Hardcore mode is not available in Bedrock Server

Setting the 'gamemode' to 'hardcore' should work. Please try this and report back.

Unfortunately it doesn't work! The server starts in Creative mode using the difficulty that is set in the server.properties file.

Using the default server.properties (with the modified gamemode and difficulty) the server starts in Creative mode in hard difficulty.

This is the server.proprties file (changes highlighted):

server-name=Dedicated Server
gamemode=hardcore
force-gamemode=false
difficulty=hard
allow-cheats=false
max-players=10
online-mode=true
allow-list=false
server-port=19132
server-portv6=19133
enable-lan-visibility=true
view-distance=32
tick-distance=4
player-idle-timeout=30
max-threads=8
level-name=Bedrock level
level-seed=
default-player-permission-level=member
texturepack-required=false
content-log-file-enabled=false
compression-threshold=1
compression-algorithm=zlib
server-authoritative-movement=server-auth
player-position-acceptance-threshold=0.5
player-movement-action-direction-threshold=0.85
server-authoritative-block-breaking-pick-range-scalar=1.5
chat-restriction=None
disable-player-interaction=false
client-side-chunk-generation-enabled=true
block-network-ids-are-hashes=true
disable-persona=false
disable-custom-skins=false
server-build-radius-ratio=Disabled
allow-outbound-script-debugging=false
allow-inbound-script-debugging=false
script-debugger-auto-attach=disabled

And this is the output after starting a new world:

NO LOG FILE! - setting up server logging...
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Starting Server
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Version: 1.21.43.01
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Session ID: f9b673f8-7a90-4d8d-adcf-eca036f9986e
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Build ID: 28812647
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Branch: r/21_u4
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Commit ID: 85739e3d01b156e58318b1488efef205f2ef4cb0
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:718 INFO] Configuration: Publish
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:720 INFO] Level Name: Bedrock level
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:724 INFO] No CDN config file found for dedicated server
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:724 INFO] Game mode: 1 Creative
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:724 INFO] Difficulty: 3 HARD
[2024-10-27 18:58:52:725 INFO] Content logging to console is enabled.
[2024-10-27 18:58:53:342 INFO] Opening level 'worlds/Bedrock level/db'
[2024-10-27 18:58:53:374 INFO] [SERVER] Pack Stack - None
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:378 INFO] IPv4 supported, port: 19132: Used for gameplay and LAN discovery
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:378 INFO] IPv6 supported, port: 19133: Used for gameplay
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] Server started.
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] ================ TELEMETRY MESSAGE ===================
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] Server Telemetry is currently not enabled. 
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] Enabling this telemetry helps us improve the game.
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] 
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] To enable this feature, add the line 'emit-server-telemetry=true'
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] to the server.properties file in the handheld/src-server directory
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:393 INFO] ======================================================
[2024-10-27 18:58:54:394 INFO] [Scripting] No script plugins found.

If I take the stock standard server.properties and change only the gamemode and leave the difficulty in the default easy setting then the game runs in Creative mode in easy difficulty.

As @gergomeister mentioned, it forces the game into creative mode when modifying the gamemode as “hardcore”

Please see if this workaround helps. Taken from the official Minecraft discord

I hope for a more streamlined solution, but for now it does the job. Thanks for your help!

This issue is Working as Intended.

The report you have submitted is working as intended: Uploading world with pre enabled hardcore mode to the BDS is currently only option to activate Hardcore on BDS.