One of the biggest events for all Minecraft lovers out there is Minecraft Live. For those unaware, Minecraft Live is a virtual event streamed live to the entire world. The show is filled with news, content creators, and a community vote that will influence the game!
Originally Minecraft Live was part of the Minecraft Festival which was to be held last year in Orlando, Florida. However, due to the pandemic, they postponed the main event to 2022 and began a new Minecraft Live tradition.
On October 16th, viewers from around the world tuned into the livestream anticipating more news about the upcoming 1.18 update, but got more than they expected! The pre-show was packed with clips of content creators challenging themselves (and others), and YouTubers MoonKase and Masuo shared why they love Minecraft.
Agnes Larsson, the Minecraft Vanilla Game Director, stated, “That’s what we want to do with Minecraft. We want to inspire [players] to play Minecraft in their own way.” Which is exactly what the 2021 Minecraft Live event has done!
So without further ado, here’s a recap of all the cool and new things that Mojang has in store for Minecraft!
A lot of the inspiration and guidance for the Caves & Cliffs update came from the Minecraft community itself. Larsson praises, “This is the biggest update we’ve ever done, and we couldn’t have done it without the community.”
The most notable change to the upcoming update is that the Deep Dark biome, the new warden mob, and sculk blocks will be released in the 1.19: The Wild update (which you can read more on below). The change was made so that developers could ensure it’s just right for release, as it is a larger project than they anticipated.
One type of cave in the Part 2 update was inspired by the Son Doong Cave in Vietnam!
Originally the update was to be focused on new cave generation and mountains, however, they’ve expanded that reach to all biome generation. Biomes like the plains and badlands will now have more realistic and interesting cliff and hill generation!
For those with worlds that they’ve been playing for years, you won’t have to worry about the update breaking them. Developers wanted to make sure that old worlds could be played and updated to the latest version through a feature called blending. This feature will stop world generation from having jagged, mismatched, edges. Instead, it will blend the generations together. When loading an old world into a newer version, the caves will generate in the levels beneath the already generated ones, leaving more to explore without destroying the old.
Java and Bedrock will receive the new update at the same time! Mojang has also added a new feature called seed parity. Previously, there was no cross-sharing of seeds between Java and Bedrock, but the 1.18 update will make it so seeds can be shared between the two!
The Caves and Cliffs updates are the first to increase the world height and depth of bedrock, add an amphibian mob, and change the light level requirement in the Overworld. Caves & Cliffs Part 2 is set to release in November or December 2021.
On November 2nd, Minecraft Bedrock and Java Editions were added to Xbox Game Pass for PC! It will be the only place to get both Java and Bedrock in a singular place.
Minecraft developers came up with three new mobs to add to Minecraft! As with every year, the Minecraft community got to vote on which mob will be added to an upcoming update! In 2020, players voted for the glow squid, which made its debut in the Caves & Cliffs Part 1 update!
The mobs for 2021 were:
Glare: a creature that flies around, hates darkness, and brings players attention to areas that need more light.
Allay: a flying creature who loves music and will find items similar to one that a player gives it.
Copper Golem: a golem made of copper that will interact and oxidizes over time. If it oxidizes completely, it will turn into a statue and must be deoxidized. It also will randomly press copper buttons.
The winning mob of Minecraft Live 2021 was the allay mob, which will be released with the upcoming The Wild update!
The Creator Learning Portal is a newly launched website for all to learn how to become a Minecraft creator. Learn how to make skins, worlds, mash-up packs, texture packs, and more with guides filled with helpful information and steps!
There’s also some exciting news for Blockbench users! For those who aren’t familiar with Blockbench, it’s an open-source 3D modeling application where creators can model, texture, and animate 3D block-based models for Minecraft (and other games).
Jannis, the creator of Blockbench, teamed up with Mojang to create a Minecraft plugin. The plugin, called Minecraft Entity Wizard, lets creators build new entities based on premade templates of official Minecraft mobs. Creators can choose from premade models, behaviors, and spawn eggs. The plugin is free for all platforms and helps streamline the process and reduce errors!
Many players already know that a Spooky Fall event has begun in Minecraft Dungeons. However, lead designer Laura de Llorens Garcia and her team announced much more for the game!
Seasonal Adventures
Seasonal Adventures is Dungeons' version of a battle pass. Players complete missions to earn adventure points and unlock unique rewards, along with new pets, weekly challenges, emotes, and flairs! This feature is a way for players to progress in the game and gather ranks, and there will be both paid and free tracks of rewards. Seasons will last infinitely, so players can level through different seasons whenever they want. Players can earn points through regular gameplay, completing daily trials, and by defeating floors in the newly added Tower. Seasonal Adventures is set to come out this holiday season in December 2021.
The Tower
Located in the player’s camp, the Tower is a singleplayer structure where players fight through 30 floors, each floor getting more difficult as they go. The floors will change every two weeks, so players have enough time to learn and complete their tower before a new one arrives.
Mojang announced their next update, 1.19, titled The Wild Update. This update will encompass changes to nature and challenging adventures. As stated above, the Deep Dark biome was moved to the 1.19 update to expand upon their original idea with new loot and blocks. Ancient cities will be added to the Deep Dark which include various new blocks to create a creepy new area to explore for special loot. Developers have hinted that there is something special to explore within each city!
They’ve also expanded the sculk block family to include the shrieker and catalyst blocks to force players to be more careful and brave in the deeper parts of the overworld.
Celebrating Wilderness
The next update will include improvements to overworld biomes to make them more diverse, unique, and add more immersion. There aren’t too many details yet, but Mojang wants to add features that help players feel completely immersed in their Minecraft worlds.
The new boat with chest has been a long time coming (and probably one of the most requested items). Obviously it's a boat with a chest in it, so finally, we can store items found in long-distance adventures!
Mangrove trees will be added! These trees will grow in the swamp biome and will have large roots that players can boat through. The mangrove saplings can be planted on land and in water. A new tree means a new set of wood blocks including planks, doors, trapdoors, and more! A new swamp variant will be the mangrove swamp that’s filled with these new mangrove trees.
Another new block family is mud, which can be created from a dirt block and water filled glass bottle or be found in a mangrove swamp. The mud block can be placed atop dripstone to dry out and turn into clay. There will also be a mud brick block that players can use to build with.
Two new mobs are being added to the swamp biome. Frogs will now jump around, croak at you, and love lily pads. Tadpoles will be added as well, which will grow up to become one of three variants of frogs based on temperature. Each frog variant will have a special trait, which developers are working on currently. Also, fireflies will add ambience to the swamp, especially when they get eaten by the frogs!
The Wild update will be the first update to add a 2-dimentional mob (fireflies) and to feature a losing vote candidate from previous community votes (mangrove swamp). The Wild update is set to release in 2022!
Britt (157)
