Herobrine

Herobrine's bearded design.

Herobrine is the subject of a community-made creepypasta. Despite being absent from all versions of the game, he is widely regarded as one of the major community icons of Minecraft.

The first stories and images ever posted about Herobrine, as well as the Brocraft streams, are regarded as canonical, as they were fundamental to the creation and popularization of the character. Any portrayals of the character created after these events are considered fan-made adaptations and variations.

Existence disclaimer

Herobrine does not exist in any official versions of Minecraft, and never has. There are no references to him at all in the game's source code, and there is no code to allow for any entity to act like Herobrine. It is not possible for Herobrine to have ever existed in any unmodified clients or servers. Any appearances of Herobrine are caused by either unofficial modifications being installed, or because of another player using a customized skin texture to resemble the character.

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  Notch's automatic reply to any email containing the word "Herobrine".

History

The original screenshot which inspired the "White Eyes" story, from July 30, 2010, with an enhanced excerpt below.

The popular story and screenshot detailing a Herobrine "encounter", posted on 4chan's /x/ board on August 31, 2010.

Zoomed-in excerpt of Herobrine in the original image.

"White Eyes"

On July 31, 2010, Minecraft Forum user Flaky posted a comment, supposedly copied from a post on 4chan's /v/ board, containing a story of a player encountering an entity with glowing white eyes after listening to the "13" music disc. One supposed instance of these eyes was linked in the comment, which was a YouTube upload of "13" posted the previous day (the same day that the disc was added to the game), showing a screenshot of a dark cave with two white eyes edited into the bottom left corner. This story is the first known instance of the concept of a creepypasta regarding a white-eyed paranormal being in Minecraft.

The following day, Forum user Endorphine posted a thread recounting a myth surrounding the ambient sounds added to caves in Alpha v1.0.3, in which "a pair of white pixels" would appear whenever these sounds would play. The same video was linked as an example of an appearance of these white pixels. The phenomenon was attributed to "White Eyes", a female creature who would stalk the player from afar with no visible traits other than her blank white eyes.

Herobrine creepypasta

The "White Eyes" story began spreading through the Minecraft Forum, either stemming from or being popularized by the aforementioned thread. On August 24, a modified version of the story appeared, in which "White Eyes" was now a default player model with whited out eyes.

At some point before August 19, a similar altered version of the story surfaced: "White Eyes" gained the name "Herobrine", and was now described as the deceased brother of Notch (in reality, Notch has never had a brother), taking the form of a human entity with white eyes. The exact origin of this version of the story is unknown, with the earliest known instances of it being from a blog post from August 22, 2010, a comment in a Minecraft Forum thread on August 30, and a now-deleted image posted on 4chan's paranormal /x/ board on August 31.

The story details an encounter in Minecraft with a nameless human entity in a single-player world who displayed strange behavior such as stalking the player from afar, creating unnatural constructions such as sand pyramids in the ocean and long 2×2 tunnels, and removing leaves from trees. The writer then attempted to start a topic about the encounter on the Minecraft Forum, only to have it be repeatedly deleted, followed by a private message from a seemingly nonexistent user named "Herobrine" telling them to stop. The 4chan post also contained a screenshot of the encounter, showing Herobrine in the distance amidst the fog.

Brocraft streams

For more detailed information regarding the Brocraft events, see the Minecraft Wiki's interview with Copeland and his recounting of the events.

Brocraft streamer Copeland came across the Herobrine story on 4chan's /v/ board and took a liking to it. He edited Herobrine into several screenshots to show to his chat and, after getting largely good reactions, decided to stage a hoax; he changed the texture of a painting to display Herobrine and put it in a work-in-progress house in his world, planning to show it on a livestream. On August 30, Copeland started a livestream and played through the world as a normal player would, deliberately avoiding the work-in-progress room he had set up for the hoax. He talked about the "ghost" in his screenshots throughout the stream, asserting that it was real and referring to it as "Him", which would later become another nickname for the character. At about 20 minutes and 45 seconds in, Copeland entered the room and saw the re-textured painting, then screamed and ran out, promptly ending the stream. He pretended to be shaken up in the chat and later posted a message onto the forums, linking to the video to spread it around in the hopes of getting similar reactions. Other users in the thread began debating whether Copeland's sighting was real and started posting their own screenshots with Herobrine edited into them. After a while, Copeland removed the painting and reverted to normal textures, then proceeded to stream further, pretending to be scared. He announced that he would delete the world to never meet Herobrine again.

