Questionsand answers

Yes, and it stays free. Every performance and quality-of-life feature is included: the FPS work, the HUD, the mods, all of it. Sour Gold is optional and only adds cosmetics and theming. It never makes the game play better.

It is the paid tier, and it is all cosmetic. You get custom image cloaks, a gold name with colours that unlock the longer you hold it, full theming of the launcher, no ads, and a store discount. Nothing in it touches gameplay. The Sour Gold page lists everything.

Yes. You need a Microsoft account that owns Minecraft: Java Edition. Sour Client is a launcher and a mod set for a game you already own — it does not include the game and it cannot run without it. The game files come from Mojang, downloaded by the launcher the same way the official one does it. More on that here.

1.8.9 is the one Sour Client is built for. Every module, render tier and cosmetic targets it. The launcher will install and run other vanilla versions too, but without the Sour Client features on top. More versions are planned; the changelog is where that lands first.

No. Nothing it unlocks touches gameplay. It is cosmetics, theming, and support. Pay-to-win is off the table.

Lifetime is a one-time payment that keeps Sour Gold forever, across every future version. Only 100 lifetime seats will ever be sold, so it stays a genuinely limited thing rather than a discount everyone gets. The seat counter on the Sour Gold page shows exactly how many are left.

Your Gold name starts with the classic gold mark. The longer you have held Sour Gold, the more colour variants unlock for you to equip, similar to loyalty tiers, so long-time supporters stand out.

Yes. Cancel whenever you like and you keep Sour Gold until the end of your billing period. No lock-in. Lifetime, of course, never expires.

Checkout runs through an established payment provider, in the currency you pick at checkout. Your card details never touch Sour Client. Read the terms for the details.

Drop your own OptiFine 1.8.9 jar into the launcher once. From then on it is installed into every profile for you, so there is no copying jars between folders. Shaders and resource packs work as they always did.

No, and it cannot. You sign in on Microsoft's own page, and we only ever receive the token it hands back. Your password never passes through Sour Client. The privacy policy lists exactly what we do store, which is not much.

No. There is no combat automation, no reach, no aim help, nothing that plays the game for you. Sour Client is about frames and quality of life. Cosmetics are cosmetics.

Download the installer, run it, and it sets the launcher up for you. Open the launcher, sign in with Microsoft, and press Play. You do not need Java — the launcher brings its own. The download page has every step with what to expect at each one.

Yes. The launcher can import your profiles, settings and resource packs from Lunar, Badlion or the vanilla launcher, so nothing has to be set up twice.

Windows 10 and 11 today. Mac and Linux are being looked at, but there is no date. The changelog is where it will be announced.

Yes, with Sour Gold. Upload an image and it becomes your cloak, moving with real cloth physics rather than hanging flat. Other Sour Client players seeing it in-world arrives with the account service.

Set your cloak once and everyone else running Sour Client sees it, and you see theirs. It is free, not a Gold feature. Cloaks are cached as they load, so nobody's frames drop when a new one walks past. This turns on with the account service.

Every upload is checked before anyone else can see it. Until it has been judged it is invisible to other players, whatever their settings.

Sexual content, gore, hateful imagery, terrorism and self-harm are refused. So is anything imitating an official Minecraft cape.

You also choose what you are shown — strict, standard, or everything — and any player can report a cloak, which pulls it once enough separate people do. The content policy has the full rules.

Yes. Search any username on the players page to see their skin, playtime, plan, join date and cloak. What appears on your own card is up to you — every field can be switched off from your account centre, or the card hidden entirely.

No. Sour Client is independent. It is not an official Minecraft product and is not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft. The disclaimer says so in full.