Cape

Steve, wearing a MINECON 2011 cape.

Capes are special commemorative items that are shown on the back of the player's skin. They are purely cosmetic and they do not alter any gameplay. Wearing a cape also changes the appearance of the elytra, fitting the look of the respective cape. Unlike skins, capes cannot be custom-made and have to be earned. In addition, they cannot be transferred between accounts. Some capes can be earned through various promotions, while others are not available to the general public.

Various mods offer unofficial capes for players to use. These capes, however, are only visible to other users of those mods. Only capes added by Mojang Studios are featured below.

Obtaining

With the exception of the Pan Cape, capes that are available to the general public can only be obtained through limited-time promotions. Some types of promotions that distribute capes are social media campaigns, event servers, and in-person events. Capes cannot be obtained after their respective promotions have ended.

Modern capes are often distributed to both editions of the game at the same time, although logging into Bedrock Edition is often required to activate such capes in Java Edition.

Overview

Java Edition

The Minecraft.net cape selection menu, as it would be viewed with a hypothetical account with all of the capes. The order that capes are displayed in varies per user.

In Java Edition, capes can either be equipped on the skin creation menu in the Minecraft Launcher, or in the profile page on the Minecraft website.

For about a decade after the introduction of capes in 2010, Java Edition capes could be split into five groups:

• Mojang capes, given only to Mojang employees.
• MINECON capes, distributed to attendees of the convention. Around 27,000 of these capes are known to exist.
• Personal capes, which were given to single individuals as appreciation for something they did.
• Volunteer capes, given to contributors in various programs, such as Crowdin, Mojira, and the Realms map making program.
• Competition capes, given to those who had won competitions in Mojang's other games, Scrolls and Cobalt. These competitions were short-lived, with only the top players winning these capes, so only around 30 of these capes exist.

Of these, only MINECON capes were available to the public in significant numbers. Therefore, at the time, capes were far more exclusive items than they are today.

As Minecraft became more popular, however, this exclusivity caused capes, and accounts that had them, to become premier items on black markets. Partly due to this, accounts with rare capes have been known to be common targets of hacking attempts and unwanted solicitation. This exclusivity grew in 2017 when MINECON events became livestreams and stopped distributing capes, leading to a period of almost five years between MINECON 2016 and the account migration in 2021 where no new Java Edition capes could be obtained by the public.

Since the account migration, which granted the Migrator Cape to all Java Edition players who migrated, various capes have been available to the general public without being tied to in-person events. This is likely in order to avoid the problems associated with the aforementioned exclusivity.

Bedrock Edition

The Bedrock Edition cape selection menu, as it would be viewed with a hypothetical account with all of the capes.

In Bedrock Edition, capes can be equipped in the Capes section on the Character Creator. As Character Creator items, they are assigned a rarity, usually Legendary.

Capes are also available as part of some skins included in certain skin packs, but they can only be equipped with their corresponding skin. Most notably, the MINECON 2016 Skin Pack included Steve and Alex skins wearing all MINECON capes from 2011 to 2016. However, these capes were locked to the skin pack, so they cannot be used with custom skins. For documentation purposes, capes from skin packs are considered to be separate from standard capes, which can be freely equipped with any skin. Statements about capes on this wiki will exclude these by default.

There were a few exclusive capes on Bedrock. Although cape support on Bedrock Edition was added on 2016, it was used exclusively for skin packs until 2019, when the Founder's Cape was released. A second cape, called the Pan Cape, was given to all Bedrock Edition players for free starting in 2020 and is still given out to this day. Thus far, it is the only cape on either edition to automatically be given out to all players without any known time limit.

Not long after this, however, the Java Edition account migration occurred, which ultimately led to the introduction of cross-platform capes.

On May 8, 2025, the Founder's Cape and Pan Cape were distributed to Java Edition players as well. The Progress Pride Cape is currently the only cape exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

Cross-platform capes

After the migration from Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts in 2021, ownership of both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition was tied to a single account. In 2022, both editions were merged into one bundle, ensuring that all players would always have access to both. These changes allowed capes to be obtained in both editions at the same time after fulfilling the requirements, which became the standard. All capes released to the public after the merger were released for both editions, with the sole exception of the aforementioned Progress Pride Cape.

There may have been some hesitancy on Mojang's part to grant capes distributed through Bedrock Edition event servers to Java Edition accounts. This is supported by the fact that the Cherry Blossom Cape and the MCC 15th Year Cape, the first two capes tied to event servers, were not originally announced for Java. Ultimately, both of these capes were added to Java Edition after the conclusion of their respective events. Since then, capes added by live events have been announced for and immediately granted to both editions upon completion of the requirements.