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  The image edited by Copeland, which led to him starting the hoax stream.

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  Zoomed-in excerpt of Herobrine in Copeland's image.

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  Herobrine's first video "sighting" in Copeland's stream.

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  A high-quality recreation of Copeland's sighting.

Later on, fellow streamer Patimuss made a stream showing Herobrine near a user-made lava pool. This Herobrine was free-standing, unlike in the previous stream, indicating that he was a retextured door. The livestream went down after Patimuss ran away and saved his game, only to resume ten minutes later, where Herobrine had supposedly disappeared. Afterward, during the second stream, Patimuss could be heard talking to his wife, stating he was trolling, which flooded the livestream chat with outrage. He then faked a game crash and the stream proceeded later with no further Herobrine sightings. Copeland disliked that Patimuss outed Herobrine as a fake.

The image in the "Him" website, linked to Brocraft viewers after the Herobrine stream.

Around the time of Patimuss' stream, Copeland posted links in chat leading to the website http://ghostinthestream.net/him.html. The page featured Steve's face, but with his original eyes made pitch black and replaced with real, frantically rolling eyes. Below the face, there was a jumble of characters and letters. After removing all non-alphabet characters, the text is revealed to be a slightly edited version of another creepypasta entitled "Wake Up?", which is written as a note to the reader explaining that they have retreated to a "fantasy world" due to suffering from torture (specified as rape in the original text) and that they need to "wake up".

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It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy world from which they could not WAKE UP. In this catatonic state, the victim lived in a world just like their normal one, except they weren't being tortured. The only way that they realized they needed to WAKE UP was a note they found in their fantasy world. It would tell them about their condition, and tell them to WAKE UP. Even then, it would often take months until they were ready to discard their fantasy world and PLEASE WAKE UP.

„

Increase in popularity

A typical Herobrine "sighting".

Following these events, the popularity of the character began to increase, propelling Herobrine to meme status and making him an icon of the community. Numerous screenshots, animations, pieces of artwork, constructions, and videos of Herobrine were created, with the earliest among them being created on the same day as the original livestreams.

Not long after the Brocraft streams propelled Herobrine into popularity, all of the Brocraft streams in which he was featured were deleted, and not archived elsewhere. Before the streams' recovery on July 15, 2024, only a few screenshots and written descriptions of the contents of the livestreams still existed, despite many intensive and thorough search efforts. Copeland continued to adamantly state Herobrine was real for about a year onward.

Notch learned about the story of a "white eye miner" and stated on IRC, "there's no white eyed creepy mob like that - but I TOTALLY should add one now". He also joked about adding entire villages of white eyed humans. At MINECON 2010, the day after Herobrine's popularity boost from the livestreams, Notch confirmed Herobrine was a hoax, but jokingly alluded to the possibility that he might not be. The next day, Notch posted on Twitter about the subject of Herobrine: in reply to a tweet asking if Herobrine was a real entity in-game, Notch replied saying that he was not, but that he "might be soon". This further confirmed there was no Herobrine, but again suggested the possibility that Notch planned to add him at a later date.

In October 2010, due to increased drama surrounding the Minecraft Wiki's page on Herobrine, a wiki administrator asked Notch over IRC if he would ever be added, to which Notch replied "i [sic] have no plans of adding herobrine as is, but I do like the rumors, haha". This showed Notch had decided against adding Herobrine, but the use of the wording "as is" suggested that something like Herobrine may be added, further fueling beliefs that he would be implemented. Once again, the same user asked for clarification, saying that the Minecraft community was "getting frustrated by the hero-spam", to which Notch replied that he had no plans for adding Herobrine into the game.

