“As you know, we do a Let's Play every week, Jack. [L]ately, it's been in Minecraft, and it will continue to be in Minecraft until we all die, because the people demand it...”
— Geoff Ramsey, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU) #123 confirming Let's Play Minecraft to be a regular Achievement Hunter series.
Let's Play Minecraft is an ongoing long-running popular Let's Play series produced by Achievement Hunter and to date is the longest running Let's Play series produced by the team. The first pilot Let's Play Minecraft episode, released on May 11, 2012, was a roaring success pulling in more than 1 million views per episode, which ultimately led to a weekly series being set up and new episodes released every Friday in accordance with the first. Geoff stated in an episode of AHWU said that he and the rest of the Achievement Hunter staff "will upload new Minecraft Let's Play videos every week now until we die" showing the commitment the team has to the series. As of February 23, 2018, there are over 300 episodes of Minecraft Let's Plays, 41 of which are Sky Factory episodes (first explored on Lets Play Minecraft Episode 247 which aired on February 17, 2017 and concluded on Episode 302, which aired on March 9, 2018).
As of April 2018, the Achievement City map has officially been retired due to being too buggy to play any more, and Episode 307 (which aired on April 13, 2018) marks the founding of Achieveland to replace it. Achievement City, due to being created in a much older version of Minecraft, often suffered glitches and crashes that limited its use in videos as Minecdraft received updates over the years. It was unavailable for the majority of 2017 and was declared dead in 2018 as it can no longer be fully loaded.
The official playlist of the series can be found here. The TV Tropes of the show can be found here and the official spreadsheet can be found here.
Let's Play Minecraft Episode 100 title screen; from left to right: Geoff, Jack, Michael, Gavin, Ray, Ryan
Overview
The Let's Play Minecraft series is a weekly series releasing every Friday that originally (and still consists of) five Achievement Hunter members; Jack, Geoff, Michael, Gavin and (formerly, until mid-April 2015) Ray. The series later expanded to include Ryan, who became (and still is) a regular with his first appearance in November 2012, becoming fully fledged in videos sometime in early 2013 and Jeremy, who was promoted to the new sixth main host on Let's Play Minecraft episode 177 replacing Ray, and occasionally Caleb would join in and most of the time be a medium between community members and the AH team when playing on a community made map. Primarily, they use the Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft, with each episode usually being thirty to forty minutes long sometimes expanding into 2-part or 3-part episodes. The very first episode was released on May 11, 2012, two days after Minecraft was released on the Xbox 360. The series reached it's 50th episode on May 10, 2013, one day before the one year anniversary of the series. The 100th episode was released on April 25, 2014, two weeks before the 2-year anniversary of the series, which featured a scavenger hunt that allowed the players (Jack, Ryan, Michael and Ray) to re-visit some of the Let's Plays and Things To Do In structures that they did or built in the past 100 episodes. Additionally, there was a clip of Geoff and Gavin building Achievement City inside Geoff's mansion with Griffon congratulating them. The 150th episode was released on April 10, 2015 (when Ray announced his departure from the company) with Let's Play Minecraft Episode 151 being his last ever Minecraft Let's Play, uploaded one week later on April 17, 2015. The 200th episode of Minecraft aired on March 25, 2016. Once again, it involved a scavenger hunt for Jack, Ryan, Michael and Jeremy, with Geoff and Gavin once again serving as resourceful spectators and creators of this scavenger hunt, which lasted two episodes, until Lets Play Miencraft Episode 201. After rummaging around, Jack was declared the winner. The 250th episode of Minecraft was released on March 10, 2017. Additionally, 38 of these episodes have been dedicated to the AH team playing around in Minecraft's Sky Factory mod, which started on Episode 247. The 300th episode of Minecraft (Let's Play Minecraft Episode 300) was released on February 23, 2018, according to calendar calculations.[2][3]
During the first few episodes, the five of them only explored the world and 'griefed' each other. This includes exploring the map, killing each other, destroying each other's houses, and accidentally getting lost or misplacing blocks in a hilarious fashion since they were still learning the controls and getting used mechanics of the game. In later episodes, the series started to focus primarily on goal/competition based gameplay created by Geoff and Gavin in addition to the players designing their final Minecraft skins which would be their recognizable trademark, with a number of activities based around popular PC-version variants such as Hunger Games, parkour, and The Walls. The prize for winning a competition is a tower of four gold blocks known as the Tower of Pimps, which the member of the team pride themselves upon winning.
