This is a list of Java Edition exclusive features. Some of the exclusive features may be added to Bedrock Edition eventually to bring parity.
Blocks
- Chest
- Bonus chests always contain the same items.
- The top three rows for a large chest correspond to the western or northern half and the bottom three to the southern or eastern half.
- Holding ⇧ Shift and double-clicking while holding an item moves all items of the type clicked on in or out of the chest, to the extent that space is available for them.
- A chest can be "locked" by setting its Lock tag using the
/data command. If a chest's Lock tag is not blank, the chest cannot be opened except by players holding an item with the same name as the Lock tag's text. For example, to lock a chest at (0,64,0) so that only players holding an item named "Player's Key" can open the chest, use /data merge block 0 64 0 {Lock:"Player's Key"}.
- Cobweb
- Paintings can be placed on their sides.
- Jumping vibrates the player, similar to jumping in a 2-block-high space.
- Primed TNT can pass through cobwebs without slowing down if shot through fast enough.
- Dispenser and Dropper
- Farmland
- Transparency: Partial (Blocks light)
- Mobs smaller than 0.512 cubic block cannot destroy farmland. This includes parrots, rabbits, chickens, bats, ocelots, wolves, cave spiders, endermites, silverfish, baby mobs, small slimes, and small magma cubes.
- Furnace
- The lit furnace block cannot be obtained, even with commands.
- Fuel lasts differently, see Furnace/table.
- Dirt Path
- Doesn't drop itself when broken with a Silk Touch tool.
- Piston and Sticky Piston
- Cannot push or pull certain blocks (those with block entities):
- Sticky pistons drop blocks when a single redstone tick pulse occurs, rather than retracting them.
- Redstone wire runs next to pistons instead of curving into them.
- Support quasi-connectivity.
- Wool
- Wool can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 0.5 items per wool block.
Items
- Bow
- Bows can be used as fuel, smelting 1.5 items per bow.
- Bone Meal
- Has a 5% chance of being dropped by any kind of fish.
- Button
- Wooden buttons can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 0.5 items per button.
- Carpet
- Carpet can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 0.335 items per carpet.
- Debug Stick
- Can be used to change block states.
- Dyes
- Leather armor can be dyed by crafting dyes with a piece of leather armor.
- Fish
- Raw cod can be used to feed ocelots, get cats off of chests, beds, etc., breed cats, and make baby cats grow up faster by 10% of the remaining time. Raw salmon, tropical fish and pufferfish also work.
- Knowledge Book
- A utility item that reveals crafting recipes to the player when used.
- Ladder
- A ladder can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per ladder.
- Lingering potion
- What makes it a lingering potion as opposed to a splash potion is that their
Potion tag stores a minecraft:lingering_potion item.
- Map
- The name for "Empty Locator Map" (requires compass) in Java Edition is called "Empty Map", which is different from the "Empty Map" that uses no compass in Bedrock Edition.
- Spawn Egg
- Each spawn egg has a different ID.
Mobs
- Creeper
- The detection range of creepers is reduced to half of their normal range (8 blocks) when the player is wearing a creeper mob head.
- Elder Guardian and Guardian
- Enderman
- Endermen cannot normally be attacked with projectiles (including splash potions of harming), as they always teleport away just before being hit.
- However, they do not teleport if positive potions are thrown at them, including splash potions of regeneration and strength, and do not teleport away from poison potions either.
- If all available blocks within teleport distance are removed or unable to be transported to, it is possible to hit endermen with a projectile, though arrows tend to bounce off dealing no damage on occasion.
- Even though rare, endermen can create iron and snow golems.
- Prevents player from sleeping, just like any other hostile mob.
- There are some blocks that endermen can pick up:
- Giant
- A giant-sized zombie.
- Has no AI, does not fight back when hit.
- Can be summoned only via commands.
- Illusioner
- An unused hostile mob.
- One of the four illagers.
- Can be summoned only via commands.
- Killer Bunny
- A hostile bunny based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Attacks players and wolves, whether tamed or not.
- Looks different from a normal bunny, with horizontal red eyes and named "The Killer Bunny".
- Can be summoned only via commands.
- Ocelot
- Ocelots do not scare phantoms.
- Phantom
- Phantoms do not stay 16 blocks away from ocelots.
- Skeleton
- The detection range of skeletons is reduced to half of their normal range (8 blocks) when the player is wearing a skeleton mob head.
- Skeletons holding tipped arrows in their offhand causes them to shoot that type of arrow; these arrows are not consumed.
- Skeletons can animate their bow; they pull it out when becoming hostile and draw it back to fire arrows.
- Squid
- Wandering Trader
- Wandering traders spawned with a spawn egg via commands do not spawn with trader llamas.
- Zombie
- Zombies automatically hold any item they come across (except jack o'lanterns).
