Experimental Gameplay

The disclaimer that appears when toggling Experimental Gameplay in the world settings.

Example of a world with the experimental tag on Bedrock Edition.

Experimental Gameplay (also known in-game as Experiments) is a game option exclusive to Bedrock Edition. In Java Edition, experimental features are available behind separate data packs. When enabled, it allows players to test some unfinished or work-in-progress features that will eventually be released in future updates.

Example of a world with the experimental tag on Java Edition.

Toggling

Experimental Gameplay is found in the world options when creating or editing a world. When turning the option on in an existing world, a copy of the world will be created automatically. Turning the option on disables achievements after the world is created. Once the experimental world is created, it cannot be turned off again. Worlds with the experimental on will have an "Experimental" tag right next to the game mode name in the world menu.

Warnings

The warning message when attempting to play on an experimental world.

The point of Experimental Gameplay is for the player to look at some not-quite-finished features, which could crash, break, or stop working at any point in future updates. When the player attempts to load the experimental world, it will show a warning message before loading it. Attempting to disable experimental gameplay toggle via external tools could also crash and break the world.

The experiment selection screen on Java Edition.

It is recommended to create back up copies of the world when playing on experimental, or not enabling experimental toggle on to avoid breaking the world and having issues in future updates.

Features (Bedrock Edition)

There are 8 different toggles of Experimental Gameplay on Bedrock Edition. These are:

Additional content

• "Holiday Creator Features"
  • Enables add-ons features added on the holiday update and some further updates that include the creation of custom blocks and items, Molang enhancements and the run_command method. This toggle will soon be removed from Bedrock Edition entirely, thus breaking add-ons using these features, mostly block and item events.

• "Custom biomes"
  • Enables custom biomes by using add-ons.

• "Upcoming Creator Features"
  • Used for Volume Driven Fog and entity properties and permutations.

• "Beta APIs"
  • Enables the usage for "-beta" versions of API modules in add-on packs.

• "Molang Features"
  • Enables experimental Molang features.

• "Experimental Cameras"
  • Enables the /camera command and its features.

• "Render Dragon Features for Creators"
  • Introducing new experimental cross-platform graphics features for creators

Gameplay

• "Villager Trade Rebalance"
  • Overhauled trades for Villager and Wandering Trader
• "Vanilla Experiments Internal (NON_LOC) (Developer Edition only)"
  • Internal (staff only) experimental features (NON_LOC)
  • Enables the experimental bundle item.

Internal Testing (Developer Edition only)

• "Automated test experiment setting. ignore this please"
  • loc_description MISSING FROM EXPERIMENTS JSON!
• "Next Update (NON_LOC)"
  • the next big update
• "enable experimental text"
  • just a test for whether text is working
• "Allow seed change"
  • Allow changing seed
• "Enable Minecraft Explorer (internal) (NON_LOC)"
  • Load Blocks generated by the Minecraft Explorer (NON_LOC)

Features (Java Edition)

There are two data packs of experimental features on Java Edition:

• "Bundles"
  • Enables the experimental bundle item.
  • While this data pack is selectable during world creation, it will not be found within the datapacks folder of the save.

• "Villager Trade Rebalance"
  • Overhauled trades for Villager and Wandering Trader

