Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of the development of, there have been a number of features that were removed from the game. These features may have been replaced, or a developer decided against the feature later on.

Note: This page documents only game features that were removed; features of a particular game element that were removed are noted in that element's history. See Java Edition unused features for features that are still currently in the game.

Chainmail armor
Between the introduction of chainmail armor in Indev, and snapshot 14w25a for 1.8, chainmail armor was craftable using fire. As of that snapshot, fire can no longer exist as an inventory item, even with inventory editing, and the recipe itself was removed from the game's registry of recipes.

Chainmail armor may still be obtained in other ways.

Enchanted golden apple crafting recipe
Since their introduction in 1.3.1, and until snapshot 15w44a for 1.9, enchanted golden apples had the following crafting recipe:

Enchanted golden apples may still be obtained in other ways.

Horse armor
In snapshot 13w16a of 1.6.1, a crafting recipe for iron, golden and diamond horse armor was added. In snapshot 13w18a, the crafting recipe was removed; aside from wanting to add more "treasure" items in chests, the reason is still unknown.

Iron, golden and diamond horse armor may still be obtained in other ways.

High-distance anomalies
Many of the game's mechanics would break down in strange ways when at a large distance from the origin of the world. The vast majority of these effects have been patched, or at least minimised, in modern versions.

Floating point imprecision
For elements of the game which are not integer-aligned, such as the positions of entities, Java Edition uses 64-bit floating point (or "double") values for arithmetic and storage of relevant variables. However, there are odd cases in which a 32-bit floating point value is used instead. Such cases are rare in the modern game (a full list of those which still exist in 1.18 can be found at Java Edition distance effects), however older versions of the game used 32-bit values (or unnecessarily casted from and to them, resulting in avoidable data loss) much more heavily, resulting in a plethora of strange gameplay bugs which were tied to how far the player was from the center of the world, getting twice as intense for every integer power of 2 blocks the player went from the center.

A comprehensive list of since-fixed issues, as well as breakdowns of how they progress, can be found at Java Edition distance effects/Historical effects.

Far Lands


The Far Lands was the area that formed the "edge" of the "infinite" map $$ versions prior to Beta 1.8. They initiate differently depending on the game's version. In Infdev 20100227-1, there was a wall of stone that generated 33,554,432 blocks away from spawn. In a later version of Infdev, 20100327 this changed to where the Far Lands that existed until Beta 1.8 began at about 12,550,820 blocks from the center of the world, X/Z 0. These Far Lands had two kinds: Edge Far Lands (The Loop) and Corner Far Lands (The Stack); both feature extremely strange terrain. They are known to have several impacts on gameplay, including floating-point precision errors and huge framerate / tickrate drops due to excessive coordinates, and the farther from the center of the world, the worse the effects, until the game freezes and crashes. Beyond X/Z 32,000,000 the chunks are just fake chunks, causing the player to fall through the terrain.

Similar phenomena can be found on the vertical axis using mods such as the "Cubic Chunks" mod. When the height limit is removed completely, the Far Lands continue to generate upward until they eventually collide with the "Sky Far Lands" 25,101,640 blocks upward, or with the "Void Far Lands" 25,101,640 blocks below the world.

In Beta 1.7.3 (and probably as far back as Java Edition Alpha v1.2.0), there existed another set of Far Lands called the Farther Lands, which was found quickly after the discovery of the Far Lands, and generated approximately 1,004,065,600 blocks away from the center of the world. These Farther Lands combined with the previous Far Lands created an even stranger mixture. In this mixture of Far Lands, the terrain was smooth and hardly changed its shape. This was especially noticeable in the Corner Farther Lands.

The Far Lands were removed in Beta 1.8.

Brick pyramid
Brick pyramids were tall experimental generated structures made up exclusively of bricks. They were added in Java Edition Infdev 20100227-1 and they were removed from game in Infdev 20100327.

Indev house
The Indev House was a structure that acted as the starting place when first spawned. The Indev house was added into the game at Indev 0.31 20100124, and was initially made from mossy cobblestone, with two torches inside. In Indev 20100214-1, the mossy cobblestone was replaced with planks (for the walls) and stone (for the floor). The Indev house was removed at the start of Infdev.

Obsidian wall
Obsidian wall was an experimental structure made from obsidian. The obsidian wall had been added in Infdev 20100227-1 and was later removed from the game in Infdev 20100313.