- Zombies can spawn naturally with a carved pumpkin or a jack o'lantern on Halloween, or if the computer's calendar is set to October 31st.
- On Halloween, if a zombie wearing a carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a weapon enchanted with Looting, there is a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.
- The detection range of zombies is reduced to half of their normal range (20 blocks) when the player is wearing a zombie mob head.
- Zombified Piglin
- Non-hostile zombified piglins do not prevent a nearby player from sleeping in a bed.
Non-mob entities
- Item
- Items take damage from fire and lava.
- Arrow
- Arrows can get visually stuck in players.
- Includes Arrow of Luck.
- Includes Spectral Arrows, imbues the Glowing status effect for 10 seconds.
- Boat
- Endermen can fit in boats.
- Entities do not take any fall damage while in a boat.
- Minecart with Furnace
- Minecart with Spawner
- A combination of minecarts and monster spawners.
- Can be obtained only via commands.
- When summoned, it spawns pigs by default.
World generation
- General
- Solid terrain, structures, and biome generation can generate all the way to 2.147 billion blocks (if the hard coded 30 million block limit is removed).
- Biomes
- Buffet world type
- A world type that consists of only a single biome. There is also an option to choose between Surface, Floating Islands or Caves.
- Debug Mode world type
- A world type used to test block states, block models, and textures.
- Igloo
- If the player smelts a number of items in the igloo furnace, the light generated melts the igloo window, turning the ice into a water source block.
- Igloos always generate with a villager without profession.
- Jungle pyramid
- Can generate in Bamboo Jungle and Bamboo Jungle Hills.
- Large Biomes world type
- A world type that has its biome scale set to 6.
- Spawn chunk
- Chunks found in the world spawn point that are not unloaded from the memory, unlike normal chunks.
- Stronghold
- They generate in rings with the strongholds evenly spaced around the circle until the total of 128 is reached.
- The 1st ring has 3 strongholds within 1408–2688 of the origin.
- The 2nd ring has 6 strongholds within 4480–5760 of the origin.
- The 3rd ring has 10 strongholds within 7552–8832 of the origin.
- The 4th ring has 15 strongholds within 10624–11904 of the origin.
- The 5th ring has 21 strongholds within 13696–14976 of the origin.
- The 6th ring has 28 strongholds within 16768–18048 of the origin.
- The 7th ring has 36 strongholds within 19840–21120 of the origin.
- The 8th ring has 9 strongholds within 22912–24192 of the origin
- Superflat world type
- Superflat worlds also allow the player to access the End, which generates as in a normal world, by finding a stronghold or by creating an end portal in Creative Mode.
- Villages can generate in superflat worlds.
- Trees
- Oak and Spruce Trees can generate in Mountains and Gravelly Mountains biomes.
- Oak Trees can generate in Snowy Plains biomes.
- World boundary
- By default, a customizable world border appears to prevent players passing through.
Gameplay
- Advancements
- Uses the advancement system instead of the achievement system.
- Can be used to gain experience.
- Breaking
- The range of breaking blocks is 5 blocks in Creative mode, and 4.5 blocks otherwise.
- Brewing
- The Potion of Luck cannot be brewed, and can be obtained only by commands such as
/give @p minecraft:potion{Potion:"minecraft:luck"} 1, or through the creative inventory.
- Chat
- Is uncensored, though a profanity filter exists for realms.
- Combat
- The "attack strength" combat mechanic.
- A meter shows up after switching items or attacking.
- Damage done depends on the fullness of the meter, with a quadratic reduction (attack does 20%–100% of normal damage as the meter fills).
- Fills at different rates depending on the new attack speed attribute (see table on the changes to gameplay section for a complete list).
- The haste effect causes the meter to fill faster.
- Can be displayed next to the hotbar (left or right based on the player's main hand), under the crosshair or turned off.
- Looks like the icon for the old strength effect icon on the side of the hotbar, or like a dagger under the crosshair.
- This is controlled in video settings.
- A cooldown animation is displayed of the tool slowly being lifted up, when either first switching to it or after attacking.
- Play sounds when attacked strongly and weakly, as well as sprint-knockback attacks, sweeping attacks, and critical hits.
- Damage
- When the player is in third person while suffocating, the view automatically switches to first person.
- The player takes damage from falling into the void, even in Creative mode.
- Debug screen
- It shows the chunk cache, the memory usage, various parameters, the player's map coordinates and a graph that measures the game's current frame rate.
- Enchanting
- The player can enchant any item with any enchantment in creative mode with enchanted books, allowing any applied effects to exhibit themselves.
- Sweeping Edge enchantment.
- Increases sweeping attack damage.
- Hardcore mode
- In this mode, the world is locked to hard difficulty and the player has only one life. Cheats and the bonus chest are unavailable.
