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Posted: Jun 19, 2024 in Minecraft
By Nathan Young
Immediately after the release of Minecraft, a few thousand lucky players received one of the most famous capes in history. Many more have been added since then, with millions of users now having these cloaks for their characters. Capes in Minecraft play an important role, as it showcases certain events, accomplishments, or rewards that everyone can view in-game. Whether you attended Minecon or migrated your account, there is a high chance that you have a cape. For those who don’t own one, no worries – there are ways to get them! Let’s dive into the history of Minecraft capes and how you can obtain one for yourself.
Before the game was officially released, there were capes in Minecraft. The first one was for Mojang employees, while the others were only temporary for all players. This changed in 2011, resulting in permanent capes for specific users. The idea of having your own sparked great interest in millions of people across the globe. At one point, the only way to obtain a cape is by attending Minecon, a convention for Minecraft. However, this completely changed in later years – resulting in almost everyone having a chance to get some.
We’ll review all the capes in Minecraft, with some you might have never seen before!
There are 5 Minecon capes in Minecraft, representing how many of these events took place. Here’s the order of them: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016. Due to unknown reasons, Minecon 2014 was skipped – hence the gap between events. Only people who attended in-person can receive their Minecraft capes, making it extremely rare to have in-game. Although, this doesn’t stop individuals from selling them. It was against the rules, but allowed players to willingly pay money for a Minecon cape. There likely won’t be anymore events like this in the future, but may be supplemented with Minecraft Festivals.
In rare cases, Notch or Mojang provided certain players with their own unique Minecraft cape. This typically happens when you assist official employees in projects or significantly help the game. However, this doesn’t occur all the time – as major figures that assisted Mojang a lot never received one. Although, there are other ways! For instance, the millionth customer who purchased the game was awarded with a star cape. Who knows, they may decide to do something similar again for the 500,000,000th customer.
Mojang gives personal capes at random it seems, such as the case with billyK_ and his turtle design. This player suggested the mob for an upcoming update, which eventually was accepted. Afterward, they were awarded with a brand-new cape. This is an unlikely event that will happen to you or anyone else, but shows that Mojang could do it. Otherwise, you could be thanked for creating an ingenious mod like the case with MrMessiah and his spade cape.
Personal Cape | Description |
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Millionth Customer | The lucky player, akronman1, received this cape for being the 1,000,000th person to purchase Minecraft. |
dannyBstyle | This was given to dannyBstyle, a video game music composer, by Notch since he was a fan. |
Prismarine | Drullkus, creator of the Chisel mod, received this cape for recreating the prismarine textures rather than modifying Mojang’s version. |
JulianClark | This was given to JulianClark in return for bringing Notch Ray Cokes, a TV presenter and actor. |
MrMessiah | After creating the BetterLight mod, MrMessiah received his cape as a “thank you” for improving Minecraft’s lighting and grass features. |
Birthday | Mojang employee, Gr8Bizzo, was given this cape for unknown reasons – likely a birthday. |
Valentine | After having issues with the account migration, a Mojang employee awarded LolFoxy2 with their own cape – later removed. |
Turtle | The player, billyK_, was given their cape after suggesting turtles be added to Minecraft. |
In recent years, millions of players have had the chance to obtain community capes in Minecraft. These are from activities or events, such as the account migration or 15th anniversary. Other ones include voting in Minecraft Live, purchasing Minecraft Java & Bedrock before a certain date, or completing tasks for Twitch / TikTok. There will likely be other capes in the future for you and anyone else to claim! Make sure to participate in upcoming events, as Mojang might decide to randomly award players with one.
Community Cape | Description |
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Migrator | Players who purchased Minecraft before December 1, 2020, and successfully migrated their Mojang account to Microsoft were awarded with this cape. |
Vanilla | Players who purchased both Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition for Windows before June 6, 2022 were given this cape. |
Cherry Blossom | Players who voted during the Minecraft Live 2023 event on the official website were awarded with this cape, only for Java. |
15th Anniversary | Players during the 15th anniversary of Minecraft claimed this cape from the official website. |
Purple Heart (Twitch) | People who watched Minecraft live streams on Twitch for a certain amount of time were provided codes to redeem this cape, during the 15th anniversary event. |
Follower’s (TikTok) | People who watched Minecraft live streams on TikTok for 5 mins and typed “Minecraft” were provided codes to redeem this cape, during the 15th anniversary event. |
MCC 15th Year | Players who participated in the MC Championship event, hosted by Noxcrew, in 2024 received this cape on Bedrock & Java Edition. |
One of the first capes in Minecraft is only for Mojang employees, with different variations of it over the years. This is used to signify that they work for the game, plus for branding purposes. Despite the different versions of Mojang capes, accounts can still use them – but only newer ones are seen in-game since the old design is barely used. We likely won’t see any changes to the latest cape, as it was remade in 2021 to reflect Mojang’s new style.
Mojang Cape | Description |
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Mojang (Classic) | Employees received this cape in 2010, lasting until 2015. |
Mojang | Employees received this cape in 2015, lasting until 2021. |
Mojang Studios | Employees received this cape in 2021, lasting to the present day. |
There have been temporary capes in Minecraft before, allowing everyone to have them in-game. Unfortunately, these don’t stay after a certain amount of time. The first was Christmas of 2010, with the second being for New Year’s Eve 2011. These two capes were around when Minecraft was recently released to the world, hinting that Notch would do the same each year. This never happened and likely won’t in the future. There are other temporary capes, but only for the April Fools 23w13a-or-b version.
If you’ve participated in certain contests or assistance work for Mojang / Minecraft, you might have received a unique cape. For instance, people who moderate the Bug Tracker received the Mojira cape. Other examples include participants in level-building competitions or map makers in Minecraft Realms. If you’re an avid builder, developer, or community member, you might have chances in the future to obtain a cape – depending on the circumstances.
Other Cape | Description |
---|---|
Mojira Moderator | People who moderated the Bug Tracker (formally known as Mojira), received this cape. |
Cobalt | Participants / winners of level-making competitions and the Cobalt League tournaments received this cape. |
Scrolls Champion | Players who won first-place badges five times in Scrolls in 2014 received this cape. |
Realms MapMaker | Credible map makers who have their maps become official in the Java Realms Content Creator Program may receive this cape. |
Translator | During the Minecraft Translation Project in Crowdin, proofreaders that helped translate texts were awarded this cape. |
If you don’t have a Minecraft cape or want more of them, understanding how to obtain one is important. There are a few ways to do this, but almost all of them fall into the “Community Capes” category. This means that you have the best chance to get a Minecraft cape by participating in voting, activities, or during special events. We’ll summarize each way!
These unfortunately don’t guarantee a Minecraft cape for your account, but are the best options.
In cases where you missed out on opportunities to get a Minecraft cape, consider using mods. These can allow you to create your own via image uploading or in-game selections. All custom capes in Minecraft are seen by other players who have the mod(s) installed on their launcher. Occasionally, you might have to pay money for this feature – depending on what you use. Here are our top picks for cape mods in Minecraft.
Mojang knows the importance of capes in Minecraft, as they play a crucial role in status, accomplishments, and participation. They also understand that some of them can be valuable and rare. Unfortunately, there is a black market for Minecraft capes – so Mojang has to be careful. Luckily for all of us, special events like the 15th Anniversary opens the door for capes! In the future, we can be absolutely sure that new ones will be available. It all boils down to what event, contest, activity, or program Mojang will announce that has the potential to give capes.