On May 11, 2012, five men (Geoff Ramsey, Jack Pattillo, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, and Ray Narvaez, Jr.) decided to screw around in the then-recently released Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. Only one of the men has ever played Minecraft before. What happens within the 23 minutes of the video they published of their game session can only be described as hilarious chaos.
Since the release of that episode, Let's Play Minecraft has become one of the most prominent shows of Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter division. After a bit of Early Installment Weirdness, the show has settled into a more stable format. In each episode, the main crew of six Achievement Hunters, composed of the original five and Ryan Haywood, compete in some game or challenge within their main world of Achievement City to win possession of the "Tower of Pimps", a column of four gold blocks set atop a single block of obsidian. (Although, Ray uses dirt or sponge as a base instead.) Occasionally, some episodes has the group visiting other worlds (often in the PC version of Minecraft) or having another member of the Rooster Teeth staff go along with them, and since mid-February 2017 the group has been playing the mod pack Sky Factory, which had became a sub-series of its own right. The series ended after 41 episodes on March 9, 2018.
In Episode 67, the Achievement Hunters explored the world of the Mass Effect Mash-Up, which was the newest texture pack for Minecraft. At the end, they explored Achievement City using the Mass Effect Mash-Up Pack. During the video, the lads stated that they would explore the world of every new texture pack from now on. They explored the world of the Skyrim Mash-Up in Episode 82, but did not explore Achievement City with the Skyrim Mash-Up Pack.
There are also other AH Minecraft show, including:
Things to Do in Minecraft, which is actually a sub-series of the group's overall Things to Do in... series, further explained on their Creator page.
Let's Build, where Team Building Exercise (previously Geoff and Gavin, also known as "Plan G") show off the construction of the things they make for Let's Play Minecraft and Things to Do in Minecraft. The original format came to an end in February 2015 and will be restarted as a live Twitch show.
Also, there is MegaCraft, created and mainly hosted by Matt "AxialMatt" Bragg, which started as a Community Hunter series before becoming an official AH series. This series is essentially a showcase for many of AH community members' impressive creations within the game.
Regular or recurring segments
Obstacle Course: A course has been built for the Hunters to attempt to traverse. This began very early on with a Let's Play themed after Wipeout.
Head to Head: The Hunters split up into two teams, the Lads (Gavin, Michael and Ray/Jeremy) and the Gents (Geoff, Ryan and Jack) and compete head-to-head in some form of sport.
Update Appreciation: Following an update to the game, a challenge is put together usually involving crafting a number of items introduced in the update.
Fishing Rodeo & Jamboree: An annual event where the Hunters gather for an episode of fishing, with different challenges to complete alongside trying to catch as many fish as they can.
Scavenger Hunts: A list of items is presented and the Hunters compete to be the first to obtain all (or as many as they can) of the items. This can be anything from blocks, to mob kills, to death messages.
King: One of the Hunters is the King, and everyone else has to do as they say. Winning challenges earns the other players a piece of the Tower of Pimps, and the first player to complete their tower becomes the next King.
Mod packs: The Hunters play a modded version of PC Minecraft. This has included Galacticraft, Dinocraft, Pixelmon, and...
Sky Factory: The longest-running miniseries, running from February 2017 to March 2018, where a number of mods are used in a map which only begins with a single tree.
Monopoly: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Ya Dead, Ya Dead: The newest miniseries, where any player who dies is Killed Off for Real and has to leave the Let's Play. This lasted all of four episodes.