- Health
- For players, a "You died!" screen (or "Game over!" in Hardcore mode) instantly appears upon death. It also displays the player's score.
- Death messages are broadcast to everyone upon the death of a player, and to the pet's owner on the death of a pet wolf, cat, or parrot.
- Death message: "<Player> fell from a high place," caused by a fall greater than 5 blocks.
- Inventory
- Creative inventory and survival inventory looks different from inventories in Bedrock Edition.
- Screenshot
- Screenshots are images taken in-game by pressing the (by default) F2 key or Fn + F2 for Macs and some other keyboards.
- Spectator mode
- Spectator mode can be entered by using F3 + N, or F3 + F4.
- Players in spectator mode can teleport to other players using the hotbar.
- Players in spectator mode can click other entities to spectate them, or spectate via /spectate.
- Status effect
| ID
|
|
Name
|
Effect
|
| 24
|
|
Glowing
|
Outlines entities (can be seen through blocks). Can be applied to any hostile mob that is in the village when a player or a villager rings the bell.
|
| 26
|
|
Luck
|
Increases chances of high-quality loot. Cannot be obtained without cheats or creative mode.
|
| 27
|
|
Bad Luck
|
Reduces chances of high-quality loot. Cannot be obtained without cheats.
|
| 28
|
|
Dolphins Grace
|
Dolphin's Grace is a status effect that increases the player's swimming speed when a dolphin is nearby.
|
- Subtitles
- A feature that displays text for sounds in game.
- Trading
- Has different trades than in Bedrock Edition.
- Trade inventory slots of a villager or wandering trader is different from Bedrock Edition
- Tutorial hints
- They are meant to guide newer players who may not know the controls.
Command format
- Data Tag
- Data tags are used in commands to specify complex data for players, entities, and some blocks.
- Resource location
- Resource locations are namespaced and all have the
minecraft: prefix, except when they're modded, in which case they have a mod_id: prefix.
- Target selector
- Most selector arguments were renamed and remade, and some behave differently. Others, like
distance and level, support a range (1 is exactly one, 1.. is one or more, ..1 is one or less, and 1..10 is between one and ten, inclusive).
/advancement
- Gives, removes, or checks player advancements.
/ban
/ban-ip
- Adds IP address to banlist.
/banlist
/data
- Modifies the data tag of a block or entity.
/debug
- Starts or stops a debugging session.
/defaultgamemode
- Sets the default game mode.
/experience
- The maximum experience that the player can earn from the
/experience command is 2,147,483,647 levels.
/pardon
- Removes entries from the banlist.
/publish
- Opens single-player world to local network.
/recipe
- Gives or takes player recipes.
/save-all
- Saves the server to disk.
/save-off
- Disables automatic server saves.
/save-on
- Enables automatic server saves.
/seed
/setidletimeout
- Sets the time before idle players are kicked.
/stop
/trigger
- Sets a trigger to be activated.
/whitelist
- Manages server whitelist.
/worldborder
- Manages the world border.
General
- Minecraft Launcher
- Able to load the user's skin on the launcher.
- This launcher is able to play previous editions of Minecraft all the way back to 2009 (That is, if the player downloads the old launcher due to a lack of sound support in the new launcher).
- Able to load up custom/modified versions of Minecraft such as Optifine, and Forge.
- Particles
- The types of particles and their technical names are displayed below. Particle names in italics are shown when using the "Minimal" particles setting.
| Particle name
|
Block/entity/event
|
Image
|
| enchanted_hit
|
Hitting a mob with a tool enchanted with Sharpness, Smite (undead) or Bane of arthropods (arthropods).
|
|
| underwater
|
When underwater.
|
|
| sweep_attack
|
Perform a sweep attack with a sword.
|
|
| damage_indicator
|
When an entity is damaged significantly.
|
|
- Recipes
- To save space, some recipes in the recipe book are grouped together and can be selected by pressing the right button on the mouse.
- Statistics
- A game feature that allows players to track how many times they have completed certain tasks.
- Creative Inventory
There are 51 items, and 29 more in the Operator Utilities tab, for a total of 80 Java Edition Creative inventory exclusives including operator utilites. The items are as follows:
- Luck effect Tipped Arrow, Potion, Splash Potion, and Lingering Potion
- Four no-effect tipped arrows: Arrow of Splashing, Awkward Tipped Arrow, Thick Tipped Arrow, and Mundane Tipped Arrow
- Spectral Arrow
- Minecart with Furnace
- Sweeping Edge Enchanted Books, all three levels.
- Firework Star, no color.
- Firework Rocket, all three flight durations.
- Painting, 26 individual pre-defined paintings, plus four additional in operator utilites.
- All 29 items in the Operator Utilities tab if "Operator Items Tab" is enabled.
