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.

Still existent in current version
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Removed
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.

Leaves with data values 4-15
Prior to 1.13, leaves uses the upper twelve data values to determine their eligibility to decay and whether they should check for decaying. Using glitches, all twelve of these could be obtained as items. They are often erroneously referred to as "alpha leaves", despite only being obtainable during release versions.

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.

Glitch seeds
During the 1.8 snapshots, it was possible to obtain glitched wheat seeds with a missing texture.