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 any other form of media. Minecraft features several Easter eggs hidden in the game.

Seasonal events

Halloween

Between October 20 and November 3, bats can spawn at a light level of 6 or less instead of the normal light level 3 or less.

On October 31, zombies, zombie villagers, husks, drowned, skeletons, strays, zombified piglins, and wither skeletons have a 22.5% chance to wear carved pumpkins and a 2.5% chance to wear jack o'lanterns on their heads. This feature was added in Java Edition 1.4.2 for Halloween 2012 and every Halloween thereafter.

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

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  A zombie with a pumpkin on its head.

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  A spider jockey with a pumpkin.

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  A wither skeleton with a jack o'lantern.

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  Zombie and skeleton wearing a pumpkin.

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  "OOoooOOOoooo! Spooky!" splash.

Christmas

From December 24–26, chests, large chests, trapped chests, and minecarts with chest have their textures changed to Christmas chests that resemble wrapped Christmas presents. This was added in Java Edition 1.4.6 for Christmas 2012. A texture file called "skis.png" was also added in Java Edition 1.4.6 in the same folder as the Christmas chests, but it was 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.

The change doesn't apply to boats with chests.

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  "Merry X-mas!" splash.

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  skis.png

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  Normal chests.

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  Large chests.

Blocks & items

Cake

In 1.14.2-pre2 and for the occasion of the 10 years of Minecraft's release on May 17, 2019, the cake had a big "10" placed like candles, and the only splash text that appeared was "Turning 10 years old!" This was reverted to the way they were before on May 20, 2019, and is unable to be seen again in-game even when going back to 1.14.2-pre2 and changing the time of the device to May 17-20 of 2019.

Models
Full cake
1 slice eaten
2 slices eaten
3 slices eaten

Thing banner pattern

A "Thing" banner pattern can be crafted using an enchanted golden apple and paper. When put on a banner, it displays Mojang Studios' old logo in whatever color dye was used. It is labeled "Thing" in the inventory. The Swedish word "mojäng" means gadget or thing.

Withers on blocks

The wither can be spotted in two blocks. A 2×2 painting shows the soulsand T-shape and the three wither skeleton skulls. The chiseled red sandstone block depicts the wither on the edges of the block.

Textures

Some textures have hidden things in space unused by the game. Some of these are accessible by unzipping client.jar found in the versions folder.

Guardian

Before the Texture Update, in the guardian and elder guardian textures, there was an unused area saying "jeb".

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  Elder guardian.

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  Normal guardian.

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. In the bottom left, the word "Jappa" can be seen. This is likely another signature, this time from the texture artist, Jappa, who was in charge of the Texture Update.

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  Armor stand texture.

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  Armor stand texture after the texture update.

Zombie pigman

Before the Texture Update, in an unused area for the zombie pigman texture, the words "THX XAPHOBIA" could be seen. This was written by Notch to give credit and thanks to the original creator of the texture, XaPhobia.

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  Zombie pigman texture.

Creeper

The first released texture of the creeper. The old leaf texture is overlaying a lighter version of the pig test texture with some green added. Areas for arms and long legs are seen, which were never used.

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  Creeper texture from 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST.

Textures hidden in transparency

Some of the textures have pixels set to 0 opacity, which makes them appear transparent when viewed with most image viewers. However, the color information of these pixels is still present and can be retrieved by disabling the alpha channel. Most of these textures are probably leftovers from the creation of the texture, that the editing program didn't erase but instead simply set the opacity to 0. Textures listed here had their alpha channel disabled to reveal unused/hidden pixels in the texture. Most of the invisible pixels are from development of the texture or already existing texture has been used as a template during development.

1.12.2

Entities

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  Arrow texture was used as a template for the leash knot.

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  All shield textures have hidden banner texture.

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  Chainmail armor was used as a template for the stray's robe.

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  Bell appears to have some extra faces.

Mobs

There are hidden pixels in these mobs. As of 1.19.2, all mobs (except Ocelots) still have them.

Alex

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In 1.8, Alex was added to the game. Invisible pixels include Alex's face with glasses, a reference to Jeb, a Mojang developer, as well as an unfinished arm texture similar to Steve's used texture.

Silverfish

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The silverfish was added in Beta 1.8, but the texture was added in Beta 1.7. Invisible pixels consist of a few different colored regions around the "hair" textures.

Endermite

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The snapshot texture of the endermite is seen underneath the new one.