Old village
Old villages and old zombie villages could generate in plains, savanna, taiga, ice flats, and desert biomes. The type of village, and therefore the style of all structures within it, was determined by the biome where the village well was located. All village biome variants were essentially palette swaps of each other, with the exception of one house in the old ice flats village, which would generate with randomized crop items such as carrots and beetroots. The "old villages" were not known as such until the Village & Pillage update.

Gravel roads
Before 1.10, villages used gravel with cobblestone underneath to signify roads; however, in 1.10, grass paths were added to signify village roads. However, grass paths sensibly were only generated where they replaced grass blocks, and gravel paths still existed until Village & Pillage update, when the jigsaw system broke it.

Savanna village
Prior to 1.10, villages that would generate in savanna biomes used oak logs, oak planks, oak fences and oak stairs. This village type was replaced by villages made out of acacia derived blocks.

Monolith
Monoliths were glitched areas of terrain that happened in the late versions of Infdev and were patched out of the game with the Halloween Update. These monoliths would cause the terrain to abruptly generate up to the height limit, with natural grass block and ore generation. They could theoretically generate infinitely upward, being stopped only by the height limit, which at this point in the game's development, was 128 blocks. The area below the monoliths was completely hollow, except for water generating at sea level and a layer of bedrock at the bottom, making the normal terrain seem like inverse monoliths. It is possible to find small crevices in large monoliths, where normal terrain was generated. They tended to generate around flattish terrain. They were caused by an error in the Perlin noise generator.

By setting "Biome Scale Weight" to negative values in old customized worlds, they could generate from snapshot 14w17a for 1.8 to snapshot 18w05a for 1.13, but with the removal of the "Customized" world type altogether in snapshot 18w06a for 1.13, this can no longer be recreated. Monoliths can once again be generated in 1.16+ using customized worlds.

Trees
Some types of trees can no longer be grown with saplings, and no longer generate naturally in new terrain. They were often the result of using existing textures for new log and leaves types that had not yet been added; new trees subsequently "borrowed" logs and leaves from other trees. For example, acacia trees, when they were first added, used jungle logs and oak leaves.

Glass pillars
Glass pillars were added in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3. They were used to mark the location of strongholds, as the eye of ender did not lead to strongholds yet. One pillar extended from the main entrance and another from the portal room. They went all the way up to the build limit. This was because Jeb forgot to remove the debug pillars before releasing the version publicly. They were removed in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, due to eyes of ender being able to lead players to the stronghold portal room.

Cloud customisation
The color and height of clouds could be changed in Indev, however this functionality was removed in Infdev. Unlike many other things now customizable in Java Edition via custom world generation, this is yet to see a return.

Isometric screenshot


In the Indev versions of Minecraft, players could take a screenshot of the map from an isometric perspective using. When the game captured an isometric image, it would save the current location of all mobs and show any and all alterations to the map the player had made that would be visible from the perspective of the sun (at sunrise). The player would not be visible unless the player was in third-person view before taking the isometric screenshot.

The isometric screenshot would save to their local user folder as "mc_map_####.png" where #### represents the number of the screenshot starting at 0000 up to 9999.

There are some limitations that existed with the screenshots:
 * They could capture the player's sprite only when in third-person view.
 * Due to a glitch, the screenshot would render only those blocks that are in the player's FOV, and everything else is either black or shows underground sections that would have been obstructed.

This feature was removed in Infdev due to the addition of infinite worlds.

Indev map shape


The map shape refers to the general dimensions the level generator used to create maps. It was added in Indev 0.31 20100106 and it altered the length, width, and height of the map.

There were three kinds of shapes:
 * "Square" was a map of equal length and width, with a height of 64 blocks.
 * "Long" was 2 times the length and $1/2$ times the width of a square map.
 * "Deep" was 4 times the height and $1/2$ times the width and length of a square map.

There were three kinds of sizes:

Indev map theme
The map theme refers to the general style the level generator used to create maps. It was added in Indev 0.31 20100107, and it dramatically affected game mechanics, such as monster spawn zones and boundary liquid. "Paradise" and "Woods" themes were added in Indev 20100214-2. Themes were removed for in the middle of Infdev and were comparable to biomes in Alpha, Beta and current Minecraft versions.

Normal


"Normal" was the default map theme. Above ground, one would find sporadic trees and generally favorable space. The weather was constantly partly cloudy, and the lengths of night and day were equal. Underground, ores of all types could be found and lava was generally found near the bedrock layer.

Boundary liquid: water.

Hell


"Hell" was the second map theme introduced within the map theme feature. Hell featured significantly less lighting during the day, where mobs of all types would spawn at any time. All water was replaced with lava, grass was replaced with dirt and grass would spawn in place of sand only during map generation. Mushrooms were abundant on the surface. Farming worked at a much slower rate (one plant stage per day cycle). This map theme was comparable to the later added Nether.

