World-record runs have to end at some point, but some conclusions are more unexpected than others. Polygon reports that streamer Philza, who has been maintaining the longest hardcore Minecraft run in history, met his untimely demise at the hands of a … zombie baby. Fans have shared various strategies and theories on how Philza could have survived his ordeal, but the run is officially over.
“No,” Philza yelled once he got the “game over” screen. “Really? That’s how I die? Oh my god, I’m f**king stupid … baby zombie.”
The clip starts with Philza taking out a couple of zombies while he’s out of reach before jumping down into the cavern. Immediately, he’s attacked by a baby zombie. Impressively, he stays pretty calm throughout the ordeal, which makes sense considering he’s managed to stay alive in Minecraft’s hardcore more for this long. He turns away from the fight with intentions to heal but a spider attacks him. The spider gets the kill in the game over screen, but the zombie baby did the heavy lifting in taking down the world record holder.
Observers point out that he could have used the golden apple to restore his health but, as you can see in the clip, he was switching through his items to do just that. When he turned away from the baby zombie, he went to take the enchanted golden apple and probably would have survived if not for that final hit from the spider. He was caught in a bad position, getting attacked, on fire, and still had a shot. Hardcore is not kind, sadly.
For those unfamiliar, hardcore mode is a variant of Minecraft’s survival mode where the difficulty is locked on hard and the player is given only one life. There are also no cheats of bonus chests in the mode, as explained on the Minecraft Gamepedia page. There’s a multiplayer option, but Philza maintained his lengthy run all alone.
The unfortunate conclusion sets the five-year record in stone. So Philza can strap himself in for another attempt, or other players can give it a go, but the streamer can at least rest easy knowing that his milestone won’t be beaten for a long time.
