Even before you create your first world in Minecraft, there are many different settings you can tweak. They let you tailor the experience to yourself, with options that significantly affect your gameplay—from world type and difficulty to experimental rules. Not all of these are straightforward, especially for brand-new or younger players. So today we’ll go through all the available options, what they mean, and which choices might be best for you.
Create a new Minecraft world: difficulty, cheats, and game mode
When setting up a new world in Minecraft, you’ll find three tabs to switch between. That’s where all the essential options live. Some can be changed later, others cannot.
The first menu contains the general game settings. You can set nearly all of these now and adjust them later in-game or by other means.
World name: Give your new world a name. The world and its folder will use this name. You can rename it later by editing an existing world. Pick something you’ll recognize later.
Game mode: Choose your mode: the classic Survival, Creative, or Hardcore. In Creative you can build without limitations (Minecraft Creative Mode: Tips, Commands, and the Best Mods) . In Hardcore the world is tougher, and you lose it when you die .
Difficulty: Choose peaceful, easy, normal, or hard. This affects mob strength as well as regeneration, hunger, and other mechanics. Unless you lock the difficulty (the padlock in the menu), you can change it at any time.
Allow Cheats: Cheats are commands that can alter gameplay. Enable them to access advanced functions, for example to change your game mode later. In Survival, it’s usually best to disable them; in Creative, it’s helpful to enable them.
Minecraft world settings: world type, seed, and generate structures
The world-generation settings are likely the ones that interest you most. Here you can define key parameters that shape how your Minecraft world is generated. All of these settings cannot be changed later.
The first control lets you choose your world type. Most players will stick with Default to generate a normal world, but the other options are exciting for experienced players.
All world types in Minecraft:
Default: The standard world generation for Minecraft. Relevant for most players.
Superflat: A flat world, usually for testing or creative builds. It can also be used as a challenge . There are extra customization options with preset types.
Large Biomes: Increases biome size by four times, making regions feel larger and more expansive. It’s a great change of pace, more immersive, and makes long journeys much more exciting. Landscapes also feel a bit more realistic.
Amplified: A whole different challenge where terrain is much harder to traverse. Expect towering, steep mountains—they look amazing but require more work to navigate. You’ll also need a powerful PC; this option is only available on Java. Still, Amplified can be a fantastic change of scenery, and the dramatic peaks are absolutely worth it. We recommend every player try this at least once!
Single Biome: You can also create a world that consists of just one biome. The terrain of the seed is used, but only a single landscape type is generated. This can be a lot of fun—or a big challenge. You can choose any biome, creating over 60 different variants. Anything from normal plains to cave biomes is possible.
Below these options you can enter your seed. Leave it blank for a random seed. If you want a specific world generation, enter the value here. We’ve already compiled a list of cool seeds if you’re looking for some (Top Minecraft seeds to kick off: Survival islands, caves & biomes) .
Finally, you have two more options:
Generate Structures: Decide whether structures like villages, pyramids, and other buildings should generate.
Bonus Chest: Gives you some early tools, wood, and food. Great for new players.
Minecraft advanced settings: game rules, experiments, and data packs
The options under More are for advanced players who want to fine-tune their Minecraft experience. Still, we’ll take a closer look here because there are a few aspects that can be useful for everyone—once you understand them.
Game rules: Game rules are specific parameters for your world. There are many of them, but some are especially handy. For example, you can keep your inventory on death, disable raids, or turn off certain damage types (e.g., drowning). You can disable PvP, switch off specific mobs (e.g., phantoms or the Warden), and adjust other behaviors.
Experiments: These toggles enable experimental features that Mojang is currently testing. They are separate from normal snapshots.
Data packs: You can also install data packs here, which work similarly to mods. We already have a full guide if you want to learn more (Minecraft Data Packs: Installation, Tips & the Best Packs) .
You can change all of these later in-game. Game rules require cheats to be enabled, but you can add data packs at any time.
Conclusion: best settings for your new Minecraft world
Minecraft’s world creation can be overwhelming for newcomers unfamiliar with the game’s terminology. We hope this helps you build the perfect world! It’s especially worthwhile on additional playthroughs to try different options or adjust settings as you go. World types that deviate from the default generator and unique seeds from the internet are particularly exciting.
If you want to create your own world, rent one of our Minecraft servers and set your own options there! The same rules apply to multiplayer servers, which you can customize individually as an admin.
