Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of the development of, there have been a number of features that were removed from the game. These features may have been replaced, or a developer decided against the feature later on.

Note: This page documents only game features that were removed; features of a particular game element that were removed are noted in that element's history. See Java Edition unused features for features that are still currently in the game.

Outright removed blocks
Despite having notable unique functionality or a block ID of their own, these blocks were eventually removed by the game, or replaced by another block of completely different use.

Old Colored Wool / Cloth


Added in Classic, wool had 16 colors. All colors minus white, were removed in late Infdev. With the introduction of Beta 1.2, Colored Wool was re-added, albeit with different colors, though some cloth colors were left behind.

Gears
A fully animated block, it was inaccessible and had no real use other than decoration.

Infinite water and lava source
These blocks persistently generated their respective liquid around them.

Locked chest
A joke block, completely unrelated to the current ability to lock chests via NBT.

Blocks replaced by other blocks
These blocks were either made redundant by the later introduction of another block serving their exact purpose, resulting in them either getting merged into said block ID or simply removed from the game, or were simultaneously renamed and retextured while retaining an identical core functionality.

Rose
The roses were blocks, that could be crafted into 2 rose red. They were added in 0.0.20a and they were renamed to poppy in 13w36a.

Shrub
A block that appeared identical to the dead bush, although possessing a random offset and the drops of grass, as they shared a numerical ID. These were merged into the dead bush in 17w47a.

Generic dead coral block
In snapshot 18w09a, all coral blocks had the same texture, colored differently. Because of this, there was only one dead variant needed. By the time of snapshot 18w10a, each color of the coral block had its own unique texture, but would still all die into the same generic dead coral block from the previous snapshot. The generic dead coral block was removed and replaced with dead variants for each color in snapshot 18w10b.

Powered comparator
During the development for 1.5, the comparator at first used two separate block IDs to represent its powered and unpowered states, with name IDs  and , and numeric IDs 149 and 150 respectively. As of snapshot 13w05a, the  block was removed from use in the game, replaced by a   block state on the   block. It is removed completely in snapshot 17w47a for 1.13, as of The Flattening.

Grassless Dirt
From snapshot 13w36a to 14w25a, a form of dirt called "grassless dirt" existed. It had the same texture as dirt, but would not grow grass. In later 1.7 snapshots, it would generate in Savannah M biomes. Grassless dirt dropped regular dirt even when mined with Silk Touch. It was later replaced by coarse dirt.

Blocks resulting from extreme data values
The majority of these blocks were likely never actually meant to exist in-game, and occurred only due to the game handling extreme metadata values as it would those in usually attainable ranges, resulting in strange blocks with traits arguably analogous to garbage data.

Proto-jungle leaves
From the introduction of leaves in Beta 1.2 onward to the Flattening of 1.13, leaves used numerical data values within the leaves block to hold their type. As only three species existed from Beta 1.2 to release 1.1, with data values 0, 1 and 2, a data value of 3 would produce an undefined leaf type. This block appeared identical to conventional oak leaves, but appeared to use the spruce tint.

These were substituted out of the game with the first 1.2 release snapshot, as jungle leaves from then on occupied that space in the leaves block.

Seamless smooth stone single slabs
When new slab types were introduced in Beta 1.3, slabs with data values up to 7 that exceeded the value of the highest legitimately obtainable slab would have an odd appearence - they would at first glance appear identical to the normal smooth stone slab, but upon closer inspection the texture would appear abruptly cut off on the sides, rather than having a defined border on the texture at that point.

Two of these were replaced by the brick and stone brick slabs in Beta 1.8, one was replaced by nether brick slabs in 1.4.6, and the last remaining one was replaced by the quartz slab in 1.5. The smooth stone block was effectively reimplemented later in 1.5 by making the upper eight stone slabs use the top texture on all sides (also introducing smooth sandstone and quartz as a result), but the single slab versions are no longer in the game.

Wall sign with full block hitbox
Signs used block metadata values 2, 3, 4 and 5 to determine their facing direction. As a result, signs placed with data values 0, 1 or anything 6 and above would always appear facing south, and have the wireframe hitbox (but not physical collision box) of a full block.

These were probably removed in mid 1.8 like many other such blocks.

Invisible random ladders
Ladders also used block metadata values 2, 3, 4 and 5 to determine their facing direction. As a result, ladders placed with data values 0, 1 or anything 6 and above exhibited behaviour atypical of normal ladders. Notably, they would appear to readily switch what block face they were attached to (sometimes seemingly randomly, but could be controlled by looking at a valid ladder, in which case they end up switching to whatever its hitbox was), which could be seen through their wireframe hitbox and their collision box.

For most of their existence they appeared completely invisible, although in 14w07a they changed to appearing as small missing texture cubes centered on the block. They probably became full missing texture cubes in 14w10a but I'm yet to actually test this.

These were probably removed in mid 1.8 like many other such blocks.

Vines with data value 0 also appeared as small missing texture cubes, however they still exist in 1.16.3 (as vines with all states set to false).

Faceless pumpkins and jack o'lanterns
It was possible to place pumpkins and jack o'lantern with no actual face using metadata values 5 and above. Their models became missing in 14w10a and they faced removal in snapshot 14w25a (or later?) like other unintended blocks.

In 17w47a, the faceless pumpkin made a comeback as the proper, default pumpkin block, with the then-current pumpkin being moved to the role of carved pumpkin. The faceless jack o'lantern will likely not be reimplemented.

Bottomless and bricking hoppers
Hoppers with a metadata value of 1 or 9 would previously not actually appear to point in any direction. Like many of these removed blocks, they had a missing model from 14w10a up to their removal.

Using /setblock to place a hopper with metadata values 6, 7, 14 or 15 would crash the game and permanently prevent that world from being loaded, although it may be possible to recover using external editors.

