Easter eggs

An Easter  is an intentional hidden message, inside joke, or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, television program, movie, book, or crossword. Minecraft features several Easter eggs hidden in the game.

April Fools' Day
Many joke features and updates are teased on April 1. Some of these, such as stained glass, blocks of coal and horses, eventually made their way into the official game.

2011


The locked chest was a naturally generated block used as the premise of Notch's 2011 April Fools' Day joke. Upon attempting to open the chest, a message would appear stating that a "Steve Co. Supply Crate Key" was needed and that one could be purchased at the Minecraft store.

This concept was a reference to the Team Fortress 2's item drop system, where players can pick up an item while playing. One of the receivable items is called a Mann Co. Supply Crate, which required a key purchased from the Mann Co. Store, a microtransaction system integrated into the Steam client. The font used in the GUI is also the same as the one used in Team Fortress 2.

Within the Minecraft store, there were many Easter eggs:
 * Clicking on the "Proceed to checkout" button triggered a screamer in which a Velociraptor from the film Jurassic Park would growl loudly and fly across the screen. Once clicked, the "Proceed" button also changed its display name to "Fiddlesticks!!!1" [sic]
 * Entering items totaling over $10,000 into the cart causes a window pop-up asking if the player is prone to seizures. Clicking "OK" or "Cancel" made the screen start flashing, causing every element to flash multi-color.
 * Later, the window pop-up said, "If you are prone to seizures, press cancel." This was done likely to avoid exposing photosensitive players to the rapidly changing color flashes.
 * The script that caused the Velociraptor to appear contains a reference to the Konami Code in it:

// Determine Entrance if(options.enterOn == 'timer') { setTimeout(init, options.delayTime); } else if(options.enterOn == 'click') { _this.bind('click', function(e) { e.preventDefault; if(!locked) {	 init; }	}) } else if(options.enterOn == 'konami-code'){ var kkeys = [], konami = "38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65"; $(window).bind("keydown.raptorz", function(e){ kkeys.push( e.keyCode ); if ( kkeys.toString.indexOf( konami ) >= 0 ) {	init;	$(window).unbind('keydown.raptorz'); } }, true);

2013
During 2013, Mojang released a pre-release for a fake future version to various YouTubers.

2014
A post was added to Mojang's blog for the joke.

This caused all players' current skin to be replaced with the various villager skins, and caused users to be unable to change their skins unless they modified the launcher file. Different career villager skins were used, including the then-unused green robe of a nitwit villager.

In-game, villagers still acted the same, but they made different sounds. All noises were replaced with the sound effects of Element Animation's "T.E.A.V.S.R.P" (The Element Animation Villager Sounds Resource Pack). Mojang also added in-game villager music. The title screen music contains a parody of the Game of Thrones theme, due to the new series starting in early April and also because of its being included in the original trailer for "T.E.A.V.S.R.P." Jeb also claimed the villager got his Twitter account.

Grum [ released the villager skins on Reddit] on April 1, 2014. There were seven variants, including a base skin.

An updated version of T.E.A.V.S.R.P., complete with the new music, [ was released by Element Animation] on April 2, 2014.

Soon afterward, Element Animation released [ this video], and the skins and the sounds were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2014.

2015
15w14a was released as an April Fools' joke for version "1.10", when the next update was supposed to be 1.9. This "update" is called the Love and Hugs Update. There was also a QR code written in the snow that generated in a superflat world that, when scanned, reads "Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update". Swords were replaced with “hearts”. The only world name you could have was “There can only be one”. Survival was called “Existence”.

2016
1.RV-Pre1 was released as an April Fools' joke for the update 1.RV. This "Update" is called the Trendy Update.

2017
The Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device, a "games console" resembling a Game & Watch, was announced on the Minecraft website.

2018


The new 'PCX' default version of textures was released for. The new textures are available in versions of Java Edition 1.12.x and versions from Java Edition 17w43a to Java Edition 18w11a. It was announced that all editions of Minecraft would get the new version of textures. The new textures are the original textures using 8-bit color, leading to a drastic reduction in detail. The splash text for this day also shows any of the following:


 * Cleaner!
 * Simplified!
 * Perfected!amazing
 * Art directed! (by robots)
 * Machine learned textures!
 * Not blurry!
 * Not bubbly!
 * Not cartoony!
 * Photorealistic!
 * Hand-painted!

The textures and the splashes were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2018. However, this update cannot be reactivated by setting the computer's date to April 1, 2018.

