Game rule

Game rules are a set of customizable options for a specific in-game world.

Modifying game rules

In Java Edition, game rules can be changed using toggle buttons on the "Edit Game Rules" menu built into the "Create World" screen. The game rules are split into categories named "Player", "Mobs", "Spawning", "Drops", "World updates", "Chat", and "Miscellaneous".

In Bedrock Edition, about half of the game rules can be changed from the "Create New World" screen and the world options in both the "Edit World" screen and the game settings in the pause menu. The remainder can be changed only with commands, or in the "Export" interface in the Bedrock Editor.

When in-game, game rules can be changed using the /gamerule command, using the syntax /gamerule <rule> [<value>], where <rule> is the name of the game rule and <value> is an allowed value, which depends on the type of the game rule. The types are boolean (where the allowed values are either true, or false) and integer (where any whole number is able to be entered).

List of game rules

The following is a list of game rules available in-game, their allowed values, and their availability in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

The minecraft: prefix has been excluded from this list for the sake of brevity.

List of game rules

Rule name	Description	Default value	Type	Category‌[JE only]	Availability
					Java	Bedrock
allowEnteringNetherUsingPortals‌[until JE 1.21.11] allow_entering_nether_using_portals​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the Nether can be entered by using Nether portals.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	No
allowFireTicksAwayFromPlayer‌[until JE 1.21.11]	Whether fire and lava ticks can occur outside of an 8 chunk range of a player.	false	Bool	Chat	Yes	No
announceAdvancements‌[until JE 1.21.11] show_advancement_messages​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether advancements should be announced in chat.	true	Bool	Chat	Yes	No
blockExplosionDropDecay‌[until JE 1.21.11] block_explosion_drop_decay​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (false) or randomly (true) depending on how far the block is from the center of a block explosion (e.g. clicking a bed in dimensions other than the Overworld).	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	No
commandBlocksEnabled‌[until JE 1.21.11] command_blocks_work​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether command blocks should be enabled in-game.	true	Bool		Yes	Yes
commandBlockOutput‌[until JE 1.21.11] command_block_output​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether command blocks should notify admins when they perform commands.	true	Bool	Chat	Yes	Commands only
commandModificationBlockLimit‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_block_modifications​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Controls the maximum number of blocks changed when using /clone, /fill, or /fillbiome.	32768	Int	Miscellaneous	Yes	No
disableElytraMovementCheck‌[until JE 1.21.11] elytra_movement_check​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the server should skip checking player speed when the player is wearing elytra. Often helps with jittering due to lag in multiplayer.	false	Bool	Player	Yes	No
disablePlayerMovementCheck‌[until JE 1.21.11] player_movement_check​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the server should skip checking player speed.	false	Bool	Player	Yes	No
disableRaids‌[until JE 1.21.11] raids​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether raids are disabled.	false	Bool	Mobs	Yes	No
doDaylightCycle‌[until JE 1.21.11] advance_time​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the daylight cycle and moon phases progress.	true	Bool	World Updates	Yes	Yes
doEntityDrops‌[until JE 1.21.11] entity_drops​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether entities that are not mobs should have drops.	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	Yes
doFireTick‌[until JE 1.21.11]	Whether fire should spread and naturally extinguish.	true	Bool	World Updates	Yes	Yes
doImmediateRespawn‌[until JE 1.21.11] immediate_respawn​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Players respawn immediately without showing the death screen.	false	Bool	Player	Yes	Yes
doInsomnia‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_phantoms​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether phantoms can spawn in the nighttime.	true	Bool	Spawning	Yes	Commands only
doLimitedCrafting‌[until JE 1.21.11] limited_crafting​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether players can craft only those recipes that they have unlocked.	false	Bool	Player	Yes	Commands only
doMobLoot‌[until JE 1.21.11] mob_drops​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether mobs should drop items and experience orbs.	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	Yes
doMobSpawning‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_mobs​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether mobs should spawn naturally, or via global spawning logic, such as for cats, phantoms, patrols, wandering traders, or zombie sieges. Does not affect special spawning attempts, like monster spawners, raids, or iron golems.	true	Bool	Spawning	Yes	Yes
doPatrolSpawning‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_patrols​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether patrols can spawn.	true	Bool	Spawning	Yes	No
doTileDrops‌[until JE 1.21.11] block_drops​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether blocks should have drops.	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	Yes
doTraderSpawning‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_wandering_traders​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether wandering traders can spawn.	true	Bool	Spawning	Yes	No
