Tutorials/Obtaining discontinued blocks and items

This page covers ways to obtain certain blocks in pure survival mode without the use of cheating, but not discounting glitches. They can still be retained in a world today if a world is upgraded to it. While the window to obtain these does not contain the current version (1.16.3), they still can exist in the current version and if the world is upgraded to it these objects will be kept.

Quick overview: a roadmap to obtain all discontinued features
In order to have all of these items shown in the following sections obtained in a pure vanilla survival world, it is recommended that the player start a world in version Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3, or perhaps an earlier version on a vow to not venture out too far as to not generate any chunks that would otherwise house strongholds.

Once an end portal frame (or all 36 of them that generate in the world at this point, if you carefully make backups and make sure all of them are dropped by the explosions) is obtained, the player can upgrade to Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 and then use a silk touch pickaxe to obtain both as many spawners and monster eggs as desired. It is recommended that as many wooden slabs can be crafted on the journey as possibly can be.

Then, upgrade to a version between 12w49a and 15w47a inclusive and enchant as many shears as desired with Silk Touch. Enchanting them with Mending as well (which can only be done in a narrow window of snapshots) is also recommended.

Upon doing this, enchant as many bows as desirable with Mending and Infinity before 16w50a or a later version arrives.

The player then can obtain bedrock using whatever means are appropriate.

Then, upgrade to 18w11a and focus on obtaining tridents, with the intention of obtaining tridents enchanted with the incompatible Riptide/Loyalty and Riptide/Channelling combinations.

Upgrading to a version between 19w02a and 1.14.3 Pre-Release 2 inclusive can then be done, such that an impossibly protective suit of armor can be constructed. This video contains a guide which can be used to make obtaining an optimal set easier. Bringing a blacksmith villager from pre-1.8 with all diamond armor trades unlocked is highly recommended, as this gives a steady supply of free armor usable for enchanting.

Fundamental blocks and items
This refers to blocks and items which are effectively elementary, being either a standalone ID or a metadata value thereof, as opposed to a block "augmented" with for example a discontinued combination of enchantments.

Note: this page does not (yet) include those obtainable in Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 through chests, nor those in the Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 debug inventory.

End portal frames
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.

As TNT did not drop every block it blew up at this point, obtaining all 12 portal blocks was rare. It is recommended that you make several backups and only blow up a few of the portal blocks at a time if intending to obtain all 36 portal blocks.

Infested blocks
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.

Petrified oak slabs
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.

It may still be possible to generate these using data value transmutation in versions such as 1.7.

These are sometimes erroneously referred to as "alpha slabs", despite the fact that they never even existed in the game until Beta 1.3.

Spawners
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 v1.0.1, 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.

Signs with too much text
Prior to snapshot 14w25b for 1.8, signs had a hard limit of 16 characters for each of the four lines of text. This would allow sixteen of the longest characters to all be placed together on the one line and as a result cause them to hang off the sign. This was later changed to allow as much text as can possibly fit on the sign to be placed on one line, resulting in more than 16 characters per line being possible for some characters, whereas wider characters such as the ones that caused text to leak off the edges ended up having their counts per line decreased.

Signs such as these which were updated to 14w25b for later, while retaining their text from before, will not actually display the overflowing text.

Silk Touch shears
These could obtain this enchantment via anvils from 12w49a onward up to 15w47a. From 15w47b they may not be enchanted with this.

Infinity and Mending on one item
When Mending was added in 15w42a, it was not initially incompatible with Infinity. This first was the case in 16w50a. As such, release 1.11 exactly is the last version where such bows or enchanted books can be obtained.

Tridents with Riptide alongside Loyalty/Channeling
Only obtainable in survival in 18w11a, as this snapshot made tridents legitimately available in survival but 18w14a made the enchantments not compatible.

1.14 god armor
From 19w02a to 1.14.3 Pre-Release 2, protection enchantments were not mutually exclusive and could be combined. They became mutually exclusive again in 1.14.3 Pre-Release 3.

Discontinued block configurations
These combinations of blocks can no longer be made in current versions.

Stationary water
Prior to 15w51a, melting ice blocks would not cause the water to start flowing until it received a block update.

Water in the Nether
Ice blocks can be collected with Silk Touch in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 and 5. If placed in the nether and melted in a version prior to 12w17a, they would become water, resulting in a legitimate way to obtain and manipulate water in the dimension.

Wet sponges in the Nether
Prior to 19w36a, wet sponges can exist and be placed as normal in the Nether without drying out immediately.

Snowy blocks without snow
Prior to 1.16.2, endermen could pick up snowy grass, mycelium and podzol blocks. Upon placing these down, they would still have the snowy block state set to true, but there would be no snow on top. Indeed, endermen which are holding these blocks in the first place (alongside other things, such as netherrack, or indeed any block from around their introduction) are also a discontinued feature.

Old wall configurations
Before walls were updated to be cleaner in 1.16, placing them in a vertical sheet would cause many gaps, and there would also be gaps with full solid blocks placed above them. These configurations, among many others, can no longer be achieved in 1.16 and above. A fuller list of such cases may be needed.

Weird plants
Bamboo, kelp, weeping vines and twisting vines could be made to have a "juvenile"-type plant exist somewhere in the middle of the plant throughout 1.16 and its development. This was removed in snapshot 20w27a for 1.16.1.

Redstone configurations
Some configurations of redstone wire blocks and its resultant powering were possible with redstone wire up until the changes made to it in 20w18a.