Bat

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An unused face texture can be seen and the spider head texture is seen under the wing. The spider texture was used as a template for the bat.

Ocelot and cat

• Pre 1.14
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• New cat variants
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The ocelot and the cat variants were added in 1.2.1. The ocelot's hidden pixels contain an extra head texture, and all the cat textures feature an orange texture with black lines across it. After the 1.14, the ocelot texture no longer contains hidden pixels. Most of the new cat textures are edited from the old ones, as indicated by the similar hidden patterns. The textures also appear to have been cropped, since a large part of the old hidden texture is missing, with the exception of the red cat texture, which appears to be unchanged.

Wolf

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The wolf was added in Java Edition Beta 1.4. All four wolf texture files feature similar hidden textures base on the cow, which suggests that the cow was used as a template for wolf textures. The most extreme is the collar texture, which originally contains only the collar, but there is an entire wolf and other unused textures hidden in transparency.

Blaze

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The blaze has a hidden body texture.

Magma cube

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A second pair of eyes are visible.

Wither

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The wither's armor texture was based on creeper's charged armor. In the wither textures, there is a copy of the main head under the smaller one. The light blue color is visible without removing transparency.

Guardians

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It seems that a template texture was used for designing the guardians.

Vex

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The old vex head is bigger and there seems to be leftover wing design.

Zombies

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The zombie textures have a villager zombie head hidden in its texture.

Capes

Some cape textures have a secret on the underside where it is not very visible.

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  The Translator cape has a big pink T on its underside.

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  The Chinese Translator cape has a small pixelated Chinese flag on its underside.

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  cheapsh0t's cape has a small pixelated Japanese flag on its underside.

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  The Prismarine cape has a dark prismarine block texture on its underside.

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  The Scrolls Champion cape has a big yellow S on its underside.

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  The Turtle cape has a turtle's belly on its underside.

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  The Birthday cape has a big yellow star on its underside, similar to that of the Millionth Customer cape.

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  The 15th Anniversary cape has the number 15 on its underside because it was released on Minecraft's 15th birthday.

Languages

There are five joke languages available at the language menu: Pirate Speak, LOLCAT, Shakespearean English, Anglish (puristic English), and ɥsᴉlƃuƎ (ɯopᵷuᴉʞ pǝʇᴉu∩) (upside-down English).

Minecraft is also translated into tlhIngan Hol, the Klingon language from Star Trek; Quenya, one of the Elvish languages from Lord of the Rings; Lojban, a conlang made by the LLC (Logical Language Group); and Esperanto, a conlang created by L.L. Zamenhof.

If a player types "excitedze" into the search bar in the recipe book, their language is automatically switched to Pirate Speak. "ExcitedZe" is the username of Maria Lemón, a former Mojang Studios staff member.

Names

Naming mobs

Several mobs can be renamed by using a name tag to create an effect.

Upside-down mobs

An example of a pig and a creeper being named "Dinnerbone".

	“	Anything with my name in Minecraft is upside down, including myself.	„
		— Dinnerbone

As of Java Edition 1.6, any mob (with the exception of the ender dragon, squid and glow squid) named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" (case sensitive) through name tags, commands, or any other method, is rendered upside-down. The mob's behavior does not change.

This also applies to players, allowing Dinnerbone and Grumm's avatars to be rendered upside-down. This can be toggled using the "Cape" button from the "Skin Customization" menu. In Bedrock Edition, if the player names themselves Dinnerbone or Grumm, they are rendered upside-down. This works only if the player did not sign into Xbox Live.

Rainbow sheep

A sheep named "jeb_"

In Java Edition 1.7.4 naming a sheep "jeb_" using a name tag or a renamed spawn egg causes it to continually cycle through all colors a sheep can be dyed. When sheared using shears, however, the sheep drops wool of the original color of the sheep rather than the color that currently appears on the sheep. In Bedrock Edition, if a sheep is named jeb_, and then sheared, the leftover wool on its skin continues to cycle through all the colors.

"Toast the Bunny"

A rabbit named "Toast"

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" causes the rabbit's skin pattern to look like Toast as a memorial. This also works if the player attempts to name The Killer Bunny; although while the rabbit's appearance uses the Toast skin, it can still attack as it would without the given name. When the player is killed by the renamed Killer Bunny, the death message says "<playername> was slain by Toast". "Toast" is re-textured to have black spots on its fur.

