How to Set Game Rules on Your Minecraft Bedrock Server

Complete reference for all Bedrock Edition game rules including keepInventory, mobGriefing, PvP, coordinates, and Bedrock-exclusive rules.

Game rules control core gameplay behavior — mob spawning, PvP, item drops on death, day/night cycle, and more. Bedrock has several rules that don't exist on Java Edition.

Requirements

Cheats must be enabled — see Enable Cheats
OP permissions are needed to run gamerule commands — see OP Setup

Enabling cheats disables achievements for the world. This is permanent and cannot be reversed.

How to Change a Game Rule

Open the Console

In the XGamingServer Panel, click Console in the sidebar.

Run the command

gamerule <ruleName> <value>

For example, to enable keep inventory:

gamerule keepInventory true

Changes take effect immediately — no restart needed.

To check the current value of any rule, run it without a value:

gamerule keepInventory

Complete Game Rules Reference

Rule	Default	Description
`keepInventory`	false	Players keep items and XP on death
`pvp`	true	Players can damage each other. Bedrock-exclusive
`naturalRegeneration`	true	Health regenerates when hunger is full
`doImmediateRespawn`	false	Skip the death screen entirely
`drowningDamage`	true	Players take damage when out of air
`fallDamage`	true	Players take fall damage
`fireDamage`	true	Players take fire, lava, and magma damage
`freezeDamage`	true	Players take damage in powder snow
`respawnBlocksExplode`	true	Beds and respawn anchors explode in the wrong dimension. Bedrock-exclusive

Rule	Default	Description
`doDaylightCycle`	true	Day and night cycle progresses
`doWeatherCycle`	true	Weather changes over time
`doFireTick`	true	Fire spreads to nearby flammable blocks
`tntExplodes`	true	TNT blocks can detonate
`mobGriefing`	true	Mobs can modify blocks (creeper explosions, enderman block pickup, ghast fireballs)
`randomTickSpeed`	1	Speed of random block ticks (crop growth, leaf decay, grass spread). Bedrock default is 1 (Java default is 3). Set to `0` to freeze all growth
`doTileDrops`	true	Blocks drop items when broken
`doMobLoot`	true	Mobs drop items and XP when killed
`doEntityDrops`	true	Non-mob entities (minecarts, item frames) drop items

randomTickSpeed is one of the most commonly changed rules. Setting it to 3 matches Java Edition speed. Setting it higher (like 100) makes crops grow almost instantly — useful for testing.

Rule	Default	Description
`doMobSpawning`	true	Mobs spawn naturally in the world
`doInsomnia`	true	Phantoms spawn when players haven't slept for 3+ in-game days
`doPatrolSpawning`	true	Pillager patrols spawn in the world
`doTraderSpawning`	true	Wandering traders spawn periodically
`playersSleepingPercentage`	100	Percentage of online players that must sleep to skip the night. Set to `0` so a single player can skip
`spawnRadius`	10	Radius (in blocks) around the world spawn point where players may randomly spawn

These rules are Bedrock-exclusive and have no Java equivalent:

Rule	Default	Description
`showCoordinates`	true	Show X, Y, Z position in the top-left corner of every player's screen
`showDaysPlayed`	false	Show the in-game day count on screen
`showDeathMessages`	true	Death messages appear in chat
`showRecipeMessages`	true	Toast notifications when recipes are unlocked
`showTags`	true	Display name tags above players and mobs
`showBorderEffect`	true	Show world border particles

showCoordinates does not require cheats to toggle — it can be changed even with allow-cheats=false. However, it does require OP or being set before the world loads.

Rule	Default	Description
`commandBlockOutput`	true	Command blocks broadcast their output to chat
`sendCommandFeedback`	true	Commands show their output to the player who ran them
`commandBlocksEnabled`	true	Command blocks can execute
`maxCommandChainLength`	65536	Maximum number of command blocks that can chain in a single tick
`functionCommandLimit`	10000	Maximum commands per function file per tick
`doLimitedCrafting`	false	Players can only craft recipes they've unlocked
`recipesUnlock`	true	Recipes unlock as players collect ingredients
`projectilesCanBreakBlocks`	true	Projectiles can destroy certain blocks

Popular Configurations

Peaceful Building Server

gamerule pvp false
gamerule mobGriefing false
gamerule doMobSpawning false
gamerule doFireTick false
gamerule keepInventory true
gamerule showCoordinates true

Hardcore Survival

gamerule naturalRegeneration false
gamerule doImmediateRespawn false
gamerule playersSleepingPercentage 100
gamerule keepInventory false

Event / Minigame Server

gamerule pvp true
gamerule keepInventory true
gamerule doImmediateRespawn true
gamerule showCoordinates true
gamerule doDaylightCycle false
gamerule doWeatherCycle false

How to Set Game Rules on Your Minecraft Bedrock Server

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