doVinesSpread‌[until JE 1.21.11] spread_vines​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether vines can spread to other blocks. Cave vines, weeping vines, and twisting vines are not affected.	true	Bool	World Updates	Yes	No
doWardenSpawning‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_wardens​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether wardens can spawn.	true	Bool	Spawning	Yes	No
doWeatherCycle‌[until JE 1.21.11] advance_weather​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the weather can change naturally. The /weather command can still change weather.	true	Bool	World Updates	Yes	Yes
drowningDamage‌[until JE 1.21.11] drowning_damage​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player should take damage when drowning.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Commands only
enderPearlsVanishOnDeath‌[until JE 1.21.11] ender_pearls_vanish_on_death​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Controls whether thrown ender pearls vanish when the player dies.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	No
fallDamage‌[until JE 1.21.11] fall_damage​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player should take fall damage.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Commands only
fireDamage‌[until JE 1.21.11] fire_damage​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player should take damage in fire, lava, campfires, or on magma blocks.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Commands only
fire_spread_radius_around_player​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Controls the maximum distance in blocks that fire can spread around a player.	128	Int	Player	Upcoming	No
forgiveDeadPlayers‌[until JE 1.21.11] forgive_dead_players​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Makes angered neutral mobs within 65 x 21 x 65 blocks centered on the targeted player stop being angry when the player dies.	true	Bool	Mobs	Yes	No
freezeDamage‌[until JE 1.21.11] freeze_damage​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player should take damage when inside powder snow.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Commands only
functionCommandLimit	The maximum number of commands that can be executed by /function at once.	10000	Int		No	Commands only
globalSoundEvents‌[until JE 1.21.11] global_sound_events​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the wither's spawning sound, the ender dragon's death sound and the end portal activation sound are heard by all players regardless of location.	true	Bool	Miscellaneous	Yes	No
keepInventory‌[until JE 1.21.11] keep_inventory​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player should keep items and experience in their inventory after death.	false	Bool	Player	Yes	Yes
lavaSourceConversion‌[until JE 1.21.11] lava_source_conversion​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether new sources of lava are allowed to form.	false	Bool	World Updates	Yes	No
locatorBar‌[until JE 1.21.11] locator_bar​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player's locator bar is enabled, indicating the location of players or entities.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Yes
logAdminCommands‌[until JE 1.21.11] log_admin_commands​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether to log admin commands to server log.	true	Bool	Chat	Yes	No
maxCommandChainLength‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_command_sequence_length​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The maximum length of a chain of commands that can be executed during one tick. Applies to command blocks and functions.	65536	Int	Miscellaneous	Yes	Commands only
maxCommandForkCount‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_command_forks​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The maximum number of forks (contexts) that can be created during one tick. Applies to command blocks and functions.	65536	Int	Miscellaneous	Yes	No
maxEntityCramming‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_entity_cramming​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The maximum number of pushable entities a mob or player can push, before taking 6HP entity cramming damage per half-second. Setting to 0 or lower disables the rule. Damage affects Survival-mode or Adventure-mode players, and all mobs but bats. Pushable entities include non-Spectator-mode players, any mob except bats, as well as boats and minecarts.	24	Int	Mobs	Yes	No
minecartMaxSpeed‌["Minecart Improvements" Experiment only]‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_minecart_speed​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The maximum speed a minecart may reach.	8	Int min:1 max:1000	Miscellaneous	Yes	No
mobExplosionDropDecay‌[until JE 1.21.11] mob_explosion_drop_decay​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (false) or randomly (true) depending on how far the block is from the center of a mob explosion (e.g. Creeper explosion).	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	No
mobGriefing‌[until JE 1.21.11] mob_griefing​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether creepers, zombies, endermen, ghasts, withers, ender dragons, rabbits, sheep, villagers, silverfish, snow golems, ravagers and end crystals‌[BE only] should be able to change blocks, and whether mobs can pick up items. When mobGriefing is disabled, piglins do not pick up gold ingots, but a player can still barter with them by using the item on the mob. Similarly, villagers do not pick up food items but can still breed until they run out of any food already in their inventory. This also affects the capability of zombie-like creatures like zombified piglins and drowned to pathfind to turtle eggs.	true	Bool	Mobs	Yes	Yes
