Survival Test was an experimental phase in Minecraft’s development aimed at testing the Survival game mode. Initially, it was released for premium members during the Classic phase, accessible via minecraft.net/survivaltest. A total of 11 versions were released between September 1 and October 24, 2009.
On October 24, 2009, the Survival Test became accessible to all players, regardless of premium membership. It was eventually removed from the website on December 16, 2010, during a major site overhaul. The Survival Test is not included in the launcher, but can still be played if the .jar file is available.
Additions & Features
New Blocks & Items
- Smooth Stone Slab – For building.
- Block of Iron – Crafted or mined from iron ore.
- TNT – Explosive block that can be placed and detonated.
- Mossy Cobblestone – Decorative block.
- Bricks – Standard building material.
- Bookshelf – Functional and decorative furniture block.
- Arrow – Ammunition for ranged attacks.
Mobs
- Zombies – Can spawn with helmets and attack players.
- Skeletons – Shoot purple arrows from bare hands; when killed, drop 6–9 arrows. Faster firing rate than modern versions, making them highly dangerous.
- Creepers – Have a melee attack where they jump on players; only explode when killed.
- Pigs and Spiders – Added as passive and hostile mobs respectively.
Health & Damage
- Player has a 10-heart health bar. Health bar shakes when at 2 hearts or below.
- Damage sources include falling, drowning, lava, hostile mobs, and player-fired arrows.
- Brown mushrooms are edible, restoring 5 HP. Dropped by pigs and sheep.
- Red mushrooms are poisonous, dealing 3 HP damage.
- Death results in a game over, similar to Hardcore mode before Spectator mode existed.
Gameplay Mechanics
- Players can fire arrows by pressing Tab; starting with 20 arrows.
- After 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST, players begin with 10 TNT in the ninth hotbar slot, which can be placed with right-click and detonated with left-click. TNT causes up to 6 hearts of damage and has a blast radius of ~4 blocks.
Point System
Points awarded for defeating mobs:
- Pigs: 10 points
- Sheep: 10 points
- Zombies: 80 points (previously 100)
- Spiders: 105 points (previously 10)
- Skeletons: 120 points (previously 100)
- Creepers: 200 points (previously 250)
Indirect kills (e.g., a creeper killing a zombie) do not award points for the killed mob.
Blocks Collection
- Gold blocks: Mined from gold ore.
- Iron blocks: Mined from iron ore.
- Stone slabs: Mined from coal ore.
- Oak planks: Obtained by chopping oak logs.
- Stacking: All blocks can stack up to 99.
- Other naturally occurring blocks drop items normally, with some exceptions:
- Ores drop resources, stone drops cobblestone, leaves drop saplings, grass drops dirt, fluids and bedrock are unbreakable.
Trivia
- Originally planned as the “beta” phase, with full release marking finalized Survival. Changed due to longer development cycle.
- Zombies and skeletons could wear decorative armor, later re-added in Java Edition 1.4.2.
- Spiders were the fastest mob in this version.
- Creepers originated from the failed pig model.
- Player hand animation pointed backwards and rotated slightly, a change retained in Indev.
- Stone was immune to TNT.
- Creepers had melee attacks and exploded only on death.
- Mushrooms were the sole food source, obtainable from pigs, sheep, or caves.
- F5 key toggled a rainy weather effect.