Getting Started

Install

Requirements: Minecraft Java 26.3, NeoForge 26.3.0.88, Java 25.

1. Install NeoForge 26.3.0.88 for Minecraft 26.3.
2. Download the Hardscrabble jar from CurseForge.
3. Put it in the mods folder, on the client and on the server.
4. Create a new world. World creation starts on Hard difficulty.

Opening a world first played without the mod is not supported (it loads with default values and players get a warning), and removing the mod from a world is not supported either.

To build from source instead, see DEVELOPMENT.md.

Your first day

1. Do not punch trees: logs cannot be broken by hand.
2. Dig gravel. It mostly drops itself, but sometimes gives flint shards (or nuggets).
3. Craft flint tools in the 2×2 grid: a hatchet first, then a knife, an axe and a shovel. Crafting takes time: hold the result slot until the bar fills.
4. Chop logs with the flint hatchet.
5. Find copper and build the copper workbench: each metal has its own workbench, and each needs the previous one.
6. Smelt in a clay oven with sticks or charcoal (coal is too hot for it), then move up to hotter furnaces for better ores.

Survival tips

• You start with 3 hearts; maximum health grows with your level up to 10 hearts. The food bar is capped by level.
• Eat a varied diet: protein and phytonutrients both matter. The P and V markers on the HUD show what you lack.
• Natural regeneration is slow, and dying costs XP and a 120 s forced respawn.
• Monsters spawn up to block light 7: light your base well.
• Check your clock: it tells you tonight's moon. Stay inside on a blood moon (every 32 days).
• Use /commands, /stats, /state and /villages to check your progress. Villages only appear once someone has crafted an iron pickaxe.
• One-time contextual hints explain new mechanics as you meet them; turn them off with hints.contextual_hints (see Configuration).

---

Home · Getting Started · Progression and Crafting · Survival · Combat and Armour · Mobs · World · Configuration