Java Edition unused features

Since the beginning of Minecraft's development, there have been a number of features added to the game that have no actual use in Survival or in Creative. Some of these features are leftover from removed features, or simply placeholders for new features.

Note that this page documents only unused features that are currently in the game. See Java Edition removed features for features previously in the game that are no longer available.

Giant


Giants are an unused mob added in Indev. They appear to be a giant zombie. Giants have no movement AI, therefore they are unable to walk around. They cannot spawn naturally because the game requires the light level to be both greater than 11 and less than 8 and those conditions cannot be met in vanilla. This makes them impossible to appear through spawners.

Giants can be summoned only by using the command.

During the 2020 April Fools' snapshot, the giant is able to naturally spawn on occasion in custom dimensions.

The Killer Bunny


The killer bunny is a variant of the rabbit that is hostile to all players and tamed wolves. Its fur is pure white with blood-red eyes that are horizontal, compared to a normal rabbit's vertical eyes.

If the killer bunny finds any player within a 16-block radius, it hops quickly toward the player, much faster than a normal rabbit. It moves in a style similar to that of a spider. Once it closes in, it lunges at the player, dealing a fair amount of damage. If the player strikes at the killer bunny, it runs away for a brief moment, then returns to lunging at the player. Killer rabbits are also immune to the Thorns enchantment.

If it cannot find a player, the killer bunny actively seeks out and attacks any wolves as well, including tamed wolves. These wolves, in turn, attack the killer bunny, leading to a vicious fight.

On peaceful difficulty, the killer bunny does not despawn, despite its hostile nature. It still attacks wolves and tamed wolves.

The killer bunny can be spawned only with the command.

Zombie Horse


Zombie horses are a variant of horses that were added in Java Edition 1.6.1, along with normal and skeleton horses. There is a zombie horse spawn egg available only in creative mode, but they remain unused in survival.

In addition to spawn eggs, zombie horses can be spawned with the command.

Illusioner


The illusioner is an unused illager that was added in Java Edition 1.12. Like other illagers, they attack players, villagers, wandering traders and iron golems within a 12 blocks range. It attacks with its spells, and with its bow.

The illusioner has two spells: a spell that blinds its opponent, and a spell that summons duplicates and makes the illusioner invisible.

The illusioner has a face that is just like the face of a vindicator.

Illusioners can be spawned only with the command.

Potions
The uncraftable potion is a potion added in the Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w44b with no effect that is unobtainable in survival without cheats as of 1.16. It is also available in splash potion and lingering potion forms, as well as for tipped arrows. It serves as a placeholder for potions that have missing or invalid potion-effect tags, to which they default automatically.

It can be obtained using the following command:.

There are also potions that cannot be brewed, and give the player status effects not intended to be received by potions; e.g. Wither, Nausea. Again, these can be obtained only through custom potions.

Status effects
Various status effects remain unused in the game. They can be obtained using or potion NBT data, but have no way of being obtained other than that.

Bad Luck reduces the chances of high-quality loot.

During the Java Edition 1.6.1 snapshots, the health boost status effect was added. It boosted the player's hearts for a temporary time. It could be obtained from eating a golden apple.

In the next main snapshot, golden apples give the player absorption instead of a health boost, but the effect was still left in the game.

In Java Edition 1.9 and Java Edition 1.14, developers gave the Health Boost effect a new texture, despite the fact that it is still not in use.

Biomes
The following biomes remain unused since 13w36a and 18w08b. While they do not naturally generate in default worlds, they can be accessed using the Buffet world type.

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, the ocean 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. These were removed in an unknown time.

Others
Some of these sounds are still usable by running:
 * for the "Ghast affectionate scream" sound.
 * for the "Breath" sound.
 * for the "Wolf Howl" sounds.
 * for the "Silverfish walking" sounds.

Resources
Various resources located in the game's assets files that remain unused.