Nether portal post
In 1.7.2's development, nether portals placed with data value 3 resulted in a vertical nether portal beam block.

Six-sided blocks
The following blocks existed in the game at some point before being phased out with the advent of block states. Whether they will return is not known.

While the hay bale lost its texture in 14w10a like many other blocks, it took until 14w17a for the piston blocks to appear as missing texture blocks.

The six-sided pistons could be obtained without commands using special contraptions that caused pistons to be updated by other pistons in a special way.

Interestingly, other six-sided blocks resulting from similar circumstances such as wood and smooth stone were not removed, and were even given unique block IDs and made craftable in later updates.

Green shrub
These blocks had an identical texture to the shrub and dead bush, with the main difference being that it was tinted based on the biome.

Unlike the usual shrub, its inclusion within the game was most likely unintentional, as it became present in the game only after 13w10a, and sported a missing texture after 14w10a like many other undefined blocks.

Overgrown cocoa
Cocoa has twelve possible block state combinations, as it has four possible orientations coupled with three distinct stages of growth. Before the introduction of proper block states, this therefore meant that twelve of the possible sixteen metadata variants were actually used, resulting in the uppermost four exhibiting interesting undefined behavior.

From their introduction up until and including 13w01b, they used the dragon egg texture, which makes sense as the dragon egg texture was directly to the left of the cocoa pod texture in terrain.png. From 13w10a up to 14w06, it appeared as a broken cocoa pod, and from then on up to its removal it used the missing texture.

Overgrown wheat
Because wheat has eight distinct growth stages, the other upper eight values went completely unused. As a result, for a relatively long period of time, wheat crops with such values would see vast unintentional changes, as the textures they would try to pull from would end up overflowing over to the next line of terrain.png.

This included the textures commonly speculated to be for chair and table blocks. Whether Notch was using extreme inaccessible wheat values as a way to test chair models is highly unlikely, although still possible.

Overgrown melon and pumpkin stems
Melon and pumpkin stems also have eight distinct stages of growth. However, instead of having eight individual textures for each of the eight growth stages, each stage reveals two more pixels of the stem texture from the top down, and the tint applied to the stem texture also changes. As a result, since the stems have eight unused upper values in addition to the eight lower used states, the upper states start pulling from the texture below the stem texture on the texture atlas currently in use, and they use extreme tints that cannot normally be applied in normal gameplay. Their wireframe hitboxes would also appear to extend above the bounds of the block when targeted, but attempting to target anything above the height of the block would result in the stem not actually being targeted.

Overeaten cakes
There are six different states cake can legitimately be in: either intact, or in one of five progressively more eaten states, which was kept track of via block metadata like with many other blocks. Like with many blocks previously showcased, only some of these states were truly legitimately accessible. As such, interesting behavior is demonstrated by the inaccessible states.

Cakes with six bites, while obtainable now, were never actually obtainable in the game during the time when these odd overeaten cakes existed. Cakes with seven bites were completely two-dimensional, and cakes with eight through fifteen bites appeared especially glitchy, proceeding to invert themselves, such that their textures would be visible only on the inside rather than the outside, and these textures would be borrowed from adjacent spots of the texture atlas currently in use. Their wireframe hitboxes would also visually extend in this direction, but they would actually be able to be targeted only by aiming at the portion of that hitbox within the block the cake is really situated. Collision boxes for these are similarly odd.

Things in flower pots that should not be in flower pots
From 1.7 onward, as the amount of blocks that could be placed within pots exceeded 15, conventional 4-bit metadata values could not be used to store the contents of a flower pot, and as such a block entity needed to be used instead. This allowed any block (or indeed item) to be placed within a flower pot, but few of these would actually render with the block inside.

In 14w17a, almost certaintly due to changes in how blocks render with them being changed to use block models rather than hardcoded models, these odd pot variants simply rendered as empty pots with no further interesting quirks, aside from the fact that their "invalid" contents could be retrieved from the pot via breaking or later right clicking it.

13w36a
The first version to make flower pots use a block entity, the fact that flower pots could hold ferns bled over somewhat into its other damage values, allowing shrubs and grass to exist in pots as well. Also, cobwebs would render if placed in a flower pot, for completely unknown reasons.

14w06a
In this version, a large amount of blocks now render if placed in flower pots via commands. In order to place these with commands, use the following command, with ITEM and DATA substituteD with the appropriate values from Java Edition data value/Pre-flattening/Block IDs as neccessary:

/setblock ~ ~ ~ minecraft:flower_pot 0 destroy {Item:ITEM,Data:DATA}

Only blocks that are completely unique in their rendering are shown here; some visually identical blocks do exist that are not listed here separately, such as the early stages of both carrots and potatoes, or potted pumpkins and jack o'lanterns.

The blocks always appear as a cross shape based on their bottom texture. Blocks with translucency appear either completely opaque or, in the case of stained glass, most pixels are invisible.

Some blocks appear tinted by biome if their normal variants usually would be. As leaves were tinted as per their numerical data values, setting the number prior to destroy to 1 for specifically potted leaves causes them to be tinted with the spruce color, and setting it to 2 gives the birch color. 0 or 3 results in them being tinted per biome like oak and jungle leaves are.

14w06b
In 14w06b, likely due to the fix for, an additional 57 visually distinct potted objects could be placed:

14w07a
14w07a introduced the iron trapdoor, which rendered in a flower pot.

Blocks previously obtainable as items
The game prevents certain blocks from being obtained through normal gameplay methods, such as crafting, the creative inventory, the pick block key, and the Silk Touch enchantment. It also prevents such blocks from being given through less conventional methods, such as inventory editing, mods, and commands. Until 1.7.2 and 1.8, there had been a wide variety of blocks that could be edited into the inventory; over time, however, the game was updated so that these blocks became entirely unavailable, even though one utilized inventory editing.

