Originally published at: Armadillo Takes the Mob Vote, Minecraft Update 1.21 Coming Mid-2024, Planet Earth + Star Wars Collab DLC Details - XboxEra
Developer Mojang Studios held their 2023 Minecraft Live event yesterday—an event dedicated to all things Minecraft, old and new. This year’s event brought the latest mob vote and, with it, this year’s winner: the Armadillo. Minecraft also approaches 15 years of being a thing and Mojang’s Lydia Winters talked about the exciting things to come for the year 2024 in Minecraft.
The company also talked about two new upcoming pieces of DLC, in collaboration with Disney and the BBC. The Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC and Planet Earth III DLC from Minecraft Education and BBC Earth were both featured in a teaser trailer that can be seen at the end of the article.
- New Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC. A teaser trailer revealed the new Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC, coming to the Minecraft Marketplace on November 7. The trailer highlights the adventure as players advance from padawan to Jedi knight and showcase a variety of gameplay features including lightsaber combat and using Force powers.
- Planet Earth III DLC from Minecraft Education and BBC Earth. To coincide with the launch of the new Planet Earth III television series which airs globally this Fall, Minecraft Education announced a new DLC inspired by the series, coming to Minecraft Education and Minecraft Marketplace in 2024. On the heels of our recent Frozen Planet II DLC, the Planet Earth III DLC will continue to immerse players in the wonders of the natural world with the overarching message that everything in nature is connected and we therefore need to take care of our planet so it can take care of us.
Upcoming changes to Minecraft Legends will add new content such as custom campaigns, PVP modes, controls, and petting animals.
Minecraft Legends Principal Design Director Craig Leigh joined the team on stage and discussed the community-requested changes made to Minecraft Legends since the game’s launch in April 2023, including: the ability to pet animals, custom campaign and PVP modes, controls and UI shown on screen, pillars of light for waypoints, and improved path finding. The team announced the latest Lost Legends for Minecraft Legends including “Creeper Clash” just in time for Halloween on October 19 and “Snow vs Snout” in December. The team announced new features coming in a December update including: frogs, new piglin unit and structure, and new witch allies in the game who will throw potions.
And lastly, Minecraft’s 1.21 update was announced and will add the following content to the game:
- The Crafter. For the first time, automated crafting is coming to Minecraft. A new feature that will be of particular interest for redstone engineers, the Crafter also includes a unique intuitive UI to help players new to redstone understand the feature’s mechanics. This intuitive UI introduces toggleable slots to the crafting grid meaning if an empty slot is clicked with an empty hand, the slot becomes disabled. If a disabled slot is clicked, it becomes enabled to define your crafting recipe.
- Trial Chamber. Procedurally generated structures underground, the new Trial Chamber presents a unique challenge (including a new hostile mob!) for players to overcome. The Trial Chamber is generated using new copper block sets, Tuff block sets and copper bulbs.
- Copper Bulb. These new light-emitting blocks are made from copper and like other Copper blocks, can oxidize over time, be waxed, and scraped with an axe. The light level it emits depends on the oxidation stage – the more oxidized it is the dimmer it becomes!
- Trial Spawner. This new type of spawner will not spawn additional mobs for an extended period after it has spawned a specified target count of mobs, different than standard mob spawners. The spawner also rewards players by ejecting its loot. Trial Spawners will adjust some of their parameters dynamically based on how many players are nearby.
- The Breeze. The newest hostile mob added to Minecraft, the Breeze is found in the Combat Trial Chambers, a challenge for players braving the chambers. The Breeze moves by jumping and shoots projectiles of wind energy that explode on impact, like how Blazes shoot fireballs. If it collides with a player or entity, it explodes immediately. These explosions cover a blast radius of a few cubic blocks, deal a small amount of damage, and knock back all entities in the area. They have a new particle indicating what’s happening, differentiating it from a typical damage explosion.
Expect to see more Minecraft next year, with 300 million plus copies sold as of recently. Oh, and Alec Benjamin joined the stage to sing his Minecraftified version of his global hit song “Let Me Down Slowly”. Check that out below as well. Lastly, don’t forget all the Minecraft games are on Xbox Game Pass, so you too can join in on the fun.
