A game as popular and as old as Minecraft naturally loves to hide a few secrets within its code. Over the years, Minecraft has received many small Easter eggs that can be found by keen players. These are not only amusing to look at but also provide an extremely interesting insight into the development of the game. What started as a one-man project by Notch has now become the most successful game in the world. And accordingly, some of the hidden secrets in Minecraft can be quite random and amusing.
Find Surprises in the Minecraft Main Menu
Even before you dare to enter one of your worlds, you can already discover some cool things. First, there’s the Minecraft logo itself. There is a 1 in 10,000 chance that it will show “Minceraft” instead of the normal “Minecraft”. Presumably, enough players have experienced this but clicked away too quickly to notice.
In addition to the logo, a splash text also appears at every game start, randomly switching between over 500 different displays. Over the years, several Easter eggs have sneaked in here. For example, there are many shoutouts to other games, including Terraria, Project Zomboid, or Braid. It’s worth taking a closer look at the main menu at each game start to avoid missing these secrets.
When you look into the options and change your FOV to the maximum setting, you will see the text “Quake Pro”. A little nod to the pros of the well-known arena shooter who always play with an extremely wide field of view.
Discover Secrets in Minecraft’s Animal World
Minecraft’s animal world also has many secrets to offer. For this, you need a name tag, which you can rename in the anvil accordingly.
- With a name tag “Grumm” or “Dinnerbone”, you can turn animals, monsters, and even other players upside down.
- Name a sheep “jeb_” and it will glow in all the colours of the rainbow. Unfortunately, you can’t obtain rainbow wool.
- A special black-and-white texture for a rabbit can be obtained with the name “Toast”. This is a nod to a request from a player whose girlfriend lost her rabbit in the real world.
- You can also rename a Vindicator to “Johnny”. He will then become a very aggressive monster that kills everything nearby with his axe. This is a reference to the book and film “The Shining”.
In a previous article, we have already talked about Ghasts (Discover the New Happy Ghast in Minecraft 1.21.6) . It might not necessarily be an Easter egg, but it’s a funny fact that the sounds come from C418’s cat.
Another reference to a different gaming franchise can be found with the Evoker. He turns all blue sheep nearby into red sheep with a spell. Anyone who has played one of the old Age of Empires games might find this familiar!
Explore the Hidden Clues in Minecraft’s Development
Over the many years, a lot of textures have accumulated in the game. And many of the developers want to immortalise themselves. One clue that has been in the game since the Alpha is a text within the texture of the Zombie Pigman. This mob was suggested by the user XaPhobia. Notch has therefore left a corresponding dedication in the game files, with a “THX XaPhobia”.
A constantly evolving texture is that of the armour stand. Originally designed by a developer named Searge, his name is also embedded within the file. When the textures for the 1.14 update were changed, the new artist Jappa also added his name. And shortly after, the name Chiwi was added, another Mojang employee who further adjusted the texture.
The Creeper also holds a few secrets that might not be immediately obvious to the player. Did you know that its texture is actually that of the original leaves? Notch himself used to describe the Creeper as a foliage monster and said it was “as crisp as dry leaves”. They sort of hide among the leaves, a type of camouflage that worked really well in the Alpha days! Additionally, the Creeper’s texture is one of the few that has never been changed. Probably because it’s just too well known.
Dive into the Minecraft Enchantment Script
Anyone who has enchanted in Minecraft has surely wondered what the menu actually says. The script is not randomly chosen, but a nod to the game “Commander Keen”, a well-known platformer from the 90s. You can read the “Standard Galactic Alphabet” with a translation, but it still won’t tell you which enchantment you’ll receive.
However, you can play the entire game in a fun language. Besides many real languages, you can also choose a few more unconventional ones. How about Pirate Speak? Or Shakespearean English? LOLCAT is also an option. Languages from “Star Trek” or “The Lord of the Rings” are available too!
Discover the Hidden References in Minecraft Paintings
Minecraft also offers some beautiful paintings that you can hang on your wall. And here too, there are numerous references and Easter eggs, which are sometimes more and sometimes less obvious. Most of them were designed by the artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand, but some by Sarah Boeving.
The large “Donkey Kong” image has probably been noticed by most, as it’s easy to identify. Less well-known is King Graham from the “King’s Quest” series, an old Sierra adventure. Three of the old 1x1 paintings are based on maps from “Counter-Strike”. The skeleton from “Grim Fandango” can also be found. Additionally, many paintings are based on real paintings, which is also exciting for art lovers!
Decode the Secret Messages in Minecraft Music
Lastly, let’s take a look at some Easter eggs hidden within Minecraft’s music. Many of these need to be accessed with an external program called a spectrogram. Here, several secrets are revealed, and many of them are a bit creepy.
Disc number 11 is already quite scary. It’s not only 1 minute and 11 seconds long but also doesn’t contain any direct music. And in the spectrogram, a strange Steve face is revealed, along with the numbers 12418. These stand for C418, the composer at the time.
Cave sounds number 14 and 21 also reveal creepy secrets in the spectrogram. Sound 14 shows a Creeper face, and sound 21 shows a Morse code that translates to “behind”. Such knowledge only makes the corresponding sounds more unsettling! They are probably based on the old Creepypasta of the “Lavender Town Syndrome”.
Conclusion
Minecraft has countless small references that we can’t possibly list all of. But hopefully, our little list has encouraged you to look at some of the things in the game from a different perspective. Rent a server for Minecraft with us and search together for some of these secrets and Easter eggs. There’s so much more to discover, and it’s always cool to see what the developers have hidden. And of course, there are enough other games that reference Minecraft.