Currently, the game accepts only namespaced IDs (such as ) in most commands, and uses only these namespaced IDs when assigning blocks to the inventory and save files. The old method of obtaining a block via numerical IDs is no longer an option. In addition, the game automatically removes blocks with illegitimate namespaced IDs from the inventory, so using inventory editors is also no longer an option. Furthermore, certain blocks with both block and item forms, such as, cannot be obtained in their block form in the inventory; however, since the game has a corresponding item named  , the item form is given instead.

Obtainable in Survival gameplay
Note: this table does not (yet) include those obtainable in Beta 1.6 Test Build 3.

More info
Air was briefly available as an item in snapshot 13w38b for 1.7.2, while Grumm had been refactoring the code that represented air in-game. This availability lasted for one snapshot, as it was the focus of several bugs, most notably a bug that made all mobs that otherwise have no drops to now drop 0-2 air blocks. This air could be placed only when it would replace a block, such as tall grass or water.

Monster Eggs could be obtained by mining a monster egg block in Beta 1.9 preleases 4 and 5 with a Silk Touch pickaxe. These blocks form when a silverfish enters stone, stone bricks or cobblestone. However, all types of monster egg dropped the stone form.

Alpha Leaves were the unofficial name for leaves with a data value from 4-15. These could be obtained using a bug with the Silk Touch enchant. The data values 0-3 were obtained by shearing leaves. They could decay, but didn't check for decay. The data values 4-7 were obtained by placing regular leaves and breaking them with Silk Touch without updating them (see below). These leaves checked to be decayed, but would not actually decay (since player placed leaves are supposed to stay, not decay like trees). The data values 8-11 are the leaves that generated naturally on trees. The data values 12-15 were obtained by placing 8-11 leaves or by placing 0-3 leaves next to each other. These leaves could not decay and wouldn't check to be decayed. Placing the first 0-3 leaf made it turn into 4-7 and they could be updated by placing more 0-3 leaves next to them. When broken with Silk Touch, the first leaf in the line was 4-7 while subsequent ones become 12-15. Note that before 12w03a, jungle leaves did not exist so the data values 3,7,11 and 15 were empty and unobtainable.

When wooden slabs (ID-44:2) were first added in Beta 1.3, they shared the same block ID as the older stone slabs, so they have many of the same properties as stone slabs. This meant that to collect them the player had to use a pickaxe, and when placed they were fireproof. Starting from 12w17a, all newly crafted wooden slabs were given a separate block ID (125 and 126). However, all existing old slabs in the world still dropped the 44:2 type slab when mined.

When spawners were first added, they could be obtained by mining with any pickaxe. This made the spawner drop as an item. As of Alpha 1.0.1, spawners could no longer drop themselves when mined, but in Beta 1.9 pre4, with the addition of the Silk Touch enchant, players could obtain spawners by mining it with a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch. This feature was removed in the next prerelease.

Furnaces come in two block types: regular (unlit) furnace, and a burning furnace. When furnaces were first added in Indev 20100219, the regular furnace was obtainable through crafting or mining an unlit furnace while a burning furnace could be obtained by breaking a furnace in the process of smelting. Placing the burning furnace down would have it keep burning, and it would drop itself. This feature was removed in Alpha 1.0.1.

End portal frames were obtainable for one version: Beta 1.9-pre3. They could be obtained in any of its uploads by finding a stronghold's portal room and blowing up the portal frames with TNT. Doing this would have a chance to drop the portal frame like any other item. Explosions were the only way to get portal frames to drop as they could not be mined or otherwise destroyed.

Lit redstone lamps would drop themselves from 12w07a to 1.2.4. Any powered lamp would drop the powered version when broken. When re-placed, the lit lamp would immediately turn back to the unpowered form. After 1.2.4, it could be possible to get lit redstone lamps only by using Silk Touch. Due to lit lamps being removed as an item in 13w37a, they were now unobtainable in any way.

All such blocks
All of the following block items were removed at one point, as clarified in the following paragraphs.

In snapshot 13w37a for 1.7.2, the command was modified so that it would display the name of the item in chat. Due to this, 26 blocks were made unavailable.

In snapshot 14w25a for 1.8, changes were made to the way the icons of items were rendered, and the way block data was internally represented. Due to this, 12 blocks were made unavailable.

History of inventory appearances
As these were never intended to be implemented, it is possible to observe drastic and unexpected texture changes on these blocks due to minor code changes elsewhere from version to version.

Reverted potions
Before snapshot 15w31a for 1.9, potions had a form known as "reverted". In the inventory, reverted potions looked identical to their base potion, much like mundane and mundane (extended) potions, and their usage was also identical to their base potions, with the exception of turning into reverted potions rather than base potions. The only difference was the data values.

There were two general methods to create reverted potions, one of which involved the addition of fermented spider eyes. Reversion, in general, referenced changing a longer, upgraded potion into its original weaker potion (for example, changing from a potion of Poison (extended) into a potion of Harming (reverted) by adding fermented spider eye).
 * The first method involved adding glowstone dust (typically) to an already upgraded tertiary potion. Since these tertiary potions have already been modified with redstone dust (typically), they could be changed to their original (reverted) unmodified states depending on which modifier was added previously. Not all potions could be reverted (or react, for that matter) when glowstone dust or redstone dust was added to an upgraded tertiary potion (for example, adding redstone dust to an already extended potion did not yield a new potion).
 * The second method involved the addition of fermented spider eyes, followed by glowstone dust (usually). Method two worked by adding a fermented spider eye to an extended positive potion (i.e. an extended tertiary potion). In almost all cases, this would corrupt the potion and produce a negative potion of equal strength (in this case, extended). Then, glowstone dust (depending on the recipe) was added to the extended negative potion. Since these negative tertiary potions (regardless of origin) have already been modified with redstone dust, the addition of glowstone dust would revert the potion to a potion of lesser duration.

