The very best Minecraft seeds, including Minecraft survival seeds, Minecraft village seeds, and other cool Minecraft seeds

What are the best Minecraft seeds? Minecraft seeds are codes that the game uses to generate worlds for you – worlds full of interesting landscapes and key landmarks ripe for exploration. They cover everything from jaw-dropping vistas and landscapes to thrilling dungeons filled to bursting with loot.

Your job is simple: pick the one you want to play around in. All you have to do to get a seed up and running is grab the digits and place them into the seed field when you’re next creating a Minecraft world. The game will do all the heavy lifting, leaving you to explore and create to your heart’s content.

Regardless of whether you’re a professional miner or someone about to load up their first world, there’s something you can’t control in Minecraft: the terrain itself. While your mind may be brimming with possibilities, all too frequently you’ll spawn in a bland, uninspiring world full of flat grassland and the odd chicken. Hardly the canvas for your masterpiece.

Hence this article, a complete collection of the best Minecraft seeds, from the inspiring to the functional and everything in between.

(Before we start it’s important to note that the end results of a seed are entirely dependent on what version of Minecraft you are running. A brilliant seed in version 1.6 could be something upsettingly bland in version 1.7.

To help you out, we’ve put the latest version each seed works with in brackets after the seed code. Set your Minecraft launcher to this version for the correct results.)

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Woodland Mansions are one of Minecraft’s most exciting generated structures, but they’re not exactly easy to track down. This seed works with the 1.11 Exploration Update and spawns you close to one of these behemoth structures. Be warned, though: they house some formidable mobs.

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If bizarre, inexplicable geological formations are your jam, look no further than this 1.9 Minecraft seed. While this seed won’t produce masses of hidden treasures, it will create a column of rising stone pillars complete with cascading waterfalls and a herd of sheep at its peak. Creative mode is advised.

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Affectionately titled ‘leg-break island’, this seed will produce a single slab of mountain jutting impressively out of the sea. It’s up you what to do with this geological wonder, but trying to get to the top of it is probably a good start.

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Survival islands are much more pleasant when you don’t actually need to worry about surviving, which is why this seed is so wonderful. Not only is it much larger than the average survival island, it also comes with a bounty of helpful natural resources such as a small forest, a lava lake, and an offshore mushroom biome.

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This seed will drop you in the middle of a wintry forest where you can find two cosy igloos, one of which harbours a secret basement. You’ll find the secret basement under a rug – enter with caution, however, as inside there’s a small workshop with a zombie villager lying in wait. Get rid of the undead resident and you’ll find a compact, underground base with a brewery and plenty of storage – ideal for starting out in a snowy biome.

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This seed sells itself on an interesting premise: two small islands, one with a wolf on it and the other with a sheep. From that point on it’s up to you how this survival story unfolds – do you harvest your only mammalian friends for resources and meat or do you do everything possible to ensure that your unconventional companions are safe?

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Mysterious, simple, and unique, this seed will drop you into a world featuring a simple cottage with a lone resident, The Librarian. Whatever resulted in this guy’s living situation is anyone’s guess, but building his humble hut into an enormous fortress is endlessly satisfying. The Librarian’s house is surrounded by horses and greenery, too, so there’s more to this niche seed than meets the eye.

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Temples. They’re great. But most seeds seem to restrict them to jungles and deserts. Just because that’s how famed adventurer Indiana Jones liked his temples, doesn’t mean that’s how the rest of us like ‘em. That’s why this seed is here, offering a change of location for your exploring: underwater. With a challenging selection of enemies to defeat and plenty of secrets to uncover, this seed is for the nautically inclined.

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Spawning a magnificent array of prissy clip-clops (horses) on the outskirt of a huge desert village, this seed offers equestrian types the ideal starting point for their Minecraft adventure. Inside the village there are chests packed with great loot like diamond horse armour, gold ingots, saddles, and obsidian – everything you need to ride off into the sunset atop your noble steed.

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Taking some hefty cues from Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, this mesa-styled landscape is anything but ideal for budding architects. What this seed does boast is mile upon mile of miner’s paradise. Nature lovers will be happy too as the seed will also generate a glorious flower forest, making for quite a contrast of biomes.

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Where monolithic natural structures are concerned, no real-world creation compares. This seed’s main feature is a mountain consisting of two arching peaks. An internal waterfall finishes off this Minecraft marvel with the water feature it deserves. The archway makes the perfect sheltered spot for a villainous, Bond-inspired hidden base.

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As soon as you spawn in this seed you’ll be next to a village containing a blacksmith’s treasure chest (see inside for diamonds, swords, and obsidian). But that’s just the start of this loot-heavy seed, which spawns a world featuring four desert temples, six villages, two dungeons, and a stronghold. You’ll certainly want to visit some of these, so head to x: (-973) y: (93) z: (127) for the stronghold, x: (-328) y: (82) z: (560) for the largest of the six villages, and x: (-149) y: (68) z: (343) for a dungeon home to a golden apple.

5387364523423380365 (1.8.8)
If instant gratification is what you need then this seed will give you that. Provided you’re looking for instant mushrooms, that is. Within meters of your spawn location you’ll find a sprawling island filled with giant mushrooms and herds of red cows.

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With a village surrounded by hundreds of good quality trees, this is an excellent starting seed. You won’t be short of wood, and the houses provide excellent shelter until you’ve amassed enough materials to start building your own fortress.

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Most recommended seeds generally spawn you close to a temple or village, but this seed is a bit different. It spawns you next to nothing of use. If you’re looking for a little challenge in your survival then this seed is for you. While it has little in the form of loot, it does spawn you in interesting, scenic biomes that offer plenty of different locations to explore close to the spawn. Mushroom forests, swamp zones, and extreme hills await.

