October is always a big month for Minecraft fans, as it’s time for the annual Minecraft Live event! This year, we once again got a look at a whole host of upcoming features – but what was revealed, and when is it coming? We have all the details for you right here!
MINECRAFT VERSION 1.21
Agnes Larsson, the director of Minecraft, had plenty of updates to show us from the next version of Minecraft which will be dropping next year. We were told it’ll be coming in mid-2024, so you can expect it probably around July or August if previous years are anything to go by. We didn’t get the name of this update confirmed, but that’s nothing new – in fact, we hesitate slightly to even call this version 1.21 since it wasn’t officially confirmed in the stream! Still, given that the updates in last year’s stream ended up being 1.20, it’s a fairly safe bet – we’ll call it version 1.21 until and unless we’re told otherwise.
TRIAL CHAMBERS
The first of many new features to talk about, the trial chamber is an all-new structure for Minecraft which brings some astonishing gameplay additions. Generating in the Overworld, trial chambers are procedurally generated (meaning they’re randomly built, so every one is different) and made of tuff and copper blocks. They’re designed as places where you can go and test your mettle in combat, alone or with friends, in exchange for rewards such as diamonds and emeralds – maybe even some exclusive loot you can’t get anywhere else!
TRIAL SPAWNER
Inside trial chambers, you’ll find trial spawners – a new type of mob spawner which summons a number of mobs based on the number of players nearby. Defeating the mobs will win you the rewards we mentioned before. The type of blocks surrounding a trial spawner affect the type of mob that can spawn there – from what we can see, packed ice will spawn strays, moss seems to spawn slimes, and polished tuff spawns the new mob, the breeze.
Because they react to the number of players nearby, you can guarantee that every trial spawner you encounter will present a challenge, whether you’re on your own or in a group – that makes it one of the few places in Minecraft where you can’t gang up on the opponents easily, and ideal for multiplayer challenges.
THE BREEZE
The latest hostile mob to be a
