Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game where you lead troops into battle to defend the Minecraft over-world. You unite the characters of Minecraft to defend their land by constructing forts, fighting enemies with swords and bows and ordering your troops to tactical locations. It takes the familiar Minecraft world and forces you to think like a general - directing battle-wide troop manoeuvres but also getting involved in one-to-one fights with individual enemies.

Set centuries before the main Minecraft game, you play through an old legend told by villagers as a bedtime story, where the inhabitants of the world come together to fend off the Piglin invaders from the Nether dimension. As you play through a series of battles you meet characters who help you, giving you items and weapons you can use on your quest. You construct forts and bases, then lead your troops into battle, giving them directions and orders while fighting enemies yourself. Eventually, you reach the Nether, where you have your final confrontation with the Piglin armies.

Gameplay focuses on creating bases and forts that act as hubs, that you defend from enemies, and also use to regroup and heal your army, change weapons and more. You travel across the various biomes of the world map, guiding your army behind you until you reach a fight. You then switch to giving orders to attack or help, while you fight individual enemies using swords and other weapons. As you progress, you unlock new weapons, abilities and troop types, each of which give you different advantages as you fight the ever more difficult enemy armies.

The result is a game that offers a fun and unique challenge through its varied mix of large-scale fights and individual, one-on-one battles. It also tells a unique story that explains the history of the structures and creatures that inhabit the Minecraft world.