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As soon as you spawn in this seed you’ll be right on top of a village that’s situated in a field filled with horses. Why explore like a peasant when you can gallop around like a knight?

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A solid starting point for the long-haul adventure, there are five villages and a couple of temples close to spawn and the riverbanks. The loot you’ll find here will aid you in setting up camp, and there’s plenty of livestock to make friends with or, you know, butcher.

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If you’re looking to slaughter the Ender Dragon as quickly as possible then this seed is for you. It will spawn you right on top of a stronghold containing a Nether Portal. See the chunky bit of beach on the left? Simply dive down from there, and you’ll soon hit the roof of the Stronghold. It’s pretty dark down there, so you may need some glow stones to help your search.

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Having a pet is one of the most rewarding things you can do in Minecraft, and a fluffy little bunny rabbit is most certainly the kind of pet you want hopping around at your ankles. This seed will spawn you in a village full to bursting with rabbits.

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Just a short trek from spawn and you’ll discover this mega mountain region. The peak breaches cloud level, and bursting from its slopes are water and lava falls. It’s also topped with a wooded area, making it both a scenic climb and a solid resource provider.

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Right by where you spawn in this seed is a deep ravine cut into the ground. Take a peek and you’ll immediately find what you’re here for: gold. There’s a good few blocks of gold ore right at the surface, so you can gather it in practically no time at all.

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Along the join between the savannah and desert biomes in this seed is a desert village with some desirable loot. Between the chests in the houses and the blacksmith’s shop you’ll find 26 gold ingots, three emeralds, two diamonds, six iron ingots, iron leggings, and a saddle. Not a bad starter kit!

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A mesa, plains, and desert biome all meet at an intersection marked by a temple for you to explore in this seed. Even better, you’ll find the temple at the bank of a river where some giant squids hang out, as well as cows in the fields of the plains biome next door.

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One for the Minecraft mountaineer, this seed will spawn you at cloud level on this amazing mountain structure. It goes much higher into the sky than the clouds, and its flatter sections are home to some savanna biome-style trees. The whole mountain makes an island, with some really cool geography to explore.

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If you’ve absolutely got to see it all, and you’re on a strict time limit, then this seed is for you. It contains all of Minecraft’s various biomes, and they’re packed into a reasonable 2km². One afternoon stroll and you’ll know everything about landmass identification.

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Minecraft can feel a little brown and green all too often. Inject some colour into your eyes with this seed, which will drop your right in the middle of an ocean filled with mushroom-sprouting islands. Those bright red domes should cheer you right up, but if that doesn’t do the trick perhaps the herds of cows will instead.

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With 15 diamonds right at the spawn location, this is a loot paradise seed. You’ll find the diamonds split into chests in the two desert temples you’ll soon find, and a third temple hides away some treasures, too. In the first of the temples you’ll come across you can also find some diamond horse armour, ensuring your steed will be well protected.

Related: Bask in the beauty of the game with nice new Minecraft shaders

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A great seed if you’re in need of diamonds quick. You’ll spawn quite close to two desert temples that can be raided for treasures, and also fairly close to spawn are two NPC villages, one which has a blacksmith. One of the temples contains nine diamonds and two emeralds.

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Make sure you have ‘Large Biomes’ selected when you use this seed, as without it you’ll find a completely different world. And you wouldn’t want to miss this: a fantastic mushroom biome and a hills biome right next to each other, with you spawning right on the border between the two.

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Sprint off to your right from spawn and you’ll find a blacksmith’s shop stocked with the perfect starter kit: iron leggings, iron chestplate, an iron sword, a bunch of apples, and even three diamonds! You’ve not done any work yet and you’re already fully kitted out for action.

Related: The best Minecraft Pocket Edition seeds

But there’s more! Look out from the village and you’ll see a desert temple, which is packed full of chests containing gold, iron, and diamonds. A superb starting point.

Dossier (1.6.4)
As you spawn into Dossier you want to turn around immediately and head backwards. You’ll see a village, but that’s not what we’re here for. A little way off the coastline you’ll see a perfectly flat rectangle building just sitting in the ocean. Break in, and you’ll find an End Portal. No more do you need to contend with strongholds; just travel right to The End from the safety of an underwater bunker.

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A solid collection of adventuring areas appear within this seed, with no less than four temples to raid, a village to settle in, and an underground stronghold to unearth. The temples are home to a small collection of gold and diamonds for the precious item collector.

Sprite (1.6.4)
This seed draws up everything you need to play Survival Island without the need to download a map. A patch of dirt, a tree, and nothing else but ocean is generated by Sprite. With a bit of imagination you can work with these limited resources to survive for a surprising amount of time.

Double Village (1.6.4)
One for the archaeologist, Double Village spawns you in near a village and temple in a desert biome. So far, so normal seed. But the village and temple are actually mostly buried in the sand, and require excavating from the landscape to reveal their architectural wonders.

Mojang (1.7.10)
How fitting that Mojang – the company that keeps on giving – would put their name to a seed that provides as if it were the Minecraft Diamond Lottery. A fully stocked area of diamonds, gold, and iron await, but keep an eye out for the torrents of lava that run dangerously close to prime mining real estate.

MINDCRACK (1.6.4)
A truly superb mountain biome, but you’ll need to travel a little from spawn to find it. You’ll start on a tiny island out to sea, but just keep heading straight until you hit the cliff faces. Head up, and you’ll find a massive biome filled with exceptional mountain designs. Ideal for a dwarven under-mountain fortress!

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An excellent starting point for a varied adventure, this seed spawns you close to the borders of a solid collection of varied biomes, giving you a delicious amount of visual variety. These areas are also packed with resources, and while none of them will fast track you to battle-ready status, you’ll certainly find living off the land no problem at all.