Purple arrow


Purple arrows were shot by skeletons in Survival Test and acted the same as regular arrows, but could not be picked up. The purple arrow used a texture on the same sheet as the normal arrows, but the texture is not currently in use.

In Java Edition 1.9, a new texture was added for arrows, causing the original arrow texture, including the purple arrows to be entirely unused.

Ruby


On May 21, 2012, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system. At this time, what would become emerald ore in Java Edition 1.3.1 was ruby ore. The previous ruby texture remains in the ruby.png file. It is unknown if the texture will ever be used. Dinnerbone stated in a forum post that they went with emeralds instead of rubies at the last minute because he is colorblind and he had a hard time spotting the difference between ruby ore and redstone ore. The names "Ruby Ore" and "Ruby" were still in the .lang files, but they were removed.

Rubies would later appear as the purchasable currency $$. However, they use a different texture and are completely unrelated to the original item.

Villager speech bubble


The villager speech bubble is an image that was added along with the villager.png file in the jar when the trading system was added. It showed a trade, where raw chicken could be sold to villagers for another raw chicken. Both raw chickens have the old raw chicken texture. During an interview about villagers, Jeb offered a possible explanation: "We did some experiments with thought bubbles, but it didn't look good. So in the end, after I'd been lead on Minecraft for a year, we just decided to add an interface instead."

The texture has been partially overwritten by the selection arrows.

debug.png and debug2.png


These textures were added in Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w31a. They are used by the developers, maybe for making block models. They could also be seen in certain Java Edition 1.13 snapshots.

Despite being unused, both of these blocks were given new textures for the 2018 April Fools' update: .

Minecart texture
The texture from the minecart model is rarely visible. The texture appears to be dirt, which is an artifact of when the minecart used to act as a portable chest. The "dirt" level used to raise when items were put into it. The texture still appears inside minecarts, but it's blocked by a different texture. It can be seen only in spectator mode.

Vindicator, evoker and witch hood




Evokers, vindicators and witches are hostile mobs based off the villagers, and they have an unused hood texture.

The evoker hood can be seen in the Mojang article "Meet the Evoker" and the witch hood can be seen in 18w50a.

Footprint particle
Despite the particle itself being removed in the snapshot 17w47a, the texture for the 'footprint' particle still exists within the game's jar file.

During the April Fools' 2020 snapshot, the texture of the footprint particle was added into the snapshot as an unusable item named minecraft:footprint in the dimension "missing".

Zombie pigmen, guardian and armor stand
The old texture for zombie pigmen used to contain the text "THX XAPHOBIA" on an unused section of the texture. The texture for the guardian contains the text "jeb_", which is Jens Bergensten's nickname. The armor stand's texture also contains the text "Searge", which is Michael Stoyke's nickname.

Banner parts
banner_base and banner_overlay item textures exist but are unused, suggesting that banners may have had a two-step crafting process once, or it was once going to use an item model instead of the original entity model (maybe used for pre-existing small sprites of colored banners, like they'd color the overlay separately).

Old zombie villager texture
Old texture from 12w32a snapshot still exists in "textures/entity/zombie" directory but it's unused.

Map icons
Some extra icons for maps. The white and green arrows are the only ones used normally, though the colored arrows are used for multiplayer $$.

Selected and Unselected
Squares labeled "SEL" and "UN SEL" (likely "SELECTED" and "UNSELECTED") can be found in "textures\gui\container\creative_inventory\tabs.png". Purpose unknown, though they could possibly be used as a template for the selected tabs and unselected tabs with the rest of tabs.png.

Skeleton melee attack
Skeletons normally wield bows, but if one were to spawn in a skeleton with a sword, the skeleton can use it like a normal weapon. A similar case happens with wither skeletons, in which one spawned with a bow can use it as intended, except the arrow is always on fire, even without lava or enchantments.

Alex skin
When the opacity of all pixels is set to 100%, unused textures are visible. The texture features Alex with glasses. It also features what appears to be the texture of Steve's arms inferring that the Steve skin was used as a template for the Alex skin.