As for the guys in this series, they can be identified by the following skins (with derivatives of them for their appearances in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures) and the buildings they live in at Downtown Achievement City. Each of the members have a role/quirk that defines their behavior in the series and associated skin:
Regular Hosts
Geoff Ramsay's character skin is that of Master Chief from the video game franchise Halo, and is also a reference to his voicing of Pvt. Dexter Grif in the Red vs Blue web series (indeed his character somewhat resembles Grif with a few modifications) and his house is the stone Monolith on the west side of Downtown. It's so big (going up to the build height limit) that it's used as a landmark for everyone to find Downtown again whenever they get lost or need to reach it in a competition. In Achievement Cove, Geoff, in stark contrast to his previous home, lives in a small, open air hut built into the cliff-side, accessible by a narrow staircase. In Episode 106 his character skin was updated to the newer version of Master Chief, featuring more 3-dimensional features, though he's shown to switch between the old and the new skin. When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, he just wears the SPARTAN armor without the helmet. Like Michael below, starting in Episode 107: "Halo Mashup", Geoff has switched his Master Chief skin from the one found in Skin Pack 1 to the newer, more detailed skin found in the Halo Mashup Pack. Said new skin has prominent shoulder pads and a jet pack, the latter especially fitting considering how much Geoff flies around in episodes. When it comes to appearing in Minecraft videos, he is usually considered to be the team leader and the obvious boss of the group, with either Jack or Gavin as his right-hand man depending on the type of competition: presenting the challenges, organizing and instructing the team, explaining the rules, as well as planning, creating, organizing and dictating the way the competitions are run. He along with Gavin, are the main builders of most of the structures within Achievement City. Geoff has participated with the team during the early episodes of the series for the prized Tower of Pimps, but during the Dig Dug challenge he stated that he just likes to create more than competing and as a result has lead or filmed games than playing them. He is generally very competitive and will try to stack odds in his favor. For example, one of Geoff's Tower of Pimps wins had him build a sky fortress surrounded by lava and use diamond equipment. His house was built to jokingly represent his ego and Michael described it as a 'Monolith'. Due to the latest Minecraft patch adjusting the build height, Geoff and Gavin stated that Geoff's house is now even taller than before. As of the 2014 Achievement City tour video, Geoff's house is now at maximum build height. Inside his house he has a water ceiling at the former max height, this being first shown in the Things To Do In... episode, Indoor Pool. He also has a small raised platform representing a 'second floor' and a basement, dubbed "The Vault" that houses materials that can be used during play if they are not on Creative Mode. After Ray's departure from Achievement Hunter, a small shrine was made for him inside as well. As of Let's Play Minecraft: Episode 251, his tall stone monolith tower now has some new upgrades and modifications built by Matt and the other AH guys.
Jack Pattillo's character skin is the biker from the video game Trials HD and his house is a wooden house on stilts on the south side. The house is built over a mine and a giant statue of his skin (with a penis added on) overlooks it from behind. In Achievement Cove, he lives in a stone-frame house with glass walls, with a small wheat garden on a roof extension. When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures and AH Animated, he goes without the helmet. He is seen as a very calm, casual, slow, methodical player who examines every detail, which Geoff is known to exploit. During the earlier episodes he is shown to be very knowledgeable about Minecraft; dealing with lava and how to build a Nether portal. Many times after being stopped from winning a competition he would remark about "building a house", which became a common theme through non-competition related episodes. Early in the series, during episodes when Geoff is explaining, he would occupy himself with the cursor, pretending it was a butterfly. His house is a wooden house on stilts with a mine leading to the underground of Achievement City, with a lava ceiling made by Geoff. Later on, whilst he was out of town, a giant replica of Jack's character was made behind his house by Geoff, Gavin, and Ryan. The statue has an overhanging wool penis over top his house which can dispense water, or lava, with a switch below. As part of a failed prank, Jack's house was completely encased with obsidian. However, due to Minecraft continuously crashing due to the waterfall prank on Gavin's house, his house was eventually uncovered with only a giant halo above his house remaining. Jeremy later on added a propeller cap to Jack's statue.
Michael Jones' character skin is Banjo from the video game Banjo Kazooie and his house is a regular-looking wooden house on the east side next to a rail station. In Achievement Cove, he and Lindsay live in an elaborate birch-and-spruce house (built by Lindsay) across the water from the rest of the Hunters. When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, he wears Banjo skin-like clothes, with a bear ear cap on his head, while his AH Animated depiction removes the hat. In Episode 106: "Bodyguards", it was revealed that Michael has switched his Banjo skin from the one he used for the longest time (that was introduced in Skin Pack 1), to the newer, more three-dimensional Banjo introduced in the free 2nd Birthday Skin Pack. Said new skin has Kazooie in the backpack, which for Michael is a symbol of his marriage to Lindsay. Michael updated his skin to the new Banjo skin in Episode 106 with the new skin having more 3-dimensional features including a small Kazooie sticking out of his backpack, though he frequently switches between the old skin and the new. At first, Michael's defining quirk was that he didn't know how to play, often making mistakes, dropping pieces of equipment, and swearing a lot, reflecting his Rage Quit persona. Since then he has begun to understand the game more and the team refers to him as "Mogar" which he coined himself. He is generally aggressive towards other players; especially Gavin for his stupidity. He is an excellent fighter; winning multiple fighting related challenges, and generally being known for his fighting and hunting abilities. His house is a small wooden house that he shares his real life wife, Lindsay, with a secret underground room for Kerry and a tunnel that leads to Gavin's house.
