Aside from its addicting open-ended gameplay, one of the reasons players keep coming back to Minecraft is the constant stream of new content – both user-generated content and official ones from Mojang. This has allowed the game to stay afloat several years after its initial release, which is particularly noteworthy in an ever-growing industry where new games pop left and right.
At this year’s MineCon, Mojang announced an incoming major update for the game’s original PC version: update 1.11, dubbed as the ‘Exploration Update’. Mojang was kind enough to tease us with all the goodies in store to help ease the pain of waiting. Which, of course, has the exact opposite effect and made us all even more impatient. Here’s a quick preview of the things you can expect from the Exploration Update:
- Woodland Mansion – A procedurally-generated three-floor dungeon that generates in the Roofed Forest biomes. The Woodland Mansion is mostly made up of Cobblestone and Wood blocks and uses Structure Blocks for random layouts.
- New mobs
- Illagers, the evil-looking relatives of Villagers which come in two varieties: Vindicators and Evokers. The former are equipped with Iron Axes, while the latter summons Fangs and Vexes – also a new mob – for offense. Both of these Illagers can be found in the Woodland Mansion.
- Llamas, which spit on you if you hit them. Seriously, they use spit as a form of attack, which by the way is also a new particle. But don’t let that turn you off; they’re actually useful. Aside from a carpet as a saddle, you can also equip a Llama with a chest for storage purposes. And if you wrap a leash on one, nearby Llamas will come together and form a caravan.
- New items
- Four new spawn eggs have been added that correspond to the four new mobs above. In addition, spawn eggs that were kissed goodbye in update 1.10-pre2 are back again, which includes Elder Guardian, Zombie Horse and Wither Skeleton.
- Totem of Undying which, aside from resurrecting you after eating a fatal blow, gives you Absorption and Regeneration upon activation. An Evoker, which is a mini-boss, drops this item automatically.
- Exploration Map, which is used to locate the Woodland Mansion.
- The Observer block from the Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition is now available in the game, along with the new Shulker Box which works just like a regular Chest but doesn’t lose its content when broken.
- Chat messages now have a 256 characters limit, up from 100.
- Shields now block 100 percent of melee attacks as opposed to 66 percent.
Those are some of the noteworthy changes that will come with the Exploration Edition. There are many more, both big and small, but listing them all down would have made you fall asleep halfway through.
Take note that some of the things in the update’s changelog may be altered or completely omitted from the final product, so nothing’s set in stone yet. Except maybe the Llamas. Players may riot if those spitting Llamas are removed.
