10 Unique Ways to Play Minecraft

Whether you’re a newcomer to this legendary sandbox title or are (somehow) trying it out for the first time, you’re in for a treat. Since its release, Minecraft has become the quintessential survival sandbox game. But it is way more than that, offering up a variety of highly varied ways to play. The catch? Well, it doesn’t exactly tell you everything from the get-go. So, we’re here to help fill you in. These are ten unique ways to play Minecraft, which you may not have tried!
1. Skyblock Challenge
This may be popular, but even today, many players have never heard of the Skyblock challenge. This challenging game mode starts players on a small island suspended in—you guessed it—the sky. This causes you to begin with very limited resources, forcing you to get creative to expand your island and gather resources. It’s a fun twist on the usual survival and exploration parts of Minecraft, which many of us are incredibly familiar with by now.
2. Hardcore Mode
As its name suggests, Hardcore mode is all about difficulty—turning up the survival element of Minecraft. In this mode, you have only one life. Yes—that’s right when you die, so does your server. It’s literally permanently deleted on death. While this may sound like hell to some players, it offers a unique challenge many veteran players will enjoy.
3. Adventure Maps
These maps are all custom-built worlds created by players to expand upon the usual gameplay loops of Minecraft, adding unique stories and new gameplay experiences. These maps are unique, so you’ll have to explore their diversity yourself. But if you’re looking for original, unique, and often story-driven experiences, perhaps this is a new way for you to enjoy this epic game.
4. Building Redstone Engineering and Contraptions
If you’re the type of player who likes to build all sorts of automated contraptions within Minecraft, this one’s for you. Minecraft’s redstone system offers limitless possibilities to create complex contraptions ranging from farms to in-game computers to mini-games. Exploring these mechanics can lead to hours upon hours of enjoyment and problem-solving—which certain types of players will find very rewarding.
5. Role-Playing Servers
If you’re more into character and narrative building, Minecraft’s variety of online role-playing servers have you covered. These community servers attract creative and enthusiastic players who want to engage in RPG systems within the Minecraft world. Again, these vary wildly, but most will include towns, quests, and plenty of unique gameplay moments. Speaking of playing Minecraft online, you can also buy Minecraft hypixel coins to get ahead.
6. Building Challenges
Minecraft is all about building—at least for many players. Because of this, you can set many building challenges yourself or other community members. These range from recreating popular environments—like the world of Skyrim or downtown New York—to building statues and much more. Get involved in the huge Minecraft construction community, and you’ll be able to get involved with plenty of these projects.
7. Hardcore Survival Challenges
Alongside the hardcore mode, the community has come up with even more difficult hardcore survival challenges for players looking for an even bigger challenge. These may include adding dietary requirements to your character, limiting crafting, or even saying that you cannot use tools. These additional rules make you engage with the game in exciting new ways, opening up new avenues to explore.
8. Create a Custom Adventure Map
We already mentioned playing on adventure maps, but if you enjoy level design and storytelling, you may be more excited to create your own adventure to share with other players. You can do this with ease thanks to Minecraft’s built-in map editor and extensive commands. Building experiences that you can then play and share with the community. So get creating!
9. The One-Chunk Challenge
If you thought the skybox challenge sounded difficult, think again. The one-chunk challenge limits your entire gameplay experience to a microcosm of 16×16 blocks. This small space forces you to become extra resourceful and creative as you build and craft from a tiny pool of resources. If you love minimalism and a careful use of space, this one’s for you.
10. Speedrunning
Minecraft speedrunning has gained a massive amount of popularity in the last 10 years, seeing players race towards various different goals as fast as they can. Be it the goal to complete the game and defeat the Ender Dragon, or quite literally anything you can imagine. If you can think of something funny or challenging, you can be the first to set a Minecraft speedrunning record and get the community involved in an entirely new race. Like many of the entries on this list, speedrunning is all about finding creative solutions, this time to being as speedy as possible.
Given its sandbox nature, Minecraft offers a huge amount of diversity regarding how you can play the game. So, if you’re looking for something to do in the game, pick one of the unique ways to play listed above and immerse yourself in a whole new way to play this legendary game.
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