So the 1.9 Pre-Release has brought a plethora of fun stuff to the table… everything from NPCs to Snow Golems. But Notch has tweeted today that there will be an all new game mode introduced. Hardcore mode!!! Similar to what it sounds like and what we’ve seen in other games’ hardcore modes – it will bring a whole new meaning to death in Minecraft.

Obviously it’s an optional thing… it doesn’t apply to every game you play, but you can now choose to play Hardcore in addition to normal Survival and Creative modes. Notch has stated that it automatically sets the difficulty level to “Hard” so there’s no playing Hardcore mode on Peaceful.

In some hardcore modes in games you simply lose your character and have to create another, or lose all your items and are forced to start from scratch again… in Hardcore mode in Minecraft you will lose your entire world. Yeah, sounds harsh, right? That’s because it is!! I’m totally ready to give single-player a shot in Hardcore mode and see how long I can last.

Haven’t had much time with 1.8? Don’t worry! 1.9 is nearly here! Jeb released a pre-release of 1.9 earlier on his twitter. Notch stated earlier that they’re going to split up 1.9 into 1.10 also. Hopefully this doesn’t mean we have to create a new world AGAIN when 1.10 comes out, but hey… what can ya do?

Again – we will NOT be updating our server to 1.9 until it is officially released. We will also be starting a new map when 1.9 hits because it contains new biome generation code.

Oh and of course a change list…

Nether Related

• Nether Blocks, Nether Block Fences, and Nether Block Stairs
• Nether Brick is flammable but not indefinitely like netherrack.
• New Nether strongholds & bridges
• New Nether mob – Blazeman. Comes from spawners & shoots fireballs.
• Magma Cube– Nether mob, look like a slime but upon jump they uncoil like a spring. They also will split apart into smaller versions of themselves when hit like slimes.
• Nether items: Blaze Rod (dropped by new mob), Nether Wart (new crop) , Ghast Tear, Gold Nuggets (dropped by zombie pigmen)(put 9 of them together to craft into a gold bar)
• Farm-able Nether crop (Nether Warts), only plantable on soul sand.
• Ghast fireballs do not damage new Nether materials.
• Other than the gold nuggets, no uses for other new Nether items are known yet.

NPC Related

• NPCs in villages, one main model with different colors for different “jobs.”
• NPCs will not react to attacks on other NPCs
• Hostile mobs will not go after NPCs, but can kill them while coming after you.
• NPCs do not have any specific purpose of actions yet, they kinda just walk around.
• NPCs will only appear in towns newly generated in 1.9; if you have villages generated in any stage of 1.8 there will be no NPCs

Biomes & Misc

• Swamps now have darker colored water and lily pads
• Red flowers are back
• Snow Biomes are back
• Mushroom Biome has purple tinted grass and large mushrooms growing
• Mooshrooms are red and white spotted cows with mushrooms growing on them. They can be sheared for a mushroom and will turn into regular cows.
• Snow Golems can be crafted by placing two snow blocks vertically on the ground, and then placing a pumpkin head on top of them. They are crafted by block placement not a crafting square.
• Rain is re-textured.
• Water and Lava leak (drip) through the bottoms of adjacent blocks. This will let you know if there’s water or lava above you.
• Chests now make no sound at all.
• You can no longer hold the spacebar down for continuous jumping.
• When flowing lava falls on top of water, smoothstone is created. When flowing water hits flowing lava, cobblestone is created

Check out our original Adventure Update Changelist to see what all has been added that wasn’t originally planned and what’s not been added yet!