Modded versions

An altar used to summon Herobrine in several mods, including the earliest known plugin.

On December 10, 2010, hMod Forums user tkelly released the earliest known Herobrine mod, a server plugin called "iLoveYou". In the plugin, Herobrine can be summoned by building an altar made of gold blocks, netherrack, redstone torches and mossy cobblestone, and igniting the netherrack on top. The mod's version of Herobrine exhibits behaviors similar to those in the original creepypasta and livestreams, as well as new behaviors, such as placing redstone torches, building underground dungeons, teleporting behind players, and luring players into traps. Many YouTube videos from around the time of this plugin's release show players encountering or summoning this modded version of Herobrine on many different servers, indicating that the plugin was widespread enough to influence the playerbase's perception of Herobrine, and many of Herobrine's traits and abilities introduced in the mod became established in the community as part of the character. Updated versions of this plugin created by other users still exist on the Internet, but the original plugin from the original creator is currently lost.

Later, on July 29, 2011, a more popular Herobrine mod was released by the Minecraft Forum user burnner. This mod also lets players summon Herobrine by building and igniting an altar made of gold and netherrack, though the arrangement and composition of blocks is different, and a new "Herobrine Totem" block is required. This mod's version of Herobrine retains many of his abilities from the canon sources and original mod while gaining many new ones, such as using tools, placing signs, possessing animals, and spawning undead mobs. Herobrine is much more hostile in this mod and regularly attacks players directly, unlike in the original mod where Herobrine is rarely encountered and less overtly hostile. Many subsequent Herobrine mods have been made since, many of them employing numerous concepts that originated in these early examples. Such mods are the only way Herobrine can actually exist in the game.

Later status

From 2011 onward, Herobrine's popularity continued to increase as more and more fan creations featuring the character were created. Many "sightings", modded gameplay videos, and animations featuring Herobrine would reach tens of millions of views on YouTube during the following years. Numerous imitation characters with varying levels of popularity were created with Herobrine as the main inspiration, but Herobrine would always remain by far the most popular.

As the role of lead developer of Minecraft was passed on from Notch to Jeb, the chance of Herobrine appearing in an update became unclear. On August 22, 2012, Dinnerbone, current joint developer of Minecraft, tweeted "We have no plans at all to add herobrine. I doubt this will ever change." This confirms that Herobrine is unlikely ever to appear in Minecraft, and that any claims of "finding" Herobrine in vanilla Minecraft in future updates are completely unfounded.

Seed discovered

In Semptember 2020, the seed finding group Minecraft@Home began a project to attempt to discover the world seed that the original Herobrine screenshot was taken on. The process involved building an exact recreation of the terrain visible in the screenshot and reverse engineering the specific world generation that would have produced the terrain, then attempting to locate seeds that generated the same terrain in the same version. Factors involved included the rotation of block top textures, the probable location of chunk borders, the placement and shape of the trees, and the fact that leaves on trees would sometimes decay during alpha due to a bug, creating a discrepancy between the originally generated terrain and the terrain visible in the screenshot. After several months, the seed was finally discovered in January 2021 to be 478868574082066804, with the player's position at the coordinates x=5.06, y=71, z=-298.54.

Streams recovered

The original Brocraft streams were considered lost until they were rediscovered on July 15, 2024. A long-running project by Enderboss25 managed to locate both streams approximately 14 years after they were first broadcasted. The streams had been downloaded by the YouTube user @brutallillfjomp, who stated in a comment that "I had no idea this was lost media. I downloaded that stream back in the day. I've had it uploaded privately to my channel for years, thinking it was nothing special. l've made the two videos available on my channel now, as well as some Herobrine clip I download from YouTube back in the day".

He proceeded to upload both the Copeland stream, and the Patimuss stream.

Description

Canonical

Another early Herobrine image.

