Easter eggs

An easter egg is an intentional hidden message, inside joke, or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, television program, movie, book, or crossword. Minecraft features several easter eggs hidden within the game.

April Fools
Many joke features and updates are teased on the 1st of April. Some of these, such as stained glass, blocks of coal and horses eventually made their way into the official game.

2011




The Locked Chest was a naturally generated block used as the premise of Notch's 2011 April Fool's Day joke. Upon attempting to open the chest, a message would appear stating that a Steve Co. Supply Crate Key is needed and that one could be purchased at the Minecraft store.

This concept is a reference to the Team Fortress 2 item drop system, where you can pick up an item while playing. One of the receivable items is called Mann Co. Supply Crate, which required a key purchased from the Mann Co. Store, a microtransaction system integrated into the Steam client. The font used in the GUI is also the same as the one used in Team Fortress 2.

Within the Minecraft store, there were many easter eggs:
 * Clicking on the proceed to checkout button triggers a screamer in which a Velociraptor from the film Jurassic Park will growl loudly and fly across the screen. Once clicked, the Proceed button also changes its display name to Fiddlesticks!!!1.
 * Entering items totaling over $10,000 into the cart causes a window pop-up asking if you are prone to seizures. Clicking OK makes the screen start flashing.
 * Later, the window pop-up said: "If you are prone to seizures, click cancel.". This was done likely to avoid lawsuits because of the rapidly changing color flashes.
 * The script that causes the Velociraptor to appear has a reference to the Konami Code in it:

// Determine Entrance if(options.enterOn == 'timer') { setTimeout(init, options.delayTime); } else if(options.enterOn == 'click') { _this.bind('click', function(e) {       e.preventDefault;        if(!locked) {	        init;        }	}) } else if(options.enterOn == 'konami-code'){ var kkeys = [], konami = "38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65"; $(window).bind("keydown.raptorz", function(e){       kkeys.push( e.keyCode );        if ( kkeys.toString.indexOf( konami ) >= 0 ) {        	init;        	$(window).unbind('keydown.raptorz');        }    }, true);

2013
During 2013, Mojang released a pre-release for a fake future version to various YouTubers.

2014
A post was added to Mojang's blog for the joke.

In-game, villagers still acted the same, (with their programmed AI) but they made different sounds. Every player's skin was replaced by a villager skin, complete with the trademark nose. Not all players had the villager skin. Skins varied by player. Other villager noises were implemented in non-villager parts of the game. All noises were replaced with the sound effects of Element Animation's "T.E.A.V.S.R.P" (The Element Animation Villager Sounds Resource Pack). Mojang also added in-game villager music. The title screen music contains a parody of the Game of Thrones theme, due to the new series starting in early April and also because of its being included in the original trailer for "T.E.A.V.S.R.P" Jeb also claimed the villager [ got his Twitter account].

The skins were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2014, but this can still be activated by setting your device's date to April 1, 2014.

Grum [ released the villager skins on reddit] on April 1, 2014. There were seven variants, including a base skin.

An updated version of TEAVSRP, complete with the new music, [ was released by Element Animation] on April 2, 2014.

Soon afterward; Element animation released.

2015
15w14a was released as an April Fools' joke for the version “1.10,” when the next update was supposed to be 1.9. This "Update" is called the Love and Hugs Update. There was also a QR code written in the snow that generated in a super flat world that when scanned reads '1.9 The Combat Update'

2016
1.RV-Pre1 was released as an April Fools' joke for the update 1.RV. This "Update" is called the Trendy Update.

2017
The Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device was announced on the Minecraft website.

2018
The new 8bit default version of textures was released for Java Edition. The new textures are available in 1.12 and 1.13. It was announced that all editions of Minecraft will get the new version of textures. The new textures are actually the original textures using 8-bit color, leading to a drastic reduce in detail. The splash text for this day also can read any of the following:


 * Cleaner!
 * Simplified!
 * Perfected!
 * Art directed! (by robots)
 * Machine learned textures!
 * Not blurry!
 * Not bubbly!
 * Not cartoony!
 * Photo realistic!
 * Hand painted!

The textures were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2018.

Halloween
Between and on October 20 through November 3, bats are able to spawn at light level of 6 or less instead of the normal light level 3 or less.

On October 31, zombies, skeletons, zombie pigmen, and wither skeletons may sometimes wear pumpkins or jack o'lanterns on their heads. These mobs will drop these blocks if killed using a tool enchanted with Looting. This feature was added in version 1.4.2 for Halloween 2012 and every Halloween thereafter.

Also, the only splash text shown is "OOoooOOOoooo! Spooky!"

Christmas
From December 24 – 26, chests, large chests and trapped chests have their textures changed to Xmas chests. This was added in version 1.4.6 for Christmas 2012. A texture known in the game files as "skis.png", was also added in 1.4.6 in the same folder as the Xmas chests, however these textures were added by Dinnerbone as a red herring. This was re-added for Christmas 2013, along with a new 'rain' - feature - pigs riding chickens (this is not planned to be fully implemented). This also happened again in 2014 with a new splash reading, "Merry X-Mas", and repeated in every Christmas since.

