Minecraft: Bedrock Edition’s hardcore mode and pocketable bags are now live in the Bundles Of Bravery update

Minecraft’s Bundles Of Bravery update has been out for a day or so and I have already created and lost several hardcore mode worlds. I’m having a lovely time.

The update brings hardcore mode to Bedrock Edition for the first time. Check the box when creating a new world and your game is locked on Hard mode, with the added wrinkle of permadeath. Fall foul to a long drop or surprise Creeper attack and your world can no longer be played or edited, and only explored in spectator mode.

Hardcore mode has long been a feature of Minecraft’s Java edition, but Bedrock – which is multiplatform and supports crossplay and official Realms servers – had not been blessed by its presence since it arrived as a beta earlier this year.

The “bundles” of Bundles Of Bravery, meanwhile, are sacks that players can place items inside and carry in their inventory. They’re designed to allow players to carry more items at a time, to balance the much greater block variety now present in Minecraft versus launch. (Mining through ground no longer fills your pockets with stackable blocks of dirt and cobblestone, for example, but several different specific kinds of dirt and stone, which each require their own stack in your pockets.)

Bundles Of Bravery is the latest effort in Mojang’s attempts to release smaller and more regular updates to Minecraft, in place of a single, larger summer update. We also got new trial chambers back in June, and a new biome and mob seem likely to arrive before the end of the year.