Discover 6 features awaiting in the Minecraft 1.21 Update, from challenging trials to the revolutionary Crafter block.

The Minecraft 1.21 update is going to be the biggest major update since Caves and Cliffs. Don’t get me wrong, Trails and Tails was cool but it just doesn’t compare. When this update was announced at Minecraft live 2023 they said it would focus on “combat adventures and tinkering.” And they certainly delivered. Between trial chambers, new mobs, the mace, and my personal favorite addition, the crafter block, this patch is filled with awesome content. Most of which is best enjoyed with friends. But enough exposition, let’s get into the new features!

1. Bad Omen Changes

This patch introduces some notable changes to the Bad Omen effect. You can no longer obtain Bad Omen from killing raid captains. Now you get it from Ominous Bottles. This item has 5 levels, each one corresponding to a different challenge level for ominous events. This patch introduces two Omen variants that trigger different events:

• Raid Omen triggers when you enter a village with Bad Omen, leading to a raid like before.
• Trial Omen triggers when you enter a trial chamber with Bad Omen, making the trial much more difficult. (I’ll cover trials and their ominous versions next)

Both effects can be removed with milk.

Overall these changes are aimed to make raids a more opt-in experience, while expanding on the Ominous mechanic. It also opens up the exciting possibility for more ominous events to be added in the future. But for now, let’s focus on what’s been confirmed.

2. Trials

Trails make up the bulk of the update, with new structures, blocks, mobs, and mechanics being tied to them. And honestly, they add something Minecraft has been sorely missing. Replayable multiplayer content. Before this, if you found a desert temple or dungeon on a big server, it had probably been looted already. But trials allow everyone to get a share of the action (and loot!). I’ll break down how they work.

Trial Chambers

Trial chambers are a new structure that generate underground. They’re made of the new tuff and copper block variants and contain a variety of traps, reward chests, and spawner arenas. If you want a comprehensive breakdown of the new structure, Xisumavoid has a fantastic video going over it. I’ll come back to the new block variants in a bit since I want to dig into the trial spawners and vault next.

Trial Spawner

Trial spawners are the real stars here. When activated, they detect the number of nearby players to determine the difficulty level. Unlike normal spawners, they spawn a set number of mobs based on the difficulty. Defeat all the mobs, and you’ll be rewarded according to the difficulty level. The spawner then goes on a 30-minute cooldown, but here’s the kicker: you can tackle it solo, then come back with friends for a tougher challenge and better rewards!

Chambers decide which mobs to spawn when generated, selecting a melee, small melee, and ranged mob to use throughout. Breezes are a special case, having a chance to appear in every chamber regardless of the other mob types. (More on Breezes and wind charges later!)

Trial Vault

While not as impressive as the spawner, the vault continues the trend of adding valuable multiplayer content. Trial vaults need a trial key to open and can only be opened once by each player. But the loot is much better than the trial spawner’s. If you want even better loot you’ll have to do an Ominous trial.

Ominous Trials

The ominous version of trials is fundamentally the same, with some minor additions to make it more difficult and rewarding. If you have the Trial Omen effect and approach a trial spawner it will become ominous if:

• It’s not on cooldown.
• Or, it is on cooldown but wasn’t ominous when last triggered.
  • This bypasses the cooldown, causing it to activate again.

Ominous trial spawners offer juicy rewards like Potions and Ominous trial keys for Ominous vaults. However, they’re much harder. Mobs it spawns are likely to be wearing enchanted gear, and it periodically spawns random projectiles, like arrows and lingering potions.

It’s important to note that Ominous vaults aren’t like the spawners. They don’t transform from normal trial vaults but are instead hidden throughout trial chambers. But it’s certainly worth tracking them down as they contain loot like diamond blocks and the heavy core you need to make the mace. I’ll cover the mace in more detail after Breezes.

If you want all the details on trials you can read the full patch notes on the Minecraft wiki.

