Billing itself as a combination of Metroid, Zelda, and Portal, Supraland is a total callback to the classic age of first-gen platform gaming, with charm, style, and fun thrust to the fore of the design.

You explore a large, interconnected world in which most ways are at first unpassable until you find new abilities to overcome those obstacles. A cornerstone of Supraland‘s design was to create abilities that are so versatile, they will keep on surprising you by how many different usages they have. If you combine your abilities, the possibilities become even bigger.

Supraland assumes that you are intelligent and lets you play independently. The story is minimal, gives you an overarching goal to pursue, and then sets you free. Despite child-friendly visuals, the game targets experienced players. Playtime: ~12-25h.

No Man’s Sky has been on a wild ride since it was first released in a buggy, contentless state. Now, instead of being as broad as an ocean and as deep as a puddle, we’ve got a game that one can actually immerse in. It’s not just exploration of a boring procedural world, it’s got quests and stories, survival, combat, and more.

Inspired by the adventure and imagination that we love from classic science-fiction, No Man’s Sky presents you with a galaxy to explore, filled with unique planets and lifeforms, and constant danger and action.

In No Man’s Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you’ll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before – and perhaps never will again.

Now including…

Play with all major updates since launch: Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises, NEXT, The Abyss, Visions, the 2.0 BEYOND update, Synthesis, Living Ship, Exo Mech, Desolation and the 3.0 update, ORIGINS, Next Generation, Companions, Expeditions, Prisms, Frontiers, Sentinel and Outlaws.

An epic voyage to the centre of a shared universe awaits, allowing you to explore, trade, fight and survive alone or with friends.

The Epic Games Store has been around for a while, the lesser-known alternative to Steam, the nearly-ubiquitous platform for game purchases since it launched in 2003. But, where Steam originally existed and launched to promote Valve games, Epic Games Store launched in 2018 and quickly rose to success on the Fortnite franchise. At the time of Epic’s launch, Steam took a dramatic 30% cut from the sales of video games through their platform! This hurt both game designers and users, and just wasn’t very nice. But the folks behind Epic realized something excellent: they could take a much lower cut and still have a profitable business. This led them to fast domination of the indie market, as small publishers flocked to the far better terms offered by Epic.

Mega Discounts

Epic Games Store offers some seriously incredible discounts on a regular basis, in addition to all the normal discounts one would expect on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the usual holidays. But the most exciting is their weekly free game or add-on, which simply harpoons all competitors.

When I first heard about this free game, I thought that can’t be real. They must only offer tiny indie games. Not at all, dear reader. Not. At. All. Epic frequently lists unbelievable A-lister games on their weekly deal, as well as sometimes offer two free games instead of one. In addition, just because a studio is smaller doesn’t mean the games it makes aren’t impressive. I’ve picked up some of my favorite new games, for free, from this platform, and most of them have been made by smaller studios (or as side-projects for teams from big studios).

Experience the ultimate power fantasy as the apex predator of the seas – a terrifying SHARK! Maneater is a single player, open world action RPG (ShaRkPG) where YOU are the shark. Eat! Explore! Evolve!

Is this game completely idiotic? Yes. Is this game a wild fest of ridiculousness? Most certainly. Is its catchphrase of “Eat the Humans, Save the World” kinda hilarious? Heck yes. This is the sort of game you play when either extremely bored or massively depressed, but it’s bound to take your mind off anything else for at least a little while.

Starting as a small shark pup you are tasked with surviving the harsh world while eating your way up the ecosystem. To do this you will explore a large and varied open world encountering diverse enemies – both human and wildlife. Find the right resources and you can grow and evolve far beyond what nature intended, allowing the player to become a massive shark, an apex predator of legends. Eat. Explore. Evolve.

If you want to play a game where you’re an animal in nature, a better option than Maneater is certainly WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, which is a completely rebuilt and expanded version of the original WolfQuest game. Still in early access until 2023, this is a work of love and is already highly rated.

LIVE THE LIFE OF A WILD WOLF

You are a young gray wolf. Born in the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park, you learned the ways of the wolf in your family pack. Now you are venturing out on your own — to explore, hunt, find a mate, establish territory, and raise your own family.

EMBARK ON A QUEST FOR SURVIVAL

Your quest begins on the slopes of Amethyst Mountain. Here you must test your hunting skills against elk, moose, and mule deer. Once you’re a skilled hunter, you can seek out another wolf to become your mate.

Then, together, you venture to Slough Creek, cutting through the mountains north of the Lamar Valley, to establish a territory and den site and raise a litter of pups. You must feed them, play with them, protect them from deadly competitors, and take them on a cross-country journey to a summer home. Can your little family pack succeed?

EXPERIENCE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Explore WolfQuest‘s realistic recreation of the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park — “the Serengeti of North America” — where herds of elk and other ungulates roam the sagebrush steppe grasslands, alpine forests, and magnificent high ridges.

But watch out for packs of stranger wolves, who patrol their territories and don’t look kindly on intruders. The wilderness brims with other dangers as well — grizzly bears, cougars, and coyotes — who all vie with you for territory and food.

