Taking Inventory: Rabbit's Foot

Feeling fortunate? Today, we’re going to be looking at the luckiest item in Minecraft, an item that brings prosperity and success to everyone who possesses one: the rabbit’s foot.

Rabbit’s feet were first teased in June 2014, then added to the full game in version 1.8, which came out in September of the same year. Its texture was changed in between its first reveal and release, with the new one created by Reddit user ‘zeldahuman’. Initially they were pretty hard to find, but version 1.9 quadrupled their drop rate, and now they’re a little easier to get hold of.

Rabbit’s feet come from rabbits (we don’t pay Duncan enough for these amazing insights – ed). When a rabbit is killed by a player, there’s a one in ten chance that a rabbit’s foot will drop – a chance increased by three percent per level of the looting enchantment on your sword.

The Java version of Minecraft recently added foxes (coming soon to Bedrock!), which sometimes spawn with an item in their mouth – and there’s a small chance that that item will be a rabbit’s foot. I guess foxes need luck too? In the next version of the game, it’s also possible that a tamed cat will bring you a rabbit’s foot as a gift. Thanks cat!

If you’re feeling lucky enough not to need your newly-acquired rabbit’s feet, you can use it in brewing – combine one with an awkward potion in a brewing stand, and you’ll be temporarily empowered some of the jumping abilities of a rabbit. In the next version of the game, you’ll also be able to sell them to cleric villagers.

Rabbit’s feet amulets are considered lucky by many cultures in the real world, too. The origins of the superstition are lost in the mists of time, but the belief has been documented in Europe, China, Africa, and both North and South America, so there must be something in it, right?

Different versions of the belief stipulate different conditions – in some variations, the rabbit must have been captured in a cemetery, on a full moon, with a silver bullet, on Friday the 13th, and only the back left foot will do. Some versions say that the rabbit must be killed by a cross-eyed man.

But if you’re not fond of the idea of capturing a real rabbit, then it’s also possible to get hold of lucky rabbit’s feet made of fake fur and latex bones, which are no less effective than the real thing.

Whatever method you choose to acquire one, remember the words of American writer R. E. Shay: “Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.”