For block and item renders of these textures, see Category:April Fools 2018.

2019
An April Fools' version officially called "Minecraft 3D" was released, containing many references to gaming in the 1990s, primarily Doom.

2020
Snapshot 20w14∞ was released, adding 2,147,483,647 dimensions that can be accessed by throwing a not specifically customized book and quill or written book into a nether portal.

Halloween
Between October 20 and November 3, bats can spawn at a light level of 6 or less instead of the normal light level 3 or less.

On October 31, zombies, zombie villagers, husks, drowned, skeletons, strays, zombie pigmen, and wither skeletons may sometimes wear carved pumpkins or jack o'lanterns on their heads. These mobs would drop these blocks if killed using a tool enchanted with Looting. This feature was added in Java Edition 1.4.2 for Halloween 2012 and every Halloween thereafter.

Also, the only splash text shown is "OOoooOOOoooo! Spooky!"

Christmas
From December 24–26, chests, large chests, trapped chests, and ender chests have their textures changed to Christmas chests, which resemble wrapped Christmas presents. This was added in Java Edition 1.4.6 for Christmas 2012. A texture file called "skis.png" was also added in Java Edition 1.4.6 in the same folder as the Christmas chests, but it was added by Dinnerbone as a red herring. This was re-added for Christmas 2013, along with a new "rain feature"—pigs riding chickens (this is not planned to be fully implemented). This also happened again in 2014 with a new splash reading, "Merry X-Mas!" and repeated in every Christmas since.

Cake
In 1.14.2-pre2 and for the occasion of the 10 years of Minecraft's release on May 17, 2019, the cake had a big "10" placed like candles, and the only splash text that appeared was "Turning 10 years old!" This was reverted to the way they were before on May 20, 2019.

Thing banner
A "Thing" pattern can be crafted using an enchanted golden apple and paper. When put on a banner, it displays Mojang's old logo in whatever color dye was used. It is labeled "Thing" in the inventory.

Textures
Some textures have hidden things in space unused by the game. Some of these are accessible by unzipping client.jar found in the versions folder.

Guardian
Before the Texture Update, in the guardian and elder guardian textures, there was an unused area saying "jeb".

Armor stand
In the texture for the armor stand, in an unused area in the bottom right, the word "Searge" can be seen in a black box. This is presumably put there as a signature by Searge, the developer that implemented armor stands. In the bottom left, the word "Jappa" can be seen. This is likely another signature, this time from the texture artist, Jappa, who was in charge of the Texture Update.

Zombie pigman
Before the Texture Update, in an unused area for the zombie pigman texture, the words "THX XAPHOBIA" could be seen. This was written by Notch to give credit and thanks to the original creator of the texture, XaPhobia.

Languages
There are five joke languages available at the language menu: Pirate Speak, LOLCAT, Shakespearean English, Anglish (puristic English), and ɥsᴉlƃuƎ (ɯopᵷuᴉʞ pǝʇᴉu∩) (upside-down English).

Minecraft is also translated into tlhIngan Hol, the Klingon language from Star Trek; Quenya, one of the Elvish languages from Lord of the Rings; Lojban, a conlang made by the LLC (Logical Language Group); and Esperanto, a conlang created by L.L. Zamenhof.

If a player types "excitedze" into the search bar in the recipe book, their language is automatically switched to Pirate Speak. "ExcitedZe" is the username of Maria Lemón, one of Mojang's staff members.

Naming mobs
Several mobs can be renamed by using a name tag to create an effect.

Upside-down mobs
As of 1.6, any mob named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" (case sensitive) through name tags, commands, or any other method, cause it to render upside-down. The mob's behavior does not change.

This also applies to players, allowing Dinnerbone and Grumm's avatars to be rendered upside-down. This can be toggled using the "Show cape" button from "Skin Settings". $$, if the player names themselves Dinnerbone or Grumm, they are rendered upside-down. This works only if the player did not sign into Xbox Live.

Rainbow Sheep


Naming a sheep "jeb_" using a name tag or a renamed spawn egg causes it to continually cycle through all colors a sheep can be dyed. When sheared using shears, however, the sheep drop wool of the original color of the sheep rather than the color that currently appears on the sheep. $$, if a sheep is named jeb_, and then sheared, the leftover wool on its skin continues to cycle through all the colors. No longer works in the new 1.16 Nether Update.