Boundary liquid: lava.

Paradise


The third map theme, "Paradise", was more relaxed than the other themes. It featured larger beaches and plentiful flora compared to the "Normal" theme, and the time is always set to "Noon" (the sun never sets); hostile mobs spawn only underground. Farming works at a much faster rate (from planting to harvestable in 30–45 minutes).

Boundary liquid: water.

Woods


The fourth map theme, "Woods", was a middle-ground of challenge between "Normal" and "Hell". It provided constant overcast during the day that reduces light, and tree density was higher than the other themes, resulting in the land space becoming smaller. Additionally, mushrooms were spotty throughout the above-ground areas.

Boundary liquid: water.

Indev map type


The map type refers to the general format the level generator used to create maps. Added in Indev 0.31 20100106, it dramatically affected gameplay, such as the availability of water, sand and gravel. The further the player traveled toward the end of the map, the slower they moved.

There were four kinds of map types:
 * "Island" was the default map type featuring minor hills and liquid existing at the borders.
 * "Floating" was similar to the floating islands in the "Buffet" world type today — it contained multiple floating islands. Falling from these islands resulted in death as the surface was covered in bedrock. Floating gravel and sand was common, while water was rare.
 * "Flat" was similar to the "Superflat" world type today — it featured flat grass with flowers, trees and a starting house.
 * "Inland" featured a slightly hilly landscape, which was essentially the "Island" map type with infinite flat land at its borders as opposed to water. Sand and gravel were common.

"Winter Mode" map type


"Winter Mode" was a randomly occurring map type in Alpha. It was added on July 9, 2010, in Alpha v1.0.4 and was the first "biome" to appear in Minecraft.

There were a couple of differences compared to normal worlds. First, there was the presence of snowflakes, which fell constantly. There were four different kinds of snowflakes. These snowflakes would create snow on surfaces directly exposed to the sky, provided that it was a solid block. Due to a lack of unfrozen water, reeds were rare. The second element unique to "Winter Mode" was the presence of ice. When a map was generated, most exposed water blocks would be frozen into ice. The water did not freeze completely near gravel beaches. The third element was a decrease in the spawning rate of passive mobs.

Whether a world was in "Winter Mode" was determined with a 25% chance at creation.

"Winter Mode" was removed in Alpha v1.2.0 with the addition of proper biomes.

Biomes prior to 1.7.2
Versions prior to 1.7.2 had two biomes that were later removed from the world generator. Despite being unused, they continued to exist.

The following biomes became unused in 1.7.2:
 * Mountain Edge (now available in the "Buffet" world type)
 * Frozen Ocean (restored in 1.13 as a very different biome)

Biomes prior to Beta 1.8
In Beta 1.8, biomes received a major overhaul, removing and changing many of them. Prior to these changes, there were 13 biome types that were much smaller and less distinct.

"Customized" world type
"Customized" was a world type that gave control over many settings that affected terrain generation, such as ores, sea level, biomes, structures, and many variables that govern the random shape of the terrain. It was introduced in snapshot 14w17a for 1.8, and was removed in snapshot 18w06a for 1.13. Although customized worlds were added back in the 1.16 snapshot 20w21a, there is currently no in-game menu to modify worlds; custom worlds can be generated only by importing a JSON file.

Indev MD3 mobs
Beast Boy, Black Steve, Steve, and Rana were human mobs originally used as tests during the Indev phase. They were made by Dock, one of Minecraft's past artists. After Dock left the Minecraft development team, these MD3 mobs were cut from the game. These mobs had no animation and glided around in the same pose. Notch also tested some other MD3 models that weren't going "into the final game." These were apparently from the game Quake III Arena.

Human


Humans were passive mobs who took the form of clones of the default skin. In Classic, humans could be spawned by pressing and would run around aimlessly. From Classic 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST and onward, there was another mob called "Monster" that looked like a human but would attack the player. This "Monster" was the result of trying to spawn the base class for hostile mobs as an actual mob, a similar situation would later occur for humans too. Notch also used the name "monster" for the green humanoids in his unfinished game: Legend of the Chambered. The entity IDs, for humans, and  , for "Monster", existed until 1.11, in which entity IDs were converted to namespaced IDs.

Zombie drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombies dropped 0-2 feathers, which were replaced by 0-2 rotten flesh.

