A major Minecraft update is now officially out for all players! Minecraft 1.19, also known as The Wild Update, brings 2 new biomes, 4 new mobs, and new blocks! For those unfamiliar with Minecraft, major updates bring new content to improve the game and keep things interesting, especially considering Minecraft recently passed it’s 10th anniversary. There’s typically two a year.
The first new biome is The Deep Dark, expanding on the newly improved cave generation system The Deep Dark is, well, literally deep. A spooky land of deepslate and the new blue sculk blocks. The spawn rate of this biome is very low but it generates around Y level -52. Making hunting for the biome half the fun. Why is The Deep Dark so hard to find? A rare newly created Ancient City can spawn in, much like other pre-generated structures in Minecraft; no two are exactly alike but all will contain the same staple ‘rooms’.
These Ancient Cities are massive and centered around a currently dead portal. The blue soul lanterns will guide the player’s way through the ruined remains of the infected city, littered with unlit candles and sculk blocks. The cities are full of enough overpowered loot to make any player consider hunting for it. We’re talking end game items; enchanted armor, horse armor, golden apples, God apples, bottles o’enchanting, rare music discs. But that’s not all there’s exclusive Ancient City loot, too.
The new enchantment books of Swift Sneak (level 1,2, & 3) and echo shards, a new item used to craft the recovery compass. (A compass showing where the player most recently died, so they can find their dropped items.
So what’s the catch; what stops a player from finding and raiding the city other than it being rare? One of the new mobs, of course! Stepping on a new block called the Sculk Shrieker or passing a Sculk Sensor will summon the horrific Warden. The Warden is a monster that now outranks the most powerful enemies in the entire game, even stronger than The Wither and The Ender Dragon. Nicknamed The Hardcore Killer by the community – a reference to Hardcore mode, in which a player mustn’t die or their entire world dies with them – they’re beasts, with incredible health and strength, even exceptionally experienced players can lose to them with a single wrong move. Essentially ‘high risk, high reward’ embodied.
The next biome is The Mangrove Swamp. A happy counter to The Deep Dark. These swamps home the long requested, new, frogs!!! Frogs come in three colors and are shown at all life stages, including tadpoles! You can befriend them, and use them to help you create the new Froglight! Ochre from Swamp frogs, pearlescent from Tropical frogs, and verdant from Snowy frogs. Swamps also now include the new Mud block. Mud, of course, is made by mixing dirt and water. Mud can be used to make mud bricks. Mangrove trees can be used to make the typical variations of wood and planks.
Lastly the new Allay mob, a friendly version of the Vex, has been added. The Allay won the community mob vote and will help players find items. I love them and did vote for them myself.
LeAnne Mcpherson
Reporter