A Minecraft player has beaten Survival mode using just a piano to control their character, and they documented the endeavor on video so that fans could witness - and listen - to what someone completing the game mode with music actually sounds like. Minecraft remains one of the most popular games in the world thanks largely to the breadth of creative options available to its players, who are famous for going to great lengths to recreate real world monuments in-game - if they're not just building their own futuristic cities instead.
For those unfamiliar, Survival is the Minecraft game mode that tasks players with collecting resources, managing their own hunger, building structures, and eventually completing the game by defeating the powerful Ender Dragon (or Wither, though the former is the original end boss). While Minecraft has garnered a reputation among casual fans and observers as something of a relaxing title, Survival mode does feature its frantic moments, and it can pose a challenge to newer fans. That's assuming players use a keyboard and mouse, however - not a MIDI keyboard hooked up to a PC.
YouTuber Jachael123 posted a series of videos detailing how they beat Minecraft Survival mode with a piano (as spotted by Eurogamer), navigating the journey from the early and simplistic construction requirements to the final showdown with the Ender Dragon. According to the YouTuber, the MIDI keyboard has various keybinds associated with the piano keys. Jachael123's journey has been added to a playlist so that interested fans can observe the feat in full, which becomes extremely impressive as the game's difficulty ramps up in terms of dealing with mobs or creating more elaborate constructions.
Beating Minecraft with a piano appears to be new, but playing the game with one certainly isn't. A YouTuber named Dylan Tallchief first attempted to play the game with the instrument back in August of 2019, and succeeded, though they didn't go as far as actually beating Survival mode with it. Jachael123 used the keybinding presets that were present within Tallchief's variant after asking him and then iterated on it to create something that could slay the Ender Dragon. It's an impressive feat of creative engineering and dexterity, though, as evidenced in the video series, it doesn't exactly result in the most pleasant musical rendition.
The Minecraft community has consistently impressed with its creations, so it's no surprise someone has managed to do something as incredible as beat Survival with a piano as a controller. What's interesting about this feat, however, is that Minecraft isn't the traditional home for these kinds of attempts - usually, it's talented players tackling games like Dark Souls with elaborate restrictions. The fact that someone managed to recreate that feeling in Minecraft while also delivering something unique to the game shows just how deep the possibilities run in Microsoft's creative juggernaut.
Minecraft is available now for PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.