"Johnny"

If a vindicator is named "Johnny" or has its Johnny tag set to 1b, it attacks any nearby mobs except other illagers, zoglins, agents‌ and ghasts. This references the movie The Shining.

Players

deadmau5's ears

With the addition of the cape, 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 be 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.

As a side effect of this easter egg, any entity with the name tag "deadmau5", including named mobs, has its name tag render ten pixels higher than a normal name tag.

Splashes

Never displayed splash

Within the "texts" folder, there is a text file named splashes.txt. The text file contains all the splashes that appear 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. However, in Legacy Console Edition it does display, but it has never been confirmed if it is a bug or an intentional feature.

missingno splash

In older versions, if one were to delete the file splashes.txt without also deleting the META-INF folder, the splash text on the title screen would appear as "missingno". This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon MissingNo. found in the first generation of Pokémon games. This was later changed to a zero-width no-break space, which is displayed with Minecraft's Unicode font as a box with the letters "ZWNBSP" within it.

The splash was added in Java Edition Alpha v1.0.12 and it's the only vanilla version with this splash by default since splashes.txt was not added yet.

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  Splash in Alpha v1.0.12.

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  The missingno splash in 1.13.2.

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  The missingno splash in 19w12b.

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  The missingno splash since 1.14 (19w13a).

Holiday splashes

Special splashes appear all day on some holidays: "Happy new year!" on January 1, and "Merry X-Mas!" on Christmas Eve.

Coronavirus

Special splashes are displaying due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They include "Wash your hands!" and "Support elderly relatives and friends!"

Tributes to Technoblade

The crown on the pig.

Following the announcement on June 30, 2022 that popular Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade passed away from stage 4 cancer, Mojang added his skin's crown to the pig on the Java Edition art in memory of him. A splash text "Technoblade never dies!" was also added in his honor in 1.19.1. The launcher art was later changed to reflect The Wild Update, removing the pig and the crown from the launcher.

Removed Easter eggs

Several Easter eggs have been removed from Minecraft.

Command blocks

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

Searge says

If the command /help 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".

This no longer works in 1.13 or above (MC-124295); instead the /help command now runs normally, but the previous output gives only the last line ("/xp -> experience") due to there being space for just one line.

Java Edition launcher

Some launcher Easter eggs. The shrugging emoticon has been clicked, causing it to turn white. A witch has also appeared after the player hovered over the play button.

Before the release of the Java Edition launcher version 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 emoticon, ¯\_(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 ctrl+b, the experience orb pickup sound plays. These no longer work since the launcher has since been updated.

Legacy Console Edition tutorial world

Tower of Pimps

Tower of Pimps

Biomes	Desert
Generates in existing chunks	No
Consists of	Block of Gold Obsidian

{
    "title": "Tower of Pimps",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "Desert",
            "label": "(link to Biome article, displayed as Biomes)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Generates in<br>existing chunks"
        },
        {
            "field": "\n* <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite block-of-gold.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Block of Gold|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Block of Gold article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Block of Gold</span>)</span>\n* <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite obsidian.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Obsidian|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Obsidian article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Obsidian</span>)</span>",
            "label": "Consists of"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [],
    "images": [
        "Tower of Pimps.png"
    ]
}

In the old Legacy Console Edition TU12-TU13 Tutorial World, on the top floor of the sandstone pyramid, there are four blocks of gold on top of a block of obsidian. This is the "Tower of Pimps". It 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 Legacy Console Edition TU19/CU7/1.12 Tutorial World, there was an island in the northeast side of the world and it had a remake of several buildings from Minecraft YouTuber Stampylonghead, including his house along with his boat, the S.S. Stumpy.

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

A world based on the map, containing all of his creations, would later be released by 4J Studios on the Minecraft Marketplace in 2024 as "Stampy's Lovely World".

Notch's birthday

Notch's birthday splash text in early alpha.

Notch's birthday splash text in 1.7.9.

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

This splash was removed in Java Edition 1.8.5, since Notch no longer works for Mojang.

Notch's death

When Notch died in-game, he dropped an additional apple along with his inventory. At a certain time in-game, these were unobtainable. This no longer occurs.

References to other franchises

Portal

• In Bedrock Edition, the achievement for crafting a cake is called "The Lie", likely in reference to the phrase "The cake is a lie" from the video game Portal.
• The April Fools snapshot 24w14potato contains the splash "Oh hi! So, how are you holding up? BECAUSE I'M A POTATO!", a line said by GLaDOS in the video game Portal 2.

