A Minecraft cow born from chaos is covered with seemingly every texture in the game

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-07-30 13:57 JST)

A cow covered with “seemingly all the textures in the game” has unexpectedly appeared in one player’s Minecraft world. Images of the cow were posted to Twitter where they caught the attention of other players, and it seems to have been spawned due to a child playing the game with tons of mods activated. We decided to reach out to the original poster to learn more.

Tons of mods exist for the popular sandbox game Minecraft, especially the Java edition, and they cover everything from new gameplay features and systems to new items, mobs, and biomes. By using these, players can customize their games how they please.

The other day, Twitter in Japan was caught up in the appearance of a special cow born from the chaos of using a lot of mods all at once. On July 27 (JST), Twitter user @hassyX tweeted images of a cow mob from Minecraft, describing the cow as having “all of the textures in the game lined up on it.”

息子がマイクラでModを150個くらい、無理やり入れて遊んでたらファミコンみたいなバグり方をした。牛のテクスチャが異常で、近付いてよく見ると「ゲーム中に存在する全てのテクスチャがびっしりと整列している」状態。おかしいのは牛だけらしい。 pic.twitter.com/cKn5rUYAio

— 愉快な生活送り太郎 (@hassyX) July 27, 2022

If you look closely at the posted images, you can see it’s definitely covered with textures from completely unrelated blocks and mobs. They’re very tiny so it’s difficult to discern but looking closer reveals its eerie and mysterious allure.

Twitter users who saw the cow were calling it “a cow that contains the universe” and the “Akashic records cow.” The Akashic records are a supposed compendium of all the events that have and ever will occur in the universe. And it’s this cow that was born from a kid playing Minecraft with 150 mods.

撮ったスクショ全部上げときます。 pic.twitter.com/OBX1pHKVGw

— 愉快な生活送り太郎 (@hassyX) July 27, 2022

We first asked why they were using so many mods in the first place. When @hassyX asked their son, he said it was fun to create chaos by mixing together so many mods. @hassyX added that their son would lose interest when playing with only a handful of mods.

When we asked what mods their son liked, @hassyX mentioned the biome expanding Biomes O’ Plenty and The Twilight Forest which adds dungeons and mobs. As for why the cows have a detailed raw meat texture, it’s likely because they’re using the Japanese Takumi Craft (匠Craft) mod. The mod adds a number of things to the game, including a raw meat texture. From what we can tell by looking at these mod choices, it looks like @hassyX’s son is the type to seek out new and stimulating content.

You might be wondering how they reacted when the cow appeared. According to @hassyX, their son was a little excited and came to tell them about the strange cow showing up. @hassyX commented that their son loves glitches and is used to seeing them, so he wasn’t scared. Instead of being frighted, it sounds like he enjoyed the thrill of discovery.

@hassyX has two sons and a daughter, with the oldest son being the one who created the strange cow, and says they all enjoy playing Creative mode in Minecraft together, including the youngest who is in kindergarten.

@hassyX is a programmer and says they’ve been a core gamer since they were a kid, adding that their kids liking games might be “in the genes.” Perhaps there’s a chance that this gamer bloodline is connected to the birth of the strange cow.

In addition, it sounds like the cow didn’t have an impact on the game from a performance perspective, with the framerate remaining steady and the game running as normal. This might be contrary to what one would expect when seeing what looks like some sort of a performance issue-inducing bug. Takumi Craft creator Tom Kate gave their reaction as well and took a guess as to what was behind the texture phenomenon.

While Minecraft developer Mojang, or the mod developers for that matter, may not have foreseen the birth of this divine cow, to the kid that created it, it’s a miraculous cow born from chaos.