Legacy Console Edition

Three Xbox 360 Edition capes were known to exist, none of which were permanently made available to the general public.

• The Microsoft Xbox Cape, which was available only for Microsoft employees
• The Xbox 1st Birthday Cape, which was temporarily shown on all players during the Xbox edition's first anniversary
• The Classic Mojang Cape, which was given out to Mojang employees

Like Bedrock Edition, most of the Legacy Console Editions also featured skin packs, some of which came with capes.

The now-defunct Xbox 360 marketplace had some cosmetic Xbox avatar items based off of capes available for purchase. These include avatar versions of the Xbox 1st Birthday Cape and all of the MINECON capes released before 2016. These can be viewed on the Xbox 360 avatar items page.

List of capes

Account-related capes

These capes were given to players simply for owning or logging into the game during certain time periods.

• 
  Pan Cape
• 
  Migrator Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  Vanilla Cape
• 
  Common Cape

Staff capes

These capes were only given out to employees of Mojang or Microsoft.

• 
  Classic Mojang Cape ‌^{[JE & X360 only]}
• 
  Microsoft Xbox Cape ‌^{[X360 only]}
• 
  4J Studios Cape ‌^{[X360 only]}
• 
  Mojang Cape
  ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  Mojang Studios Cape

Event capes

Physical event capes

These capes were released in connection with in-person events, such as MINECON, Minecraft Experience, or TwitchCon.

• 
  MINECON 2011 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  MINECON 2012 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  MINECON 2013 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  MINECON 2015 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  MINECON 2016 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  Minecraft Experience Cape
• 
  Moonlight Trail Cape
• 
  Crafter Cape

Virtual event capes

These capes were released through or in connection with online events, such as Minecraft Live, social media campaigns, or event servers.

• 
  Founder's Cape
• 
  Progress Pride Cape‌^{[BE only]}
• 
  Cherry Blossom Cape
• 
  Follower's Cape
• 
  Purple Heart Cape
• 
  15th Anniversary Cape
• 
  MCC 15th Year Cape
• 
  Mojang Office Cape
• 
  Home Cape
• 
  Menace Cape
• 
  Yearn Cape
• 
  Copper Cape
• 
  Zombie Horse Cape
• 
  Builder Cape

Personal capes

These capes were manually given to people from the community, often as appreciation for something they did. They are only available in Java Edition.

• 
  Bacon Cape
• 
  Millionth Customer Cape
• 
  dB Cape
• 
  Snowman Cape
• 
  Cheapsh0t's Cape
• 
  Spade Cape
• 
  Prismarine Cape
• 
  Turtle Cape
• 
  Birthday Cape
• 
  Valentine Cape
• 
  Oxeye Cape
• 
  Blueprint Cape

Competition capes

These capes were given to players who won competitions of Mojang's other games. They are only available in Java Edition.

• 
  Scrolls Champion Cape
• 
  Cobalt Cape

Volunteer capes

These capes were given to volunteers in various programs. They are only available in Java Edition.

• 
  Translator Cape
• 
  Chinese Translator Cape
• 
  Moderator Cape
• 
  Realms MapMaker Cape

Other capes

Announced capes

On April 22, 2026, Anthony Toczek, the Head of Influence at Mojang, stated that they were "actively working" on a YouTube cape, but were "still building the tech to make drops work there".

Temporary capes

These were briefly shown on all for certain periods of time without being added to their accounts.

• 
  Christmas 2010 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  New Year 2011 Cape ‌^{[JE only]}
• 
  Xbox 1st Birthday Cape ‌^{[X360 only]}
• 
  Scrolls Champion Cape ‌^{[JE only]}

Skin pack capes

Various skin packs for Bedrock Edition include capes as part of their included skins.

API testing capes

These capes were added in some form by Mojang Studios, but should not be considered official.

• 
  size-m cape
• 
  Snail cape
• 
  ICU cape #1
• 
  ICU cape #2
• 
  Frog cape

Vote Update capes

These capes were part of the April Fools joke snapshot 23w13a_or_b. Within the snapshot, they can be obtained by passing proposals. All of them intentionally use the misspelling "caep".

• 
  Awesom caep
• 
  Blonk caep
• 
  No-Circle caep
• 
  Nyan caep
• 
  Squid caep
• 
  Veterinarian caep

Unused capes

These capes were designed, but never actually released.

MINECON 2011 cloak vote

Minecon 2011 Cloak Candidates.

The winning Minecon 2011 Cloak Candidate.