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With the crazy success that is Frozen still ringing in everyone’s ears, you may want to find a suitably chilly locale to recreate your favourite Anna and Elsa moments in. This seed is the one you’ll need, spawning you right in the centre of a substantial ice spikes patch in an area of grand snowy beauty.

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Spawning in a pretty wooded area, you’re just a few steps away from some brilliant loot in this seed. Just head to your right to discover a cave with two zombie spawners inside, as well as three chests containing some very decent loot: some music discs, iron, a couple of Enchanted Infinity Books, and a Golden Apple!

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Right at spawn you’ll find a picturesque church village that conveniently has a blacksmith’s loaded up with a pick, some armour, and some bread to get you going. But when you spawn it’s the pond to your right that holds the biggest treasure. Just dig down from there and you’ll uncover an underground cave network filled with lava rivers, waterfalls, and mining opportunities aplenty.

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A stunningly beautiful and varied world sprouts from this seed, containing almost every biome you can imagine within relatively easy travel distance from spawn. Three huge savannah plateaus are one of the tourist spots, but you’ll also find some floating islands, a colossal mesa area with a Bryce zone, a huge birch tree forest, and a colourful mushroom biome. The absolute ideal stage for a multiplayer server.

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This is quite a sight to behold. A spectacular Savannah Plateau M will be right in front of you when you spawn into this seed. A massive mountain that reaches beyond the clouds, the sheer faces pour with waterfalls and lava streams, while the top is a great flat canvas for a castle build. The surrounding area is resource-rich, so carving the plateau into your own kingdom should be no problem at all.

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A great seed for villages with two exceptionally close to spawn. One even has a blacksmith’s shop with iron and obsidian stocks ready and waiting to be looted. There’s also a witch hut just on the outskirts, simply travel straight from the larger village through the small desert and you’ll find it built into the face of the cliff.

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Rather reminiscent of the Badlands of World of Warcraft, this seed creates a mesa biome surrounded by desert. If your plan is to develop a world like that of Mad Max’s then you can’t go wrong here. Best to head in with create mode, though, since the area isn’t exactly brimming with mining opportunities.

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Arriving in front of a mountain when you spawn, you’ll instantly see something a little odd. This mountain has a monstrous hole dug all the way through it, creating a hollowed-out mountain for you and naturally the perfect place to build up a secret lair.

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A brilliantly awe-inspiring seed, tapping in these digits will create an impressive mountain range with interesting semi-floating structures and overhangs. A clear disregard for gravity makes this a striking map, and those mountain ridges are just begging to be populated with a fortified town.

Survival (1.7.10)
Spawning you near a village sporting a blacksmith’s shop, Survival has a great selection of tourism spots. Look to the distance and you’ll find a great mountain with hollowed sections, but closer by is a great fissure cut through the land and an inviting sinkhole brimming with possibility.

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A mesa biome with a Grand Canyon feel, this seed produces a great natural river formation along the bed of some raised, flat-topped mountainous structures for that all-American middle-of-nowhere feel. Helicopter rides and bungee cords not included.

england (1.6.4)
If you’re looking for a jungle temple, england is the seed you are looking for. There’s no need to look far, since you spawn right on top of one. Inside are some gold and bones to bolster your resource collection, but it’s the fantastic jungle that surrounds the temple that’s the true treasure in this seed. Perfect for creating a tribal-themed hideaway.

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A great base of operations for your desert expedition, this seed creates a village populated by a blacksmith’s, a church, and a well. It’s a great starting point, especially since there’s a desert temple within draw distance range that’s holding a few diamonds and iron.

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This collection of oddly-shaped islands provides some great vistas and photo opportunities, but it’s what lies beneath that’s of real interest. Dig down from the grassy surface of the angular shaped island and you’ll hit the stony walls of an underground stronghold. Unoccupied, this dungeon is home to an End Portal.

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Just in front of where you spawn in this seed is a huge crack in the land that leads to a phenomenal ravine. It’s basically the Goblin Kingdom from The Hobbit; filled with minecart tracks, resources, lava, and all sorts of creepy mobs including Endermen. But even better than that – this is a stronghold. As you come down from the entrance you’ll even see the library jutting out of the rock face. Hunt around a little and you’ll soon find the End Portal and your ticket to duelling the dragon.

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A little exploration is required to find everything of value in this seed, but there are three hot spots to look out for. Two temples in the desert biome come absolutely filled with gold and precious stones, while a blacksmith’s shop and church provide a few home comforts. On the fringes of the desert as you enter the savannah you’ll find a large village with stone structures that’s home to a blacksmith’s stocked with iron armour.

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A desert temple lies on a lovely river bank in the seed, which quite graciously creates three biomes within easy walking distance of each other, with a mesa biome leaking through a line of desert into lush greenland. Nine diamonds and a heap of rotting flesh await you in the temple’s treasure room.

4 (1.7.10)
A solitary island home to just a few wolves and a pig, the surface is just a ruse for an excellent buried stronghold. Just look for where the rock face has fallen away and you’ll find an easy entrance to the fortress, which naturally comes equipped with all the mod-cons.

VimCraft (1.6.4)
VimCraft spawns you in a magnificent hilly region, but it’s actually the desert just outside this area that you want to head for. You’ll soon find a small village containing a blacksmith’s shop stocked with iron armour and an iron pick, as well as a much larger village with another blacksmith’s. Between the two you can also find a desert temple, which contains a chest full of gold.

760967791 (1.6.4)
This seed contains a plethora of awesome attractions surprisingly close to spawn. On your swift journey you can find pyramids, mine shafts, temples, villages, witch huts, and strongholds, all within a half-hour radius of your starting position. Check out this forum post from discoverer hgtpsh for coordinates to all the incredible areas of this seed.

