Minecraft wasn't always the "polished" game that it is today. When the indie hit first started gaining traction, it saw a lot of changes before morphing into the iconic block-building and monster-slaying title that thousands of players still hop into on a daily basis. Most of these changes came in the form of small patches that improved gameplay or added features. Very rarely did Minecraft ever discard something, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened over the years.

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There have been a handful of items, enemies, and recipes removed from the game, with many of these things going unnoticed to new-age Minecraft players. Some of these things were phased out during the early stages of Minecraft's development, meaning they were likely only noticed by veterans that were playing from the start. To help point these recipes out, here's a look at all of the interesting buildables that have been removed from Minecraft since its beginnings.

Nether Reactor Core

Nether Reactor Core Minecraft
Via: maramokMCPE

The Nether Reactor is one of the oldest blocks added to Minecraft and was originally the only way to collect loot from The Nether itself. Prior to becoming a wide-open and expansive area to explore (with multiple biomes of its own in the modern age) The Nether was instead a small area that could be "spawned" and had a grouping of Pigmen for players to slay. These pigmen would drop items and the surrounding Netherrack could be mined for decorative purposes.

In order to summon the "structure," players would first have to build a Nether Reactor, using the Nether Reactor Core block as its center point. The rest of the simple structure was built using Cobblestone and Gold Blocks. After it was all finished, players could stand close to the reactor and tap the Nether Reactor Core with a pickaxe to activate it. Upon activation, it would glow red and immediately begin changing the structure of the built reactor into a series of red blocks. When completed, players would find themselves in a small room crafted from Netherrack and surrounded by Zombie Pigmen.

The Pigmen would immediately attack the player and the reactor itself would pulse out items from its center for the player to pick up. Once the event was over, players were free to mine out all of the blocks (as the structure and the room would stay wherever they were summoned).

Enchanted Golden Apple

an apple on the ground.

The Enchanted Golden Apple is a very useful item in Minecraft. When eaten, this item will fill a decent amount of hunger, provide players with 8 absorption hearts worth of damage for two minutes, and give them slight resistance to both fire and general damage for five minutes. By having a couple of these in their inventory, players can take on powerful bosses like the Ender Dragon without fear of obliteration.

Currently, these items can only be found via exploration. Players can sometimes find Enchanted Golden Apples in treasure chests within Bastion Remnants, Mineshafts, Dungeons, Desert Temples, Woodland Mansions, or around ruined Nether Portals throughout the Overworld. This makes them a bit difficult to come across, and especially difficult to amass a lot of. It will take players quite a bit of exploring, grinding, and luck, to snag a stack of these incredibly useful apples.

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At one point, however, players could simply craft the item. By combining 8 Gold Blocks and an Apple, players could pop out their own Enchanted Golden Apple. This recipe was eventually removed from the game, and now players have to seek these apples out if they want them.

Saddles & Horse Saddles

Minecraft Saddle Crafting

In the beginning, saddles were separated between pigs and horses. Players were able to find specialized horse saddles that could be used to ride any equines they'd come across but this was soon deemed unnecessary. Since the saddles used for pigs operated in the same manner, eventually the item was simply changed to "saddle" and used interchangeably between both beasts. But that's not the end of the saddle changes.

Players were also able to craft their own saddles by combining five leather and three iron ingots. This was later patched out in a similar manner to the Enchanted Golden Apple. Saddles are still present in Minecraft as of today but players will have to seek them out on their own by searching through chests in a variety of areas.

Chainmail Armor

Minecraft Chainmail Crafting

Chainmail Armor isn't particularly useful in Minecraft. In its current state, Chainmail can only be found by trading or via a rare drop from Zombies and Skeletons that are wearing the armor pieces. It's stronger than Leather and Gold but weaker than Iron, making it fairly impractical for anyone who knows to farm for Iron pretty quickly in any given Minecraft run. The only way in which it is useful is if a player finds some before locating Iron, and the odds of obtaining a full set of it before that happens are incredibly slim. For this reason, many players simply ignore Chainmail.

At one point, though, it was possible to craft Chainmail armor, making it a much more useful item. The recipe has since been removed but players were able to craft pieces of Chainmail by using fire as an item in the crafting table. This was all during the early stages when developers were fiddling with the idea of using fire as a craftable item.

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