Notorious Minecraft Herobrine world seed has finally been unveiled

(Image credit: Mojang Studios)

The original Minecraft Herobrine world seed has at long last been recovered, after over four months of searching by dedicated community members.

Just below, you can see the original post by a user on the Minecraft subreddit earlier this month on January 23. It's through this "world seed" that the Minecraft community can now replicate the world of the particularly notorious character called Herobrine, who would traditionally rummage around a player's Minecraft map, causing havoc by digging strange tunnels.

The original Herobrine seed has been found! from r/Minecraft

There's a lot to unpack with Herobrine. As you can see in the video below, the character is a replica of Minecraft's Steve, but with vacant white eyes, giving him a suitably ominous appearance. According to the Minecraft Wiki, Herobrine was once said to be developer Notch's deceased brother, but this has no basis in fact as Notch doesn't actually have a brother. Herobrine is undoubtedly inspired by horror legend Slenderman though, which in turn was also the inspiration behind Minecraft's Enderman.

If you're unfamiliar with what Minecraft "world seeds" are, they're basically a series of codes that allow a user to perfectly replicate an in-game Minecraft map. So, now that the world seed has been recovered for the map in which Herobrine was first allegedly seen, players can use the world seed to delve into the map for themselves.

If you were hoping to meet Herobrine for yourselves, we've got some disappointing news for you: it was all a lie. As was revealed in the years following Herobrine's discovery, the entire thing was made up, a spooky folk tale passed from player to player. Herobrine never actually existed in a vanilla version of Minecraft, and is instead seen by the community as a mythical figure. All the way back in 2012, Minecraft technical director Nathan Adams tweeted that there were no plans to add Herobrine to Minecraft, and he doubted that would ever change.

If you want to experience the world in which Herobrine was first depicted for yourself, head over to Minecraft@Home for the complete world seed sequence.

For our pick of the very best and brilliant world seeds you can use for some unique creations, check out our best Minecraft seeds guide for more.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.