Minecraft wiki entry for Hardcore, associated text: The key feature of Hardcore mode is that the player is not given the option to respawn upon death as they would in other game modes. Instead, there are two buttons on the death screen: "Spectate world" and "Title screen". "Spectate world" sets the player to Spectator mode and respawns the player at the world's spawn point, making them able to view and explore the world only in that mode. The "Title screen" button simply leads the player to the main menu screen; re-opening the world simply returns the player back to the same death screen as before. Respawn anchors do not resurrect players in Hardcore mode.