5 hardest challenges to try if you're a Minecraft veteran

Minecraft can be enjoyable and relaxing, but some players need a challenge every so often to keep things entertaining.

For Minecraft veterans, building and crafting is all well and good, but it doesn't hurt to change things up a little bit. Fortunately, taking part in a challenge can be one of the best ways to freshen up the gameplay experience for longtime players. These challenges come in many different forms, all with their different requirements.

Some of these task players survive in extreme situations, while others impose rules on players to keep them from using conventional tactics to achieve their goals. Many are worth keeping in mind for Minecraft veterans looking for something new.

Tough Minecraft challenges to try for veteran players

5) Survival Island

Survival island challenges task players with staying put on a lone island (Image via Mojang)

For Minecraft players who enjoy a survival challenge, the survival island challenge may be for them. As the title implies, the island survival challenge begins on an isolated island, often with few accessible resources.

Players must typically complete the game without leaving the confines of the island, making things somewhat difficult down the road not only for survival but also for entering dimensions such as the Nether and the End.

Regardless, it's entirely possible to complete, and many players have set out to complete the challenge due to its entertainment value.

4) Skyblock Survival

Skyblock is one of the most prevalent challenges in the Minecraft community (Image via Mojang)

Even more extreme than survival island challenges, Skyblock maps are some of the most popular in the entire Minecraft community. The Skyblock challenge places players atop a small sliver of land floating in the game's skybox.

Most maps provide one tree and a small chest of items, and players must complete the game by surviving and building out their island. This particular challenge makes circumstances very easy for players to become resource locked, making them incapable of completing the game if they squander their resources.

There are many different spins on the Skyblock challenge, so players have plenty of variety in deciding to enact their game of survival.

3) OneBlock Survival

Oneblock is similar to Skyblock but provides even less initial materials (Image via Mojang)

Like Skyblock in its premise, Oneblock maps are challenge maps where Minecraft players must be cautious as they begin. The challenge begins with players spawning on a lone block in the skybox.

One might think this makes survival impossible, but there's one caveat: Mining the block the player is standing on will cause it to reappear, occasionally as a different block. This doles out a defined number of blocks for the player to use to expand their living space and ultimately complete the game.

If players thought Skyblock was unforgiving with resources, then Oneblock challenges should make things even more restrictive.

2) 100 Days Challenge

100 Days challenges pit the player against time itself (Image via Forge Labs/Youtube)

It's one of the most popular Minecraft video genres on Youtube, and for a good reason. The 100 Days challenge requires players to lock their world into Hardcore Mode and complete the game before 100 in-game days have passed. This may not seem that difficult, but Minecraft's day and night cycle is deceptively fast.

The biggest obstacle is Hardcore Mode itself, which increases the game's difficulty and makes every decision vital to a player's survival. Since players need to defeat the Ender Dragon in 100 days, they'll need to plan out each day. If they take on the dragon too early, they risk dying and having to start the entire challenge over.

However, if players wait too long, they'll have to reset their world to reach the time limit. This pits players against the game's Hardcore Mode and time itself.

1) Pacifist Challenge

In the Pacifist challenge, players cannot attack or kill any mobs (Image via Peppoli/Youtube)

One of the most difficult ways to experience Minecraft, the Pacifist challenge, tasks players with abstaining from attacking or killing any mobs. No passive mobs, no animals, no hostile mobs. Traps and mobs like iron golems are still permitted in most circumstances, though tamed wolves are not.

Players must live primarily through eating crops and can only kill or harm mobs by using the environment instead of fighting. Without a trusty sword or bow on hand to battle enemies, completing the game is an incredibly difficult ordeal, but it's still possible.

For challenge-loving veterans, a Pacifist run can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the game.