Rickrollin (1.6.4)
A hugely popular seed as featured on Mojang’s own website, rickrollin doesn’t trick you into discovering a classic ’80s music video as its name would suggest. Instead, you’ll find a world host to a jungle temple, a buried pyramid, a desert well, a blacksmith’s village that lies close to a cave system filled with ores, and a spooky zombie-infested dungeon.

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This one is all about shipwrecks. You spawn into a quaint village where you’ll notice a villager has turned the shattered remnants of a hull into a cosy abode. Venture out further into the world, and bigger shipwrecks await you on the seabed. If that doesn’t float your boat, then there’s also an ocean ruin for you to explore. We ship it.

And those are our very favourite Minecraft seeds. There’s plenty to keep you busy exploring, but there’s always something new to find, so why not try our best Minecraft maps? Or perhaps our top Minecraft servers. Oh, and don’t forget to equip some brilliant Minecraft skins before you head out. Anyway, we’ll leave you to it; there’s plenty more redstone we need to dig up, and this pick-axe won’t swing itself…

Earlier this week, prominent streamer Ludvig ‘Anomaly’ Lagerstedt received a 30-day suspension from Twitch after he briefly showed a Minecraft skin depicting Adolph Hitler. Anomaly is appealing the ban – he says it’s “quite excessive” – but the streamer has already gotten into hot water with Twitch over hateful conduct in the past.

In the offending clip, Anomaly opens his Minecraft inventory and immediately closes it as he realises the Hitler skin is on display. “Oh my god, I have the wrong skin on me,” he says, bursting into laughter. On Twitter after the ban, Anomaly said “I had the skin because me and some friends were gonna record a Minecraft video and I was gonna make a little joke about ‘Meinkraft’ and forgot to change back the skin.”

According to the relevant bits of Twitch’s community guidelines, “hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence” against people in a wide range of categories, and it’s not hard to see how Twitch might recognise Hitler jokes as – at the very least – ‘facilitating denigration.’

It’s not the first time Anomaly has been banned from Twitch for inappropriate conduct, as Dot Esports notes. Over a year ago, he received an indefinite suspension from the platform for violating the hateful conduct rules.

While we never officially got confirmation on why that ban happened – obviously it was eventually overturned – it did come immediately after a clip in which Anomaly dressed a black PUBG character in prison clothes, and followed with the same sort of exaggerated laugh we hear in the Minecraft clip.

Kill time behind the wheel in the wide, wide world of Minecraft.

What you need to know

• Minecraft may be on its way to another platform: Tesla cars.
• Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted that the company is working on bringing the blocky game to its vehicles, and it’s a “high priority.”
• Musk also revealed that Cuphead will launch in Teslas in August.

Minecraft has already become one of the most ubiquitous games out there, with ports on nearly every platform you can think of. However, you might be able to add another, unconventional platform to that list soon: Tesla vehicles.

Tesla founder Elon Musk recently tweeted that Minecraft is on his company’s list of to-dos for game ports. Going further, Musk says it’s a high priority, alongside Roblox.

We’re working on it. Agreed, Minecraft is high priority. Roblox too.3,4239:41 AM – Jul 28, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy456 people are talking about this

Teslas all feature a large displays from which you control much of the car’s functions. Tesla has been gradually adding games to the built-in computers for months now, including Atari titles, Beach Buggy Racing 2, and even chess. Of course, the games are only meant to be played while the car is at rest, so don’t get your hopes up for playing Minecraft as you drive. That’s just plain dangerous.

In further Tesla game news, Studio MDHR’s notoriously difficult Cuphead, which was teased earlier this year, will launch on Tesla vehicles in August, Musk confirmed in another tweet.

For those of us without a Tesla, both Cuphead and Minecraft are available to pick up across Xbox One, Windows 10, and a number of other platforms in the meantime.

Minecraft Monday is returning for Week 6 as the UMG event put together by Keemstar continues.

The Week 6 rosters were recently announced, although the full teams aren’t complete yet. The first roster release says Bajan_Canadian is still in need of a partner. They have a few more hours to find a partner, so hopefully we’ll have full rosters by the time it starts.

ShotGunPlays & Technoblade won Week 1, Technoblade & iBallisticSquid won Week 2, traves & cscoop won Week 3, Vikkstar123 & Preston won Week 4 and Skeppy & BadBoyHalo won Week 5. Skeppy and BadBoyHalo are teamed up again for Week 6, so we could see a repeat champ.

When does Minecraft Monday start?

• Date: July 22nd
• Time: 4 p.m. EST, 1 p.m. PT

How to stream Minecraft Monday Week 6

UMG will be streaming the event live above.

You can also watch live from individual streamers on their respective platforms (some stream on Twitch, others stream on YouTube, a rare few choose other outlets).

Minecraft Monday Week 6 teams, rosters

Minecraft Monday rules, scoring system

• Eliminations: +10 Score
• Victory: +30 Score
• Top 2 Teams: +20 Score
• Top 3 Teams: +10 Score
• Surviving: +2 Score (Whenever a team is eliminated all other remaining teams earn +2 Score)

An added note, scoring for placements, surviving and victories are split between teammates if both are alive. But if one member of the team gets eliminated, the score is awarded to the surviving teammate.

There’s no cheating allowed. Cheating includes no cross-teaming, no “feeding” to help another team no mods or resource packs that grant unfair advantages. Trash talk is allowed, but toxic trash talk could result in a ban.

UMG listed the games played as follows for Week 5. This section hasn’t been updated for Week 6, so we’ll keep an eye out in case it changes.

• 1. Hunger Games (Spark City)
• 2. TNT Run
• 3. Dropper
• 4. Spleef
• 5. Battle Arena
• 6. Find The Button
• 7. Run From The Lava
• 8. Bingo Hunt
• 9. Hunger Games (MAP)

Minecraft Monday Week 6 results

The leaderboard above will update throughout the tournament, and you can check at the end of the event who won.