Zombie pigman drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombie pigmen dropped 0-2 cooked porkchops, which were replaced by 0-1 rotten flesh and 0-1 gold nuggets.

The main idea of nether mobs dropping porkchops were implemented into hoglins.

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, oceans 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.

Unused
These features never had any functionality in-game.

Armor in Survival Test
In early versions from 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST through Indev 20100207-2, there was a folder called "armor", which contained two files. One was called ; and the other was called. These files were removed in Indev 20100212-1 with the addition of normal armor models.



Plate armor
Plate armor was used in Survival Test for mobs and it gave them no additional defense.



Chain armor
Unlike plate armor, chain armor was impossible to see in-game. It was just an unused texture. It was later removed and replaced with a new model and texture with leggings and boots.

Zombie Pigman Texture


The zombie pigman was what the zombified piglin was known as before the Nether Update. The zombie pigman was retextured, remodeled and renamed to zombified piglin when the Nether Update was released. However, the mob itself was not removed.

"Play Tutorial Level" button
An unclickable "Play Tutorial Level" button was added to the main menu during Indev. With the addition of texture packs in Alpha 1.2.2, the button was removed. No tutorial level had actually existed during that time.

Fluff.png


In Infdev, a texture called  was added. It was used as a texture for clouds in Infdev, but was later removed in early Alpha.

chunkinfo command
From 1.8 (snapshot 14w30a) to 1.13 (snapshot 17w45a), the file  contained translation strings for a   command, which never existed in game. The following keys existed:

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 was used for development or was simply a dropped feature.

calm4.ogg


was a music file (alongside the other tracks) that was beta-tested and created by Notch himself. The song is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long. It consists of an upbeat synth, battle-like tune. At 1:36, Notch can be heard saying "Mojang Specifications" in slow-motion.

The track was released in Alpha v1.1.1, but in Alpha v1.1.2, this track was omitted from the downloaded game files. Players who had the game while the song file was still included continue to hear it being played, as the game plays any song in the  folder.

With the introduction of the 1.6.1 launcher, playing older versions with the track  does not allow the track to be heard, since music is downloaded separately from the jar files.

On February 1, 2020,  was reuploaded by Notch on his SoundCloud page with the name "Magnetic Circuit".

Player stats


In an early Indev version, the player could open the inventory screen and view their name and three stats: "ATK", "DEF", and "SPD". These existed only briefly; when asked, Notch stated he could not remember exactly why they were implemented and subsequently removed, and he assumed they were placeholders for "vague plans".

Inventory changes
An inventory rewrite was originally partially implemented in snapshot 14w07a, but it was reverted before the release of 1.8.

Old multiplayer player death animation
Before 1.6.1, on player death while playing in multiplayer, the player would stay standing, leap a little bit, and then disappear. In 1.6.1, this was replaced with the player falling onto the side and then disappearing.

Notch dropping an apple
Before Beta 1.8, the player named Notch would drop an apple upon death.

On-screen version number


Starting with Classic 0.0.2a, all subsequent versions until RC2 had text displayed in the top left corner of the screen that displayed the version. Versions between Beta 1.6.4 and Beta 1.7.3 did not have this text. From Classic 0.0.2a to Indev 0.31 20100205, only the version number was displayed, but after Indev it switched from being "0.31" to being called "Minecraft Indev" (Indev 20100206), the word "Minecraft" was shown before the version number. In the Alpha development stage, the text read "Minecraft Alpha v#.#.#(_#)." In the Beta development stage, the text read "Minecraft Beta #.#(_#)." This feature was only partially removed, for, among other things, the version number can now be shown by opening the debug screen while in-game. Before Alpha v1.2.2, the version number did not display on the main menu screen.

"Unlicensed Copy" message


In the Beta stage of Minecraft's development, a message reading "Minecraft Beta #.#.#(_0#) Unlicensed Copy :( (Or logged in from another location). Purchase at minecraft.net" was shown. This message can be seen only in versions between Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 and Beta 1.7.3, as proven by a bytecode editor. The bytecode for the message was removed in Beta 1.8.

Spawning nether portals with
In Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2a, players had the ability to spawn nether portals by pressing. In Alpha v1.2.2b, spawning nether portals using was removed.

Time control with and
In Beta 1.8 Pre-release, as a result of remaining debug code, players had the ability to use and  to control in-game time. In Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2, the functionality of and  was removed.

Achievements
Achievements were available between Beta 1.5 and 1.12 (snapshot 17w06a). They were ultimately replaced by advancements, though editions other than Java Edition still have achievements instead.