Herobrine is said to be Notch's deceased brother, somehow embedded into Minecraft as a human entity with the player skin of Steve, but with completely white eyes and no visible irises or pupils. His appearance differs between the canonical sources; in Copeland's livestream, he had the beard seen in Steve's original design, while in the original 4chan image and Copeland's edited screenshot, the beard appears to be absent.

Herobrine is able to build and destroy in the game. The original story states the player found long 2×2 tunnels, small pyramids in the middle of the ocean, and trees with no leaves. The full extent of his building capacity is unknown, but the given examples indicate Herobrine has awareness of shape, and can differentiate materials from each other. Herobrine shows a lot of characteristics of being a form of virus, such as manipulating game worlds, deleting Minecraft Forum topics and sending messages to forum users, and, according to Copeland's livestream, changing the skins of other players. He is not seen to communicate with players in-game, but does have the ability to communicate through the internet. Copeland also claimed at one point in his livestream that Herobrine was controlling his keyboard, though this was stated in a more joking manner.

Herobrine seems to solely target players. He did not seem to interact with any other mobs nearby in the Brocraft streams, some of which were spiders and zombies. His canonical relation to further mobs added since he appeared is a complete mystery. His interactions with other mobs are not mentioned in the original image. While there is a chicken present in the image, Herobrine does not seem interested in it at all, and is solely focused on the player.

In both the original creepypasta and the Brocraft streams, Herobrine appears in the world without any apparent cause, and his presence is not implied to be due to a player's actions. In the creepypasta, he seems to avoid the player and appears to only be active in unexplored areas, whereas in the streams he seems to intentionally get close to players and appears mainly near player constructions.

Community

A totem used to summon Herobrine in burnner's Herobrine mod, and several other mods.

The pronounciation of the name "Herobrine" is not specified in any of the canonical sources, leaving it as a subject of debate. Most pronounce the "Hero" part of the name as either /hɪɹəʊ/ (as in the word "hero") or /hɛɹoʊ/ ("Heh-roh"), while the "-brine" part is commonly pronounced as /bɹaɪn/ (as in the word "brine"), /bɹɪn/ ("brin"), or /bɹiːn/ ("breen").

Though his hands are usually empty, Herobrine is sometimes depicted holding tools, such as pickaxes. This stems from the widespread community belief that Herobrine is a dead miner, killed long before the player's arrival. His appearance does not suggest this is the case, though with Minecraft's mineshafts and strongholds, as well as mining being a large part of the game, the game itself has shaped public perception of the character to suit this persona. While he usually doesn't seem to have any home besides the underground tunnels and dungeons he builds, he sometimes has a large base of operations, such as a castle or mansion.

Herobrine occasionally interacts with other mobs. He is sometimes able to take control of passive animals, causing them to also exhibit his blank white eyes, and revive/spawn undead mobs. He seems capable of drastically changing his environments with no viable source of resources to do so. Most expansions to his abilities involve cobblestone placing, dungeon building, using redstone torches and setting traps. He exhibits all the behaviors of a Creative mode player in the game. While he is usually mute, some interpretations have him communicating with players, typically by sending them ominous messages through signs or chat such as "Stop" or "Only God can save/help you now", or by screaming as he jumpscares them. While he usually cannot be killed, in some interpretations he can be defeated, at least temporarily.

Herobrine's intentions vary, but they usually fall under two categories: the "stalker" variation, based on the original canonical events, and the "vengeful" variation, derived from community interpretation. In the "stalker" variation, he stalks the player, disappearing if approached. In the "vengeful" variation, he tries to ensnare the player in traps, presumably to steal their items. He waits for people to enter his dungeons, then either seals them inside, or teleports behind them, presumably killing them. Some rarer variations of the latter state he breaks the player's creations and steals their items from chests.

A popular idea in the community is that Herobrine can be "summoned" through the use of a special arrangement of blocks; such a structure is usually referred to as a "Herobrine altar", "Herobrine shrine", "Herobrine totem" or "Herobrine spawner". Typically, this is a 3×3 horizontal square of gold blocks, with a block of netherrack placed on top and four redstone torches placed upright on each side. The block beneath the netherrack varies between versions, with common choices being mossy cobblestone, soul sand, more netherrack or more gold. Another common design is a 1 block wide, 4 block tall pillar with 2 gold blocks on the bottom and 2 netherrack blocks on the top. Some variations also include other blocks such as redstone dust or lava. Igniting the netherrack is supposed to "activate" the structure, which then supposedly summons Herobrine into the world.