These capes were featured in a poll where readers could vote for the design of the MINECON 2011 cape. The red creeper cape won with 42% of the votes and was chosen as the cape design for MINECON 2011. The blue cape with the pickaxe, which received 33% of the votes, was later reused for MINECON 2012. The remaining cape designs, however, have never been used.

11 other capes were designed for the vote, but were ultimately excluded from it. The existence of and designs for these 11 capes were revealed in The World of Minecraft.

Recreations of unused capes

Row 1	2011 Minecon Cape	2012 Minecon Cape
Texture
Row 2
Texture

Customer support tool capes

Mojang has confirmed that a number of unused Java Edition capes have existed in the Customer Support tool, which have never been shown to the public. Some of them, such as the Birthday Cape, were first given an owner a long time after they had been made.

History

This section details more general history regarding capes. The history of specific capes is documented on their respective articles.

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.0							Exclusive capes, then called "cloaks", are added on December 20, 2010. The first cape, the Classic Mojang Cape, is added at the same time.
December 25, 2010							All players are temporarily displayed with the Christmas 2010 Cape, marking the first time that the public can use a cape in-game. Six days later, the New Year 2011 Cape is displayed on all players in the same manner. These capes are only shown for the event and are not actually given to players for future use.
Java Edition
September 22, 2011							Exclusive cloaks for MINECON attendees are announced as the first cloaks available for the public to obtain. A poll is put out for players to decide on the design. The winning design is used for the MINECON 2011 Cape, with the runner-up being used for the MINECON 2012 Cape.
October 28, 2011							Notch renames "cloaks" to "capes", tweeting "We've reached a decision. The 'cloaks' will no longer be called 'cloaks' because they're not. They're capes. Sorry about that."
1.9			15w41a				A player's cape becomes invisible if that player is equipped with elytra.
			16w06a				The elytra texture now defaults to the cape texture if no custom texture is uploaded and the player owns a cape.
May 12, 2020							Mojang disables all unused MINECON cape codes.
October 21, 2020							The Migrator Cape, the first cape to be distributed to the public in significant amounts without requiring attendance to in-person events, is announced.
August 15, 2022							Following the ownership merger of Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, the Vanilla Cape, the first cape to be available on both editions, is announced.
May 8, 2025							The Founder's Cape and the Pan Cape, initially exclusive to Bedrock Edition, are distributed to Java Edition players. With this, the Pan Cape becomes the first cape to be given to all players on both editions without being tied to a limited-time promotion.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.9							Cape support added.
							Added the MINECON 2016 skin pack, which contains skins with all Java Edition MINECON capes from 2011 to 2016. It is available to all players for a limited time.
v0.15.10							Capes no longer clip through armor.
							When obtaining skins from the MINECON 2016 skin pack, the player is now prompted to make a "free" purchase in their device's store. If the player is on Android and is prompted to make a payment, they could use the code MINECON2016 to get it for free.
October 7, 2016							The MINECON 2016 skin pack is no longer available - it has been removed from all app stores and its redemption code is now expired. Players who obtained it while it was available are still able to use it.
Bedrock Edition
September 28, 2019							The Founder's Cape, the first Bedrock Edition cape to not be tied to a skin pack, is announced during MINECON Live 2019.
1.13.0			?				Worn capes now change the texture of elytra.
			?				The Founder's Cape is implemented. It can be equipped onto Marketplace skins with the character creator, but due to a bug, it does not work with custom skins.
1.13.1							The Founder's Cape can now be equipped onto custom skins.
1.16.0			beta 1.15.0.51				The Pan Cape, the first cape to be automatically given to all players, is given to all Bedrock Edition players around this time.

Issues

Issues relating to "Cape" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Mojang images

• 
  The millionth customer cape
• 
  The millionth customer cape
• 
  First image of a cape in Bedrock Edition
• 
  Microsoft employees had this Xbox 360 Cape on Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition.
• 
  This is the first image showcasing the Turtle Cape given to BillyK_ by jeb_ on reddit.
• 
  Mojang cape designs shared by jeb_ on twitter
• 
  Revised design of Minecon 2015 Cape elytra by jeb_ showed on reddit
• 
  Minecraft 15th Anniversary Cape animation
• 
  The MC Championship cape
• 
  Minecraft Experience Cape
• 
  Eyeblossom redeem page
• 
  Render of the Menace cape shown in the redeem page on Minecraft.net
• 
  Render of the Home cape shown in the redeem page on Minecraft.net
• 
  A screenshot from Minecraft LIVE – March 2025 where the then unnamed Yearn Cape for completing the "A Minecraft Movie" Bedrock Event Server was first revealed
• 
  A person in a crafter cape holding out a diamond sword
• 
  Ditto, but with a builder cape