The Epic Games Store has been around for a while, the lesser-known alternative to Steam, the nearly-ubiquitous platform for game purchases since it launched in 2003. But, where Steam originally existed and launched to promote Valve games, Epic Games Store launched in 2018 and quickly rose to success on the Fortnite franchise. At the time of Epic’s launch, Steam took a dramatic 30% cut from the sales of video games through their platform! This hurt both game designers and users, and just wasn’t very nice. But the folks behind Epic realized something excellent: they could take a much lower cut and still have a profitable business. This led them to fast domination of the indie market, as small publishers flocked to the far better terms offered by Epic.

Mega Discounts

Epic Games Store offers some seriously incredible discounts on a regular basis, in addition to all the normal discounts one would expect on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the usual holidays. But the most exciting is their weekly free game or add-on, which simply harpoons all competitors.

When I first heard about this free game, I thought that can’t be real. They must only offer tiny indie games. Not at all, dear reader. Not. At. All. Epic frequently lists unbelievable A-lister games on their weekly deal, as well as sometimes offer two free games instead of one. In addition, just because a studio is smaller doesn’t mean the games it makes aren’t impressive. I’ve picked up some of my favorite new games, for free, from this platform, and most of them have been made by smaller studios (or as side-projects for teams from big studios).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

by Infinity Ward and Activision

We were shown a long trailer that featured cut scenes and gameplay of what’s to come in the next Call of Duty game. It is a direct sequel to the 2019 reboot, and will serve as the nineteenth installment in the overall Call of Duty series. Coming to console and PC on October 28, 2022

The Callisto Protocol

by Skybound Entertainment and KRAFTON

Fight to survive the horrors locked within the walls of Black Iron Prison in this immersive, next-generation take on survival horror. Viewers were shown new raw gameplay filled with jumps, spooks, and fights! Coming to console and PC on December 2, 2022

Routine

by Lunar Software and Raw Fury

Announced a decade ago, Routine is a first person sci-fi horror set on an abandoned Lunar base designed around an 80’s vision of the future. Curious exploration turns into a need for survival when a lunar base goes completely quiet. Searching for answers puts you face to face with a certain enemy, the main threat is you. Discoveries lead to deeper unknowns, and the only way to go is forward. Coming to Xbox and PC

American Arcadia

by Raw Fury and Out of the Blue Games

Welcome to Arcadia! A 70’s retro-futuristic metropolis where all its citizens enjoy a life of luxury and comfort… unaware that they’re being broadcast live 24/7! Arcadia is not an ordinary city, but the most watched reality show on the planet – where a drop in popularity ratings comes at the highest cost: death.

American Arcadia gives you control over two characters in completely different environments and unique playstyles: A 2.5D action side-scroller including challenging platform action, breath-taking chases, stealth and puzzles. As well as a full 3D first-person game, with hacking, exploration, stealth elements, and puzzles to solve. Coming to console and PC

Midnight Fight Express

by Jacob Dzwinel and Humble Games

Imagine John Wick the simulator. That’s this game, but made by one person. A former member of the criminal underworld is lured back into “the life” by a mysterious drone claiming they have until sunrise to prevent a citywide criminal takeover together. Coming to console and PC on August 23, 2022

Neon White

by Angel Matrix and Annapurna Interactive

Neon White is an upcoming first-person shooter and puzzle-platforming game. You are White, an assassin handpicked from Hell to compete with other demon slayers for a chance to live permanently in Heaven. The other assassins seem familiar, though… did you know them in a past life? Coming to Nintendo Switch and PC in summer 2022

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

by Tribute Games

Shredder’s Revenge is a side-scrolling action brawler with a pixelated artstyle. In the game, the player assumes control of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, April O’Neil and Master Splinter as they combat opponents including the Foot Clan, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, and Shredder in locations ranging from New York City sewers to Dimension X. Each character has their own attributes (range, speed, and power) and plays differently. They also have unique super moves and taunts. As the player progresses each stage, they will find pizza boxes, which can be used to heal the player, and other pies that grant players extra strength and infinite supers for a brief period of time. Coming to console and PC on June 16, 2022

Nightingale

by Inflexion Games

We’ve mentioned Nightingale before at Howchoo, and for good reason. Set out on a journey of survival and adventure, into the mysterious and dangerous Fae Realms of Nightingale! Become an intrepid Realmwalker, and venture forth alone or with friends – as you explore, craft, build and fight across a visually stunning Gaslamp Fantasy world. Coming to PC Q4 2022

The Quarry

by Supermassive Games and 2K Games

If you think this game looks similar to the Dark Pictures Anthology franchise, then you’d be correct. Made by the same studio, Supermassive Games, The Quarry is a horror-thriller game where your choices matter.