Official cameos

Herobrine has appeared or been mentioned in official Mojang images and webpages as an inside joke. His first appearance in official Mojang images was with the Wedding Weekend in August 2011, in which he was just behind Notch's Minecraft character. He then made several appearances in material related to MINECON 2011: firstly the website header, where he was just behind Notch yet again. He then appeared in the official MINECON 2011 trailer created by Hat Films, at 3:11, after players were asked to submit skins to appear in the trailer. In the convention itself, a Herobrine statue was present in the Xbox section, on the board behind the Xbox stations. During the closing of the convention, a user named Zaralith won the Herobrine statue by correctly answering the give-away question "How many Fable games are there?". Some users have pointed to this as proof of his future addition, however there is no proof he has been portrayed for anything other than baiting fans.

Herobrine then appeared in the instruction booklets of some of the first LEGO Minecraft sets, among other Minecraft characters. He also appeared in Minecraft's Facebook page on the cover photo in summer 2012, although the image was created by a fan for a competition with the theme of "summer picnic", hence his inclusion may not be fully intentional.

In September 2013, developer Marc Watson created a series of skins for the head model. These skins were made to ensure a stable skin for various official entities could be used without fear that the skin could change. Herobrine is one of the skins that can be obtained through this system by using the command /give @s player_head{SkullOwner:MHF_Herobrine} (with "MHF" standing for "Marc's Head Format"). The skin used to show Herobrine without a beard and was originally taken from the Herobrine account. It was changed in December 2017 to use the same beard that Steve and the mob had before the release of Survival Test.

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  Herobrine in the Wedding Weekend promo image.

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  Herobrine in the MINECON 2011 header.

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  The Herobrine statue on the MINECON 2011 Xbox 360 stand.

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  The Herobrine statue from MINECON 2011, now owned by Zaralith.

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  Herobrine in the LEGO Minecraft Micro World: The Forest booklet.

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  Herobrine in the LEGO Minecraft Micro World: The Village booklet.

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  Herobrine in Mojang Studios' "summer picnic" Facebook cover photo.

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  MHF_Herobrine, without the beard.

In the Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34 April Fools' update, "Removing Herobrine" is one of the episodes. On the Minecraft Earth FAQ site, Herobrine used to be mentioned in one of the frequently asked questions about the game; the question was "Is Herobrine in this game too?" and the answer given was "<REDACTED>". This was later removed from the FAQ page. In the Official Minecraft Discord, there is a sticker called "Him", which references the image in the "Him" website linked to Brocraft viewers after the Herobrine stream.

Legacy Console Editions

One of the in-game loading tips in the Legacy Console Editions references Herobrine: "We think 4J Studios has removed Herobrine from the [console] console game, but we're not too sure."

Herobrine is part of Skin Pack 1 released on the Legacy Console Editions. Because of this addition, "sightings" rose drastically due to players using the skin. However, the skin was omitted from the Bedrock Edition version of the skin pack. Herobrine then made more appearances as a "Zombie Herobrine" skin in Skin Pack 3, a "Party Herobrine" skin in the 1st Birthday Skin Pack, and an "Xmas Herobrine" skin in the Festive Mash-up Pack.

Shirts featuring Herobrine's face were available on Xbox 360 as paid avatar items. Gamer pictures featuring Herobrine were also included in the "Enemies", "Faces", and "Mobs in Suits 2" gamerpic packs.

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  The loading tip referencing Herobrine in Xbox 360 Edition.

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  The Zombie Herobrine skin from Skin Pack 3.

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  The Zombie Herobrine skin from Skin Pack 3.

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  The Party Herobrine skin from the 1st Birthday Skin Pack.

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  The Party Herobrine skin from the 1st Birthday Skin Pack.