Textures
Some textures have hidden things in space unused by the game.

Guardian
When you open the 1.8 .jar in the Entities Folder, both guardian textures (in an unused space) say "jeb".

Armor stand
In the texture for the armor stand, in an unused area in the bottom right, the word "Searge" can be seen in a black box. This is presumably put there as a signature by Searge, the developer that implemented armor stands.

Zombie pigman
In an unused area for the zombie pigman texture, the words "THX XAPHOBIA" can be seen. This was written by Notch to give credit and thanks to the original creator of the texture, XaPhobia.

Never displayed splash
Within the "texts" folder, there will be a document labeled "splashes". The document contains all the splashes you see on the title screen. One of them is "This message will never appear on the splash screen, isn't that weird?"; as its text implies the splash is never displayed.

missingno
If one were to delete the file splashes.txt without deleting the META-INF folder first, the splash text on the title screen would switch to missingno. This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon found in the first generation of Pokémon games, MissingNo.

Notch's Birthday


On June 1, Notch's Birthday, the only splash that is displayed is "Happy Birthday, Notch!"

This splash was removed as of the 1.8.5 update, since Notch no longer works for Mojang.

Holiday Splashes
Various splashes will appear all day on many holidays, like "Happy New Year!" on January 1, and "Merry X-mas!" on Christmas Day. They may change slightly every year.

Names
Easter eggs related to names of mobs or players.

Notch's death
When Notch dies in-game, he drops an additional apple along with his inventory. However, it appears that this is no longer the case, and it is unknown whether this was intentionally removed.

Upside-down mobs
As of 1.6, naming any mob "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" (first letter must be capitalized) using a name tag or a renamed spawn egg will cause it to turn upside-down. This also can be done by summoning a mob named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm".

This also allows Dinnerbone and Grumm's avatars to be rendered upside-down, which can be toggled using the "Show cape" button from "Skin Settings". This feature is intended.

In Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition if the player names themselves Dinnerbone or Grumm they will be upside down.

Jeb sheep
Naming a sheep "jeb_" (must have underscore) using a name tag or a renamed spawn egg will cause it to appear to constantly fade through all colors a sheep can be dyed. When sheared using shears, however, the sheep will bear wool of the original color of the sheep and not the color of the wool that the sheep appears to be. For example, when a black sheep is named jeb_ and then changes to the color red, if sheared it will still drop black wool. In Minecraft Pocket Edition, if a sheep is named jeb_, then sheared, the leftover wool on its skin will cycle through all the colors, too.

"Toast the Bunny"
When Ryan Holtz was developing rabbits, user xyzen420 asked him to make a skin that would look like his girlfriend's lost rabbit, Toast. Now, naming a rabbit with a name tag or a rabbit spawn egg called "Toast" will spawn/switch the rabbit's skin to look like Toast as a memorial.

deadmau5's ears
With the capes addition, Notch also added ears for the player deadmau5. The ears are "vanity items and are worn in addition to the player's skin", with the texture contained within deadmau5's skin.

deadmau5 cannot disable his ears, as a translucent part of the skin is automatically converted into a black color. His name tag is also programmed to render ten pixels higher to render above the ears.

The ears are set to show up based on the username, rather than the UUID of the player, meaning that if deadmau5 were to change his name, he would not keep his ears.

"Johnny"
If a vindicator is named Johnny or has its  tag set to   they will attack any nearby mobs, with the exception of other illagers. This references the movie "The Shining".

Tower of Pimps
In the old Legacy Console Edition TU12-TU13 Tutorial World, at the Sandstone Pyramid, go to the top floor. There are four blocks of gold on top of a block of Obsidian, which is the "Tower of Pimps". The "Tower of Pimps" was created by Gavin Free of Achievement Hunter in their video "Let's Play Minecraft Part 2 - On a Rail!" and has become a symbol of the group's Let's Play Minecraft series, mainly as a trophy of their competitions in their Achievement City world within Xbox 360 Edition and Java Edition.

Stampylonghead reference
In the old Console Edition TU19/CU7/1.12 Tutorial World there was an island in the north east side of the world and it had a remake of stampy's house along with his boat, the S.S. Stumpy.

Additionally, the boat was seen in the trailer for Console Edition TU19/CU7.

Java Launcher
On the new Minecraft Java edition launcher there are two easter eggs. The first one can be discovered by hovering your cursor over the "Play" button. This causes a random mob to appear in the bottom right corner of the launcher. The other easter egg can be found in the top left corner of the launcher. If you look closely, you will see a creeper face. Also, there is about a $1/11$ chance of getting a shrugging face instead of a creeper face. When you click on the faces, they will light up. Clicking them again will dim them.

debug-profile results
Debug profile results (triggered via ) contain witty comments at the top, much like with crash reports.


