Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game that has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large

amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.[19] However, there is an achievement
system.[20] Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option for third-
person perspective.[21] The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and
commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water,
and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are
arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can "mine" blocks and
then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things.[22]

The game world is virtually infinite and procedurally generated as players explore it, using a map seed
that is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the
player).[23][24][25] There are limits on vertical movement, but Minecraft allows an infinitely large game
world to be generated on the horizontal plane. Due to technical problems when extremely distant
locations are reached, however, there is a barrier preventing players from traversing to locations
beyond 30,000,000 blocks from the center.[nb 1] The game achieves this by splitting the world data into
smaller sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players are nearby.[23] The world
is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields;[26][27] the terrain includes plains,
mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water bodies.[25] The in-game time system follows a day
and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes.

A few of the monsters in Minecraft, displayed from left to right: the zombie, spider, enderman, creeper,
and skeleton.

New players have a randomly selected default character skin of either Steve or Alex,[28] but the option
to create custom skins was made available in 2010.[29] Players encounter various non-player characters
known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures.[30] Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs,
and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime, while hostile
mobs—including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such
as caves.[25] Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of
zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear.[31] Other creatures unique to Minecraft include
the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the
ability to teleport, pick up, and place blocks).[32] There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different
conditions; for example, zombies have husk variants that spawn in deserts.[33]

Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic.[34] Liquids continuously
flow for a limited horizontal distance from source blocks, which can be removed by placing a solid block
in its place or by scooping it into a bucket. Complex systems can be built using primitive mechanical
devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates built with an in-game material known as redstone.[35]

Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the overworld (the main world): the Nether and the
End.[32] The Nether is a hell-like dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique
resources and can be used to travel great distances in the overworld.[36] The player can build an
optional boss mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether.[37] The End is a barren land
consisting of many islands. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon dwells on the main island.[38] Killing
the dragon cues the game's ending credits and a poem written by Irish novelist Julian Gough.[39] Players
are then allowed to teleport back to their original spawn point in the overworld and continue the game
indefinitely.[40]

The game consists of five game modes: survival, creative, adventure, hardcore, and spectator. It also has
a changeable difficulty system of four levels. For example, the peaceful difficulty prevents hostile
creatures from spawning, and the hard difficulty allows players to starve to death if their hunger bar is
depleted.[41][42]