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  The "Minecraft Herobrine T-shirt" avatar item (female).

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  The "Minecraft Herobrine T-shirt" avatar item (male).

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  Gamerpic from the "Enemies" pack.

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  Gamerpic from the "Faces" pack.

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  Gamerpic from the "Mobs in Suits 2" pack.

Marketplace

In 10 Years of Minecraft, Herobrine is alluded to several times. While approaching The Academy, players use a codec credited to Herobrine, which can be used to translate the phrase "I have a spine, front and back but bones and teeth are what I lack, on me you can write your name but first craft me with 3 sugar-cane." Beneath the Mob Garden is a small labyrinth that concludes at a tunnel, lined with banners of Herobrine, with the reward of eleven golden apples.

In 15 Year Journey, the seed in the original screenshot is referenced at the beginning of the Alpha minigame. It can be seen should the player turn around at the very start of the game.

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  The recreated hill in 15 Year Journey.

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  The book credited to Herobrine in 10 Years of Minecraft.

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  The banners resembling Herobrine.

Changelogs

A blurred changelog for Beta 1.7 that Notch posted on Twitter, with the words "Removed Herobrine" at the bottom.

Herobrine has been said to be removed from the game in numerous changelog entries. The first of these mentions was in Beta 1.6.6, as a joke referring to the partial removal of the human mob's essential code, making it unspawnable within Minecraft. An ulterior motive may have been to troll the community, as this was around the time Herobrine had gained memetic status. After that, most Minecraft update changelogs since then until Java Edition 1.16.2 included the entry "Removed Herobrine" at least once every update cycle as a running gag, with an exception, Java Edition 1.1. This changed after Java Edition 1.16.2, where he was never mentioned in any changelogs up until Java Edition 1.20, where he was once again removed.

Java Edition changelogs mentioning Herobrine

Version	Notes
Beta 1.6.6	Noted in The Word of Notch and on the Tumblr changelog.
Beta 1.7	Noted in The Word of Notch and on the Tumblr changelog.
Beta 1.8	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.0.0	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.1	Notably missing on the Tumblr changelog.
1.2.1	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.2.5	Noted on the official Mojang blog as removal of all "ghost entities under the command of Lord Herobrine."
1.3.1	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.4.2	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.5-pre	Noted on the official Mojang blog.
1.5	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.6	Noted on the official Mojang blog.
1.6.1	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.7.2	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.8-pre1	Noted on the official Mojang blog.
1.8	Noted on the official Mojang blog and the Tumblr changelog.
16w03a	Noted on the official Mojang blog.
1.9	Noted on the official Mojang blog and the Tumblr changelog.
1.RV-Pre1	Noted on the official Mojang blog as "Digitalized Herobrine" and "Removed Herobrine".
1.10	Noted on the official Mojang blog and the Tumblr changelog.
16w39a	Noted on the official Mojang blog.
1.11	Noted on the Tumblr changelog.
1.12	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.13	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.14	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.15.1	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.16.2	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.20	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
1.20.2	Noted on the official Minecraft website.
24w09a	Noted on the official Minecraft website as an example of the data component format.
1.20.5	Noted on the official Minecraft website as an example of the data component format.
1.21	Noted on the official Minecraft website.

In the changelog of Minecraft Launcher version 2.2.176x, released soon after the world seed of the original Herobrine screenshot was discovered, the developers said that they "removed Herobrine from Java Alpha 1.0.16_02", the version in which the screenshot was taken.

In an update for Xbox 360 on July 13, 2012 (Xbox 360 Edition TU3), Herobrine was stated to be removed from the Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft for the first time. He was then removed again in Xbox 360 Edition TU5.

In the changelog for version 0.103.0 of Scrolls, another game by Mojang, Herobrine being removed was in the changelog's miscellaneous section.

Mojang reactions

Mojang has, albeit rarely, shared their views on Herobrine. Their reactions have varied from plainly stating that he does not exist to Notch saying he appears only when players ask him.

