Recap / Minecraft

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The earliest versions of the game, developed by Notch in May of 2009. Some can be downloaded from the Minecraft Launcher.

Tropes in this update:

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The only mob was just called the "Mob." It looked like Steve and just ran around.
  • The original texture for stone looked more like cobblestone
  • Grass blocks originally had the grass texture on all six sides
  • Saplings were in the game, but there were no trees.
  • The mouse controls for placing and destroying blocks were reversed compared to today.
• Humble Beginnings: Worlds are small and very few blocks are available, but there's still the essence of what Minecraft grew to be.

Private alpha:

• Early-Installment Weirdness: The color palette was way brighter until beta.

Early Classic:

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Survival mode did not exist.
  • The world was finite and surrounded by an infinite ocean.
  • Liquid physics worked very differently.
• Made of Indestructium: Bedrock is completely unbreakable.

Multiplayer Test:

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Wool was added in 0.0.20a, but it was called "cloth." Also, sheep were not added until 0.28.
  • Gold blocks existed, but not ingots.

Survival Test:

• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Creepers were originally gray.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Hunger would not be added until over two years after Survival Test.
  • Weapons did not exist in the modern sense. The player was given 20 arrows to defend themselves with, which could be fired by pressing the tab key.
  • Creepers did not walk up to the player and explode like they do now. Instead, they would do a normal melee attack on the player and only explode when killed.
  • Even though Survival mode was the only option, the player could not craft anything.
  • Wood dropped planks when broken.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombies were added as some of the first enemies.
• Hearts Are Health: The player's health is represented by ten hearts.

Late Classic:

• Early-Installment Weirdness: Obsidian dropped cobblestone when broken.
• Made of Indestructium: Obsidian is very tough to break.

Indev 0.31:

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Diamonds were originally called "emeralds."
  • Mobs called "Rana," "Steve," "Black Steve," and "Beast Boy" were added and look nothing like modern mobs. They have since been removed.
  • The player spawned in a pre-built house.
  • A "Hell" theme existed for generating a world. This would later be repurposed into the Nether.
  • Players could take isometric screenshots of their worlds.

Indev post-0.31:

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The sun and moon moved from north to south instead of east to west.
  • Zombies dropped feathers.

Phase 1:

• Early-Installment Weirdness: Massive brick pyramids generated throughout the world until they were removed in phase 2.

Phase 2:

Phase 3:

• Mook Maker: Spawners, as the name implies, spawn whatever mob is shown spinning inside of them.

v1.0:

• Magitek: Redstone is the closest thing the game has to electricity.

v1.1:

• Magic Compass: A compass points toward the world spawn point.

Halloween Update:

• Another Dimension: The Nether is another dimension that can be entered via a portal made of obsidian.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Zombified Piglins were originally Zombie Pigmen.
• Eldritch Location: Compasses, maps, and clocks don't work in the Nether, and beds explode.
• Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: One block in the Nether equals eight blocks in the Overworld.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: The Nether features fire, lava, ghostly mobs called Ghasts, and a block called Soul Sand.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Nether is full of fire and lava.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Nether's color palette is mostly shades of red and orange.

1.0:

1.1:

1.2:

• Retcon: Reeds were renamed to sugar cane in this update.

1.3:

• There Are No Bedsheets: The player lies on top of the blanket on beds.

1.4:

1.5:

1.6:

1.7:

Tropes in this update:

• Advanced Ancient Humans: Implied by strongholds, which indicate that at some point there was a civilization capable of creating End Portals.
• Alien Sky: The sky in the End is a purple static.
• Another Dimension: The End is a floating island in the middle of a static void.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Potions cannot be stopped by armor.
• Berserk Button: Endermen become hostile if you look them in the eyes.
• Cosmetic Award: The Dragon Egg serves no purpose other than being a trophy.
• Cryptic Conversation: The End Poem features two beings having a conversation about something.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
  • Endermen originally had green eyes.
  • Villagers originally looked almost identical to each other, with the only difference being the color of their robes.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The End was originally different from how it is today. Instead of the obsidian pillars generating in a circle around an inactive exit portal that activates when you defeat the Ender Dragon, the pillars generated randomly throughout the island and the exit portal appeared wherever you killed the dragon. In addition, there were no outer islands.
  • Villagers could not be traded with until a few updates after this one.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Strongholds are massive and (usually) generate underground. Finding the End Portal within one can be a challenge in and of itself.
• Eldritch Location: The End. See above.
• Experience Points: Doing various tasks (but most notably killing mobs) earns experience points. Unlike a typical game, experience levels in Minecraft are spent on enchanting gear.
• Fatigue Mechanic: Running out of hunger removes your ability to sprint.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: The Ender Dragon, the Final Boss of the game, is fought in the End.
• Fungus Humongous: Mushroom biomes feature gigantic mushrooms.
• Marvelous Milk: Starting in release 1.0.0, drinking milk cures all status effects.
• Mechanical Monster: Blazes appear to be robots of some kind.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Ender Dragon doesn't breathe fire, but it can destroy almost anything it flies through.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • Worlds generated before this update will not have strongholds if the chunks that would have them are already generated, making the End inaccessible. In addition, Strongholds did not have End Portals before Part II. Five years later, the Combat Update remedied this by increasing the number of strongholds in a world and making them able to generate farther out.
  • If the singular Dragon Egg gets destroyed, it's gone forever.
• Planimal: Not a plant but a fungus: Mooshrooms are cows that have mushrooms growing all over them.
• Regenerating Health: Having a full hunger meter causes your health to regenerate.
• Status Ailment: Some potions give status ailments.
• Status Buff: Some potions give status buffs.
• Technicolor Death: The Ender Dragon explodes into purple beams.

