April 11th 2021

Here are the key features of Minecraft Live 2020

Introduction

Minecraft live is an annual online Livestream event that takes place on YouTube where Mojang (the company that owns Minecraft) reveals information about the next major Minecraft update and includes a vote for the next content update for Minecraft, such as adding new mobs or biome updates, which allows the players to decide on what should be added. The 2020 event took place on 3 October.

What is the next Major Minecraft Update, 1.17?

The major Minecraft Update has been revealed by Mojang to be the Caves and Cliffs Update which includes a cave update that has been a highly requested update for several years. Looking at just the information provided in Minecraft Live, 1.17 may be one of the biggest Minecraft updates of all time.

How are the Caves Changing?

The whole underground in Minecraft is getting revamped with never seen before features with just a few of them being:

All of which will truly enhance the overall feel of the underground.

What are some of the new Cave Biomes and additions?

In the 1.17 update the new caves will be many different shapes and sizes; which means you could have a cave big enough to fly through with an elytra or a tiny 1 block wide cave. The new cave biomes will mix with any size or shape cave creating near limitless types of caves. Below are some of the biomes that have been revealed so far:

The Lush Caves

The lush caves were the first of many new features shown on Minecraft Live; they are always found underneath a new type of tree: The azalea tree. The azalea tree looks quite similar to an oak tree but has differently shaped leaf formations and some of the leaves and littered with pink blossoms. It is a jungle-like biome with many new plants and a brand new decorative block: the spore blossom block and a new useful block: the dripleaf block.

The Dripstone Cave Biome

The dripstone caves are home to many stalactites and stalagmites which are brand new blocks with very unique block models, they have a lot of functionality such as:

These new blocks will most likely be very useful.

The Deep Darks

The deep darks are undoubtedly one of the biggest parts of the update, it is a brand new biome near the bottom of the world. It has many new blocks and utilises a new really important feature: vibrations. Vibrations are a new feature being added and they are created by:

The vibrations are utilised by a brand new redstone device: The sculk sensor; the sculk sensor will output a redstone signal when it detects vibration. But it will also output a vibration when it activates, which can be picked up from other sculk sensors that are around 12 blocks away, meaning that you can finally make wireless redstone!

But the vibrations can also be detected by a brand new mob: The Warden, which lives in the deep darks and cannot see the player but will instead listen to vibrations to track the player's location. Although this means you need to be very careful in the dangerous biome it also means that the Warden can be lured away by throwing snowballs behind it. The warden is three blocks tall and is roughly the same shape as an iron golem, when it picks up the player exact location it will then charge very quickly towards there forcing you to run away and create more vibration allowing it to attack you. It is very powerful and has over 40 hearts of health and can kill you in one hit with full diamond armour and can do 5 and a half hearts of damage to a player with full netherite armour equipped!

The deep darks also has multiple new types of blocks such as:

The new candles have been observed to be in groups of 2 and 3 much like the sea pickles.

Amethyst Geodes

The new amethyst geodes and new antisymmetric circular rooms with a hole in one side allowing the player to walk in, have new unobtainable blocks which grow crystals on them. The crystals will drop crystal shards when broken which can be used to craft new useful items such as the telescope (keep reading to find out more about the telescope) and many more helpful items. But as the blocks the crystals grow from are unobtainable and unmovable this means that much like spawners you will have to make a farm there to continue harvesting crystals.

Copper Ore

Copper ore is the first new overworld ore in over nine years! It is found while mining in any biome and is used to make the new telescope item and blocks stairs and slabs which so far are just for decoration purposes. The copper blocks stairs and slabs all have a unique feature which is: They will slowly get rusted and turn into a nice looking green block! It will take the copper roughly 14 Minecraft days (280 minutes or 4 hours and forty minutes) although you make have to have the chunks loaded for the time to count.

Copper is also used to make a brand new block: the lightning rod! The lightning rod can be placed anywhere in the world and when loaded will attract most/all lightning during a lightning storm; this could be used to make charged creeper farms or to just stop a wooden house from burning down.

A lot More Strategy to Mining

In Minecraft Live 2020 Mojang stated that they wanted to add more strategy to mining as it is currently pure luck; they were not too clear about what this might mean but they did say that they were adding “ore veins” though they did not go into much detail about them, it seems that it will be a trail of ores a few blocks apart from each other which you can follow.