3. New Block Variants

I won’t spend a lot of time here, but the new block variants are worth mentioning, as they’re both used in Trial Chambers. Especially the copper ones, since the levels of oxidation mean each new block has 4 sub-variants.

Copper Blocks

These new variants have solidified copper’s role as a versatile decorative block. Here’s what they added this patch:

• Copper Grate (it’s grate for windows ;) )
  • Can be waterlogged
• Copper Bulb
• Copper Door/Trapdoor
• Chiseled Copper

Tuff Blocks

These additions aren’t super exciting, but they’re nice middle ground between Stone and Deepslate. Perfect for gloomy builds.

• Tuff Bricks
• Chiseled Tuff & Tuff Bricks
• Polished Tuff
• Slabs, stairs, and walls for all non-chiseled variants.

Once again, if you want to know more check out the wiki.

4. New Mobs

Minecraft 1.21 will be adding two new mobs, the Bogged and the Breeze. I’ll touch on both, but the wind charge item is really the star here.

Bogged

Bogged are a mossy variant of skeleton, that has less health and shoots slower. However, they shoot (and drop) poison arrows, making them quite formidable. They spawn naturally in swamps or from some trial spawners. And they can be sheered for both kinds of mushrooms.

Breeze

Breezes are a blaze variant, which only spawns from trial spawners. They’re incredibly fast and jump erratically around the player when aggroed, shooting wind charges at the player. When killed, they drop breeze rods that can be used to craft both the mace and wind charges.

Wind Charges

This item and the resulting projectile add a ton of possibilities to the game, second only to the crafter. Here’s a quick rundown of how they work:

• When thrown, wind charges will explode upon contact with a block or entity.
• The explosion will knock back mobs and players in the area by several blocks.
• They can also interact with doors, buttons, levers, and bells.

The uses for redstone and parkour challenges are nearly endless. Though, wind charges are best used with the mace.

5. The Mace

The mace is a wonderful addition that PvP folks will love. It can be crafted with a heavy core (obtained from ominous vaults) and a breeze rod. And boy is this weapon fun. If you use it while falling it does extra damage, and negates any fall damage you might’ve taken. This extra damage isn’t capped, allowing you to one-shot the warden if you fall far enough. Just make sure you don’t miss. There are also 3 exclusive mace enchantments:

• Breach I-IV: Reduces the effectiveness of armor.
• Density I-V: Increases the bonus damage from falling.
• Wind Burst I-III: Launches you into the air when you hit, allowing you to chain attacks

Now onto the addition I’m most excited for, the crafter.

6. The Crafter

I honestly didn’t believe this was real when I heard about it. Convinced that auto-crafting would always be left to modded Minecraft. I won’t bore you with the specific mechanics as I’m sure you get the idea: ingredients in, crafted item out. But even that simple concept allows for so many builds. Some of the things I’m most excited to try are:

• Building helper: Give it logs, and it turns them into stairs, slabs, etc.
• Improved guardian farm: Prismarine bricks or lanterns always ready.

If you want a more in depth breakdown of the crafter, Xisumavoid has a video covering it here.

When is Minecraft 1.21 releasing?

The update is set to come out sometime this summer, but we currently don’t have an exact release date. Though, you can try it out by enabling experimental features on the java edition 1.20.5 snapshot. Or if you’re on bedrock edition, you can access it by selecting the preview in the launcher. Minecraft has a full guide on how to get into beta versions if you want to know more.

Conclusion

Minecraft 1.21 is jam packed with awesome new content, some of which I didn’t get to cover like the new potion effects and pottery sherds. Or the new paintings that are currently only available on bedrock edition, though I’m sure java will get them eventually. But the trials are the main selling point of this update, adding much needed multiplayer content to Minecraft.

Speaking of multiplayer. If you and your friends are ready to get into the action and begin your 2 week Minecraft grind, you can pick up a server here. And if you want to try the new content early our support team would be happy to help put your server on the beta version. Though, it may be unstable. Happy crafting!