 * Shiny numbers!
 * Am I not running fast enough? :(
 * I'm working as hard as I can!
 * Will I ever be good enough for you? :(
 * Speedy. Zooooom!
 * Hello world
 * 40% better than a crash report.
 * Now with extra numbers
 * Now with less numbers
 * Now with the same numbers
 * You should add flames to things, it makes them go faster!
 * Do you feel the need for... optimization?
 * *cracks redstone whip*
 * Maybe if you treated it better then it'll have more motivation to work faster! Poor server.

Minceraft
There is a 0.01% chance that the title screen will display "Minceraft" instead of "Minecraft". The beginning of crash logs can have the phrase "You should try our sister game, Minceraft!", too.

Someone is closing me!
If you have a look at the game output launcher tab after an unexpected crash, the second-to-last line of text says "Someone is closing me!".

Enchanting symbols


The enchanting symbols shown on the enchantment selection contain random words using the standard galactic alphabet, but the words in enchanting tables are randomised and do not correlate with any enchantments.

Disc 11
When the ogg for music disc 11 is converted to wave and run through a spectrogram, an image is created. Several theories for this image exist, but the most popular is that the image depicts the default player head and C418's autograph. There's rumors about the face shown in the spectrogram; some people say that this "face" is that of Herobrine. C is the hexadecimal of 12, so 12418 is actually C418.

Cave sound 14
When Ambient sound 14 is put into a spectrogram, it appears to be a creeper face.

The Killer Bunny
The Killer Bunny is a variant of the rabbit that is hostile to all players. This is a reference to The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It can only be spawned using commands.

"Super Secret" settings
In snapshot 13w36a for 1.7.2, Dinnerbone added a Super Secret Settings button, which could be viewed in the options screen. Clicking it would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and change the shader of the screen. These effects would not necessarily work on computers without a graphics card that supported OpenGL 2.1. This was removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9.

Crash Screens
When the game runs into a fatal error and crashes the crash log will also include a "message" such as "Hi. I'm Minecraft, and I'm a crashaholic.", "Somebody set us up the TNT.", or "You should try our sister game, Minceraft!". The latter references another easter egg.

Item and Block NBT Tags
If one were to use /give to give themselves an item that can mine a non-existent block ID (Any invalid block ID that is not in the game) the text will simply display "missingno". This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon of the very same name found in the first generation of Pokémon games.

Mojang Banner
A Mojang Banner can be crafted using an enchanted golden apple, a banner, and any dye. It has the Mojang symbol on the front of the banner and is labeled "Thing" in the inventory (e.g. "Cyan Thing" "Green Thing" etc.).

Scottish Steve and Swedish Alex
In Legacy Console Edition, in the Default Skin Pack the Scottish Steve and Swedish Alex Skins are references to the locations of the companies developing the game. 4J Studios is located in Scotland and Mojang is located in Sweden.

Command blocks
Command blocks have various Easter eggs with messages being added to the previous output.

Searge
Running "Searge" as the command in the command block without a preceding " " will now set the previous output to "#itzlipofutzli". This Easter egg is case insensitive.

Searge says
If the command is run via command block, it gives various messages prefixed with "Searge says: " as the previous output when activated. The following messages exist:
 * "Yolo"
 * "/achievement take achievement.understandCommands @p"
 * "Ask for help on twitter"
 * "/deop @p"
 * "Scoreboard deleted, commands blocked"
 * "Contact helpdesk for help"
 * "/testfornoob @p"
 * "/trigger warning"
 * "Oh my god, it's full of stats"
 * "/kill @p[name=!Searge]"
 * "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
 * "Sorry, no help today".

Languages
There are four joke languages available at the language menu, Pirate Speak, Lolcat, Shakespearean English, and ɥsᴉlƃuƎ (ʞ∩). The latter was created to make the in-game texts legible again for Dinnerbone.

Minecraft is also translated into tlhIngan Hol, the Klingon language from Star Trek, and Quenya, the Elvish language from Lord of the Rings.

If you search "excitedze" in the Recipe book, your language switches to Pirate Speak.

Portal
The achievement for crafting a cake is called "The Lie" in reference to the phrase "The cake is a lie!" from the popular Valve game Portal.

Super Mario 64
The Elytra's behavior, Tommaso tweets, "is like super mario 64" in reference to the wing cap.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Using in a command block displays one of a few joke messages. The 2001 A Space Odyssey quote "Oh my god it's full of stars" is referenced. In the witty comments, there are two other quotes, "I'm sorry, Dave." and "Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that."

The IT Crowd
Using in a command block displays one of a few joke messages. The famous IT Crowd catchphrase "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" is one of the messages.

Age of Empires
If an evoker sees a blue sheep, it will turn the sheep into a red sheep while uttering "wololo". This is a reference to the Priest unit from the Age of Empires real-time strategy game series, which would utter "wololo" while converting enemy units to their own side, changing their color. The evoker specifically uses the sound sample from the 1999 title Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.