The Super Duper Graphics Pack for Minecraft was announced at E3 2017. Just over two years later, it’s still never been released, and there has been little news about the update’s progress.

Back in 2017, the team sounded optimistic. “Today we’re revealing a new look for Minecraft that we’re super duper excited for you to try out, one that’s inspired by the power of Xbox One X and available this fall,” said Mojang brand director Lydia Winters on stage at Microsoft’s press conference that year. She was referring to the Super Duper Graphics Pack, an update that would allow Minecraft to run in 4K, as well as add new lighting effects and, on the Xbox One X at least, increase draw distances to make players’ worlds feel that much bigger.

While the Xbox One X came out as scheduled that fall, the Super Duper Graphics Pack did not. At MineCon later that year, the game’s studio announced it had been delayed until the following year. “There’s a lot of work to be done still and we’re not going to be ready to launch it in 2017,” the company wrote on its website. “We’ll be releasing Super Duper next year, and we’ll have more information for you here on Minecraft.net soon.”

That information never came, though, leaving people to wonder about its fate to this day. Minecraft wasn’t featured prominently at E3 last year or this year, and while the game has received major updates in the last two years, including The Life Aquatic patch that added oceanic exploration and cross-play betweenMinecraft players on Xbox One, PC, mobile, and Switch, the 4K graphics showcased two years on the Xbox One X are still missing. Notably, it’s the only first-party game on the platform that still doesn’t have any Xbox One X enhanced features.

While there’s been no official update about what’s going on with the Super Duper Graphics Pack from Microsoft (which declined to comment for this story), developers at Mojang said at a MineCon Earth panel last October that the update was proving trickier than originally thought, requiring portions of the game engine to be overhauled. This past March, community manager Helen Zbihlyj said on Twitter that there were only eight people working on the game’s new graphics engine, stressing what a monumental task this was given all of the platforms it needs to support, including VR. (Mojang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Given those factors, it’s not surprising that the Super Duper Graphics Pack is taking so long. If anything, the surprising part is that Microsoft decided to make such a big deal out of the new Xbox One X enhanced update so early.

While a thread about the missing graphics pack blows up on the Xbox One subreddit every so often, fans recently poked fun at a now infamous tweetmade by a user called ItsGam3r saying they planned to buy an Xbox One X just for Minecraft after seeing the trailer for the new graphics. “It’s going to be great for Minecraft fans,” the official Xbox twitter account had responded at the time. “If only he knew…” wrote someone reposting the exchange on Reddit.

“I never ended up actually buying an XB1X, lmao,” ItsGam3r told Kotaku in a DM. “Although it looked pretty sweet.”

Minecraft. You can’t spend a day browsing the internet, without some reference to the gaming phenomenon. It’s strikingly simplistic, but addictive gameplay has built thousands of careers on YouTube. It’s defined the gaming industry and is played by almost 200 million people today. It’s also sprouted many other block-inspired games, like its own Minecraft Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, and Terraria. Even ten years after its release, when most releases would have been forgotten, it’s going strong, rivaling Fortnite. And for several reasons, in 2019, it’s only getting stronger.

No One is Ever Really Gone

Arguably, Minecraft was never really gone. With Minecraft Earth releasing in 2020, and a Minecraft movie scheduled for 2022, it’s evident that the game’s huge fanbase has remained active throughout the last decade. It is obvious by the amount of exposure the game is gaining over the internet that there’s been a recent resurgence in popularity. Interestingly, it’s also clear that the game’s population hasn’t fallen dramatically since its 2011 official release. According to Google Trends, interest in the game has been slowly degrading since its July 2013 peak. It reached its lowest point of interest fairly recently, in October 2018. But since about April of 2019, the game has rapidly increased in popularity, rivaling the rapid growth of Minecraft’s in the early 2010s, and even that of Fortnite. Is this sparking a new gaming rivalry?

But what caused this sudden spike? And why after a decade of the game’s release, is Minecraft back as the biggest current game? Like most things, we need to travel back in time to see why it lost its popularity in the first place, to see why it’s again exploding in 2019.

The Past

It’s 2013 and Minecraft has arguably just had its most popular year. Millions have been playing, and the title has taken the internet by storm. But most importantly, and dangerously, players are happy with the game. Now, because the player base was content with Minecraft, the developers, Mojang, slowed down releasing any gameplay changing updates. This is because they were afraid changes would turn players, who were happy with the game’s state, away. Cut to 2014, and the game enters a stage of no major updates for two years, coinciding with the supposed ‘Dark Ages’ of Minecraft. This is where interest in the game really began to fall. Ironically, without updates, to Mojang’s greatest fear, interest in the game began to dwindle. Despite some updates, by 2017 hundreds of Minecraft YouTuber’s decided that there time playing Minecraft was over. So the game hit rock bottom. Oof.

Over the next year, the game would continue to suffer. The majority of its player base would migrate to over to game that took the industry by surprise. Fortnite. Like Minecraft a decade ago, Fortnite took the media and game industry by storm. As this game grew in popularity, Minecraft fell far — Minecraft references across the internet were quickly replaced with Fortnite, so mining for diamonds quickly became a distant memory, and trying to find a golden SCAR became everyone’s favorite pastime. That’s the important Minecraft history behind us; so why is history repeating itself?

The Present

In 2018 the aquatic update was released, but as Fortnite was still growing its empire, it wasn’t covered as largely by the media with most content creators and publications leaning towards what everyone was currently engaged with. Skip to April 2019, and the “Village and Pillage” update was released, and since then the game has been on a massive rise in popularity, coinciding with the Google Trends explosion in Minecraft search interest. Coincidence? I think not. But why didn’t the Aquatic Update have the same effect, and bolster the player count like Village and Pillage, and why did Village and Pillage cause such a rise in popularity? The answer, no joke, is because of memes (which really do have a massive implication in gaming), Fortnite, and a hint of nostalgia.