naturalRegeneration‌[until JE 1.21.11] natural_health_regeneration​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the player can regenerate health naturally if their hunger is full enough (doesn't affect external healing, such as golden apples, the Regeneration effect, etc.).	true	Bool	Player	Yes	Yes
playersNetherPortalCreativeDelay‌[until JE 1.21.11] players_nether_portal_creative_delay​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Controls the time that a creative player needs to stand in a nether portal before changing dimensions.	0	Int	Player	Yes	No
playersNetherPortalDefaultDelay‌[until JE 1.21.11] players_nether_portal_default_delay​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Controls the time that a non-creative player needs to stand in a nether portal before changing dimensions.	80	Int	Player	Yes	No
playersSleepingPercentage‌[until JE 1.21.11] players_sleeping_percentage​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	What percentage of players in the Overworld must sleep to skip the night. A percentage value of 0 or less allows the night to be skipped by just 1 player, and a percentage value more than 100 prevents players from skipping the night.	100	Int	Player	Yes	Yes
projectilesCanBreakBlocks‌[until JE 1.21.11] projectiles_can_break_blocks​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether impact projectiles destroy blocks that are destructible by them, i.e. chorus flowers, pointed dripstone, and decorated pots.	true	Bool	Drops	Yes	Commands only
pvp	Whether players can damage other players.	true	Bool		Yes	Yes
randomTickSpeed‌[until JE 1.21.11] random_tick_speed​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	How often a random block tick occurs (such as plant growth, leaf decay, etc.) per chunk section per game tick. 0 and negative values disables random ticks, higher numbers increase random ticks. Setting to a high integer results in high speeds of decay and growth. Numbers over 4096 make plant growth or leaf decay instantaneous.	3‌[JE only] 1‌[BE only]	Int	World Updates	Yes	Yes
recipesUnlock	Whether the player needs to collect items to unlock recipes in the recipe book.	true	Bool		No	Yes
reducedDebugInfo‌[until JE 1.21.11] reduced_debug_info​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the debug screen shows all or reduced information; and whether the effects of F3 + B (entity hitboxes) and F3 + G (chunk boundaries) are shown.	false	Bool	Miscellaneous	Yes	No
respawnBlocksExplode	Prevents beds/respawn anchors from exploding in other dimensions.	true	Bool		No	Yes
sendCommandFeedback‌[until JE 1.21.11] send_command_feedback​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether the feedback from commands executed by a player should show up in chat. Also affects the default behavior of whether command blocks store their output text.	true	Bool	Chat	Yes	Commands only
showBorderEffect	Whether the particles of the border block are shown.	true	Bool		No	Commands only
showCoordinates	Whether the player's coordinates are displayed on the HUD.	true	Bool		No	Yes
showDaysPlayed	Whether the world's in-game day count is displayed on the HUD.	false	Bool		No	Yes
showDeathMessages‌[until JE 1.21.11] show_death_messages​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether death messages are put into chat when a player dies. Also affects whether a message is sent to the pet's owner when the pet dies.	true	Bool	Chat	Yes	Commands only
showRecipeMessages	Whether the recipe toasts are displayed.	true	Bool		No	Commands only
showTags	Hides the "Can place on" and "Can destroy" block lists from item lore, as well as item lock indicators.	true	Bool		No	Commands only
snowAccumulationHeight‌[until JE 1.21.11] max_snow_accumulation_height​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The maximum number of snow layers that can be accumulated on each block.	1	Int	World Updates	Yes	No
spawnerBlocksEnabled‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawner_blocks_work​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Enable or disable monster spawner blocks.	true	Bool		Yes	No
spawnMonsters‌[until JE 1.21.11] spawn_monsters​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether monsters can spawn naturally.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	No
spawnRadius‌[until JE 1.21.11] respawn_radius​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	The number of blocks outward from the world spawn coordinates that a player spawns in when first joining a server or when dying without a personal spawnpoint. Has no effect on servers where the default game mode is Adventure.	10	Int	Player	Yes	Yes
spectatorsGenerateChunks‌[until JE 1.21.11] spectators_generate_chunks​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether players in Spectator mode can generate chunks.	true	Bool	Player	Yes	No
tntExplodes‌[until JE 1.21.11] tnt_explodes​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether TNT explodes after activation.	true	Bool	Miscellaneous	Yes	Yes
tntExplosionDropDecay‌[until JE 1.21.11] tnt_explosion_drop_decay​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (false) or randomly (true) depending on how far the block is from the center of a TNT explosion.	false	Bool	Drops	Yes	Commands only
universalAnger‌[until JE 1.21.11] universal_anger​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Makes angered neutral mobs attack any nearby player, not just the player that angered them. Works best if forgiveDeadPlayers is disabled.	false	Bool	Mobs	Yes	No
waterSourceConversion‌[until JE 1.21.11] water_source_conversion​[upcoming JE 1.21.11]	Whether new sources of water are allowed to form.	true	Bool	World Updates	Yes	No