"Toast the Bunny"
When Ryan Holtz was developing rabbits, user xyzen420 asked him to make a skin that would look like his girlfriend's lost rabbit, Toast. Now, naming a rabbit with a name tag or a rabbit spawn egg called "Toast" causes the rabbit's skin pattern to look like Toast as a memorial. This also works if the player attempts to name The Killer Bunny; although while the rabbit's appearance uses the Toast skin, it can still attack as it would without the given name. When the player is killed by the renamed Killer Bunny, the death message says " was slain by Toast". "Toast" is re-textured to have black spots on its fur.

"Johnny"
If a vindicator is named "Johnny" or has its  tag set to , it attacks any nearby mobs except other illagers and ghasts. This references the movie The Shining. Other references include that vindicators named "Johnny" had a similar behavior from sharks in Hungry Shark series.

Deadmau5's ears
With the addition of the cape, Notch also added ears for the player deadmau5. The ears are "vanity items and are worn in addition to the player's skin", with the texture contained within deadmau5's skin.

Deadmau5 cannot disable his ears, as a translucent part of the skin is automatically converted into a black color. His name tag is also programmed to render ten pixels higher to be above the ears.

The ears are set to show up based on the username, rather than the UUID of the player, meaning that if deadmau5 were to change his name, he would not keep his ears.

Notch's death
When Notch died in-game, he dropped an additional apple along with his inventory. At a certain time in-game, these were unobtainable. However, it appears that this is no longer the case, and it is unknown whether this was intentionally removed.

Never displayed splash
Within the "texts" folder, there is a text file named. The text file contains all the splashes that appear on the title screen. One of them is "This message will never appear on the splash screen, isn't that weird?" As its text implies, the splash is never displayed.

Missingno Splash
If one were to delete the file splashes.txt without also deleting the META-INF folder, the splash text on the title screen appears as "missingno". This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon MissingNo. found in the first generation of Pokémon games. This was later changed to a box with the letters "ZWNBSF" within it.

Notch's Birthday
On June 1, Notch's Birthday, the only splash displayed is "Happy Birthday, Notch!"

This splash was removed as of Java Edition 1.8.5, since Notch no longer works for Mojang.

Holiday splashes
Various splashes appear all day on many holidays, like "Happy New Year!" on January 1, and "Merry X-mas!" on Christmas Day. They may change slightly every year.

COVID-19
Special splashes are displaying because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They include "Wash your hands!" and "Support elderly relatives and friends!"

Removed Easter eggs
Several Easter eggs have been removed from Minecraft.

Command blocks
Command blocks have various Easter eggs with messages being added to the previous output.

Searge
Running "Searge" as the command in the command block without a preceding " " now sets the previous output to "#itzlipofutzli". This Easter egg is case insensitive.

Searge says
If the command is run via command block, it gives various messages prefixed with "Searge says: " as the previous output when activated. The following messages exist:
 * "Yolo"
 * "/achievement take achievement.understandCommands @p"
 * "Ask for help on twitter"
 * "/deop @p"
 * "Scoreboard deleted, commands blocked"
 * "Contact helpdesk for help"
 * "/testfornoob @p"
 * "/trigger warning"
 * "Oh my god, it's full of stats"
 * "/kill @p[name=!Searge]"
 * "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
 * "Sorry, no help today".

This no longer works in 1.13 ; instead the command now runs normally, but the previous output gives only the last line ("/xp -> experience") due to there being space for just one line.

Java Edition launcher


Before the release of the Java Edition launcher version 2.1.497x, the launcher contained multiple Easter eggs. If the player hovered their cursor over the "Play" button for a few seconds, a random mob would appear in the bottom right corner of the launcher. In the top left corner of the launcher, the player could see a translucent creeper face. There was about a $1/11$ chance of the creeper face being replaced with a shrugging emoticon, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. When the player clicked on either of these, they turned solid white. Clicking them again would return them to their translucent state. In addition, if the player pressed, the experience orb pickup sound plays. These can no longer work because the launcher was recently updated.

Tower of Pimps
In the old Legacy Console Edition TU12-TU13 Tutorial World, on the top floor of the sandstone pyramid, there are four blocks of gold on top of a block of obsidian. This is the "Tower of Pimps". It was created by Gavin Free of Achievement Hunter in their video "Let's Play Minecraft Part 2 - On a Rail!" and has become a symbol of the group's Let's Play Minecraft series, mainly as a trophy of their competitions in their Achievement City world within Xbox 360 Edition and Java Edition.

