Inventions
Invent things Minecraft has never seen.
Put two or three things on a crafting table. If no recipe in the game fits, the table offers to invent something instead: a tool, a vehicle, a companion, a thing to wear. It is tested on a real Minecraft server before it reaches you, and once it exists, anyone can make it.
- Two or three items Any crafting table, any order. No new block or command to learn.
- Tested before it is yours A test pilot tries it on a real server first. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t ship.
- Made once, for everyone The first inventor gets the patent. Everyone else can make it too.
At the table
“Nobody has made this. Invent it!”
Things that don’t belong together
Ordinary recipes always come first: a stick and coal still make a torch. When two or three different items match nothing, the result slot offers to invent. The ingredients are put aside safely.
A name, then a test flight
Its name arrives first, in chat. Then it is designed, built and flown by a test pilot on a real server. Log off in the middle and it waits for you.
Yours, with a patent
The first of its kind gets the next patent number. If it fizzles instead, the ingredients come back.
Illustrated, with a sample invention.
What you can invent
Nine kinds of thing
What comes out depends on what goes in. Each invention is one of these:
- Tools Dig, chop or shape blocks, better or stranger than the usual.
- Gadgets Hold it, right-click, and something happens.
- Wearables On your head, chest, legs or feet, with a power while worn.
- Vehicles Drive, hover, fly, sail, dive, or go up like a rocket.
- Companions A small friend that follows you and helps: lights the way, carries, fetches or guards.
- Weapons Thrown, fired or swung, for mobs. Players only if your world has PvP on.
- Consumables Eat or drink it, and something happens.
- Placeables Set it down in the world, and it does something there.
- Deployables Plant it on the ground, and a little build appears.
Rarer and rarer
Five tiers, and a card for every invention
Every invention has a tier, from the ingredients that went into it, and a Patent Card in that tier’s finish. You cannot buy a Legend, only invent one.
Illustrated: sample cards. Move the light across one.
Inventions are ingredients too
Put an invention back on the table with something else and you can invent from it. Each generation climbs the tiers, so the rarest things in the library are built on other people’s inventions.
Illustrated, with sample inventions.
The Patent Office
Made once, then anyone’s
Inventions shared with the Patent Office join one library across every Cubelings world. The same ingredients make the same invention for everybody, and making one that already exists is free. The first inventor’s patent stays with it.
On its public page, an invention is credited to a country, “Invented in New Zealand”, unless the world’s owner chooses to show a player’s Minecraft name. Owners can also keep a world’s inventions as a private workshop, never shared, or switch inventing off.
What is shared, and what never is →
Fair play
Invented by players, in survival
A patent means something because it was earned. New inventions come from survival worlds; a world that uses creative mode or give commands becomes a Sandbox, which can still make every invention that exists but cannot invent new ones. Cog can help you gather the ingredients, but cannot invent for you.
- Inventor world Everything in it was earned in survival. New things can be invented here.
- Sandbox world Creative mode, /give, or a world brought in from elsewhere. Every existing invention can be made here, but nothing new is invented.
Read next
A closer look
Questions
Straight answers
Do we need mods or a special launcher?
No. Inventions run on your hosted Cubelings world, and players join with ordinary Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4, or with Bedrock (beta). The world offers a resource pack that gives inventions their shapes; decline it and they still work, just with plainer looks.
What happens to the ingredients?
They are held safely while the invention is made. If it works, they become the invention. If it fizzles, you get them back.
How long does it take?
The name arrives first, in chat, and then the invention is built and tested. We aim for under a minute; some take longer. If you log off in the middle, it waits for you.
Can my friends use my invention?
Yes. Anyone who puts the same ingredients on a crafting table gets the same invention, in any Cubelings world that shares with the Patent Office, and making one that already exists is free.
Can TNT be an ingredient?
Yes. TNT counts as explosive, which points the table towards something that goes bang, though the table decides what it becomes. How big the bang can be depends on the tier: TNT with a dispenser makes a Gizmo with a small blast, with a diamond a Wonder, and with a netherite ingot a Legend that can hit as hard as TNT itself. The one thing no invention does is place real TNT blocks.
Does it cost anything?
Each world gets some new inventions every month: 10 on Starter, 20 on Crew and 50 on Club. A trial gets a few to try. After that, a new invention uses 5 AI credits from the same allowance as Cog, including your first month’s bonus credits. One that fizzles costs nothing, and making an invention that already exists is always free.
Does it work on Bedrock, or in creative?
Bedrock players can use inventions, in beta. Bedrock loads a world’s resource pack only when you join, so a brand-new invention shows its own look after you leave and join again. Inventing new things is for survival worlds; a world that uses creative or give commands becomes a Sandbox, which can still make every invention that already exists.