Capes in Minecraft: Everything players need to know

Originally introduced by Minecraft creator Notch as "cloaks" in the game's 2010 beta, capes are cosmetic items worn on a player's character skin for a little added flair.

Though they've been a concept in Minecraft for almost as long as the game has existed, there is a lot about capes that Minecraft players may not be aware of.

Their development has been quiet for the most part, and Mojang doesn't tend to elaborate much on them when they do get on the subject. Due to this, the Minecraft community has delved into the game's code to learn all they can about capes and their functions.

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Interesting cape details players may have missed in Minecraft

Image via Mojang

For players on Minecraft's Java Edition, there is currently no way to legitimately obtain capes from simply playing the game. There are, of course, mods such as Optifine that allow players to acquire them, as well as making capes creatable on certain Minecraft skin generation sites.

For players on Minecraft's Bedrock Edition, some capes are equippable from within the game's character customization feature. Since some skin DLC packs include capes, they have been made available to players who have purchased them.

For Java Edition players, capes were once available from purchasing tickets to the yearly MINECON event. However, the codes used for these capes have been deactivated as of 2020 and are no longer capable of being redeemed for a cape.

To make up for this, Mojang awarded a cape to all players who migrated their Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts in October 2020 after Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang.

One interesting factoid about capes also has to do with the Elytra item. For those who don't know, Elytra is a cape-like piece of gear attainable from ships in The End that allow for flight even in Survival Mode without cheats or mods. If a player does possess a cape and it is equipped along with the Elytra, the Elytra will take the place of the cape and adopt whatever design it possesses.

Image via Mojang

Though capes haven't had much attention lately, with version 1.16 involving only a tweak to the Pancape, there is speculation that future updates may focus on capes in a big way.

Mojang has previously released an image featuring Alex wearing a peculiar, galactic-patterned cape as she rides a horse. Though this may just be promotional art, some Minecraft players have speculated that capes may be getting more love in future updates after the game's 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update.

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