A good example of this process at work is the reversion of a potion of Weakness. A potion of Weakness can be made in two ways. The first method is by adding a fermented spider eye to a mundane potion (water bottle + ghast tear / glistering melon slice / blaze powder / magma cream / sugar / spider eye), then adding redstone dust to produce a potion of Weakness (extended). The second method is by adding a fermented spider eye to either a potion of Strength or a potion of Regeneration. Potions of Strength and Regeneration, in their base or extended forms, produce potions of Weakness with equal magnitude (for the sake of this example, fermented spider eye is added to a potion of Strength (extended) to produce a potion of Weakness (extended)).

Now, there should be two potions of Weakness (extended). Glowstone dust could be added to the potion of Weakness (extended), which reverted the potion into a base potion of Weakness. The act of reducing the duration from 4:00 to 1:30 was reversion.

Horse saddle


Horse saddles worked just like regular saddles, but for horses instead of pigs, which were added in the 13w16a snapshot. They could be crafted from 5 leather and 3 iron ingots. Horse saddles were removed in 13w18a.

Studded armor


Studded armor consisted of several sprites that were added in Indev 0.31 20091231-2. They were taken from Notch's unfinished game, Legend of the Chambered, along with other armor sprites. The sprites were added for testing purposes, didn't have armor health, and were eventually removed between Indev 0.31 20100204-1 and Indev 20100206.

Slowness Arrows
In Java Edition 1.10, slowness arrows dropped by strays contained a different NBT tag from slowness arrows crafted. The different NBT tag was fixed in 1.10.1.

Obtaining

Data-retaining minecarts
In Java Edition 1.10.2, when a minecart of any type was broken a specially named minecart was dropped. In this version, the game messed up when separating the minecart from the item inside, and accidentally let the minecart retain its previous data. The minecart obtained would be named entity.MinecartRidable.name, entity.TNTMinecart.name, entity.FurnaceMinecart.name, Minecart with Chest, entity.MinecartCommandBlock.name, entity.SpawnerMinecart.name, and Minecart with Hopper.

Obtaining:

File:Data retaining minecarts.mp4

Link to the bug report on the Minecraft bug tracker

Fish
Prior to Java Edition 1.13, the item now referred to as cod was simply known as fish, and had a generic texture strongly unlike the cod texture used currently. These were substituted out of the game in much the same way as roses.

Chainmail armor
Since shortly after their introduction in Indev, and until snapshot 14w25a for 1.8, chainmail armor was craftable using fire. As of that snapshot, fire can no longer exist as an inventory item, even with inventory editing, and the recipe itself was removed from the game's registry of recipes.

Chainmail armor may still be obtained in other ways.

Enchanted golden apple crafting recipe
Since their introduction in 1.3.1, and until snapshot 15w44a for 1.9, enchanted golden apples had the following crafting recipe:

Enchanted golden apples may still be obtained in other ways.

Horse armor
In snapshot 13w16a of 1.6.1, a crafting recipe for iron, golden and diamond horse armor was added. In snapshot 13w18a, the crafting recipe was removed; the reason is still unknown.

Iron, golden and diamond horse armor may still be obtained in other ways.

Brick pyramid
Brick pyramids were tall experimental generated structures made up exclusively of bricks. They were added in Infdev 20100277 and they were removed from game in Infdev 20100327.

Indev house
The Indev House was a structure that acted as the starting place when first spawned. Indev house was added into the game at Indev 0.31 20100124, back then it was made was from moss stone and two torches. In Indev 20100214-1, the material of indev house has been changed from moss stone to planks and stone. Indev house has been removed at Infdev 20100227.

Obsidian wall
Obsidian wall was an experimental structure made from obsidian. The obsidian wall has been added in Infdev 20100227 and it has been removed from game in Infdev 20100313.

Old village
Old villages and old zombie villages could generate in plains, savanna, taiga, ice flats, and desert biomes. The type of village, and therefore the style of all structures within it, was determined by the biome where the village well was located. All village biome variants were essentially palette swaps of each other, with the exception of one house in the old ice flats village, which would generate with randomized crop items such as carrots and beetroots. The "old villages" were not known as such until the Village & Pillage update.



Gravel roads
Before 1.10, villages used gravel to signify roads; however, in 1.10, grass paths were added to signify village roads.

Savanna village
Prior to 1.10, villages that would generate in savanna biomes used oak logs, oak planks, oak fences and oak stairs. This village type was replaced by villages made out of acacia derived blocks.

Far Lands


The Far Lands was the area that formed the "edge" of the "infinite" map $$ versions prior to Beta 1.8. They initiate differently depending on the game's version. In Infdev 20100227, there was a wall of stone that generated 33,554,432 blocks away from spawn. In a later version of Infdev, this changed to where the Far Lands that existed until Beta 1.8 began at about 12,550,820 blocks from the center of the world, X/Z 0. These Far Lands had two kinds: Edge Far Lands (The Loop) and Corner Far Lands (The Stack); both feature extremely strange terrain. They are known to have several impacts on gameplay, including floating-point precision errors and huge framerate / tickrate drops due to excessive coordinates, and the farther from the center of the world, the worse the effects, until the game freezes and crashes. Beyond X/Z 32,000,000 the chunks are just fake chunks, causing the player to fall through the terrain.

Similar phenomenon can be found on the vertical axis using mods such as the "Cubic Chunks" mod. When the height limit is removed completely, the Far Lands continue to generate upward until they eventually collide with the "Sky Far Lands" 25,101,640 blocks upward, or with the "Void Far Lands" 25,101,640 blocks below the world.

