‘Removed Herobrine’ in Minecraft 1.20, Explained

Minecraft has amassed a legion of dedicated fans throughout the years. Despite having no apparent goal (but there is one, mind you), the players are the main reason why the game continues to kick alive and strong today. From a seemly infinite amount of mod packs to hours of gameplay on Youtube, the community goes as far as molding and influencing the game itself. Herobrine is the definitive proof of that.

Not everyone has been on the internet for that long, but it’s very likely that, if you enjoy Minecraft, you heard that name at some point. Or maybe you saw it in any of the older Patch Notes, where it was stated that they “Removed Herobrine”. Find out who or what is this entity and why he’s constantly removed from the game.

What is the Removed Herobrine Quote?

Herobrine is one of the most well-known videogame creepypastas (internet terror stories), having its origins back in 2010. In summary, it tells about a player meeting the spirit of the late brother of Notch, Minecraft’s main developer, in his single-player Minecraft world. The entity uses the default player skin (AKA Steve), except that it has blank eyes. He is often described as a monster that stalks the player and sometimes even attacks them.

Related: Was Herobrine Ever in Minecraft? – Answered

This may sound ridiculous at first, but many people definitely believed that Herobrine was haunting the game. Some were just too young or too new to the internet, and many just couldn’t tell if he really existed or not. Anyways, Herobrine’s popularity skyrocketed really fast, and people started looking for him and/or developing mods to include him in the game.

Mojang eventually decided to play along and included the “Removed Herobrine” line in one of their patch notes, implying that Herobrine was in the game all along. 

The line continued to appear in certain future updates. Does that mean that Herobrine was still making his way back into Minecraft through all those years?!!! Nah, he was never in the game, to begin with. It’s not the first time we talk about him either as his tale never ceases to amaze players.

The Removal of Removed Herobrine (And Its Glorious Comeback)

It’s obvious by now, but Herobrine was never real. If you happen to see him in-game, your game is modded to do so, as developers have officially stated that they had no plans of adding Herobrine to it officially. And Notch has no deceased brother either, as he officially stated eventually. 

Related: Minecraft 1.20: Full Patch Notes Listed

Herobrine was just a myth that went too far, so the devs decided to have some fun with it. Mojang loves to break those player/developer barriers in many ways, like with their title quotes. “Also try Terraria” is one of my favorites. Gotta respect them for telling people to play a “rival” game.

Various update cycles had the “Removed Herobrine” joke in at least one of their patch notes, but Mojang eventually got tired of it around the 1.16 version. Fast forward a few years later to 2023 and the 1.20 version is referencing him again! Gone but never forgotten.

Many Minecraft creepypastas were inspired by Herobrine during that time, but none were just as popular as the original scary guy. That whole “haunted video game” thing was insanely popular at that time. Ben Drowned scared the hell out of the 11 years old me, and I remember reading a lot of Pokemon ones too.

But none had the impact as the creepypasta-turned-meme-turned-canon Herobrine, so he deserves some respect. Just be careful not to find him lying in the distance when looking for the new Suspicious Gravel introduced in 1.20. We never know if he was actually removed or not.