Super Mario

• Elytra's behavior, Tommaso tweets, "is like Mario 64" in reference to the Wing Cap from Super Mario 64.
• One of the paintings is a reference to the Donkey Kong arcade game.

The Shining

• If a vindicator is named "Johnny", it behaves like a zoglin, attacking every mob except agents, ghasts, illagers and themselves. This references the scene "Here's Johnny" from the movie The Shining.

Star Fox

• The achievement for using a trident enchanted with Riptide is called "Do a Barrel Roll!" in reference to the popular phrase said by Peppy Hare in Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Zero, telling the player to execute an aerial maneuver called a barrel roll.

2001: A Space Odyssey

• Before 1.13, using /help in a command block displays one of a few joke messages, one of which is "Oh my god, it's full of stats", a reference to a quote from the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the witty comments of a crash report, there are two other quotes, "I'm sorry, Dave." and "Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that."

Age of Empires

• If an evoker sees a blue sheep, it turns 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 side, changing their color. The evoker specifically uses the sound sample from the 1999 title Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.

Terraria

• The summoning mechanism for the wither boss, according to Jens, was inspired by the summoning mechanisms for bosses in Terraria. The game is also directly referenced in a splash text, "Also try Terraria!".

Counter Strike 1.6

• Three of the paintings in the game are of stages in Counter Strike 1.6, de_aztec 1 & 2 and Target successfully bombed.

Grim Fandango

• The painting 'Mortal Coil' is a reference to the character Bruno Martinez from Grim Fandango

Project Zomboid

• One of the games splash texts recommends the game Project Zomboid. "Also try Project Zomboid!"

Pokémon

The "missingno" data tag on an iron pickaxe

• In Java Edition, using commands to obtain an item that can mine a non-existent block ID (any block ID that is not in the game), sets the text to simply display "missingno", likely a reference to the famous glitch pokémon MissingNo. in the first generation of Pokémon games.​
• The translation key in Bedrock Edition for invalid structures is feature.missingno.

Quake

• The "Quake Pro" FOV option is likely a reference to the Quake series of first-person shooter games, specifically the fact that pro players often use an extremely high FOV to see as much around them as possible.

Other

Minceraft

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

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  Minceraft in the crash logs.

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  Minceraft in-game.

"Someone is closing me!"

The "Someone is closing me!" Easter Egg.

After a crash, the second-to-last line of text on the game output launcher tab says "Someone is closing me!"

Enchanting symbols

The enchanting symbols shown on the enchantment selection contain random words using the standard galactic alphabet from Commander Keen games, but the words in enchanting tables are randomized and do not correlate with any enchantments. This language shows up in the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, as a puzzle.

Sounds

Cave sound 14

The creeper face in the ambient sound 14 spectrogram

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

Crimson forest ambience

Many of the sounds were created using balloons.

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 be spawned only by using commands, and only in Java Edition.

"Super Secret" settings

In snapshot 13w36a for Java Edition 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 includes a message such as "Who set us up the TNT?" or "Hi. I'm Minecraft, and I'm a crashaholic."

.minecraft

Debug profile results

Debug profile results (triggered via /debug) 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 fewer 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.

Scottish Steve and Swedish Alex

In Bedrock and Legacy Console editions, in the default skin pack or the legacy 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. These both can be used in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as alternate costumes for Steve.

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  Scottish Steve

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  Swedish Alex

Item models

Several items when worn on the head (using /item replace) have unique placements. The end rod and spyglass protrude from the head like a horn, the lightning rod sits at the side like a snorkel, fish look like an ear and mic piece, banners display similar to how raid captains wear them, fence gates are worn like glasses, bones are held in the mouth like a dog, leads go around the eye like a monocle, and feathers stick up at the back of the head.

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  Steve wearing end rod

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  Alex wearing end rod

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  Steve wearing raw cod

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  Alex wearing raw cod

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  Steve wearing white banner

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  Alex wearing white banner

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  Steve wearing bone

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  Alex wearing bone

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  Steve wearing lead

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  Alex wearing lead

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  Steve wearing feather

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  Alex wearing feather

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  Steve wearing oak fence gate

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  Alex wearing oak fence gate

Command blocks

Searge

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

autoexec.bat

In the language files for the key for the command block’s “Always Active” feature “advMode.mode.autoexec.bat”. A tribute to DOS based operating systems that made use of “AUTOEXEC.BAT” to run commands on startup of the system.