You may have been a fan of Minecraft for years, like me, or you may be a newer player that started because they found out that they’re making a Minecraft movie. On May 30th, we finally got the release date for Minecraft 1.21, which is called the Tricky Trials Update. This date is June 13th. If you are like me and have not played any of the snapshots, you are in for a lot of new content. Here is what is being added to Minecraft in the Tricky Trials Update. No matter who you are, this update is for you.
New Music
There are three new music discs that can be found in the game. With music by Aaron Cherof and Lena Raine, these new discs can be found in some of the game’s new features: the trial chambers, the vault, and the ominous vault.
There is also nine new background songs that will play as you play the game. They will be played in only select biomes including, but not limited to, the Cherry Grove, Deep Dark, Flower Forest, Lush Caves, and Stony Peaks.
New Paintings
There are now going to be twenty new paintings in the game. Paintings are an easy and iconic way to add some decoration to your house, but it can get a bit boring with the same old paintings. Therefore, there is finally being new paintings added! Originally, only fifteen paintings were announced, but that number has been upped to twenty. Fifteen of the paintings have been made by the Kristoffer Zefferstand while the other five are made by Sarah Boeving, a Game Artist from Majoang Studios.
Air Bubbles
There have been a few minor changes to the air bubbles in the game that indicate how long a player has until they start to drown. However, my favorite of these changes is that they now make a popping sound when they disappear.
New Blocks
There are three main categories for the new blocks in Minecraft 1.21: the crafter, tuff blocks, and copper blocks. The crafter is a new block that uses redstone pulses to automate building, which is a game changer for those who are redstone engineers.
Looking for something to do with all of that tuff sitting in your chests from your mining expeditions? Well, the next type of block, tuff blocks, is more decorative than anything. You can now chisel and polish them and turn them into slabs, walls, and stairs.
If you’re like me, you have a lot of smelted copper and copper ore just sitting in your chests with nothing to do with them. Now, there are even more blocks made of copper, which includes doors and trapdoors. There is also copper grates and chiseled copper. In addition, there is something called a copper bulb, which is a new light source that needs a redstone pulse to turn on and off. Unlike redstone lamps, though, it does not need a consistent redstone pulse to stay on. All of these copper blocks have different oxidation levels like the original copper block does. For the copper bulb, this also affects how much light is produced, with less and less light being produced the more oxidized the block gets.
Wind Charge
The wind charge is another new aspect that has already made its way to the snapshots. This little burst of wind can make the player jump higher than they could before. It also can be thrown at mobs and knock them back. How do you obtain this? By using something called a breeze rod, which is dropped by the new Breeze mob. This brings us to our next section.
New Mobs
There are two new mobs being added to Minecraft 1.21, which can be found in the new trial chambers. The first of these is the Breeze, which is kind of similar to the Blaze. They throw wind charges at you and are immune to projectile weapons. The Breeze can even throw these projectiles back at you! They drop a breeze rod which, as previously mentioned, is needed to make the wind charge.
The other new mob can be found not only in the trial chambers but also in the swamps. It is called the Bogged. It is very similar to a skeleton, except it shoot poisoned arrows and takes more time to reload an arrow on its bow. Its drops are similar to that of a skeleton except that it can also drop arrows of poisoning.
New Main Menu Screen
With every Minecraft update we also get a new background on the main menu screen. This update is no different. This one is called the Cubemap background. The name suggests that the background will be a world map in the shape of a cube, kind of like a cubed Earth.
Mace
Something Minecraft has not gotten in a while is a new weapon, which we are now getting. It is called the mace. The mace is crafted from the new breeze rod and the heavy core, which can be found in ominous vaults. It is super powerful, and with its smashing technique, the farther you fall, the more damage it deals. This allows for even a warden to be killed in just one hit. With a new weapon comes new enchantments, and there are three of them. You can read more about them here.
The Trial Chamber
The trial chamber is probably the biggest addition to Minecraft 1.21, and is where the update gets its new name from. The trial chamber is found underground of the Overworld and is made of the new copper blocks and contains lots of decorative pots in them. They also have the new vault, which can be unlocked using a trial key. A trial key is dropped from a spawner once you have defeated all of the enemies. You then use it open the vault, which drops amazing loot.
Ominous Trials
If you’re not like me and are good at fighting, the trial chambers may sound really easy to you. Lucky for you, there is something even harder called the ominous trials in Minecraft 1.21. The ominous trials is like the trial chamber but is much more difficult. You start the ominous trials by drinking from an ominous bottle and stepping into a trial chamber. The ominous bottle can be obtained from vaults or from raid captains. If you drink from the ominous bottle and walk into a village, you will cause a raid to start. As mentioned before, the ominous trials are even harder than the regular trials, but it gives better loot, like the heavy core needed to craft the mace.
