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Block Atlas

Guide

Two editions. One game. Not the same program.

Java is the original PC game and the home of mods. Bedrock is the one that lets a phone, a console and a Windows PC share a world.

Almost every argument about “how Minecraft works” starts here. The name is the same. The blocks are the same. The files are not.

Java Edition

Java Edition runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It is the game Markus Persson shipped in 2009, still updated by Mojang. You buy it once from minecraft.net and start it with the official launcher, or with a third-party one such as Prism Launcher if you keep several modpacks.

Java is where almost all mods, command-block maps and custom servers live. Loaders such as Fabric, Forge and NeoForge sit between the game and the mods. Data packs and resource packs work without a loader. Snapshots — public test builds — land here first.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition is the cross-platform version: Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, phones and some Fire tablets. Friends on different Bedrock devices can join the same world. That is the feature families actually buy it for.

Skins, worlds and add-ons are sold in the Marketplace. An add-on is a behaviour pack plus a resource pack, usually shipped as an .mcaddon file. It is not a Java mod. A Forge mod will not load on a console, and a Marketplace map will not open in Java.

Bedrock also has featured servers in the server list, and a free dedicated server you can run yourself. Combat, redstone timing and a handful of mob rules differ from Java. If a tutorial says “this only works on Java”, believe it.

Education, and the PC bundle

Education Edition is Bedrock with classroom tools: a camera, a board, chemistry blocks, code connection and worlds a teacher hosts. It is a separate product, not a switch you flip inside the game you bought for a birthday.

On PC, the current store listing is Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition. One purchase, two launchers. Consoles and phones only get Bedrock.

What does not transfer

  • Worlds do not freely convert. Community tools exist; they miss things.
  • Mods do not become add-ons, and the reverse is also true.
  • A Java server address will not open from a Switch.
  • Accounts are Microsoft accounts on both. A leftover “Mojang password” screen means you are on an old or fake login.

Which one to start with

Playing with console or phone friends: Bedrock. Building modpacks, technical redstone, or a Java SMP you saw on YouTube: Java. If the PC bundle is the same price as one of them, buy both and stop arguing.

The game modes are shared. The multiplayer page is where the account and server differences show up in practice. If you want to make Bedrock add-ons rather than play them, start at Create.