Hardcore mode is a variant of survival in which the difficulty is locked to Hard and players cannot respawn. When a player dies in Hardcore, they are forced into spectator mode and cannot interact with the world. Enabling Hardcore on your server adds tension and encourages careful play. This guide shows you how to enable it before or after your world is generated.

Enable Hardcore Before World Generation

1. Navigate to the Wabbanode Control Panel and Stop your server.
2. In Files, open server.properties.
3. Find the line hardcore=false and change it to hardcore=true. You may also wish to set difficulty=hard to ensure the correct difficulty, although Hardcore automatically forces Hard difficulty.
4. Save the file and Start your server. When the server generates a new world, it will automatically be in Hardcore mode. Players who die will not respawn.

Convert an Existing World to Hardcore

If your world was created without Hardcore enabled, toggling the option in server.properties will not retroactively convert the world. You need to edit the world’s level.dat file:

1. Follow steps 1–4 above to enable hardcore=true in server.properties and restart the server once to apply the change.
2. Stop your server again.
3. Download the level.dat file from your world folder via Files or SFTP. This file contains game rules for the world.
4. Use an NBT editor such as NBTExplorer on your computer. Open the downloaded level.dat file.
5. Locate the hardcore tag (it is a byte value) and set its value to 1. Save the file.
6. Upload the modified level.dat back to your server, replacing the existing file. Ensure the file name remains exactly level.dat.
7. Start your server. Your existing world will now operate in Hardcore mode. Players who die will enter spectator mode and cannot be revived.

Additional Considerations

• Back up your world. Hardcore mode is unforgiving. Consider taking regular backups so you can restore the world if everyone dies.
• Communicate the rules. Inform your players that deaths are permanent and that leaving the server will not reset their status.
• Difficulty options. Hardcore mode forces Hard difficulty regardless of the difficulty setting. Do not install plugins that conflict with this mechanic.