Java Edition 2.0

On April 1, 2013, Mojang released a hoax announcement for Minecraft 2.0, a new game they had supposedly been working on for two years, describing how it would "bring blocky simulation games to the next level." The post also contained a changelog comprised mostly of nonsensical changes, such as a new slab of TNT called Etho slab, the addition of lapis lazuli blocks (which already existed at the time) and redstone blocks.

Although lacking most of the promised additions, Minecraft 2.0 was produced and distributed to select celebrity individuals to showcase to the public as part of the joke.

Despite being a joke, some features added in this version were implemented in subsequent updates.

Downloads
The original files were hosted on assets.minecraft.net and were not available to the public. However, many people who downloaded the file before it was protected have hosted the .jars elsewhere. On April 5, 2013, Sacheverell, the Content Manager of minecraftforum.net, uploaded the files to Mediafire.

Changelog
Original hoax changelog: http://mojang.com/2013/04/its-finally-coming-minecraft-2-0/

New blocks

 * Etho Slab
 * The data value is 160.
 * Slab made out of TNT.
 * You can craft them like any other slab:


 * Much like other slabs, it can be placed on the upper half of a block.
 * It has the same functions as a normal TNT, however when it explodes it spawns an anvil over players in the explosion's range.
 * The name is a reference to a YouTube user with the name "EthosLab", which sometimes looks like the words 'Etho slab' (since it is written lower-cased sometimes).
 * The falling anvil is possibly a reference to Etho's long quest to get an anvil kill.


 * Torch (Burnt-out)
 * The data value is 161.
 * Torches now burn out after a random amount of ticks.
 * They can be relit with flint and steel.


 * Block of Coal
 * The data value is 162.
 * Just like the other mineral blocks, it is crafted with 3×3 coal:


 * However, when it is put into the crafting table to get back the coal, the coal obtained will not be stackable with other coal because it has a different item data value: 32767 instead of 0.
 * This block was later put into Minecraft in version 1.6.1 with the same texture as from the April Fools version, but it was later reworked.


 * Tinted Glass
 * The data value is 163.
 * Glass can be dyed any color that the dye exists for, and yields 8 tinted glass of a color of your choice:


 * Contains block data values ranging from 0–15 that specify the color of the glass. Wool's block data values produce the same colors when used on tinted glass.
 * In 1.7.2, tinted glass was added to the game under the name stained glass.
 * At its first introduction, 13w41a, it used the 2.0 textures, but it was changed in the next snapshot, 13w42a to have the current texture.

New mobs

 * Horse
 * Unlike the horses introduced later in 1.6.1, these horses come in shetland pony (pig) and horse (cow).
 * Riding mechanics are the same as pigs, except that the full horse requires wheat to direct.
 * The shetland pony drops raw porkchop, and the horse drops raw beef.
 * In the 2.0 version minecraft.jar file the textures are called pig_horse and cow_horse.
 * You sometimes obtain these mobs when you spawn cows and pigs with spawn eggs.
 * Friendly wither, or pink wither
 * Attracted to sugar, restores health to all surrounding mobs, and applies bone meal to all eligible neighboring blocks.
 * It also has the ability to grow roses, dandelions, grass and ferns on grass blocks, due to the bone meal.
 * Starts off with one head, and feeding the Friendly Wither sugar will grow another head (up to three) and increase the range of these effects.
 * If you want to spawn a Friendly Wither, you will need to place pink wool, with a flower pot containing a rose on top.
 * As with their evil counterpart, they drop Nether Stars.
 * It is still classified as a hostile mob, though its behavior is not hostile.
 * The Friendly Wither is also considered undead, and will be hurt by potions of healing and healed by potions of harming.
 * This is because the Friendly Wither has the same entity ID as the Wither.
 * The Friendly Wither has no health bar.
 * In the version .jar file the texture is named wither_pink.
 * Diamond chickens, or blue chickens
 * Very rarely spawns instead of a normal chicken.
 * Chance of laying diamonds or lapis lazuli instead of eggs.
 * They do so at a much slower rate than normal chickens lay eggs.
 * Explodes when aggravated.
 * Redstone bug
 * silverfish with a shade of red that is the same as the redstone they spawn over.
 * No behavioral changes.
 * Spawns when a redstone error is activated, on the spot of the error.

