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. Some of these blocks were removed at some point, whereas others can still be retained in a world today if a world is upgraded to it.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Removed items
These objects no longer exist in the latest version at all due to being outright removed or merged into another ID.

Air
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.

Alpha Leaves
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 effectively unobtainable.

Lit furnaces
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 v1.0.1.

Lit redstone lamps
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.