How to turn on experimental gameplay in Minecraft

One of the coolest parts about Minecraft's ongoing development is that Mojang is constantly releasing and previewing future content. One of the ways they do this is by implementing experimental features into current releases of the game. This gives players a way to opt into upcoming content to try it out while leaving the vanilla game untouched for stability's sake.

Detailed below is how to turn on this experimental content. There are instructions for both the Bedrock and Java Editions of the game, in that order, so that players on any version can access this upcoming content.

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How to turn on experimental features in Minecraft Bedrock

1) Launch Bedrock

Bedrock Edition's main menu (Image via Mojang)

The first step to accessing experimental content on Bedrock is to launch the game. Experimental settings are baked into each of Minecraft's many different versions, meaning that no new profiles need to be set up. Simply open the launcher, select Bedrock, and hit play.

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2) Create a new world

Bedrock's world creation screen (Image via Mojang)

Experimental settings need to be enabled during world creation and cannot be changed after the fact without major stability and corruption issues. This means that you'll need to create a new world to mess with experimental settings. Enter the world selection screen and then the world creation menu.

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3) Navigate to the "Experiments" section

The "Experiments" section of the world creation menu (Image via Mojang)

There should be a list of different tabs along the left-hand side of the world creation screen. The very bottom option should be the "Experiments" tab. This is the tab where all of Bedrock's different upcoming and developmental features are hidden. Enter this tab.

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4) Enable experimental content

Try to avoid having more experimental toggles flipped than required (Image via Mojang)

From here, the final step to enabling experimental content on Bedrock is to actually enable the content. The most relevant options are the settings that enable the Minecraft villager trading rebalance and the option for upcoming Tricky Trials content. The other experimental options only come into play for third-party content and should be left alone, as unnecessarily enabling them can break things.

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How to enable experimental features in Java Edition

1) Launch Java

The Java Edition main menu (Image via Mojang)

The first step to enabling experimental content in Java is almost identical to Bedrock. You'll want to open the game, either with the official launcher or one of Minecraft's many alternative launchers.

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2) Create a new world

Java Edition's world creation screen (Image via Mojang)

Similarly to Minecraft Bedrock experimental gameplay features, Java Edition experiments need to be set during world creation. This means that you'll need to make a new world to actually enable any of them.

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3) Navigate to the experimental options

The list of experimental Java options (Image via Mojang)

Navigate into the "More" tab of the world creation screen, and then enter the "Experiments" section. This will have the three Java Experiments: Minecraft's long-awaited bundles, the villager trade rebalance, and Tricky Trials content.

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4) Enable the desired experiments

Bundles are the best example of experimental Java content (Image via Mojang)

As with Bedrock, the final step here is to simply enable any content you want to mess around with. Bundles and Minecraft Tricky Trials content is probably the most compelling of these toggles and would also be the quickest to test. But any combination of them can be enabled.