Very Hard mode

Very Hard mode is a difficulty setting in Minecraft which includes various different changes from those which are present in other difficulty settings. This article lists all of them. The setting was added in update 1.69.2.
== Changes in Very Hard mode ==
=== Mob spawning changes ===
# Phantoms spawn 3x more often.
# Night-time hostile mobs can spawn in any biome the player is in.
# Strays can spawn in any biome in which snow naturally spawns.
# Night-time hostile mobs can spawn during the day in taiga, dark forest, old growth pine and spruce taiga, snowy taiga, jungle, and bamboo jungle biomes. These mobs will not drop anything when killed.
# Wither skeleton archers can spawn.
# After beating the wither, wither skeletons, wither skeleton archers, and blazes will start spawning in the overworld. They will all have the same spawn frequency as skeletons, except blazes, which have the same spawn frequency as creepers.
# Killer bunnies spawn in the same biomes normal bunnies spawn in, at half the spawn rate.
# Skeleton trap horses spawn from 10% of lightning strikes, regardless of regional difficulty. They are triggered when the player enters a 20 block radius of it.
# Perfect chicken jockeys are now 20% of all chicken jockeys that spawn.
# Spiders and cave spiders spawn in the nether. Wither skeletons spawn on 15% of these spiders.
# Witches spawn 3x more frequently, and can spawn in both the nether and the end.
# Illusioners can spawn in raids and in woodland mansions.
# Silverfish spawn in the same conditions spiders do.
# 10% of creepers spawn charged.
=== Mob behavior changes ===
# Wolves have a 30% chance of being hostile.
# Horses can kick the player for 2-12 damage if they are behind them and in 1-2 block range.
# Cows and pigs are neutral mobs, dealing 8 and 6 damage per attack respectively.
# Chickens are neutral but have 25% chance of being hostile. They attack every 0.2 seconds for 3-5 damage. Chickens have 100% knockback resistance.
# All non-tamed mobs do not harm any neutral or hostile mobs.
# Hostile mobs never infight.
# Piglins do not trade with the player; they are hostile.
# Ravagers break all blocks they can break in bedrock and java edition, as well as cobblestone, wood planks, wood logs, gravel, glass, glass panes, furnaces, smokers, blast furnaces, crafting tables, chests, large chests, and armor stands.
# All polar bears are hostile to the player and to dogs.
=== Stat changes ===
# Lava does 4x more damage to the player. Hostile mobs are unaffected by it.
# Skeleton ranged attacks do 7-8 damage.
# Skeleton melee attacks do 3-4 damage.
# Zombie melee does 5-6 damage.
# Strays do 5-7 damage. Melee damage is 20.
# Husks do 6 damage.
# Wither skeletons have 25 health.
# Wither skeleton ranged attack does 10 damage.
# Chicken jockey chickens have 10 health, and their texture has iron armor.
# Silverfish have 14 health and do 4 damage. Their damage negates all forms of damage resistance.
# Vindicators spawn with diamond axes and deal 25 damage.
# Ghast impact damage is 50.
# Ghasts have 30 health.
# Evokers spawn 4 vexes.
# Pillagers do 8 ranged damage and 8 melee damage.
=== Mechanics changes ===
# I-frames do not exist for the player.
# I-frames are halved for all entities that are not the player.
# Starvation does damage 3x faster.
# Hunger depletes 50% faster.
# Simulation distance for hostile mob spawning is 2 chunks.
# Hostile mobs with RNG gear never drop their gear.
# Sunlight doesn't burn hostile mobs if they have armor.
# Zombie jockeys and cave spider jockeys work like in bedrock. Wither skeleton spider and cave spider jockeys exist and spawn as often as all other jockeys combined, but only after the wither has been killed (overworld).
# Day is 9 minutes long and night is 11 minutes long.
# Fall damage is not negated or reduced by water or any block except for slime.
# Illagers don't drop anything except banners, crossbows, and totems of undying.
# Ghast fireballs just explode when hit.
# You can't sleep until midnight.
# You can't sleep if it is raining or storming.
# Night-time hostile mobs are now 2% slower than sprinting players.
# Hostile mobs knockback reduced by 80%
# No critical hits for players. Mobs can do crits.
# Wither skeleton melee and ranged attacks will lower shields.
# Totems of undying are now cosmetic.
=== New mechanics ===
# If the player does not drink water for 2 in game days or longer, they will die. If the player does not drink water for 1 in game day, they will lose the ability to sprint, jump height will be halved, melee damage will be halved, they cannot use bows or crossbows, and they take 1 more damage from everything.
# There is a 3% chance of getting poison level 0.5 when eating any food item. The effect lasts for 10 seconds.
# 1 in 10 nights are blood moons in which the player cannot sleep and mobs spawn with 3 more health +1 damage, instant aggro on the player or tamed npcs, and all creepers spawn charged. creepers will explode if their explosion is in range of the player, regardless of barriers.
=== Other changes ===
# Night is now as dark as it was in beta versions.
# Many bugfixes
=== Scrapped and removed changes ===
== Trivia ==