Minecraft wiki entry for Things_to_do_when_bored, associated text: Most players have played normal survival mode, but hardcore is a much more difficult variant of it. When in hardcore mode, the player is not only restricted to hard difficulty, meaning that mobs deal greater damage, the player can starve to death, and multiple other game features are much more challenging, but also, if the player dies, they can only return to the world in spectator mode, meaning they can never interact with that world again (unless cheats are used).