Founder's Cape

One of the earliest capes in the game. Recognizes the original supporters who bought Minecraft during its alpha and beta development phases.

The Founder's Cape honours the players who bought Minecraft while it was still in active alpha and beta development, before version 1.0 ever shipped. It is a recognition badge for the people whose early purchases helped fund the game when Mojang was a tiny studio. Because the eligibility window closed the day Minecraft 1.0 launched, no purchase after that date can ever qualify, which gives the cape a fixed, finite holder base that only shrinks as old accounts go dormant. For many veterans it is the cape they are proudest of, since it cannot be bought, won, or migrated for; it can only be held by someone who was genuinely there in the pre-release years.

Minecraft spent years in paid alpha (from 2009) and beta (from late 2010) before the official 1.0 release at MineCon on November 18, 2011. Players who paid in during that development era are the 'founders.' The cape ties directly to that pre-1.0 purchase date, making November 18, 2011 the hard cut-off. This is what separates it from later mass-distribution capes: its population was effectively frozen over a decade ago, so every Founder's Cape you see today belongs to a genuinely early supporter of the game.

In rarity terms the Founder's Cape is classed as Rare. It became visible in the Java cape system around version 1.0, and it is currently no longer obtainable.