In Beta 1.7.3 (and probably as far back as Java Edition Alpha v1.2.0), there existed another set of Far Lands called the Farther Lands, which was found quickly after the discovery of the Far Lands, and generated approximately 1,004,065,600 blocks away from the center of the world. These Farther Lands combined with the previous Far Lands created an even stranger mixture. In this mixture of Far Lands, the terrain was smooth and hardly changed its shape. Every block would appear 2 dimensional. This was especially noticeable in the Corner Farther Lands.

The Far Lands were removed in Beta 1.8, but they still exist $$.

Monoliths
Monoliths were glitched areas of terrain that happened in the late versions of Infdev and were patched out of the game with the Halloween Update. These monoliths would cause the terrain to abruptly generate up to the height limit, with natural grass block and ore generation. They could theoretically generate infinitely upward, being stopped only by the height limit, which at this point in the game's development, was 128 blocks. The area below the monoliths was completely hollow, except for water generating at sea level and a layer of bedrock at the bottom, making the normal terrain seem like inverse monoliths. It is possible to find small crevices in large monoliths, where normal terrain was generated. They tended to generate around flattish terrain. They were caused by an error in the Perlin noise generator.

By setting "Biome Scale Weight" to negative values in customized worlds, they could generate from snapshot 14w17a for 1.8 to snapshot 18w05a for 1.13, but with the removal of the "Customized" world type altogether in snapshot 18w06a for 1.13, this can no longer be recreated.

Trees
Some types of trees can no longer be grown with saplings, and no longer generate naturally in new terrain. They were often the result of using existing textures for new log and leaves types that had not yet been added; new trees subsequently "borrowed" logs and leaves from other trees. For example, acacia trees, when they were first added, used jungle logs and oak leaves.

Glass pillars
Glass pillars were added in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3. They were used to mark the location of strongholds, as the eye of ender did not lead to strongholds yet. One pillar extended from the main entrance and another from the portal room. They went all the way up to the build limit. This was because Jeb forgot to remove the debug pillars before releasing the version publically. They were removed in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, due to eyes of ender being able to lead players to the stronghold portal room.

Isometric screenshot


In the Indev versions of Minecraft, players could take a screenshot of the map from an isometric perspective using. When the game captured an isometric image, it would save the current location of all mobs and show any and all alterations to the map the player had made that would be visible from the perspective of the sun (at sunrise). The player would not be visible unless the player was in third-person view before taking the isometric screenshot.

The isometric screenshot would save to their local user folder as "mc_map_####.png" where #### represents the number of the screenshot starting at 0000 up to 9999.

There are some limitations that existed with the screenshots:
 * They could capture the player's sprite only when in third-person view.
 * Due to a glitch, the screenshot would render only those blocks that are in the player's FOV, and everything else is either black or shows underground sections that would have been obstructed.



Indev map shape


The map shape refers to the general dimensions the level generator used to create maps. It was added in Indev 0.31 20100106 and it altered the length, width, and height of the map.

There were three kinds of shapes:
 * "Square" was a map of equal length and width, with a height of 64 blocks.
 * "Long" was 2 times the length and $1/2$ times the width of a square map.
 * "Deep" was 4 times the height and $1/2$ times the width and length of a square map.

There were three kinds of sizes:

Indev map theme
The map theme refers to the general style the level generator used to create maps. It was added in Indev 0.31 20100107, and it dramatically affected game mechanics, such as monster spawn zones and boundary liquid. "Paradise" and "Woods" themes were added in Indev 20100214-2. Themes were removed for in the middle of Infdev and were comparable to biomes in Alpha, Beta and current Minecraft versions.

Normal


"Normal" was the default map theme. Above ground, one would find sporadic trees and generally favorable space. The weather was constantly partly cloudy, and the lengths of night and day were equal. Underground, ores of all types could be found and lava was generally found near the bedrock layer.

Boundary liquid: water.

Hell


"Hell" was the second map theme introduced within the map theme feature. Hell featured significantly less lighting during the day, where mobs of all types would spawn at any time. All water was replaced with lava, grass was replaced with dirt and grass would spawn in place of sand only during map generation. Mushrooms were abundant on the surface. Farming worked at a much slower rate (one plant stage per day cycle). This map theme was comparable to the later added Nether.

Boundary liquid: lava.

Paradise


The third map theme, "Paradise", was more relaxed than the other themes. It featured larger beaches and plentiful flora compared to the "Normal" theme, and the time is always set to "Noon" (the sun never sets); hostile mobs spawn only underground. Farming works at a much faster rate (from planting to harvestable in 30–45 minutes).

Boundary liquid: water.

Woods


The fourth map theme, "Woods", was a middle-ground of challenge between "Normal" and "Hell". It provided constant overcast during the day that reduces light, and tree density was higher than the other themes, resulting in the land space becoming smaller. Additionally, mushrooms were spotty throughout the above-ground areas.

Boundary liquid: water.

Indev map type


The map type refers to the general format the level generator used to create maps. Added in Indev 0.31 20100106, it dramatically affected gameplay, such as the availability of water, sand and gravel. The further the player traveled toward the end of the map, the slower they moved.

There were four kinds of map types:
 * "Island" was the default map type featuring minor hills and liquid existing at the borders.
 * "Floating" was similar to the floating islands in the "Buffet" world type today — it contained multiple floating islands. Falling from these islands resulted in death as the surface was covered in bedrock. Floating gravel and sand was common, while water was rare.
 * "Flat" was similar to the "Superflat" world type today — it featured flat grass with flowers, trees and a starting house.
 * "Inland" featured a slightly hilly landscape, which was essentially the "Island" map type with infinite flat land at its borders as opposed to water. Sand and gravel were common.

"Winter Mode" map type


"Winter Mode" was a randomly occurring map type in Alpha. It was added on July 9, 2010, in Alpha v1.0.4 and was the first "biome" to appear in Minecraft.