Internet Exposure

One of the reasons for Minecraft’s decline in popularity is because of a lack of internet exposure, and the best way to gain internet exposure, as shown through the recent ‘Raid Area 51’ Facebook event, is through internet memes. After the “Village and Pillage” update, the trailer gained huge exposure as of the images and videos that would derive from it, which therefore lead to players returning to the game.

Nostalgia also had a hand to play in this. This was the first time Minecraft was exposed over the internet on this level in a few years. As a result, it led to many wanting to revisit the game to build a cobblestone house, mine diamond and defeat the Enderdragon again. Like the few years before, to revisit their childhood memories, or as a joke. And as all jokes do, they can grow and get out of hand. So more references were made, leading to more players returning, and so on.

Fortnite

The game that would replace Minecraft, would also revive it. Despite absorbing so many of its players, Fortnite would also be a catalyst to return them from its gaming empire. Since the start of 2019, Fortnite has been growing into something reminiscent of Minecraft from 2014. Some are getting bored with the game, others are treating it more as a joke, but most importantly, Fortnite is losing internet exposure . This has led to Minecraft recently regaining its old player base, overtaking Fortnite, in becoming the more popular game again. The reason that the Minecraft Aquatic Update didn’t cause this revival, is because Fortnite was at its height of popularity. So the pull to play Minecraft was far less, as people weren’t as disinterested in the badly aging Battle Royale as they were in April of 2019.

The Resurgence of Minecraft

As a result of these two factors, Minecraft is literally spiraling into the 2013 levels of popularity. The fact the game is becoming a bigger meme, YouTubers and the media have latched onto its growth. In turn, this is propelling it to larger levels of success. Pewdiepie is a key example; each episode of his Minecraft series (started 21st of June) has over 10 million views, with the first and most popular at almost 20 million. Many other content creators are following suit, reviving the games massive population, not only in-game, but over the internet, and right now is a massive trending topic on YouTube, and as a result, the rest of the internet.

Minecraft is continuing to grow as a result of its resurgence in internet communities. When will it stop? Maybe it will continue to grow and stabilize. The more likely option is that people will lose their sense of nostalgia. Like all people, become bored and move on to the next trending game, whatever that may be. But whatever that is, for now, Minecraft is back at the number one spot in gaming.

Mojang has released the final 1.14.4 with bug fixes and added features ahead of update 1.15. Find out everything new and changed in the 1.14.4 plus how to download it, here.

On Friday, Mojang released its final version (1.14.4) of the Minecraft Village and Pillage update. According to the release notes, 1.14.4 will hammer out any addition bugs and issues that have been reported, while adding a few fun features to Villagers like the ability to remember gossip. The team will now turn its efforts towards update 1.15. Update 1.15 is rumored to bring new features like functionality for smithing tables and fletching tables, as well as quality and performance improvements. A theme and release date for 1.15 has yet to be announced but more details will be revealed during MINECON 2019 in September.

Below you can find all the changes and bug fixes noted in the 1.14.4 patch notes. The update is for the Java Edition of the game. Players can download and install the new update by opening up the Minecraft Launcher and clicking play. You can find the Cross-platform server jar here and if you need to report any additional bugs, you can use the Minecraft issue tracker.

Minecraft 1.14.4 Patch Notes: Everything New & Changed

General Changes and Features Added

• Performance improvements
• Suspicious stew made from poppies now gives you night vision instead of speed
• Added /debug report for getting more detailed information. Please include this while making bug reports about performance!
• Fixed a memory leak
• Removed camera pivot offset in first-person
• Improved chunk loading when traveling at high speed
• Fixed incorrect Pillager texture
• /reload and /forceload is now available to gamemasters
• function-permission-level is a new setting in server.properties that controls which commands functions have access to
• Villagers now stock more items
• Villagers will now remember their gossip after becoming a Zombie Villager
• Improved performance of Villager pathfinding
• Villagers can now work without also restocking at the same time
• Gossip about players who converted a zombie villager will now last longer
• The Player Activity button on the Realm screen has been removed
• Villagers now wait with restocking until they have trades that need restocking
• Village sieges no longer occur on mushroom islands
• Mobs will no longer try to path find their way through bamboo
• Pinged the human (new splash screen text)