Notch

	“	Fine, Herobrine is real, and he gains spooky vengeance haunting power whenever you remind me of him. Only way to stop him is to ignore him.	„
		— Notch on Herobrine

	“	Getting loads of tweets and emails about Herobrine again. I don't have a dead brother, and he never was in the game. Not real. Never was.	„
		— Notch on Herobrine

	“	The Herobrine stuff is awesome and kind of scary at the same time. It really shows how little control a content producer has over the content. I've publicly told people there's never been any such thing as Herobrine, and that I don't have any dead brothers, and that letting too many animals die in lava is a fool proof way to summon him but that you don't need to be afraid of him. He only means well, he's looking out for you, trying to warn you of the dangers you can't see. There certainly are NO physical manifestations of Herobrine that will sneak out of your computer if you leave Minecraft running at night, looming over you as you sleep with his pale eyes inches away from your face, as he tries to shout at you to wake up. Sometimes you wake up with a jolt, and he's gone, and all that lingers is the memory and faint echo of his wordless screaming. Of course it was just a dream. There's no way a morally dubious ghost with a god complex could at any point decide to haunt the children who play my game "for their own good", as there is NO SUCH THING. etc etc	„
		— Notch on Herobrine

	“	Every single thing in the game gets found out within minutes. People are decompiling the code, and there are even automated tools to do so. It should be obvious to everyone that there isn't a hidden herobrine in there, or it would've been found years ago. Despite this, people keep spreading the rumor, posting fake stories and screenshots, and generally hyping it, so it seems to be something people WANT the game to contain. But the truth he certainly had never ever been in the game when I was working on it, and I absolutely, positively don't have a dead brother. But if people want to pretend it's true, who am I to stop them? tl;dr: sure, why not	„
		— Notch on Herobrine

Ezchili

	“	It was fun to see the brocraft stream with herobrine back in the day, was well done. But then it's been overused & worn out.	„
		— Ezchili on Herobrine

Kappische

	“	Ok ok. To be honest, there has never existed a Herobrine. It was just a rumor started by some douche and then someone probably created a mod.	„
		— Kappische on Herobrine

When asked if he would like to update his stance, Kappische replied:

	“	yes..but he is watching me!	„
		— Kappische on Herobrine

Mollstam

	“	Herobrine has, and always will be, our friend.	„
		— Mollstam on Herobrine

JahKob

	“	He has never existed.. Quote me if you want..	„
		— JahKob on Herobrine

Carnalizer

	“	I don't always have an opinion about Herobrine, but when I do, it tends to end up on a wiki.	„
		— Carnalizer on Herobrine

	“	I don't have an opinion.	„
		— Carnalizer on Herobrine

EvilSeph

	“	I can't comment on that, he might be watching...	„
		— EvilSeph on Herobrine (Via IRC)

C418

	“	Aand I finished the herobrine sound effects! And deleted them as quickly as possible.	„
		— C418 on Herobrine

	“	You know how myths can be super awesome and creepy? Well, Herobrine isn’t. It’s silly and boring.	„
		— C418 on Herobrine

	“	Also Herobrine is the silliest name for a myth ever. How about Griddlebraf	„
		— C418 on Herobrine

Marc Watson

	“	Herobrine doesn't exist. He can't give you a virus. Your kid didn't see him. Why are you arguing this. Please don't argue. Staahp D:	„
		— Marc Watson on Herobrine

Searge

	“	We didn't really remove Herobrine, because Herobrine doesn't exist. Believe it or not, but it's the truth. I can't prove it. It's a myth.	„
		— Searge on Herobrine

Slicedlime

	“	Herobrine has been removed.	„
		— Slicedlime on Herobrine

Stream archive

A screenshot posted by Copeland in his forum thread, showing the room where Herobrine appeared.

A more recent screenshot by Copeland of the same house from his original Herobrine screenshot.

The original Herobrine livestream was located here and the second Herobrine livestream was located here. Both livestreams were deleted at some point during the following months. Copeland, the Brocraft founder, and Livestream.com have all stated that they do not have a backup copy of these streams. The following streams were considered lost media until they were recovered on July 15, 2024.