There were a couple of differences compared to normal worlds. First, there was the presence of snowflakes, which fell constantly. There were four different kinds of snowflakes. These snowflakes would create snow on surfaces directly exposed to the sky, provided that it was a solid block. Due to a lack of unfrozen water, reeds were rare. The second element unique to "Winter Mode" was the presence of ice. When a map was generated, most exposed water blocks would be frozen into ice. The water did not freeze completely near gravel beaches. The third element was a decrease in the spawning rate of passive mobs.

How winter mode was determined for a map in the code is completely unknown.

"Winter Mode" was removed in Alpha v1.2.0 with the addition of proper biomes.

Biomes prior to 1.7.2
Versions prior to 1.7.2 had two biomes that were later removed from the world generator. Despite being unused, they continued to exist.

The following biomes became unused in 1.7.2:
 * Mountain Edge (now available in the "Buffet" world type)
 * Frozen Ocean (restored in 1.13)

Biomes prior to Beta 1.8
In Beta 1.8, biomes received a major overhaul, removing and changing many of them. Prior to these changes, there were 13 biome types that were much smaller and less distinct.

"Customized" world type
"Customized" was a world type that gave control over many settings that affected terrain generation, such as ores, sea level, biomes, structures, and many variables that govern the random shape of the terrain. It was introduced in snapshot 14w17a for 1.8, and was removed in snapshot 18w06a for 1.13. Although customized worlds were added back in the 1.16 snapshot 20w21a, there is currently no in-game menu to modify worlds; custom worlds can be generated only by importing a JSON file.

Indev MD3 mobs
Beast Boy, Black Steve, Steve, and Rana were human mobs originally used as tests during the Indev phase. They were made by Dock, one of Minecraft's past artists. After Dock left the Minecraft development team, these MD3 mobs were cut from the game. These mobs had no animation and glided around in the same pose. Notch also tested some other MD3 models that weren't going "into the final game."

Human


Humans were passive mobs who took the form of clones of the default skin. In Classic, humans could be spawned by pressing and would run around aimlessly. From Classic 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST and onward, there was another mob called "Monster" that looked like a human but would attack the player. This "Monster" was the result of trying to spawn the base class for hostile mobs as an actual mob, a similar situation would later occur for humans too. Notch also used the name "monster" for the green humanoids in his unfinished game: Legend of the Chambered. The entity IDs, for humans, and  , for "Monster", existed until 1.11, in which entity IDs were converted to namespaced IDs.

Zombie drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombies dropped 0-2 feathers, which were replaced by 0-2 rotten flesh.

Zombie pigman drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombie pigmen dropped 0-2 cooked porkchops, which were replaced by 0-1 rotten flesh and 0-1 gold nuggets.

Audio loops
Loops were unused sounds, found in the game files, and were possibly meant for when the player is in a specific type of location (i.e., in caves, forests, oceans and beside a waterfall).

They were found in, and could be converted to reveal four loops, of birds chirping, cave chimes, ocean and waterfall noises.

Unused
These features never had any functionality in-game.

Armor in Survival Test
In early versions from 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST through Indev 20100207-2, there was a folder called "armor", which contained two files. One was called ; and the other was called. These files were removed in Indev 20100212-1 with the addition of normal armor models.



Plate armor
Plate armor was used in Survival Test for mobs and it gave them no additional defense.



Chain armor
Unlike plate armor, chain armor was impossible to see in-game. It was just an unused texture. It was later removed and replaced with a new model and texture with leggings and boots.

Potions
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 implemented 32 types of potions for a complex brewing system involving cauldrons, which were functional but unavailable. These potions had effects and appeared to have different colors than the current potions. Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 replaced the cauldron brewing system with the brewing stand system used in the final game, and removed the effects and colors of the old potions. Only the mundane, awkward, and thick potions were used in the final brewing system, leaving 29 types of potions with no effect unused in the game. They were later removed in snapshot 15w44b for 1.9.

These potions could be obtained only by using the following command: {{cmd|give @p minecraft:potion 1  was added in 1.4.6 (around Christmas and New Year). Its texture was added by Dinnerbone as a red herring. The texture was removed in 1.6.1.

Pigman
This was a mob concept eventually reworked into the piglin.

Zombie Pigman Texture


The zombie pigman was what the zombified piglin was known as before the Nether Update. The zombie pigman was retextured, remodeled and renamed to zombified piglin when the Nether Update was released. However, the zombie pigman was not removed.

"Play Tutorial Level" button
An unclickable "Play Tutorial Level" button was added to the main menu during Indev. With the addition of texture packs in Alpha 1.2.2, the button was removed. No tutorial level had actually existed during that time.

Brick variations


At some point in Classic, there were four similar brick textures added with slight differences, hinting it might have been planned to add variations in textures.

Chairs and other furniture
In Indev 20100206 two textures were added that might be interpreted as a chair and a table (side and front). The actual purpose of these textures is unknown. The second texture could also be interpreted as the side view of a table. A duplicate of the planks texture was also added to terrain.png, which could also have been a top texture or something related. On Notch's blog, The Word of Notch, furniture, and more specifically chairs, are mentioned a few times. They were removed in Infdev 20100629.

If wheat crops with data values between 8 and 15 were placed in the world via map editors in versions with these textures present, two of these excessive wheat crop blocks would end up using the chair and table textures, and resultantly rendering as a (somewhat bugged-looking) chair and/or table:

Paeonia
Paeonias were an unimplemented block that was replaced by the two-block-high peonies.

There was only one screenshot of the block released by Jeb. When held in hand, its height was level to the player's shoulder. The texture for this block,, could still be found until it was removed in snapshot 17w47a for 1.13. In the first version of the Texture Update, another unused "flower_paeonia" texture can be found.