Stampylonghead reference
In the Legacy Console Edition TU19/CU7/1.12 Tutorial World, there was an island in the northeast side of the world and it had a remake of Stampy's house along with his boat, the S.S. Stumpy.

Additionally, the boat was seen in the trailer for Legacy Console Edition TU19/CU7.

Portal
The achievement for crafting a cake is called "The Lie" in reference to the phrase "The cake is a lie" from the popular Valve game Portal.

Half-Life
The achievement for traveling a significant amount of distance by minecart is called “On A Rail”, which is most likely a reference to Half-Life Chapter 8, in which the protagonist, Gordon Freeman must navigate a complex railway while fighting marines and aliens.

Super Mario 64
The elytra's behavior, Tommaso tweets, "is like Mario 64" in reference to the wing cap from Super Mario 64.

Star Fox
The achievement for using a trident enchanted with Riptide is called "Do a Barrel Roll!" in reference to the popular phrase said by Peppy Hare in Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Zero, telling the player to execute an aerial maneuver called a barrel roll.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Using in a command block displays one of a few joke messages, one of which is "Oh my god it's full of stars", a quote from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the witty comments, there are two other quotes, "I'm sorry, Dave." and "Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that."

Age of Empires
If an evoker sees a blue sheep, it turns the sheep into a red sheep while uttering "wololo". This is a reference to the Priest unit from the Age of Empires real-time strategy game series, which would utter "wololo" while converting enemy units to their side, changing their color. The evoker specifically uses the sound sample from the 1999 title Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.

Hungry Shark games
Vindicators named "Johnny" and zoglins had a similar behavior from sharks in Hungry Shark series.

Terraria
The summoning mechanism for the wither boss, according to Jens, was inspired by the summoning mechanisms for bosses in Terraria.

Minceraft
There is a 0.01% chance for the title screen to display "Minceraft" instead of "Minecraft". The beginning of crash logs can have the phrase "You should try our sister game, Minceraft!"

"Someone is closing me!"


After a crash, the second-to-last line of text on the game output launcher tab says "Someone is closing me!"

Enchanting symbols


The enchanting symbols shown on the enchantment selection contain random words using the standard galactic alphabet from Commander Keen games, but the words in enchanting tables are randomized and do not correlate with any enchantments. This language shows up in the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, as a puzzle.

Disc 11
When the ogg for music disc 11 is converted to wave and run through a spectrogram, an image is created. Several theories for this image exist, but the most popular is that the image depicts the default player head and C418's autograph. C is the hexadecimal of 12, so 12418 is C418.

Cave sound 14


When ambient sound 14 is put into a spectrogram, it appears to be a creeper face.

The Killer Bunny
The Killer Bunny is a variant of the rabbit that is hostile to all players. This is a reference to the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It can be spawned only by using commands, and is only available on Java Edition.

"Super Secret" settings
In snapshot 13w36a for Java Edition 1.7.2, Dinnerbone added a Super Secret Settings button, which could be viewed in the options screen. Clicking it would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch and change the shader of the screen. These effects would not necessarily work on computers without a graphics card that supported OpenGL 2.1. This was removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9.

Crash screens
When the game runs into a fatal error and crashes, the crash log includes a message such as "Who set us up the TNT?" or "Hi. I'm Minecraft, and I'm a crashaholic."

Debug profile results
Debug profile results (triggered via ) contain witty comments at the top, much like with crash reports.


 * Shiny numbers!
 * Am I not running fast enough? :(
 * I'm working as hard as I can!
 * Will I ever be good enough for you? :(
 * Speedy. Zooooom!
 * Hello world
 * 40% better than a crash report.
 * Now with extra numbers
 * Now with fewer numbers
 * Now with the same numbers
 * You should add flames to things, it makes them go faster!
 * Do you feel the need for... optimization?
 * *cracks redstone whip*
 * Maybe if you treated it better then it'll have more motivation to work faster! Poor server.

Item and block NBT tags
If one were to use to give themselves an item that can mine a non-existent block ID (any block ID that is not in the game), the text simply displays "missingno". This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon MissingNo., which can be found in the first generation of Pokémon games.

Scottish Steve and Swedish Alex
$$, in the default skin pack or the legacy skin pack, the Scottish Steve and Swedish Alex skins are references to the locations of the companies developing the game. 4J Studios is located in Scotland, and Mojang is located in Sweden.