Like lots of games, Minecraft is celebrating April Fools’ Day with a good, old-fashioned joke. But rather than simply making a silly social media post, developer Mojang is fully committed to the bit, and this year’s joke comes in the form of a playable game update.
The Herdcraft Update is live now, and gets rid of the inventory system entirely, leaving players’ inventory items to follow them around the in-game world like sheep.
“Herdcraft is a completely new (and very permanent) way to play Minecraft,” creative communications director and writer Cristina Anderca explained in a blog post announcing the update. “Instead of spending minutes, hours, years on end trying to organize the chaos in your inventory, you get to be present in the world, together with your new friends: all the items and blocks that you own!”
“The inventory is gone, and it’s gone for good,” Anderca continued. “Now, the world is your inventory. When you break a block, you won’t break its physical form; instead, you’ll break its spirit! From then on, it’ll do whatever you say. Want to take it with you? Ask it to follow you. Want to craft something? Place your crafting grid on the ground (yes, you read that right) and command the blocks to go in the appropriate slots for the recipe. It’s an engaging and mindful way of crafting, and we think you’ll love it.”
Combat is also affected. Instead of wielding weapons in-hand, players can now order their weapons to gang up on enemies en masse.
“Can’t believe we didn’t think of this sooner, really,” Anderca said.
Obviously, this whole thing is a joke–the inventory isn’t permanently gone–but it’s a playable joke, and a pretty funny one at that. Later in the blog post, Anderca explains that the Herdcraft Update is a snapshot that’s only available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install the update, just open the Minecraft Launcher, navigate to the “Installations” tab, enable snapshots, then select “Latest Snapshot.” Anderca also cautioned players to back up their world (or rub the snapshot in a different folder) to ensure the snapshot doesn’t corrupt their current world. To revert back to the normal version of the game, select “Latest Release” from the Minecraft Launcher.
“You can even play the snapshot on Java Realms so you can herd blocks together with your friends!” Anderca revealed. “Can’t think of a more peaceful pastime.”
