How much have Minecraft bundles changed since their announcement four years ago?

Originally announced more than four years ago at Minecraft Live 2020, bundles are one of the most interesting and infamous items in the title, mostly because they're still not officially in the game. They're accessible on the most recent experimental versions of the Mojang's sandbox sensation but are still being developed. They have also changed quite a bit over the years they've been worked on.

All the major ways that Minecraft bundles have changed can be found detailed below, along with what makes these alterations so significant.

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All the ways that Minecraft bundles have changed since their announcement

Crafting recipe

The old bundle recipe on the left vs the new recipe on the right (Images via Mojang)

By far the biggest change to Minecraft bundles, at least in terms of gameplay, is their new and significantly improved crafting recipe. In older experimental versions of the game, bundles required two string and a whopping six rabbit hide to craft. While not expensive, this meant that players needed to find specific biomes to be able to craft one.

The new recipe is both cheaper and easier. Now, players only need a single Minecraft string and one piece of regular leather to make a bundle. This change also means that it's possible to craft bundles within the inventory rather than needing a full-sized crafting interface. This makes them much easier to make and use while out and about.

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User interface and acessiblity

The bundle's messy old UI (Image via Mojang)

The bundle's original user interface wasn't particularly great. When first announced, the tooltip that players would get when hovering over a bundle would show all of the contents randomly overlapping one another in a very chaotic way. This made it very hard to tell what was inside.

The UI was then updated to have a few inventory slots to show the most recent item additions. Mojang has changed the UI again to instead show up to the most recent eight items added, though the inventory slots within the UI have been removed. This newer UI is much cleaner and easier to read, even if it limits the number of items visible within the tooltip.

Additionally, Mojang has made it possible to use either the scroll wheel or the number keys to switch which item in the tooltip is selected. Right-clicking on the bundle will then remove the selected item, rather than it being a purely first-in, last-out system. While this new system isn't perfect, as players can only scroll through or select items visible in the UI, it's better than not being able to switch items at all.

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Texture

The bundle's old texture next to it's new texture (Images via Mojang)

The bundle's original Minecraft texture is very much like it's UI: not bad, per se, just unpolished and much murkier. The newer textures are brighter and easier to read, making it a major improvement.

Additionally, the new opened texture has been split into a front and back layer. As player scroll through selected items, the currently selected item will be displayed within the bundle in the inventory. This makes finding something in particular feel like rummaging around and is quite immersive.

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Dropping items

Items dropped by a destroyed bundle (Image via Mojang)

When they were first added, bundles were actually quite dangerous ways to store items. This is due to the fact that if a bundle were to be destroyed while on the ground in item form, by Minecraft TNT or creeper, whatever was inside of it would be lost as well. Thankfully, Mojang has changed this, and bundles will now drop their contents on the ground when destroyed.

While this is still not very safe for any rare Minecraft items dropped on the ground, it's inarguably much better than being instantly and irreversibly destroyed.