Bug Fixes in 1.14.4

• MC-150623 – The game crashed whilst rendering overlay: Unable to fit texture
• MC-156389 – Game Crashes when Shift + Command + Delete 18 characters at once on Anvil
• MC-156407 – Unobtainable (speed) suspicious stew can be obtained from villagers
• MC-156574 – Villager demand values increase/decrease indefinitely
• MC-149018 – High Idle CPU usage on Server Edition (Minecraft 1.14 Release)
• MC-154271 – Rolling shutter issue on MacOS since 1.14.3 Pre-Release 2
• MC-149880 – Villager trades wrong book
• MC-151282 – Villager trade GUI doesn’t show the correct price on servers if trade demand is high
• MC-156042 – Villager demand never goes down over time unless 
  traded with
  MC-156349 – Cannot press Enter on Direct Connect
  Fixed debug reports in worlds with a dot in their name
  Fixed server freeze when Villagers fell into the void
  MC-145769 – Villagers aren’t shutting doors behind them
  MC-148613 – Aquatic mobs are not spawning / Fish spawned from buckets count towards the aquatic mob cap again
  MC-152908 – When a player joins a server, everything that happened during the time offline queued on connecting to the server
  MC-153406 – Score JSON Component Crash in items
  MC-153749 – Trusting Foxes attack player when self-injured
  MC-153852 – Concrete powder deleting waterlogged blocks when falling
  MC-155711 – Functions capable of running commands they shouldn’t be able to (publish, debug …)
  MC-156013 – Breaking Blocks “re-appear” to nudge player
  MC-136318 – Floatable mobs are unable to walk when in waterlogged blocks
  MC-151150 – Entities (Villagers) cause massive lag when attempting to pathfind
  MC-151376 – Villagers are not pathfinding towards their POI; POI detection range is too small
  MC-151810 – Mobs don’t try to avoid fall damage anymore
  MC-154214 – Chunks refusing to unload due to incorrect player ticket additions
  MC-155147 – Mouse acceleration with the new 1.14.3 update
  MC-155906 – Failed to save debug dump if the destination location contains a space
  MC-100946 – Bow with mending undraws when receiving XP while drawed
  MC-113968 – Zombies of village siege spawn despite gamerule doMobSpawning being false
  MC-113970 – Zombies of village siege do not spawn centered on a block
  MC-134964 – Unexpected error: java.util.NoSuchElementException
  MC-142037 – java.lang.NullPointerException: Initializing game
  MC-143755 – Arbitrary score/selector/NBT resolution using lectern without operator rights
  MC-143886 – Acacia leaves render improprly from a distance
  MC-146289 – Farmer villagers don’t stop to pick up their crops
  MC-147844 – Pillagers don’t pathfind around obstacles & out of water
  MC-152094 – End city/end ship generation gets cut at chunk borders sometimes
  MC-152636 – Killing a zombie right as it converts into a Drowned will drop the loot from zombie while still converting into a Drowned
  MC-153498 – Cyrillic letter Є is not included in the Minecraft font
  MC-153665 – Full villager inventory creates invisible items
  MC-153712 – Java using 100-200% CPU (MacOS)
  MC-153766 – Rabbits no longer need sand/grass in order to spawn in deserts/tundras
  MC-153892 – Mending slows down breaking blocks
  MC-154019 – Beacon deactivate sound not sounds when you break the base
  MC-154031 – villagers give away all food if they want to share it
  MC-154068 – parrots occasionally disappearing when you take them from a boat
  MC-154201 – Trying to trade with villager immediately closes trading menu for some villagers
  MC-154362 – Crossbow has to re-load when mending takes place
  MC-154509 – Bashkir letters Ҙ, ҙ, Ҡ, ҡ, Ҫ, and ҫ are not included in the Minecraft font
  MC-154668 – Invalid characters crash the game in jigsaw block input upon pressing enter
  MC-154830 – All wall signs use oak color on maps
  MC-155092 – Zombie sieges can happen on mushroom islands
  MC-155104 – when closing a menu while moving the mouse, the screen will move in that direction
  MC-155172 – Hostile Wolf AI has been broken. Wolves can no longer attack enemies efficiently.
  MC-155238 – Villagers picking up workstation through wall
  MC-155345 – ConcurrentModificationException when a player leaves an active raid
  MC-155571 – Silverfish & Endermite spawners no longer functioning

The closed beta of Minecraft Earth is currently rolling out to several cities in the UK and US, with access being given to many of those who signed up in advance.

Some Apple iPhone owners in London and Seattle have reportedly been able to play it so far, and more are expected to be invited to try the beta test version soon.

We at Pocket-lint have also been trialling the new augmented reality game over for a couple of weeks and here are our thoughts and tips on what you can do in the closed beta and how to start.

It’s important to note that any progress made during the closed beta of Minecraft Earth will not carry on when the full game is released. And, many features of the final release are not yet available.

However, read on if you want to know more.

What is the Minecraft Earth closed beta?

Minecraft Earth is Microsoft’s answer to Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite.

It is an AR game for iOS and Android that enables us to build Minecraft creations, either collaboratively or with friends, that are overlaid onto the real world for others to find, see and interact with.

Some of the gameplay revolves around collecting materials and mobs to build with, while the rest is dedicated to building mini Minecraft worlds.

An adventure mode will be added to the final release version of the game to be released at a later date, which will enable players to experience builds in a different way, but that’s not part of the closed beta trial.

Nor is the online storefront. You cannot, therefore, currently buy skins or mobs with cash – only collect them through the game.

How do you play Minecraft Earth?

You might see familiarities between the main screen in Minecraft Earth and Pokemon Go (and other AR games). It shows your character – using either male Steve skin or female Alex – on a map of your real world location. All around you will be collectable building resources and the occasional mob – a pig, duck, etc.

They appear in a catchment radius, represented by a circle around your position. Any within that circle are within reach.

You tap on them to collect them, which will break them down into their individual elements (blocks), which will be added to your inventory for use when building.

Mobs will remain whole and can also be added to builds once collected.

Minecraft Earth on-screen menu

Along the bottom of the screen are the different menu options.

On the far-left you can open your inventory of collected items and equip them for use. The next menu icon is to scan for friend invite codes. We are yet to play with someone who also has closed beta access, so that’s not proved to be much use for us yet.

The next menu is perhaps the most important for now as it allows you to start a build or continue with an existing project.

At present, you are presented with several templates to adapt. They are ranked by your player level (which rises as you build and collect materials) and only unlock when you’ve reached each specific level.

Buildplates

There are two options for a build. Either place it on the ground to see what it looks like in the real world, or as a buildplate to get close up to change how it looks. Every time you quit this mode it will save the template to reflect your modifications.

There is a settings menu to turn off the traditional Minecraft music and the like, and an option to turn on/off precise mode.

Precise mode, when switched on, allows you to turn your avatar using your finger. If off, you have to physically turn around to see all of the objects within the catchment radius.

That’s basically it for now. There’s not much to the closed beta as it is designed as a stress test for Microsoft rather than a full experience to enjoy on your travels. However, there’s still enough there to get a feel for how it will work on release and, although your builds won’t survive the switch over, it’s worth it to see what you are capable of making so you can eventually hit the ground running.

