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

Seamless slabs
All double slabs above data value 8 have the seamless tag. This displays the top texture of the slab on all 6 sides. This is only visible on four slabs: stone, sandstone, red sandstone and quartz. All other seamless slabs look identical to their normal counterparts. Breaking seamless slabs will yield two of their respective slabs, which will create normal double slabs if stacked. Seamless slabs can be obtained in versions 14w25a and below and 17w47a and above. In the upcoming 1.13 update they will be renamed to Smooth. They can be obtained by using the following commands:

Bark blocks
Wood blocks with data values 12 through 15 have the bark texture on all 6 sides. These are not found naturally and cannot be crafted. When obtained in the inventory and placed, they will act like a normal wood block, placing with their axis corresponding to the face of the block clicked. They can be obtained using the command. They can be placed, but just like as normal (depending on the wood) log.

Old wood slabs
Before unique slabs corresponding to different wooden planks species were added, oak wooden slabs were treated like other stone-type slabs. They required a pickaxe to break, had a blast resistance greater than normal planks, and had stone sounds. They are still obtainable in worlds which had them in it previously. They are tagged as Wooden Slab, reflecting on the fact oak was the only wood species in plank form. It has a missing texture in the inventory. In 1.13 snapshot 17w47a, this block is now called "Petrified Oak Slab" and it is available in the creative inventory and has a model.

Giant


Giants are an unused mob added in Indev. They appear to be a giant zombie. Giants currently have no AI and they cannot spawn naturally because the game requires the light level to be both greater than 11 and less than 8. They can be summoned using the command.

The Killer Bunny


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

On peaceful difficulty, the killer bunny will not despawn, despite its hostile nature. It will still attack wolves and pet dogs. When it was originally added in snapshots of 1.8, it spawned as a rare type of rabbit, but it was removed before the final release.

The Killer Bunny can only be spawned with the command.

Zombie Horse


Zombie Horses are a variant of horses that were added in 1.6, along with normal and skeleton horses. There is a zombie horse spawn egg available only in creative, 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 1.12. They will attack players, villagers, and iron golems within a 12 blocks range. It will attack 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 only be spawned with the command.

Potions
The uncraftable potion is a potion added in the 1.9 snapshot 15w44b with no effect that is unobtainable in survival. 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, which they automatically default to.

It can be obtained using the following command:.

There are also potions that cannot be brewed, and give you status effects not intended to be received by potions; e.g. Wither, Nausea. Again, these can only be obtained 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
Bad Luck reduces chances of high-quality loot.

Blindness
Blindness is a status effect which creates thick black fog around the player and prevents them from sprinting. As of snapshot 17w16a for 1.12, this effect can be obtained from an illusioner, though those mobs are also unused.

Health Boost
During the 1.6 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 health boost, but the effect was still left in the game.

In 1.9, the developers gave the Health Boost effect a new texture from its original golden heart texture, despite the fact that it is still not in use.

Saturation
Saturation is a status effect added in the 1.6.1 pre-release. It causes the hunger bar to refill by each tick.

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 & Customized 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, woods, 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.

Others
However, the "Breath" sound is still usable by running "/playsound random.breath master @p" in chat/command blocks.

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

Angry villager head


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

chunkinfo
As of 1.8 (14w30a), the file  contains translation strings for a   command which does not exist in game. The following keys exist:

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 is used by Mojang for development or was simply a dropped feature.

Old conduit particle
See Conduit.

Paeonia


Paeonias are unimplemented flowers that were replaced by the two-block-tall peonies.

There was only one screenshot of the block released by Jeb. Its texture file can still be found; it is named flower_paeonia.png.

Purple arrow


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

In 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 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 color-blind and he had a hard time spotting the difference between ruby ore and redstone ore. The names "Ruby Ore" and "Ruby" are still in the .lang files.

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 texture. During an interview about villagers, Jeb offered a possible explanation: "We did some experiments with thoughts 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."

Since 1.9, the texture has been partially overwritten by the selection arrows.