1.1:

1.2.1:

1.3.1:

• Booby Trap: Desert pyramids have a pressure plate in their treasure room that activates some TNT, while jungle temples have tripwires that activate dispensers filled with arrows.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Terracotta was not in the game yet, so desert pyramids used wool for colored blocks.
• Portal Network: Ender chests act as one for items.

Tropes in this update:

• Bragging Rights Reward: Beacons are only obtainable by killing the Wither. They provide some minor beneficial status effects to nearby players, but generally a player that's managed to kill the Wither doesn't need these that much.
• Motivation on a Stick: Holding a carrot on a stick while riding a pig lets the player guide the pig in any direction they want.
• Our Witches Are Different: Witches most commonly spawn in swamp huts. They look similar to villagers but use potions and drop certain potion ingredients on death.
• Superboss: The Wither can optionally be summoned, and it is one of the toughest mobs in the game.

Tropes in this update:

• Magitek: The Redstone devices added in this update allow the player to create much more complex contraptions.

Tropes in this update:

• The Alleged Steed: If you get unlucky with finding a horse in the wild, you may end up with one of these.
• Cool Horse: By breeding horses, you can get one with maxed-out stats.

Tropes in this update:

• Gelatinous Trampoline: Slime blocks are quite bouncy.
• King Mook: Elder Guardians are this to Guardians.
• Mechanical Monster: Guardians appear to be robots, given that they can shoot lasers out of their eyes.

Tropes in this update:

• Dual Wielding: This update added an off-hand slot.
• Nerf: Enchanted golden apples are no longer craftable.
• Not Quite Flight: The elytra is used to glide. Future updates would enable the use of firework rockets as a boost.
• Not the Intended Use: End Crystals were made craftable to make summoning the Ender Dragon possible. Pv P players started using them as a way to deal massive damage to opponents.
• Retcon: The End was changed from a solitary island in a static void to an infinite series of floating islands in the same static void, with the original static island in the center and separated from the rest by a thousand blocks.

Tropes in this update:

• Artistic License – Biology: Polar bears are neutral mobs. In Real Life, polar bears are one of few animals that actively hunt humans.
• Mama Bear: Fittingly, an adult polar bear will become hostile if you attack its cub.
• Underground Monkey: The Husk and Stray are stronger versions of the Zombie and Skeleton, respectively.

Tropes in this update:

• Armor-Piercing Attack: Armor does not protect against Evoker fangs.
• Ascended Glitch: Nitwit villagers were officially added in this update after green-robed "generic" villagers (which occurred when a villager spawned with commands had an invalid career ID) had been removed in 1.8.
• Bag of Holding: Shulker Boxes are essentially portable chests.
• Negative Ability: This update added "curse" enchantments.
• Not Completely Useless: The Curse of Vanishing can be useful in Pv P, since it prevents whoever killed you from getting the item with the curse.
• Obvious Rule Patch: As of this update, Infinity and Mending are mutually exclusive on bows.

Tropes in this update:

• Achievement System: The old Achievement System was replaced by a new "Advancement" system.
• "Harmful to Pets" Reminder: Cookies kill parrots because chocolate is poisonous to parrots in real life.
• Fooled by the Sound: Parrots can imitate the sound of any mob.
• Retcon: Hardened and stained clay were replaced by terracotta, but they function the exact same.

Tropes in this update:

• Mighty Glacier: The Potion of the Turtle Master gives the player slowness and resistance.
• Underground Monkey: The Drowned are a new variant of zombie that spawn underwater and can have tridents.
• Ocean of Adventure: Oceans were greatly expanded in this update, with new mobs, structures, and coral reefs.

Tropes in this update:

• Art Evolution: Almost every texture in the game was redesigned in this update.
• Breaking Old Trends: This is the first named update to not have the word "Update" in its name.
• Group-Identifying Feature: You can tell what a villager's profession is and what biome it's from by looking at its clothes.

Tropes in this update:

• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bees are way larger than their real-world counterparts.
• Virtuous Bees: Bees are passive and provide honey. Unless you attack them.