Unused white texture


In the 0.0.14a_08 texture files, there is a white texture that was not used in any in-game block. It was added in 0.0.14a and removed by 0.0.15a. It is speculated that it was planned to be cloud texture then scrapped.

Mirrored door textures


In Infdev's, two door textures could be found that looked exactly the same except the hinges and the handle were mirrored. In current Minecraft only one of the textures is used and is flipped when the hinges and handle are on the other side. The alternate door was overwritten with the iron door texture in Alpha v1.0.1. They were almost certaintly used for a period of time in Infdev, a though this requires confirmation.

Placeholder fire texture
Placeholder graphics for the fire texture were found in, which was overwritten in VRAM with the true fire texture. The text read "FIRE TEX! HNST", which means "Fire texture! Honest". It was replaced by the actual fire animation in 1.5.

A second copy was added to terrain.png in Beta 1.2, for unknown reasons.

Old lava and water textures
The old lava and water textures from Alpha could be found in. The textures were replaced by different lava and water animations in 1.5.

Village border texture
A texture previously used to mark the borders of villages could be found in. The texture was removed in 1.5.

Duplicate cake texture
A duplicate cake texture could be found in. The duplicate texture was removed in 1.5.

Other snow texture?
An unknown texture, though it could be related to the snow weather effect, could be found. The texture was removed in 1.5.

Wax block texture
A texture for a wax block was added to the game files in 19w34a, but it was removed in 19w42a.

Crystallized honey texture
A texture for a crystallized honey item was added to the game files in 19w34a, but it was removed in 19w42a.

Door entity


In the Infdev "item" folder (where signs, arrows, and minecarts could be found at the time), a file named  could also be found. It was most likely going to be used for the door animation Notch had been wanting to add. The texture was removed in 1.6.1.

Steve villager hybrid


After villagers were added, a strange file could be found in the mobs folder (outside of the villager folder) called. It appeared to be some sort of Steve villager hybrid. The file was removed in 1.5 during the texture pack reform. It did not match the villager model. If used for the villager model in a resource pack, it would look glitched.

Char.png
can be found in Classic 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST's texture files. Steve's hair is on the second layer rather than the first. This was possibly a failed hair test.

Char_2.png
can be found in Indev 20100212-1's texture files. This was possibly another failed attempt at testing skins. There are two gold pixels on the top right of Steve's head and two layers of hair.

Strider's fin
Striders had a fin in their texture file. The fin wasn't visible in-game and was removed in 20w15a.



Angry villager head


In the particles sheet, there is an angry villager head that remains unused.

Since Java Edition 19w06a, particles are now broken up into individual textures files per frame rather than being in particles.png and angry villager head was removed.

Footstep particle


The footstep particle was introduced, but never used in-game. It was removed in snapshot 17w47a, as part of The Flattening. They were later added as an easter egg in the 20w14∞ April Fools snapshot with the namespaced ID of. It could be obtained in the "missing" dimension or using the command.

Fluff.png


In Infdev, a texture called  was added. It was used as a texture for clouds in Infdev, but was later removed in early Alpha.

waterterrain.png


In Infdev, a file similar to, referred to as  , could be found. It appeared to be some sort of arrow system, and it is possible this was used to test water animation.

chunkinfo command
From 1.8 (snapshot 14w30a) to 1.13 (snapshot 17w45a), the file  contained translation strings for a   command, which never existed in game. The following keys existed:

commands.chunkinfo.usage=/chunkinfo [  ] commands.chunkinfo.location=Chunk location: (%s, %s, %s) commands.chunkinfo.noChunk=No chunk found at chunk position %s, %s, %s commands.chunkinfo.notEmpty=Chunk is not empty. commands.chunkinfo.empty=Chunk is empty. commands.chunkinfo.notCompiled=Chunk is not compiled. commands.chunkinfo.compiled=Chunk is compiled. commands.chunkinfo.hasNoRenderableLayers=Chunk has no renderable layers. commands.chunkinfo.hasLayers=Chunk has layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.isEmpty=Chunk has empty layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.vertices=%s layer's buffer contains %s vertices commands.chunkinfo.data=First 64 vertices are: %s

It is unknown if this command was used for development or was simply a dropped feature.

calm4.ogg


was a music file (alongside the other tracks) that was beta-tested and created by Notch himself. The song is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long. It consists of an upbeat synth, battle-like tune. At 1:36, Notch can be heard saying "Mojang Specifications" in slow-motion.

The track was released around Alpha v1.1.1, but in Alpha v1.1.2, this track was omitted from the downloaded game files. Players who had the game while the song file was still included continue to hear it being played, as the game plays any song in the  folder.

With the introduction of the 1.6.1 launcher, playing older versions with the track  does not allow the track to be heard, since music is downloaded separately from the jar files.

On February 1, 2020,  was reuploaded by Notch on his SoundCloud page with the name "Magnetic Circuit".

Player stats


In an early Indev version, the player could open the inventory screen and view their name and three stats: "ATK", "DEF", and "SPD". These existed only briefly; when asked, Notch stated he could not remember exactly why they were implemented and subsequently removed, and he assumed they were placeholders for "vague plans".

Inventory changes
An inventory rewrite was originally partially implemented in snapshot 14w07a, but it was reverted before the release of 1.8.

Old player death animation
Before 1.6.1, on player death, the player would stay standing, leap a little bit, and then disappear. In 1.6.1, this was replaced with the player falling and then disappearing.

Notch dropping an apple
Before Beta 1.8, a player named Notch would drop an apple upon death.

