20 Video Game Hard Modes For True Masochists

To many fans of Minecraft, its cube-filled world is a space for creativity and adventure. Sure, monsters might sometimes attack you, but aside from that, you’re free to explore the world, construct anything you want, and not worry about the occasional setbacks, as every time you die, you will just respawn in your bed.

Unless you play on Hardcore, of course.

Introduced way before Minecraft had its official release, the Hardcore mode is one of the three main game modes, alongside Survival and Creative. Out of three settings, Hardcore is certainly the most gruesome and unnecessarily punishing one, as it limits the player to only one life.

Unlike Survival, which allows you to respawn after each death, Hardcore immediately ends and wipes your entire save file the moment your character loses all of their hearts. It doesn’t matter if it’s due to starvation, enemies, or just one bad fall—as long as you’re out of hearts, you can kiss your save file goodbye.

Despite this, there are still Minecraft players who love to erect the biggest marvels of virtual architecture on their one-life Hardcore save files.

Because the greatest thrill of creation is apparently the possibility of losing it all to one dumb mistake.