A New Tameable type of Cave Fish

In Minecraft Live 2020 at the very end of the show they revealed another brand new mob that they had been hinting at throughout the show; it is a brand new fish called the Axolotl. In the clip during Minecon Live 2020 they were shown in the lush cave biome although they may be able to spawn elsewhere in the underground. You can pick them up in buckets like regular fish and take them with you on your next underwater adventure! In the clip the player was swimming deep in the ocean and the Axolotl were all swimming around the player, much like dolphins but were closer to the player, as though they had been tamed.

The Axolotl will attack any other mob in the water except for the player which means that you can use them to take on the guardians and elder guardians in the ocean monuments. If attacked, the Axolotl will “play dead” and mobs will no longer target them. Once having regenerated their health, the Axolotl will start attacking again. The Axolotl can even heal the player!

What is being added to the Mountains and Cliffs?

During Minecraft Live 2019 players from around the world all voted for the next biome to be updated; there were three choices:

All three each had new items and mobs which would be added as well as making the biome look nicer. The mountains won the vote and then it was not talked about by Mojang again until Minecraft Live 2020.

During Minecraft Live 2020 Mojang revealed all the new additions to the mountains biome. They revealed a brand new mob: The mountain goat! It could jump really high and far and move incredibly quickly, it could also jump towards another mob and push off of an edge with really high knockback.

Mojang also revealed that they would be completely overhauling the terrain generation in mountain biomes; they only provided one image of the new mountain biome but it was absolutely incredible! The mountains very much steeper and more mountain-like, the snow looked better overall and the trees were more packed in and looked like actual trees you would find on a mountain!

They also revealed another new block in the mountain biomes called the powered snow which looks similar to regular snow but the player will fall right through. This may be used as a trap to kill the player or just to make the mountains more realistic and challenging to navigate.

What is the New Telescope item?

The telescope is a new item coming in 1.17 which is crafted using copper and crystal shards (see above sections) it will allow the player to zoom in and out while holding it by holding down right-click, it is very unlike any other Minecraft item. While using the telescope the screen will zoom in, similar to using the zoom from Minecraft mods such as Optifine, but most of the screen will be black and in the middle, there will be a small circle (about one-seventh of the screen) which you can see through.

Which mob won the Minecraft Live 2020 Mob Vote?

Like in 2018 there was a vote for which mob should be added into the game next, the three mob choices this time were:

The mob that won the vote was the Glow Squid, a very small type of squid which has a glowing effect but does not emit any light, which may help add more variety to ocean life.

What is the new Archaeology System?

Archaeology is a new feature being added in the 1.17 caves and cliffs update. The new structures, archaeology sites, can be found all across the Minecraft world. In the trailer, the site was already dug out, so it is unknown what they will look like before a player digs them out.

Inside the new “archaeology sites” you can find certain blocks which can be broken down into valuable recourses or exclusive new items. During the video clip in Minecraft Live, the player was seen breaking down the blocks using a new tool; the brush tool. The blocks that were broken down in the clips were:

Both these blocks are very weak blocks. Meaning you will probably be able to break down other blocks. Such as:

Mojang has stated that when you are breaking down a block with the brush you need to be careful otherwise the block will break as well as the item concealed inside. Mojang has not properly clarified what this means or how the mechanic works with searching through these blocks. In the short video clip the player found:

These new ceramic shards can be found in archaeology sites and are broken parts of old clay pots with pictures and patterns on them. You can take these and use them on a brand new block: the clay pot. You place the clay pot one block in the air directly above any block that can be set on fire. You can then place ceramic shards on to certain parts of the pot and decorate it. When you are finished decorating you can set the block under it on fire and after 10 seconds have passed the pot will have hardened and become the same colour as the broken parts.

What are these Helpful New Bundle items?

Since there are so many different types of blocks and items in Minecraft now, inventory storage is starting to become a big problem especially when you are far from your base. But with the new bundle items that will no longer be a problem! They can hold sixty four items in one slot but you can have different types of items in one slot. For example if you have got 5 types of flowers in your inventory you can put them all in 1 bundle (as long as the total amount of items is less than 64), meaning that they will only take up 1 inventory slot instead of five. These can also be placed in chests. It is still unknown how you will make them.

When is Minecraft 1.17 being Released?

Near the end of Minecraft Live Mojang finally announced that the massive Minecraft 1.17 Cliffs and Caves update will be released in Summer 2021! This update is one of the biggest and most exciting updates of all time so it is well worth the wait.