Since Minecraft’s latest update back in summer 2023, known as 1.20, or the Trails and Tales update, Mojang’s been hard at work providing another big update coming this year. While there’s no official release date yet, they’re steadily rolling out snapshots for players to play some of the new updates.
Mobs
Back in October, they ran another one of their mob votes, with three enticing choices; the penguin, the armadillo, and the crab. With over 40% of the votes, the armadillo won, and it’ll bring new and interesting features to the game whenever the full update is out. The biggest draw is that they drop a new item in which players can finally craft armor for their beloved wolf companions. They’ll be found in the warmer biome types like Savannahs. I know I’ve been eager for an item like this and I’m very excited to see it added to the game-without the use of mods as I like to do sometimes.
Aside from the armadillo, they’re also adding two new hostile mobs. One was announced very recently on their official Instagram page called the bogged. On February 14th, they posted photos of the new mob, in which it is a new variant of the original skeleton mob. According to the caption, it “is equipped with deadly poison arrows and can be found in the trail chambers and swamp biomes.” Personally, I dislike skeletons even more than creepers, so this will prove to be a challenge to encounter this new mob.
The other new mob that we know about is called the breeze. They seem to exclusively spawn in the trial chambers for now, but this could always change later on. They’re a similar kind of enemy like the blaze, but they throw wind at you that knocks you back slightly and also causes minor damage.
Trial Chambers
Now this is a big part of the update known so far that I didn’t expect. While I’m still holding out hope they’ll update the small square dungeons you can find underground, there’s a new kind of structure you can find too. These new chambers can be found underground and provide a different kind of challenge we haven’t seen in vanilla Minecraft. Much like the mob spawner block, there’s a new different kind of mob spawner block specific to these chambers that spawn the new enemies like the breeze and bogged. Instead of continually spawning new enemies, it gives you a certain amount and then pauses for you to fight them.
After defeating these enemies, it’ll drop loot for you to collect. How lucrative these loot will be remains to be seen, but hopefully they’ll be generous! I like this new spin on the dungeons but I still hope they’ll update those in this update or eventually, since they haven’t been touched since their conception and needs some TLC.
New Blocks
Now for the new known blocks being added. The trial chambers will have decorative copper and tuff blocks, and a new copper bulb. There’s also new decorative copper blocks like trapdoors, doors, and more. However, there’s one I’m most intrigued by because I’ve never seen anything like it and that’s the crafter.
The crafter is an automated version of the good ol’ crafting table. Powered by redstone, it will craft whatever you tell it to, with the materials acquired of course. I don’t fully understand how it’ll play out in the game itself, but I’ll experience it when the new update is fully out. I’m not a redstone player myself, I play more ‘old school’ in the grand scheme of things, but I’d love to give this new block a try.
That’s everything we know so far! This is purely speculative on my part, but I wonder if any biomes will receive an update, as many of them in past updates have been. I would personally love to see the savannah or swamp get updates. I’m excited to see more of what Mojang comes up with in the following months before the new update comes, whenever it may be.