History

Java Edition
1.19.3		22w42a			Added the "Update 1.20" and "Bundle" experimental datapacks.
					Added bamboo mosaic, bamboo planks, chiseled bookshelves, hanging signs, camels, bamboo rafts, and bamboo rafts with chests behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
					Moved bundles behind their own experimental datapack.
		22w45a			Added blocks of bamboo and stripped blocks of bamboo behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
		22w46a			Added piglin heads behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
1.19.4		23w04a			Added smithing templates behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
		23w07a			Added cherry wood, planks, logs, leaves, and saplings, as well as decorated pots, pink petals, suspicious sand, torchflowers, brushes, pottery shards, torchflower seeds, sniffers, cherry boats, cherry boats with chests, cherry blossom trees, and cherry groves behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
1.20		23w12a			All features behind the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack have now been fully implemented.
					Removed the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
1.20.2		23w31a			Added the "Villager Trade Rebalance" experimental datapack.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.20.3		?			Added a data pack for 1.21.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.13.8			Added the experimental gameplay option.
					Turning on the experimental gameplay option gives the player access to the following features: stripped wood, prismarine stairs and slabs, tridents, drowned and new swimming animations.
		beta 1.2.20.1			Added nautilus shells, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		release			All above features, except for drowned and nautilus shells, are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Drowned and nautilus shells are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.7.0		beta 1.7.0.2			Added the scoreboard command and basic scoreboards, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.7.0.7			Scoreboards are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.8.0		beta 1.8.0.10			Added crossbows and their enchantments, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.9.0		beta 1.9.0.0			Added pillagers and bamboo jungles, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.9.0.2			Added lanterns and many new job site blocks, which are available only through experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.9.0.3			Added Minecraft script engine, available only through experimental gameplay.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Added composters, campfires, a new stonecutter block, sweet berries, ravagers, wandering traders, pillager outposts, new village structures, villager_v2, and zombie_villager_v2, which are available only through experimental gameplay.
					Crossbows, pillagers, lanterns, and entity scripting function are no longer only available behind experimental gameplay.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Added raid captains, raids, the Bad Omen status effect and the Hero of the Village status effect, which are available only through experimental gameplay.
					Bamboo jungles are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.11.0.3			Fletching tables, smithing tables, sweet berries, ravagers, the new villagers, pillager outposts, new zombie villagers and the new villages are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.11.0.4			Wandering traders are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
		release			Raid captains, raids, the Bad Omen status effect and the Hero of the Village status effect are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.1			Added structure voids, save and load mode for structure blocks, which are available only through experimental gameplay.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added targets, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.0.57			Targets, Structure Voids and Structure Block functionality are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
					Added Lodestones, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.0.63			Lodestones functionality are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
1.16.100		beta 1.16.100.55			Experimental Gameplay toggle has been revamped and expanded.
					Added "Custom Biome Add-Ons", "Experimental Scripting Add-Ons", "Experimental Molang Features", and "Next Gameplay Update" toggle.
		beta 1.16.100.56			Added "Experimental Add-On Features" toggle.
		beta 1.16.100.57			Added "Holiday Creator Features" toggle.
					"Experimental Scripting Add-Ons", "Experimental Molang Features", and "Experimental Add-On Features" toggle are merged into "Additional Modding Capabilities" toggle.
					Changed "Custom Biome Add-Ons" toggle name to "Creation of Custom Biomes".
					Removed "Next Gameplay Update" toggle in preparation for "Caves and Cliffs" toggle.
1.16.200		beta 1.16.200.52			Added "Caves and Cliffs" toggle.
					Added goats, goat horns and powder snow, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		release			Removed "Caves and Cliffs" toggle in the full release.
					Goats, goat horns and powder snow have been made inaccessible in the full release.
1.16.210		beta 1.16.210.53			Added powder snow buckets, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.210.56			Added pointed dripstone and sculk sensor, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.210.57			Added all copper block variants, copper ingot, copper ore, and lightning rod, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.210.59			Added glow ink sacs, glow item frames and glow squids, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.210.60			Removed glow ink sacs, glow item frames and glow squids temporarily.
					Added GameTest framework to the experimental gameplay, by enabling "Enable GameTest Framework” toggle to test the new GameTest automation tool.
		release			Removed "Caves and Cliffs" toggle in the full release.
					All Caves and Cliffs content was removed in the full release.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.50			Added the new mountain biomes: Lofty Peaks, Snow Capped Peaks, Snowy Slopes, Mountain Grove, and Mountain Meadow behind experimental gameplay.
					Increased height limits to 320 blocks behind experimental gameplay.
					Re-added glow ink sacs, glow item frames and glow squids.
					Added dripstone blocks, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
					Changed and updated the textures of the ores behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.220.52			Added azaleas, azalea leaves, big dripleaves, cave vines, hanging roots, moss blocks, moss carpets, rooted dirt, small dripleaf and spore blossom, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
					Added glow berries, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
					Extended the build limit to 64 blocks down, to a total range of 384 blocks behind experimental gameplay.