Stream recreation

A recreation made in collaboration with Copeland of the Herobrine scene from the first stream can be found below:

Lost media

No known archive exists of the earliest 4chan thread containing the original Herobrine story, and it is not known where the earliest known image of the creepypasta originated.

The earliest known Herobrine plugin was located here. This was deleted at some point during the following months, and no known backups of any of the original versions of the plugin are available.

Similar characters

Due to Herobrine's popularity, other stories regarding similar entities have since appeared.

The most popular example is "Entity 303", who supposedly behaves much like the common interpretation of Herobrine as being hostile, griefing builds and crashing players' games. According to the legend, he is a hacker who planned to destroy Minecraft by 2014 or 2015. Notch has acknowledged Entity 303, telling players to "go read a science, people! there are no ghosts!" Interestingly, this dismissal by Mojang and Notch has been incorporated into the creepypasta in order to increase the sense of urgency.

Trivia

• When asked about audio player implementation on the wiki, and the limits of what could be uploaded, C418 replied to Herobrine claims relating to disc 11. He stated that he cannot say a lot about 11, but that it has nothing to do with Herobrine.
• There is a user called Herobrine registered on Minecraft servers. The account is a full account (meaning they have bought Minecraft after registering). They do not appear to have migrated their account or visited any MINECON events using the Herobrine username, due to their lack of a cape. Ex-Mojang employee Andrea Jörgensen stated that a friend of hers owns the Herobrine account.
• The seed for the world used in the original screenshot is 478868574082066804, with the player's position at the coordinates x=5.06, y=71, z=-298.54. The screenshot was made using Alpha v1.0.16_02.
• The seed for the world used in the original livestream is 3609313613745973624. The livestream was made using Alpha v1.0.17_04.
  • Copeland eventually rediscovered the original world in which he had filmed the original Herobrine livestream, and made the world available to download here.
• The Dokucraft texture pack was used in Copeland's original screenshot and livestream.
• The original creepypasta states that the author heard back from their informant about a month after taking a screenshot of Herobrine. However, while the creepypasta was created on August 19 at the latest, the screenshot was taken in the version Alpha v1.0.16_02, which was released on August 13, making it impossible for that much time to have elapsed.
• Vareide, the creator of several officially featured Minecraft trailers, also made a video about Herobrine.
• The Herobrine altar was referenced in the video "One Trillion Minecraft Views on YouTube and Counting", at 0:33.
• Based on Herobrine's popularity, from 2013 to 2017, author Mark Cheverton wrote the Gameknight999 series of 24 novels in 6 trilogies, featuring Herobrine as the primary antagonist. The series is unofficially based on Minecraft. The second novel of the series became a bestseller listed in Publisher's Weekly and The New York Times.

Gallery

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  The original screenshot featuring Herobrine.

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  Another screenshot taken on the same seed from the same position.

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  A stream screenshot posted in the forum thread, enhanced by a forum user.

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  Another enhanced stream screenshot posted in the forum thread.

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  The previous screenshot de-enhanced.

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  Another enhanced screenshot from the forum thread.

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  An even more enhanced version.

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  Thumbnail image of Copeland's stream.

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  Thumbnail image of Patimuss's stream.

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  A screenshot of the original stream, found in a Facepunch thread.

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  Another screenshot from the same thread.

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  A screenshot of Patimuss' stream.

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  The first fanmade "sighting" to appear in Copeland's thread.

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  The second sighting to appear in the thread.

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  The third sighting from the thread.

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  Brightened version.

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  The fourth sighting.

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  Another sighting in a cave.

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  The first instance of an animal "possessed" by Herobrine.

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  A Herobrine pig.

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  Herobrine in Minecraft: Story Mode concept art.

See also

• Wikipedia article on Herobrine
• First Herobrine thread on the Minecraft Forums (archive 1) (archive 2) (archive 3)
• Wikipedia article on Gameknight999, a best-selling series of unofficial Minecraft adventure novels featuring Herobrine.