It’s been a long wait but Minecraft’s 1.21 update is finally here, introducing new blocks, items, and challenges that will test even the most experienced players.
Now in its 15th year, Minecraft continues to expand and the 1.21 update is something that fans have been waiting for—particularly those who may feel they have achieved everything Minecraft has to offer.
We’ve detailed everything added to Minecraft in the 1.21 update so you can ensure you don’t miss out on a single piece of the new content.
Trial Chambers
Undoubtedly the biggest change to Minecraft in update 1.21 is the introduction of Trial Chambers, a new structure in the overworld to test your combat ability. The Trial Chambers are found in different sizes and are most common in the Deepslate layer of the underground.
Each Trial Chamber is procedurally generated, so it varies on what exactly you’ll find inside, but you can expect traps, rewards, and combat areas. When you pass a challenge, you’ll earn a Vault Key, which opens the Vault and rewards high-level Enchanted Books and equipment, alongside a very rare chance of receiving a Trident.
Each Trial Chamber includes Trial Spawners for enemies, which fall into the melee, small melee, or ranged category, and it’s possible to face everything from Zombies to Cave Spiders, Silverfish to Skeletons, so come prepared.
New enemy mobs
Alongside the standard enemies you’ll encounter in Minecraft, including those within the Trial Chambers, there are also two new types of Mobs to test yourself against: the Breeze and the Bogged.
The Breeze moves primarily by leaping around and deflects all projectiles except Wind Charges, so it’s largely immune to ranged combat. If you successfully defeat them, you’ll receive Breeze Rods as a reward—a necessary resource if you want to craft the new weapon (more on that later).
Bogged, meanwhile, are a new variant of enemies that shoot poisonous arrows and can be found in Swamps and Mangrove Swamps, as well as in some Trial Chambers. When killed by players, there’s a chance they’ll drop Arrows of Poison, or you can shear them for some Mushrooms.
New weapon and enchantments
The Mace is a new heavy weapon introduced in Minecraft 1.21 that has a base damage of five and is crafted with a Breeze Rod and a Heavy Core. Like any other weapon, the durability will decrease when used and must be repaired with Breeze Rods at an Anvil.
With the Mace, you can use the Smash Attack when falling more than 1.5 blocks before hitting, which provides two boosts: negating any damage that would be earned from the fall and dealing extra damage the further the player fell before hitting the target.
Three exclusive Enchantments are available for the Mace: Density, providing more damage per fallen block, Breach, reducing the effectiveness of armor on the target, and Wind Burst, which results in Maces emitting a Wind Burst when hitting an enemy that launches the player upward—but the latter can only be found in Ominous Vaults.
New blocks and items
A heap of new blocks and items have been added in Minecraft 1.21, including the Crafter, which enables crafting of items and blocks using Redstone, the Trial Spawner, the Vault, which requires a key to unlock, and an expansion of the Copper family of blocks.
As for new items, the Trial Explorer Map is used to find a nearby Trial Chamber. Ominous Bottles can be consumed to receive the Bad Omen effect that provides an optional additional challenge in Trial Chambers that are “designed to shake up the experience in unique ways.”
Those looking for more customization or the right vibe for their village will certainly be pleased by other additions that include three new Music Discs and 20 new Paintings.
Changes and bug fixes
Alongside the addition of new content, Minecraft’s 1.21 update also comes with changes and bug fixes, including improved chunk loading performance, the ability for doors of different materials to form a double door, Witches always dropping Redstone Dust on death, and a reduction to Piston sound volume.
Panic behavior for animals now lasts for only two seconds in Minecraft, reduced from the previous five seconds, and Ender Pearls that are thrown through portals can teleport players to different dimensions—and you can ride Minecarts and Horses through Portals.
Improvements to Realms have also been made, with any member of a Realm now able to upgrade a Realm, while the main screen for Realms now shows which players in the Realm are currently online.
