Shadow player

**Shadow players**, also known as **invasion players** or **recruiters**, are a group of players seen in versions of the *Minecraft* Alpha 1.0.16.05 extension branch. Most of them appear with pitch-black skins and blank usernames. They had the role of joining other players' worlds and "recruiting" them through the use of a "recruitment client" to either accept or decline them. They used the vanilla *Minecraft* version Alpha v1.0.16\_02 to carry out this task until proper tools were developed for the Alpha 1.0.16.05 extensions. The goal of this "recruitment" is ultimately unknown. The ability to enter other players' worlds later served as inspiration for the creation of the Hub.

Even after the 16.05 development team disbanded, shadow players kept appearing in worlds. Later, in R4, any player could appear as a shadow player using a secret in a special included map that allowed players to access others' worlds.

## Appearances

* "**Entry point**": An unnamed shadow player is seen by "xorcist6898", who then attempts to communicate this sighting to "dj\_p155" via Skype. Before "xorcist6898" can take a screenshot as proof, however, the shadow player disappears without warning.
	+ From the conversations seen in this video and "The search", it can be inferred that "xorcist6898" has encountered at least one other shadow player in the past.
* "**Version 03**": An unnamed shadow player briefly joins the world, as indicated by the abnormal chat message " `joined the game.`" "xorcist6898" quickly exits the world after this occurs.
* "**Version 07**": A shadow player named "obstruction" is seen by "orble". The player is invisible and impervious to attacks. They enter "orble"'s house and send the chat message "`1 warned again 2 why?`" before "orble" exits the world.
	+ "obstruction" was sighted online on November 14, 2021, alongside another shadow player named "construction".
* "**Internal footage 1**": "dev6" apparently acts as a shadow player, attempting to recruit "Samurai\_2001".
* "**Unknown version**": An unnamed shadow player can be briefly seen far away. They are also addressed in the description:
	+ "`Take a look`" / "`At [timestamp]`" / "`There's like`" / "`A black player on top`"
	+ "`Okay what in the hell` / `What the hell is a recruiter doing here?` / `And if that date is correct that would mean` / `It was recorded when we already fixed the invisible player skins` / `So there's no possible way this is [an invasion player]`"
* "**Presentation**": The video is recorded by a shadow player named "information", who is seen with the default Steve skin. They send the message "`why are you here?`" to "orble", to which they respond with "`i thought i told 0 he can't use my world`".
	+ The description seems to indicate that "information" is a developer: "Attached video is one of us recording a presentation, to be shown somewhere."
* "**attachment\_b849.avi**": Multiple screenshots seen in the video show shadow players. They are also addressed in the description:
	+ "`The reason "recruiters" appear in R4 is thanks to a new feature that [0] implemented. One of the [special included] maps had a secret that allowed you to connect to other players' worlds. We thought it was hidden well enough, but we were proven wrong right after release. If I remember correctly someone even made a tutorial video explaining how to access it through cheats, which was not intended.`"
* Many other shadow players have appeared in online sightings.