Gavin Free's character skin is an anthropomorphic Creeper, which since the new update has often caused him to be mistaken for an actual Creeper. His house is a partially-underground cobblestone house loaded with paintings inside on the northeast corner of Downtown. In Achievement Cove, his home is a pile of wood on the cliff-side with a facade making it look like an actual house. When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures or AH Animated it's just regular clothes in the Creeper pattern, with the Creeper face on the shirt. Known as the mischievous idiot of the group, he is known for bending the rules and committing various irresponsible and careless acts of stupidity, much to the others' dismay. He constantly harasses and ridicules other players and as a result he is frequently the target of the other players' rage, even to the point where they'll physically attack him. He is also well known for griefing, vandalizing, and destroying others' structures and landmarks, usually leading those other players to hysterical rages. His most well known exploits was pouring lava over the house during the first episode and co-creating Plan G. Despite being one of the only two members (the other being Ray) to have played the game prior to the original Let's Play, he often fails at what he does because of his own actions. Gavin is the co-creator of most structures in Achievement City and had also inadvertently created the original Tower of Pimps when messing with Ray's gold. Oddly enough, even though Gavin created the Tower of Pimps he himself has few wins under his belt. His house is a cobblestone art house with a secret trophy room inside the adjoining hill along with a hidden underground tunnel that connects his house with Michael's. Outside his house he has two picture frames with Creeper heads in them, as a Christmas gift from Geoff as a representation of his 'Creeper parents.' He also has a second Creeper head above his door frame and water melons lining the back roof of his house.
Ray Narvaez Jr.'s character skin is called the "Tuxedo Steve" skin, which he wears as a Shout-Out and bases off to Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. His north side house is made of dirt, with a wall of paintings inside that hide a wall of dispensers filled with cakesnicknamed "Slice of Hell". When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, he just wears the tuxedo. His last day with Achievement Hunter was April 18, 2015. His house was promptly dismantled the second Ray left and rebuilt into something better the next episode. (BrownMan has left the game.) In going with the character, he is often seen carrying red roses in his inventory or close to his person. If another member does anything negative towards a rose, he displays violence towards them, such as Caleb, or will ensure the safety of a rose. He has displayed many other traits such as standing near a wall and admiring his face, pretending to masturbate, "shout out to...", creating signs with text humor, hatred for Cake, pointing out Endermen, and making karate related noises when ever the art picture is present. He often opens an episode shouting "LLLLLET'S PLAY!" which has become a staple for the series. His house was formerly a dirt house with a torch and dirt floor, which was later expanded to include a bed and a chest with Kung Fu related art work on his wall that hides Cake dispensers. He later added Pat the Head, which is a decorative Steve Mob Head, and an ocelot named Percival. He previously had a chicken named Conrad until it mysteriously disappeared. After Ray's departure from Achievement Hunter, his house was destroyed and replaced with a more extravagant house than his previous with its ownership being taken by Jeremy.
Ryan Haywood's character skin is called the "Scottish Steve" skin. His dirt house ("Kung-Fu House") is adjacent to Geoff's house along the south side of the Monolith and has a basement for his pet cow, Edgar. In Achievement Cove, he lives above the rest of the Hunters in a lavish cliff-side lair accessible by a waterfall. When he appears in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, he wears the dress coat and shirt with the kilt. Ryan joined in the Let's Plays shortly after changing departments from the Rooster Teeth Animation Department to Achievement Hunter in November 2012, first appearing in Episode 24 - Capture the Tower! Ryan was originally only known as the "PC guy", but is now a full Achievement Hunter member and competes in Let's Plays and other AH videos during early 2013. Due to his PC knowledge, he normally helps with Geoff and Gavin when creating circuit related structures in Achievement City and leading of PC Minecraft Let's Plays. He is voice is often confused with Jack. Ryan has been seen to occasionally break the rules, although not always intentionally, and has become a staple for the rest to not to "pull a Ryan". Ryan claimed Kung-Fu House, what was formerly a storage house during the construction of Achievement City, as his house and has since made several additions to it, including a basement for his pet cow named Edgar. As of Episodes 217-219, Ryan's house has been replicated and relocated underground to bedrock as part of a prank against him with the AH guys giving him a taste of his own medicine. A railway connecting from the top of the hole to bottom circulates the outer walls surrounding his house. His house is no longer visible from above ground as the top was covered in dirt with a glass ceiling to view his house below.
Caleb's character skin is usually the nurse skin, although he has also appeared with other skins, such as the Boxer Steve skin in Episode 28. Early on, Caleb usually appeared as a mediator and communicator between the creator of the community-made maps and the Achievement Hunter team; for example the Grifball map and the Labyrinth map. He has competed during Let's Play for the Tower but yet to win, and as a result of excessive cheating and screen-looking, he has been banned from the competitions. Screen-looking in the series is now usually referred to as "pulling a Caleb". His house is a simple 2x2x1 block hole, formerly filled with water. Caleb made a return in Let's Play Minecraft Episode 71.