		release			Removed "Caves and Cliffs" toggle in the full release.
					All Caves and Cliffs content was removed in the full release.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.50			Added glow lichen, which is available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.16.230.52			Added axolotls and deepslate and its variants, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
					Added "Upcoming Creator Features" toggle.
		beta 1.16.230.56			Revamped cave generation by adding cheese caves, spaghetti caves, and flooded aquifer caves behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.17.0.50			Added amethyst geodes, amethyst blocks, budding amethyst, amethyst clusters, amethyst shards, tinted glass, tuff, calcite, smooth basalt, spyglasses, raw metals, lush cave biomes and raw metal blocks, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
					Glow Lichen, Powder Snow and Powder Snow Buckets are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.17.0.52			All above features and changes, except for the revamped cave generation, new mountain biomes, sculk sensor, and goat horns, are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.17.0.56			Added lava aquifers, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
					Added description for Experimental features in the world creation screen.
					Added a warning message when attempting to load an experimental world.
					Added "Experimental" label to indicate the world is experimental in the world menu.
		beta 1.17.0.58			Description changes in the previous beta were removed.
		release			Removed "Caves and Cliffs" toggle in the full release.
					All Caves and Cliffs: Part II content were removed in the full release.
1.17.10		beta 1.17.10.20			Description changes in beta 1.17.0.56 was re-added.
		release			Added "Caves and Cliffs" toggle in the full release for all platforms.
1.17.30		beta 1.17.20.22			Hostile mob spawning has been changed to only spawn at light level 0 behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.17.30.21			Re-added "Experimental Molang Features" toggle.
		beta 1.17.30.23			Terrain now generates using the multi-noise biome source type behind experimental gameplay.
					Added noodle caves behind experimental gameplay.
					Added ore veins behind experimental gameplay.
1.17.40		beta 1.17.40.20			Deepslate now generates below Y=0, gradually replacing stone and then fully replaces it at Y=-8 behind experimental gameplay.
					Added the stony peaks biome behind experimental gameplay.
					Clouds now float between layers 192 and 196 behind experimental gameplay.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			All above features and changes related to new world generation, new mountain biomes, revamped cave generation, sculk sensors, and goat horns are no longer available only behind experimental gameplay.
					Removed the "Caves & Cliffs" toggle as the result.
		beta 1.18.0.22			Added "Vanilla Experiments" toggle.
					Goat horns and sculk sensors have been moved behind the new experimental gameplay toggle.
					Added sculk blocks, sculk catalysts, sculk shriekers, and sculk veins, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.21			Added "Wild Update" toggle.
					Sculk blocks, sculk catalysts, sculk sensors, sculk shriekers, and sculk veins have been moved behind the new Wild Update experimental toggle.
		beta 1.18.10.24			Added frogs, tadpoles, frog egg, and bucket of tadpole, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.18.10.26			Added froglight blocks, which are only available behind experimental gameplay.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.20.21			Removed the "Additional Modding Capabilities" toggle.
		beta 1.18.30.22			Added allays behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.18.30.26			Added copper horns behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.18.30.28			Added chest boats and the deep dark behind the "Wild Update" toggle.
		beta 1.18.30.32			Added the warden, ancient cities, and reinforced deepslate behind experimental gameplay.
1.18.31					Added "Spectator Mode" toggle and moved Spectator mode behind it.
1.19.0		beta 1.19.0.20			All above features with the exception of goat horns, copper horns, and spectator mode are no longer behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.19.0.24			Copper horns have been removed.
		beta 1.19.0.28			Goat horns are no longer behind experimental gameplay.
1.19.10		beta 1.19.10.20			Updated the /execute command syntax to closer resemble that of Java Edition, which are available only behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.19.10.24			Removed the "Wild Update" and "Vanilla Experiments" toggles.
1.19.40		beta 1.19.40.22			Renamed the "GameTest Framework" experimental toggle to "Beta APIs".
1.19.50		beta 1.19.50.20			Spectator mode is no longer behind experimental gameplay.
					Removed the "Spectator Mode" experimental toggle.
		beta 1.19.50.21			Added the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.
					Added camels, chiseled bookshelves, bamboo planks, bamboo mosaic, rafts, and hanging signs behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.19.50.23			The updated /execute command syntax, more similar to Java Edition, is no longer behind experimental gameplay.
1.19.60		beta 1.19.60.20			Added block of bamboo, stripped block of bamboo, and the piglin mob head behind experimental gameplay.
1.19.70		beta 1.19.70.23			Added the "Sniffer" experimental toggle.
					Added the brush, decorated pot, pottery shards, and suspicious sand behind experimental gameplay.
					Added the sniffer, sniffer spawn egg, torchflowers, and torchflower seeds behind experimental gameplay.
1.19.80		beta 1.19.80.20			Added the cherry grove behind experimental gameplay.
					Added the "Short Sneaking" experimental toggle.
		beta 1.19.80.21			Added suspicious gravel and smithing templates behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.19.80.22			Added calibrated sculk sensors and trail ruins behind experimental gameplay.
1.20.0		beta 1.20.0.22			Added the "Experimental Cameras" experimental toggle.
					All 1.20 Blocks are no longer behind experimental gameplay.
1.20.10		beta 1.20.10.20			Added crawling behind experimental gameplay.
					Renamed the "Short Sneaking" experimental toggle to "Short Sneaking and Crawling".
		beta 1.20.10.21			Added the "Recipe Unlocking" experimental toggle.
					Added the new recipe unlocking system and /recipe behind experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.20.10.23			Renamed the "Short Sneaking and Crawling" experimental toggle to "Crawling".
					Removed the "Short Sneaking" experimental toggle.
					Sneaking under 1.5 block gaps is no longer behind experimental gameplay.
1.20.30		beta 1.20.20.21			Removed the "Recipe Unlocking" toggle.
		beta 1.20.20.22			Crawling is no longer behind experimental gameplay.
					Removed the "Crawling" toggle.