Top 10 Minecraft features that changed the game forever

Minecraft has one of the most extensively documented development histories in all of gaming. Having seen active development for over a decade, the current state of the game is almost unrecognizable when compared to the earliest version due to the different features that have been added and changes made over the years.

That being said, we look at 10 additions and changes that created the largest impact on Minecraft as a whole.

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The top 10 features that changed Minecraft the most

10) Ender Chests/Shulker Boxes

An ender chest filled with shulker boxes (Image via Mojang Studios)

As Minecraft continues to receive updates, more items are added to the game for players. For instance, take the upcoming Minecraft 1.21, which will add wind charges, saving players from fall damage, and wolf armor, which keeps dogs safe. Both are items players might want to keep for emergencies.

However, despite more additions added to the game, the inventory remains the same, other than two incredibly helpful additions. The first was the ender chest. It works like a normal single chest, but all of a player's ender chests contain the same items.

The next was Minecraft's ever-useful shulker boxes, which function as chests that retain items when broken. But what really broke storage was being able to put shulker boxes inside of an ender chest. This means players can effectively carry around 27 extra inventories within a single ender chest.

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9) Netherite

For most of the game's existence, there was a single resource that players sought out to hoard and trade: diamonds. They gave players the best tools, weapons, and armor in the game, making them iconic due to their importance to players. But with the addition of netherite, this was no longer the case.

Diamond was now second best, with an even harder-to-obtain material taking its throne. While useful, this fundamental change in Minecraft's item hierarchy inarguably changed the game forever in a major way.

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8) Enchanting

A level 30 enchanting setup (Image via Mojang Studios)

Enchanting ranks as the eighth most game-changing feature due to just how much more efficient and deadly it made players. Specially made enchanting areas give players access to these massive buffs. Unbreaking and efficiency allow players to clear large areas quickly, fortune gives players abundant resources, and mending means all gear crafted can be repaired with XP and used indefinitely.

Armor can also be enchanted to block more damage or even deal damage back to attackers. Weapons can be made deadlier or given unique effects, such as summoning lightning, setting targets on fire, or having unlimited ammunition.

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7) Nether Fortresses/The Nether Overhaul

A nether fortress found overlapped with a warped forest (Image via Mojang Studios)

While technically two different features, they achieve the same end. When first added, there was no reason to go to the nether; all it had to offer players was danger and glowstone. Nether fortresses gave players a reason to go to the nether, needing to hunt blazes to reach the end dimension. But all this did was make the nether a temporary stop.

The nether overhaul really changed things for the better. It added new nether biomes, mobs, items, and structures such as the piglin bastion. If the nether fortress gave players a reason to visit the nether, the overhaul offered players a reason to keep coming back.

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6) New Terrain Generation

A view of some of the new terrain (Image via Mojang Studios)

Even though Minecraft's world generation and art style have become iconic over the years, this did not stop the old world generation from sometimes feeling too random. Caves would cut off unnaturally, biomes changed quickly and harshly, and floating bits of terrain were commonplace.

This was until world generation was completely revamped, adding 128 blocks to the top and bottom of every world and generally updating generation code. This extra depth allowed Mojang Studios to add features such as the deep dark and ancient cities, letting players make even larger mega bases, and making worlds look more natural.

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5) Villager Trading

Diamond tools available for trade (Image via Mojang Studios)

Villager trading is, no doubt, the most powerful system that players have access to within vanilla Minecraft. Through clever use of game mechanics, players can get near-infinite access to many of the game's best resources, such as redstone, diamond tools, armor, weapons, and powerful enchantments, including mending, all from the comfort of an elaborate trading hall.

The sheer variety of resources that players have access to, combined with just how easily the emerald economy can be broken open, is why villager trading ranks as the fifth most game-changing feature ever added.

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4) The End

The ender dragon (Image via Mojang Studios)

The addition of the end dimension is the first of Minecraft's big four changes, which are so major that they shake up the game's foundation to such a degree that, as a result, the very identity of the title is changed.

The end dimension marked the first time players had a concrete end-point. If they could find a Minecraft stronghold, travel to the end, and slay the dragon, the credits would roll. The game could now be beaten. The genre shift is what makes this addition so impactful. The title was no longer an endless survival quest; there was a conclusion to be reached.

And since the game could be beaten, speedrunners were able to start running it, contributing a massive amount to the game's second resurgence in popularity and skyrocketing YouTubers such as Dream to viral status.

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3) Hunger

A player eating cooked chicken to restore hunger (Image via Mojang Studios)

Hunger's addition is the first of the second of the four big changes, as described above. Its addition as a mechanic completely changed how players had to tackle survival.

In the past, food could be stockpiled indefinitely, only needing to be used if the player took damage. This meant that skilled or lucky players never had to eat. The addition of the hunger bar meant that food, as a resource, would constantly be draining. Played had to start farming to replenish their food stocks.

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2) Redstone

Redstone is the second-most impactful change Mojang has ever made to Minecraft. While relatively unpopular at the start, over the years, redstone has evolved to the point that its influence has changed the game's very DNA.

The complex late-game automatic Minecraft farms famous for producing hundreds of thousands of items a second would not be possible without these additions, meaning the game's overall skill ceiling would be much lower.

Needless to say, if players can create fully realized processors using a game's built-in engineering components, it probably is a significant change.

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1) Survival mode

Death, introduced with survival mode (Image via Mojang Studios)

Inarguably, the single feature that changed Minecraft the most was the addition of survival mode. Before this, the game was a much more limited creative building game, where players made simple structures. Survival gave players a goal: explore the world, fight off mobs, and light up the night.

This change allowed for Minecraft YouTubers to start popping up, kickstarting the game's popularity and setting it on the trajectory to become the best-selling game of all time. The importance of survival mode's addition cannot be understated, as survival mode literally is Minecraft now. In fact, the feature has become the game.

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Minecraft has evolved significantly over its decade-long history of development. And it is sure to change further in the coming years as the design philosophy within the gaming industry shifts. With Minecraft update 1.21 and its many features being added in the coming months, the game is evolving even now, with every new addition likely being the next most impactful one.