Our first impressions

The Minecraft Earth closed beta is remarkably simple. Being honest, there’s not really that much to do right now and until more people are accepted, few friends to share it with.

The adventure mode will surely spice things up. As will the expansion of players, who will drop their builds around the world for you to check out.

It’s more potential that perfect as it stands, although we do like the idea that it’s actually a lot easier to jump into than PG and Wizard’s Unite. That means it will be more suitable for younger players too.

Unfortunately, that means parents will have to hand over their phones to their kids once again, rinsing the battery in the process. But, Minecraft Earth is a more collaborative game anyway, so we might find it becoming an outdoors family pursuit in future.

You can still sign up to be part of the closed beta here.

The debut trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher series is finally out and it actually looks good, though that could be Henry Cavill’s muscles talking. And while we already know all about when the show takes place and who it stars, the trailer marks the first time we’ve seen everything in action.

So much happens in the trailer’s meager two minutes, so unless you’re scrutinizing every frame, odds are you’re going to miss some stuff. We’ve combed the trailer ourselves and turned to the internet to pull out as many interesting character reveals, plot details, and references to the Witcher books as possible.

Is Yennefer OK?

Early glimpses of Yennefer in the trailer depict a woman hunched over with a swollen cheek. That’s the norm for plenty of sorceresses in the world of the Witcher, who often become students of magic due to varying physical irregularities. Yennefer is no different. She, like many magic users, becomes beautiful through the use of magical glamours that mask her actual appearance. Looks like we’ll get to see her transformation in the show. 

Hey, it’s the Isle of Thanedd!

That’s where sorceresses go to magic school, including Ciri for a bit. It’s also the setting for some big betrayals and terrific violence. I can’t wait to see how the show interprets those big beats.

What’s up with that wacky purple tree in the desert?

At first glance, I thought this was a scene from Ciri’s trip to the Frying Pan, which feels too far off to plop into season one. I wasn’t alone in my thinking either, but, twist! Showrunner Lauren Hissrich confirmed the purple desert tree is not related to the arc depicted in Time of Contempt. Get to making those theories. 

The Dryads aren’t bright green, thank goodness

The Witcher show is taking a simple approach to its depiction of Dryads, the nymph-like humanoids that live in the forests of Brokilon. The games tend to depict them as nude green plant people, but the books describe them as very human-like with slightly greenish tints to their skin tone. The show is definitely leaning towards the latter.

That’s a Striga

A few quick clips depict Geralt going at it with a grimy humanoid, likely a Striga, which is one of the first monsters he dukes it out with in The Witcher short stories. Striga are women transformed into beastly monsters via a curse, something like a werewolf with hints of troll. Geralt dreams of his fight with the Striga in The Voice of Reason, the opening story in The Last Wish collection. And he dreams of it after some good sex. That’s our guy.

And that’s a Kikimora

There’s some debate over what that swamp spider is in the last shot of the trailer, but I’m banking on a Kikimora, monsters known to live underground or in, get this, swamps. It’s also one of the monsters he kills in the short stories before bringing it to Blaviken, where Geralt starts a major beef with just about everyone—on accident, of course.

Meet the Butcher of Blaviken

As this thread points out, when he looks all tore up and pissed may well be a formative scene set in Blaviken that earns Geralt a lifelong nickname: The Butcher of Blaviken. We’ll leave the show to tell the tale if you’re not aware, but it’s a classic bit where Geralt, ever the neutral, gets screwed over by everyone in an attempt to save everyone. Needless to say, a lot of people die, the blame gets pinned on Geralt, and he becomes feared throughout the continent. Poor guy. 

Our boy’s casting Aard

Either Geralt’s getting about to blind a three-eyed monster or that boy’s casting the Aard sign. If you’re unfamiliar, witchers dabble in magic, much to the dismay of sorcerers who view the witchers’ practice as clumsy and contrived. But whatever, because Henry-Geralt is about to send someone flying across the room like a hot Jedi.

Emhyr the Hedgehog says hello

Here’s one that most people missed (including me). Some sharp-eyed folks in this Reddit thread might’ve spotted a quick glimpse of the future Emperor of Nilfgaard, Emhyr var Emreis. See, before the imposing bastard become a tyrant, he was cursed by a sorcerer to take on the appearance of a human-hedgehog hybrid. The curse did not make him go fast, unfortunately. We’ll leave the rest to the show since lifting the curse is its own adventure, but clearly, he doesn’t stay that way forever. Until we see how the show depicts Emhyr’s origins, all you really need to know is that the whole ordeal does not make him a cool, chill guy.

Minecraft is good for a lot of things: creating your own dream worlds, hanging out with friends, bludgeoning zombies to death with blocks of wood. Whether it’s good for browsing Reddit or not, I’m not sure: but it’s definitely possible, thanks to this plug-in created by Reddit user DeltaTwoForce.

As the gif below demonstrates, the plug-in turns Reddit into a tight descending dungeon, with each floor dedicated to its own thread. Once in, a sign is used to specify which subreddit the user wants to visit, and then the plug-in generates it, complete with thread title, the number of interactions, and an embed of the thread’s main image. Beneath the image is a chest, and inside is a collection of books with each response written inside.

This is a .gif of the plug-in in action, created by the plug-in’s programmer, DeltaTwoForce:

Is this a pleasant way of reading Reddit? That’s for you to decide, in my opinion: no. But the point is that it’s possible, just like lots of other ridiculous things are possible in Minecraft, such as Atari 2600 emulators, BASIC interpreters and mobile phones.

According to DeltaTwoForce, the plug-in is not safe to use on survival servers because it will clear out your inventory. It’s available to download here, and you can see the original Reddit thread here.