have been loaded which contributes to local difficulty.
• Neither more nor less mobs spawn in hard mode than easy/normal. This was changed back in pre-beta. The only except is Pigmen near Overworld portal, which do spawn more frequently.
• Chunks have age based on how long they've been loaded.
• There are many side affects caused by the difficulty settings and local difficulty as well as moon phase that are not directly but rather indirectly related such as getting more rare drops due to increase in chance of spawning with items. The chance for items to drop is the same, and the number of items is the same.
• Herobrine is not, was never, and will never be in the game. Don't believe me? Check the change logs.

This answer is still being worked on

Sources:

• (Does myth-busting and proving videos)

Fun notes:

• Your hearts in hardcore mode are evil, seriously, just look at them.

Herobrine watches you while you sleep and he knows when you're awake.

4

Simple, mobs deal more damage, zombies break down doors and the harder it is, the more fun it is.

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On hard:

Mobs spawn a little less, but have a greater chance of having armor and tools, and if enchanted, have a better chance for higher levels.

All mobs have increased health and do more damage. Creepers explode even if you are farther form the standard three block radius.

You can die of hunger, and your saturation does not last nearly as long.

Zombies can break down wood doors.