On-screen version number


Starting with Classic 0.0.2a, all subsequent versions until RC2 had text displayed in the top left corner of the screen that displayed the version. Versions between Beta 1.6.4 and Beta 1.7.3 did not have this text. From Classic 0.0.2a to Indev 0.31 20100205, only the version number was displayed, but after Indev it switched from being "0.31" to being called "Minecraft Indev" (Indev 20100206), the word "Minecraft" was shown before the version number. In the Alpha development stage, the text read "Minecraft Alpha v#.#.#(_#)." In the Beta development stage, the text read "Minecraft Beta #.#(_#)." This feature was only partially removed, for, among other things, the version number can now be shown by opening the debug screen while in-game. Before Alpha v1.2.2, the version number did not display on the main menu screen.

"Unlicensed Copy" message


In the Beta stage of Minecraft's development, a message reading "Minecraft Beta #.#.#(_0#) Unlicensed Copy :( (Or logged in from another location). Purchase at minecraft.net" was shown. This message can be seen only in versions between Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 and Beta 1.7.3, as proven by a bytecode editor. The bytecode for the message was removed in Beta 1.8.

Spawning nether portals with
In Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2a, players had the ability to spawn nether portals by pressing. In Alpha v1.2.2b, spawning nether portals using was removed.

Time control with and
In Beta 1.8 Pre-release, as a result of remaining debug code, players had the ability to use and  to control in-game time. In Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2, the functionality of and  was removed.

Achievements
Achievements were available between Beta 1.5 and 1.12 (snapshot 17w06a). They were ultimately replaced by advancements, though editions other than Java Edition still have achievements instead.

"Player Activity" button
The "Player Activity" button in "Minecraft Realms" was added in 1.5, but it was removed in 1.14.4 for unknown reasons. This button was used to show the online activities of players.

Texture pack
Texture packs were added in Alpha v1.2.2, and were replaced with resource packs in snapshot 13w24a for 1.6.1.

"3D Anaglyph" option


"3D Anaglyph" is an option in video settings that applies a red-cyan stereoscopic effect, enabling the use of red-cyan 3D glasses to experience the game in more depth. This option was removed in snapshot 17w43a for 1.13 for unknown reasons.

Void fog


In Beta 1.8, black void fog and the  particle effect were introduced. As the player descended below Y=17 in the Overworld, the void fog and particles would start to appear. As the player traveled deeper, the fog at the edge of the render distance would become closer until the player reached bedrock, where visibility was reduced to just a few blocks, beyond which was complete darkness. The gray void particles appeared below Y=17, as well as in the void.

The void fog was removed in snapshot 14w34c, the main reason being to improve performance. The  particle effect was also removed from the void, but stayed in the game until snapshot 17w47a when it was removed as part of The Flattening.

Dispensing command blocks
From snapshot 14w07a for 1.8, dispensers had the ability to place command blocks, when activated. This feature was removed as of 1.8.6 to solve a security issue.

Mobs running from creepers
In 1.8, mobs ran away from creepers that were about to explode. In 1.8.1-pre1, this feature was removed because every mob that had the ability to run from a creeper was looking for an exploding creeper every tick, degrading performance.

Water evaporating on magma blocks
In snapshot 16w20a for 1.10, water evaporated on top of magma blocks when randomly ticked. From snapshot 18w07a for 1.13, whirlpool bubble columns are produced on top of magma blocks instead.

Full hotbar
Before 1.4.2, starting a world in Creative mode always started the player with a full hotbar, which included oak saplings, bricks, oak planks, spruce planks, cobblestone, and dirt.

Splashes
Note: When a line of splash text is removed, the line it occupied in  is deleted, meaning the line number of all subsequent splashes lowers by one.

"Super Secret Settings" button
The "Super Secret Settings", added in snapshot 13w38a for 1.7.2, were removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9 due to an internal rewrite. It was a button under the options menu that, when pressed, would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and activate a shader.

Native Twitch.tv integration
Native Twitch.tv integration was added in snapshot 13w47a for 1.7.4, and was removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9. It integrated Twitch chat into the game.

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop
and  were two sound effects added in snapshot 15w49a and removed in the next snapshot, 15w49b. The sound effects were blank audio files and were likely intended as sound effects for the lead.

Old conduit particle


The conduit was added in snapshot 18w15a with particles, but those particles were changed in the next snapshot, 18w16a.

/locate New_Village
There was a locate command called. This was implemented in snapshot 18w48a for Village & Pillage before the village structures from Update Aquatic and prior were removed. Once these "old" villages were officially taken from the game's structure spawn list in snapshot 19w02a, was replaced by  as the   ID was no longer needed.

Start with 64 fences
In Alpha v1.0.17, the player would spawn with 64 fences in their inventory, but in Alpha v1.0.17_01 this feature was removed.

First-person view pivot
Removed in 1.14 for performance reasons.

Placeholder block drops
Survival Test introduced block drops, which were mapped as follows:

Block drops were reworked in Indev.

Minimized textures
In Survival Test, item drops were restricted to the cube shape used for blocks. The projected texture was the same on all faces and the texture scale was closer to those of blocks, making it look cropped.

Tags
The  and   tags were added in snapshots 18w07a and 18w07b for 1.13 respectively and removed in 18w10c. Before the removal, these tags functioned as follows:

Java launcher easter eggs
Prior to the release of Launcher 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 kaomoji, ¯\_(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 would play.

Old walking animation for players
From pre-Classic to Alpha v1.0.9, the walking animation for the player and the human mob was different; the player and the human mob would swing their arms wildly to their sides while walking.

Old walking animation for mobs
In Survival Test, mobs (pigs, sheep, skeletons, zombies, spiders and creepers) had different walking animations.

Creeper melee attack
In Survival Test, creepers did melee damage to the player. In Indev 0.31, this feature was removed. The damage was 4.

Potted cobweb and grass
In 13w36a, it was possible to Commands/setblock flower pots containing cobwebs and grass. This was considered a bug and removed in 14w17a.