Jeremy's character skin is the Castaway, and that of a muscular shipwrecked man. At the end of Episode 177, to commemorate winning his first Tower of Pimps, he was gifted the rebuilt house although he commonly wears a zombie head when he plays. He became a regular member of the cast in Episode 172 and moved into the newly renovated house, that was formerly Ray's, five episodes later in Episode 177. Before his promotion into the main cast, he worked as a member of the Build Team and appeared in multiple Let's Builds. In Achievement Cove, he lives in an acacia wood house built on the water, adjacent to the Achievement Hunter logo that he built.
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Lindsay Jones' current skin is that of Kazooie, which reflects her marriage to Michael. She only appeared in the occasional episode early on, but over time her presence has become increasingly frequent, to the point that she's more or less a regular in the Sky Factory. In both Achievement City and Achievement Cove, she lives with Michael in a bed adjacent to his. Given her precedence, and if Ryan is the Sixth Ranger to the original 5, Lindsay can be considered the "Seventh", in a way. She first appeared as an aerial camera person in Episode 55: Creeper Soccer, she has since made several episode appearances either leading games, such as for Legends of the Hidden Temple, or competing. Lindsay also worked as a member of the Build Team and has appeared in multiple Let's Builds. She has the most character skin changes with three, her current one being Kazooie from Banjo Kazooie. Lindsay shares her house with her real life husband, Michael, where they have a double bed, and Kerry, who lives in a secret room below their house.
Matt Bragg's skin tends to change from episode to episode to fit that episode's theme, reflecting his Game Master status. By default, his skin is that of Jack of Blades. He has no permanent home in Achievement City. In Achievement Cove, he lives in a large, wooden mansion with an interior fountain, a second floor deck, and a boat dock in the back. His unofficial first appearance was in Episode 18 as the map creator for Mineball. Several of his maps have been used in episodes, though he did not compete in them himself. Matt is not a typical player in competitions, acting as a majority of the time as a silent presence overseeing and filming the games. However, he has participated in multiple episodes with games and non, though he is one of the few to not have a house within Achievement City. Matt worked as a member of the Build Team where he appeared in multiple Let's Builds. Despite Let's Build's cancellation, he still acts as a primary builder of both structures and games, so much so that even Geoff and Gavin have been caught off guard by his secret builds. Matt's Minecraft skin is the Jack of Blades.
KerryShawcross's skin is based on Juno from Jet Force Gemini. He has only appeared in episodes 74, 89, and 90 so far, and joined Team Gents for the same Capture the Tower game mentioned above. His "house" in Achievement City is just a small fern with an obsidian block, but as of Episode 89 he now lives in Michael's newly-added basement called the Queerian Lanister. He appeared in Episode 74 due to Ryan being absent for personal reasons. He uses the Jetforce Gemini skin. Kerry was also in Episodes 89 and 90 as the assistant of Mad King Ryan. At the end of Mad King Ryan, Kerry became "Edgar" (dressed in a cow skin wearing diamond armor) and served as the final boss of the competition, which was won by Gavin. Kerry also made an appearance in Capture The Tower X during RTX 2014 playing as a Gent. His house is a hidden room underneath Michael's house which is connected to the Team Nice Dynamite tunnel.
Kdin has appeared in multiple Let's Builds working as a former member of the Build Team. Kdin's character skin is the EnderDragon Man.
Trevor Collins' skin is a man wearing an iron golem mask. He has no permanent home in Achievement City. In Achievement Cove, he lives in a modern smoothstone house near the wheat farm, after his old dirt house was annexed by Gavin's woodpile.
Alfredo Diaz has not yet decided on a skin, having spent the first six months as an employee of Achievement Hunter avoiding Minecraft before getting dragged in for Ya Dead, Ya Dead. He also has no permanent home in Achievement City, and never will. In Achievement Cove, Alfredo lives in a spacious but unfinished home on top of the cliff, accessible by a ladder.
Joel appeared once in Episode 2 and wore the Prisoner Steve skin. Joel did not partake in getting the achievement which was the goal of the Let's Play and left the group almost immediately. He was found by Gavin later in the episode and was killed, which led to him spawning back at the group house built by Ray. He assisted Michael in trying to stop Gavin from getting the "On A Rail" achievement but was unsuccessful.
Mica has made one appearance thus far, in Episode 215 - Battle Mode. Her Minecraft skin is Aphrodite.
