New Minecraft rarity changes explained: All you need to know

Minecraft's different rarities are an interesting way to categorize items within the game. Rarity affects the color that an item's name appears in when the player hovers over it with their cursor. It otherwise has no real effect on gameplay. While this might make rarity seem like a useless system on the surface, it's actually quite an interesting way to rank items.

Mojang has made some serious updates to item rarities within the latest Bedrock preview. That said, everything you need to know about these major changes to the game's rarity system can be found detailed below.

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A detailed explanation of Minecraft rarity

The different name colors make it easy to compare rarities at a glance (Image via Mojang)

As previously mentioned, the different tiers of rarity will affect the color of an item's name when the cursor is hovered over it. A full list of the rarities and their UI name colors can be found below:

Rarity	Name color
Common	White
Uncommon	Yellow
Rare	Blue
Epic	Pink

While rarity might not affect an item in terms of gameplay, it is an indication of roughly how difficult something is to obtain, relative to other items. The higher the rarity of an item, the harder it is to obtain.

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The rarity changes

Common

Golden apples just look strange as common rarity (Image via Mojang)

• End crystal
• Golden apple

It might be strange to see golden apples listed as Common items. However, due to the prevalence of Minecraft gold farms in the Nether, one can see why Mojang might consider them incredibly easy to get. End crystals are a stranger choice for Common though, as they require decently hard-to-obtain materials to craft, and even make for deadly PvP weapons in the right hands.

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Epic

Elytra have finally been given the highest rarity in the game (Image via Mojang)

• Elytra
• Dragon head
• Silence armor trim

It makes sense that the elytra and dragon head were both moved up to the Epic rarity. They are found alongside one another within the ships sometimes floating above dangerous End cities. Being constantly bombarded by Minecraft shulker shots capable of sending fresh End players up to dangerous heights, makes getting these items quite a challenge.

Silence armor trim is equally dangerous to obtain, as it's found exclusively within loot chests of ancient cities, dutifully guarded by Minecraft's warden mob.

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Rare

Tridents make sense at rare now, thanks to trial chambers (Image via Mojang)

• Enchanted golden apples
• Tridents
• Nether star
• Ward armor trim
• Eye armor trim
• Vex armor trim
• Spire armor trim
• Wither armor trim
• Skull charge banner pattern
• Thing banner pattern
• Pigstep, otherside, and Creator music discs

Enchanted golden apples are definitely a strange choice for Rare. However, as Mojang points out in the announcement, they have become much more common in newer updates as more and more Minecraft structures are added to the game.

Tridents are another interesting item to see end up in the Rare category. They were considered Common for a long time, despite only being obtainable from drowned that happened to spawn with one. Mojang then recently moved them up to Epic. However, since tridents were just added to Minecraft trial chambers as loot items, they were adjusted once again, this time down to the Rare tier.

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Uncommon

Nautilus shells are by far the rarest uncommon item (Image via Mojang)

• Sniffer egg
• Chainmail helmet
• Chainmail chestplate
• Chainmail leggings
• Chainmail boots
• Recovery compass
• Disc fragment 5
• Nautilus shell
• Echo shard
• Goat horn
• Ominous bottles
• Ominous banner
• Netherite upgrade
• Sentry armor trim
• Dune armor trim
• Coast armor trim
• Wild armor trim
• Tide armor trim
• Snout armor trim
• Wayfinder armor trim
• Shaper armor trim
• Raiser armor trim
• Host armor trim
• Flow armor trim
• Bolt armor trim
• 13, Cat, Blocks, Chirp, Creator (Music Box), Far, Mall, Mellohi, Stal, Strad, Ward, 11, Wait, Relic, 5, and Precipice music discs.

The Uncommon category was by far the largest one to be expanded on in this Bedrock preview. Many of these items make sense to be included in this category. They're not seen in every playthrough, due to spawning in rarer structures, but aren't necessarily dangerous or hard to get for those who want to go out of their way.

The only item in Uncommon that seems out-of-place is Minecraft's nautilus shell, as they can be very hard to get in large numbers without a long grind.