Tropes in this update:

• Black Swords Are Better: Netherite is the best material in the game, and it is black.
• Fungus Humongous: Crimson and Warped Forests feature huge fungi. Unlike the giant mushrooms in the Overworld, these ones have stems made of usable wood.
• Glowing Flora: Shroomlights generate as part of huge fungi, and are a light source.
• Guide Dang It!: Finally averted with Nether portals, which finally have ruined portals as an in-game tutorial on how to make them.
• Motivation on a Stick: A Warped Fungus on a stick functions similarly to the carrot on a stick, but for Striders.
• Mythology Gag: Crying obsidian was originally planned to be added back in beta as a way of setting the player's respawn point, but it was scrapped in favor of beds. This update added it, and it's used to craft respawn anchors, which let the player respawn in the Nether.
• Retcon: Zombie Pigmen were replaced by Zombified Piglins, which, as the name implies, are zombified versions of the new Piglin mob.
• Technicolor Fire: Lighting a fire on Soul Sand or Soul Soil will create Soul Fire, which is blue.

Tropes in this update:

• Art Evolution: Every ore except Diamond was given a more unique texture.
• Fantastic Underworld: Caves were greatly expanded in this update.
• Glowing Flora: Glow berries and glow lichen give off light.
• Scenery Porn: The new caves and mountains take it to the next level. Even years after they were added, they can be jaw-dropping.

Tropes in this update:

• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Ancient Cities are found deep underground and are very elaborate, featuring multiple buildings, Redstone circuits, and what appears to be a non-functioning portal that once led somewhere.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Sculk. It seems to feed on death, can detect sound, and can spawn the Warden, the most dangerous mob in the game.
• Eldritch Location: The Deep Dark biome definitely qualifies. It's found deep in caves and features the aforementioned Sculk and Warden. Also, nothing spawns there except for the Warden.
• Retcon: The design of the Vex was changed, with them now being implied to be corrupted Allays.
• Revision: The unknown monster the recorder of Music Disc 11 was running from is now implied to be a Warden.

Tropes in this update:

• Nerf: Upgrading diamond gear to Netherite now requires a Netherite Upgrade smithing template, which can only be found in bastion chests. Thankfully, they can be duplicated.
• Pamphlet Shelf: Chiseled bookshelves are this due to the limit on the length of written books.

Bats and Pots:

Armored Paws:

Tropes in this update:

• Awesome, but Impractical: The mace can one-shot a player in full Protection IV Netherite armor from the right height, but it can be difficult to land a hit. And if you miss, you take fall damage.
• Mook Maker:
  • Trial Spawners and Ominous Trial Spawners spawn mobs based on how many players are nearby.
  • Having the Infested or Oozing status effect causes an effected entity to spawn silverfish or slimes upon death.
• Underground Monkey: The Bogged are a stronger version of Skeletons.

Bundles of Bravery:

• Boring, but Practical: Bundles are basically an early version of Shulker Boxes, and are quite good for looting structures that give various items in small amounts.
• The Bus Came Back: Bundles were finally added to the base game after being relegated to an experimental data pack for nearly four years.

The Garden Awakens:

• Don't Go Into the Woods: The Pale Garden becomes dangerous at night when Creakings spawn.
• Eldritch Location: The Pale Garden rarely generates in the middle of dark forest biomes and is almost entirely monochrome. In addition, all music stops playing in Pale Gardens.
• Soul Jar: The Creaking can only be killed by destroying its Creaking Heart block.

Spring to Life:

• The Bus Came Back: Fireflies were added in the form of the firefly bush after being cut from the Wild Update (albeit as a particle rather than a mob).

Chase the Skies:

• Anti-Frustration Features: Happy Ghasts do not move when a player stands on them.

The Copper Age:

• The Bus Came Back: The Copper Golem returns after losing the mob vote to the Allay all the way back in 2021.
• Technicolor Fire: This drop added copper torches and lanterns, which are green.

Mounts of Mayhem:

• Anti-Frustration Features: While riding a Nautilus underwater, the player's oxygen bar won't go down.
• End of an Era: This will be the last version to use the old versioning scheme, likely making Tricky Trials the last major update to Minecraft.
• Grandfather Clause: Zombie horses now burn in daylight unless they're wearing armor. Skeleton horses do not burn in daylight, since they were available in vanilla survival before this drop and making them burn would doom any skeleton horses in old worlds.

Tiny Takeover:

• Art Evolution: Rabbits and baby animals got a redesign in this drop.
• Never Grew Up: The new golden dandelion item can be fed to baby mobs to prevent said mobs from growing up. Feeding it to the same mob again will reverse this and allow the baby mob to become an adult.

Chaos Cubed:

• Underground Monkey: The Sulfur Cube is one to the Slime, being found in Sulfur Caves. It has similar models and textures. Like the Slime it is a cube that breaks into smaller versions when killed. Unlike the Slime, it is passive and has different behaviors depending on the block it absorbed.
• Water-Geyser Volley: Using the potent sulfur block with some water above and a magma block below will create a geyser that when it goes off, can lift up any entities including the player.