New features

 * Combining themes from YouTuber and MindCracker paulsoaresjr and The Legend of Zelda, Chickens are now a neutral mob, and will sometimes spawn reinforcements when killed.
 * They will also attack you when you look at them.
 * You can feed sheep, pigs, horses, mooshrooms, and cows to make them fat.
 * The tenth time they are fed they explode.
 * Using a golden apple on sheep makes them fly.
 * Some features that were not noted in the changelog are:
 * Mobs can have a rare chance of escaping fences and glass panes.
 * Smaller mobs have a larger chance.
 * Blocks and mobs can talk using speech bubbles.
 * Quotes include "You punched me!", "You mined me!", "Did I do bad?", "That hurts! :(", "You're mean!" and "Mommy?"
 * "Super Hostile Mode" is an occasional event (every 2–5 minutes on Purple version).
 * Consisting of a shower of lightning bolts around the player (and usually striking the player at least once), while spawning a large number of powerful monsters in the area and applying the Blindness status to the player. These spawns include not only heavily armed and armored zombies and skeletons, and multiple charged creepers, but even the occasional Blaze and other unexpected monsters. This is a reference to Vechs' Super Hostile series of maps. All of these are apparently triggered by "punching wood" or crafting anything. Naturally, these are some of the first things a survival player will need to do.
 * A new option for Super HD Graphics.
 * Which makes all textures monochrome except for recolored/secondary layer textures, such as grass side overlay or the colored glass. Super HD Graphics mode does not, however, make the game more laggy or glitchy.
 * Furnaces have a random chance (with each item smelted) of overheating (producing large amounts of smoke), and eventually exploding.
 * The explosion is at least as powerful as a TNT block.
 * The explosion created also causes damage to blocks even if submerged in water.
 * It will smelt about 3-7 items before exploding.
 * Note that it's based on burn time not items, so a piece of coal will always ignite it.
 * Torches burn out over time.
 * They can be relit with flint and steel.
 * Droppers are renamed to floppers, and will change anything they drop to a fish.
 * This is a GenerikB reference; he said it in a video of MindCrack SMP.
 * Zombie Pigmen carry "Battlesigns".
 * This is a nod to YouTuber and MindCracker Zisteau, who is noted for using the zombie pigman skin and having the Zistonian Battle sign named after him.

Bugs

 * Tinted glass has a bug where if on Fast graphics, the bottom has some texture glitches when placed on any surface except air.
 * You cannot see water through tinted glass, nor see tinted glass through water. This is due to their transparency. They are not fully transparent like glass. This also works with ice for the same reason. This bug was fixed in Minecraft 1.7.2.
 * Mooshroom spawn eggs spawn regular cows with mushrooms on their back. Likely intentional.
 * Using pick block on tinted glass only yields white tinted glass due to a bug with the item.
 * When the heat is not regulated in a furnace underwater, the furnace will still burn, smoke, and explode blocks underwater, setting blocks on fire underwater. The damage of the explosion is likely due to the fact that the furnace block doesn't have a block of water on the same block as itself, unlike TNT, creepers, withers, and other explosion sources can. Or, it could be to add to the inevitable confusion and chaos hidden behind every new feature.
 * Because the horse is just a cow in horse skin, the horse still has udders.
 * There are no baby Diamond Chickens.
 * Iron Golems attack friendly withers. This is because they are still considered a hostile mob.
 * You cannot sleep when there are friendly withers around, because they are considered a hostile mob.


 * When an Endermen has an open mouth, and is behind Tinted Glass, the Tinted Glass becomes invisible.
 * Chickens don't have any fattening animation when fed, but will still explode as other mobs with the feeding mechanic.
 * Having both a wither and a friendly wither will cause a 200% increase in frame rate. Mojang has promised it will be fixed soon, though this is probably a joke statement.
 * Also, since a Redstone Bug is just a reskinned silverfish, it can still infest blocks, but when the block is destroyed, it will re-appear as a silverfish.
 * Tinted Glass, Diamond Chickens, and Redstone Bugs still have color when Super HD Graphics is enabled.

Trivia



 * At 1:00 GMT, the splash text in 2.0 is huge and says "APRIL FOOLS!" in pink letters and obstructs the title screen.
 * Etho slabs have a bigger explosion than TNT, although they are smaller than TNT.
 * Tinted glass uses filters.
 * Lightning can strike mobs through blocks.
 * The regular wither does not attack the pink wither, as they are classed as the same mob.
 * The easier the difficulty, the more challenging super hostile mode is.
 * However, if you change the difficulty to Peaceful, the super hostile mode will be disabled. This is due to Peaceful difficulty despawning hostile mobs and not allowing them to spawn.
 * In the game code, the pink wither is called WitherHug.
 * The "Super Hostile Mode" is a reference to Vechs' Super Hostile series of 'Complete The Monument' maps. Players must find colored wool to put on a Victory Monument. This is why some of the Mobs spawn with a random block of wool in their helmet slot, these mobs being known as 'Fleecy Mobs', which were the source of the wool in Vechs' Super Hostile map, 'Black Desert II', and also the Skylands map.
 * Pink withers seem to not have the ability to fly, unlike the normal Wither.
 * The textures for tinted glass, diamond chickens, and Redstone Bugs are all coded into the game, and are not found with the other mobs in the texture pack folders.
 * In the changelog, it said "Fixed a bug where skeletons would miss their targets on occasion".
 * In the changelog it said that there were many things added to fishing, including new fish. It proceeded to note that fishing had been removed and if you had fish in your inventory you would be damaged to discourage fishing.