Additional behavior

This section needs expansion.

 

You can help by expanding it.

This section explains more complex behaviors of certain gamerules.

• disableRaids
  • When true, the Bad Omen effect is not removed from a player when entering a village.
  • Stops a raid if set to true while a raid is in progress, but the existing raid mobs do not despawn.
• doEntityDrops
  • When false, removing items from item frames do not drop them.
• doMobLoot
  • Does not affect drops not related to a mob's death, such as chicken laying eggs, or sheep dropping wool when sheared.
  • Does not affect the dropping of wither roses when mobs are killed by the wither.^[1][2]
• doMobSpawning
  • Affects only natural mob spawning. Mobs from structures,‌^{[Java Edition only]} monster spawners, and events still spawn when set to false.
• doTileDrops
  • When false, containers still drop their contents, but not themselves.
    • Shulker boxes do not drop anything, causing the items in them to be lost.
  • When false, destroying an armor stand does not drop it nor any armor it had equipped.
  • When false, item frames still drop themselves and their items.
  • When false, infested blocks do not spawn silverfish when broken.
• drowningDamage
  • When false, the player still loses air, but does not take damage when the air is depleted.
• fireDamage
  • When false, the player may still be set on fire, but does not take damage when on fire.
• forgiveDeadPlayers
  • Every neutral mob that can be aggravated remain aggravated even after the offending player dies, with the exception of piglins when a player does not wear golden armor and iron golems when it is created from a village where the player has a reputation of -100 or lower.
• keepInventory
  • When true, players also retain their experience upon death.
  • When true, health and hunger are still reset as normal upon death.
  • When true, all effects are still removed upon death.^[3]
  • When true, items enchanted with Curse of Vanishing do not disappear upon death.^[4]
• mobGriefing
  • When false, prevents all mobs from modifying the environment in any way. This includes trampling crops and turtle eggs, picking up items, destroying blocks, or moving blocks. Specifically, it prevents:
    • Allays from picking up dropped items.
    • Blazes from creating fire or lighting campfires.
    • Creepers from destroying blocks when they explode, although they still damage entities.
    • Dolphins from picking up dropped items.‌^{[JE only]}
    • End crystals from destroying blocks when they explode, although they still damage entities.
    • Ender dragons from destroying blocks, causing it to just fly through them instead.
    • Endermen from picking up or placing blocks.
    • Evoker from turning blue sheep red.‌^{[JE only]}
    • Foxes from picking sweet berries from a sweet berry bush and picking up dropped items.
    • Ghast fireballs from exploding blocks and creating fire. They still damage entities.
    • Piglins from attempting to barter by picking up dropped items; using the item on them still works.
    • Rabbits from eating carrot crops.
    • Ravagers from destroying crops and leaves.
    • Sheep from turning grass blocks into dirt, but does not prevent the regrowth of wool. They still act as if they are eating the grass and regrow their wool upon doing so, but the grass remains and the grass breaking sound does not play.
    • Silverfish from hiding in infested blocks and destroying those blocks when hatching.
    • Snow golems from creating snow trails.
    • Villagers from farming and picking up items. However, they can still open doors and throw items.
    • Withers and their heads from destroying blocks with their explosions. Entities are still damaged, and a wither rose drops as an item.
    • Zombies from breaking doors, picking up items, and attacking turtle eggs.
  • Prevents cobwebs from spawning when a mob with the Weaving effect dies.
  • Has no effect on bees, breezes, frogs, turtles or the player.
• playersSleepingPercentage
  • When set to 0, at least one player is still required to sleep to skip the night.
  • When set to a number greater than 100, night is not skipped no matter how many players are sleeping.
• randomTickSpeed
  • Does not affect:
    • Death of coral blocks, coral, and coral fan.
    • Hatching of frogspawn^[5] and sniffer eggs^[6].
• snowAccumulationHeight
  • When set to 0, snow layers do not form at all.
  • When set to 8 or higher, snow forms up to the level of a full block, but no greater than that.
• tntExplodes
  • When set to false, TNT Minecarts cannot be ignited.
    • This includes through Activator Rails, Cramming, and destruction while in motion.
• universalAnger
  • Every neutral mob that can be aggravated targets all nearby players whenever they are aggravated.
  • Bees attack all nearby players when their beehive is broken, regardless of the setting of this gamerule.^[7]
    • Bees becoming angry when attacked works as expected.

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Game rule" or "Gamerule" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  The full "Edit Game Rules" menu as of 1.18.2.

References

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