"Player Activity" button
The "Player Activity" button in "Minecraft Realms" was added in 1.5, but it was removed in 1.14.4 for unknown reasons. This button was used to show the online activities of players.

Texture pack
Texture packs were added in Alpha v1.2.2, and were replaced with resource packs in snapshot 13w24a for 1.6.1.

"3D Anaglyph" option


"3D Anaglyph" is an option in video settings that applies a red-cyan stereoscopic effect, enabling the use of red-cyan 3D glasses to experience the game in more depth. This option was removed in snapshot 17w43a for 1.13 due to 3D glasses becoming less popular.

Void fog and particles
From Java Edition Beta 1.8 Pre-release up to its removal in Java Edition 14w34c, a fog effect and particles would appear in the lower 16 blocks of the world.

Dispensing command blocks
From snapshot 14w07a for 1.8, dispensers had the ability to place command blocks, when activated. This feature was removed as of 1.8.6 to solve a security issue.

Mobs running from creepers
In 1.8, mobs ran away from creepers that were about to explode. In 1.8.1-pre1, this feature was removed because every mob that had the ability to run from a creeper was looking for an exploding creeper every tick, degrading performance.

Water evaporating on magma blocks
In snapshot 16w20a for 1.10, water evaporated on top of magma blocks when randomly ticked. From snapshot 18w07a for 1.13, whirlpool bubble columns are produced on top of magma blocks instead.

Full hotbar
Before 1.4.2, starting a world in Creative mode always started the player with a full hotbar, which included Stone, Cobblestone, Dirt, Bricks, Oak Log, Oak Planks, Oak Leaves, Torch and Stone Slab.

Splashes
Note: When a line of splash text is removed, the line it occupied in  is deleted, meaning the line number of all subsequent splashes lowers by one.

"Super Secret Settings" button
The "Super Secret Settings", added in snapshot 13w38a for 1.7.2, were removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9 due to an internal rewrite. It was a button under the options menu that, when pressed, would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and activate a shader.

Native Twitch.tv integration
Native Twitch.tv integration was added in snapshot 13w47a for 1.7.4, and was removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9. It integrated Twitch chat into the game.

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop
and  were two sound effects added in snapshot 15w49a and removed in the next snapshot, 15w49b. The sound effects were blank audio files and were likely intended as sound effects for the lead.

Old conduit particle


The conduit was added in snapshot 18w15a with particles, but those particles were changed in the next snapshot, 18w16a.

/locate New_Village
There was a locate command called. This was implemented in snapshot 18w48a for Village & Pillage before the village structures from Update Aquatic and prior were removed. Once these "old" villages were officially taken from the game's structure spawn list in snapshot 19w02a, was replaced by  as the   ID was no longer needed.

Start with 64 fences
In Alpha v1.0.17, the player would spawn with 64 fences in their inventory, but in Alpha v1.0.17_01 this feature was removed.

First-person view pivot
Removed in 1.14 for performance reasons. Before changed, the player could not look directly upwards or downwards.

Placeholder block drops
Survival Test introduced block drops, which were mapped as follows:

Block drops were reworked in Indev.

Minimized textures
In Survival Test, item drops were restricted to the cube shape used for blocks. The projected texture was the same on all faces and the texture scale was closer to those of blocks, making it look cropped.

Tags
The  and   tags were added in snapshots 18w07a and 18w07b for 1.13 respectively and removed in 18w10c. Before the removal, these tags functioned as follows:

Java launcher easter eggs
Prior to the release of Launcher 2.1.497x, the launcher contained multiple easter eggs. If the player hovered their cursor over the "Play" button for a few seconds, a random mob would appear in the bottom right corner of the launcher. In the top left corner of the launcher, the player could see a translucent creeper face. There was about a 1⁄11 chance of the creeper face being replaced with a shrugging kaomoji, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. When the player clicked on either of these, they turned solid white. Clicking them again would return them to their translucent state. In addition, if the player pressed +, the experience orb pickup sound would play.

Old walking animation for players
From pre-Classic to Alpha v1.0.9, the walking animation for the player and the human mob was different; the player and the human mob would swing their arms wildly to their sides while walking like cartoons.

Old walking animation for mobs
In Survival Test, mobs (pigs, sheep, skeletons, zombies, spiders and creepers) had different walking animations.

Creeper melee attack
In Survival Test, creepers did melee damage to the player. In Indev 0.31, this feature was removed. The damage was 4.

Removed with the 1.3 server split
When 1.3 split client and server logic, several features lost significant functionality. While some of these have been effectively restored or at least substituted, many of them remain moved to this day.