When the sun goes down on the last night of summer camp, nine teenage counselors are plunged into an unpredictable night of horror. The only thing worse than the blood-drenched locals and creatures hunting them are the unimaginable choices you must make to help them survive. Coming to console PC June 10, 2022

Aliens: Dark Descent

by Focus Entertainment Coming to console and PC in 2023

Flashback 2

by Microids Coming to console and PC in 2022

Witchfire

by The Astronauts Coming to PC in Q4 2022 (early access)

Fort Solis

by Fallen Leaf Studio Coming to PC in 2023

Outriders: Worldslayer DLC

by People Can Fly and Square Enix Coming to console and PC in June 2022

Stormgate

by Frost Giant Studios Beta coming in 2023

Highwater

by Demagog Studio and Rogue Games Coming December 2022

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

by Mediatonic Season 1 is free to play starting June 21, 2022

Goat Simulator 3

by Coffee Stain Studios Coming in fall 2022

Midnight Suns

by 2K and Marvel Coming to console and PC in 2022

Honkai StarRail and Zenless Zone Zero

by miHoYo Coming to Android, iOS, and PC

One Piece Odyssey

by BNE Entertainment and Namco Bandai Games America Coming to console and PC in 2022

Soul Hackers 2

by Atlus and Sega Coming to console and PC on August 26, 2022

Saints Row Boss Factory

by CD Projekt Available now on console and PC

Gotham Knights

by WB Game Montreal Coming to console and PC on October 25, 2022

Warhammer 40,000 Darktide

by Fatshark Coming to Xbox and PC on September 13, 2022

Layers of Fears

by Bloober Team Coming to console and PC in 2023

Good news for those in the video game industry (or just fans of game announcements)! The Summer Game Fest will return in person and digitally in Summer 2023.

Watch the full show here:

Allay spawn naturally in Pillager outposts and woodland mansions. Pillager outposts generate in any village-generating biome (such as plains, desert, etc.) while woodland mansions spawn only in the dark forest biome.

There is no specific item that will bind an allay to a player. Because its function and purpose is to find lost items, all you need to do is give the allay an item you want it to find!

The allay will follow you, seeking out dropped versions of the same item and delivering them to you. It follows a player from up to 64 blocks away even if it can’t see them, and it seeks items up to 32 blocks away from the player.

After delivering items, there is a 3 second delay until it can seek items again. The allay has a single inventory slot to hold a stack of items (usually 64 items) in addition to the item it got from the player. So, this will make having an allay find unstackable items, like potions, tedious.

To stop an allay from following you, take its item back by using an empty hand on it. You can use a lead and name tag on allays!

Open up Minecraft from wherever it’s installed. You can use CurseForge and other mod loaders for this guide!

To create a custom world, press “Singleplayer”.

As shown above, click the “Create New World” button at the bottom.

To generate the world with a custom seed, press “More World Options” and an additional menu will appear. Here you can add your custom seed, change the world type, or choose to generate structures.

In the text box at the top of the screen, add in whatever seed you want. Since version 1.18, Mojang has added the seed parity feature. This allows it that all seeds can be shared between Bedrock and Java editions.

You can enter letters and numbers into the text box, as shown above!

At the bottom of the screen, press “Create New World” and your new world will generate.

If you’d like to view a seed map of your world, read this easy guide!

Happy travels!

The biggest biome addition is the Mangrove Swamp! The Mangrove Swamp generates near warmer biomes, such as jungles and deserts. Mangrove trees add color to this otherwise gloomy looking location. These trees have large roots protruding from the ground, and their saplings can be planted on land and in water. A new tree means a new set of wood blocks including planks, doors, trapdoors, and more!

Another new block family is mud, which can be created from a dirt block and water bottle or be found in a mangrove swamp. The mud block can be placed atop pointed dripstone to dry out and turn into clay. Mud can be used to craft various mud brick blocks that players can use to build with.

The darkest biome in Minecraft, the Deep Dark, is dimly lit and eerie. The floor is covered in sculk blocks, with shriekers at every corner, ready to call out to the warden. Thankfully, the warden is the only mob that spawns here (for now).

Ancient City

Long-lost and abandoned, an Ancient City spawns in the Deep Dark biome. Chests are guarded by sculk sensors and shriekers. You can find treasures and the new enchantment (read more below) in rooms hidden beneath reinforced deepslate. The only good thing about the Deep Dark is that regular mobs don’t spawn in Ancient Cities.

Items and blocks you can find in Ancient Cities: Soul sand, soul fire, and soul lanterns Candles Skeleton skulls Basalt and deepslate (with variants of each block) Wool Echo shards, disc fragments, and the Swift Sneak enchantment

Sculk

The newest family of blocks are now available, dwelling in the Deep Dark.

• Sculk: When wool blocks are placed on a sculk block, it will let nearby sensors know, preventing that vibration from being excluded.
• Sculk Vein: Found at the edge of sculk patches, can be placed in any orientation, and can be waterlogged.
• Sculk Shrieker: Responds to sculk sensors that detect vibrations and send out a warning signal to distant wardens. Shriekers are found in the Deep Dark or growing from Sculk Catalysts.
• Sculk Catalyst: Blooms when mobs die within an 8-block radius. Mobs that perish in its presence don’t drop experience, instead a bubbling charge will be created where it died. This charge will spread through sculk veins and sculk blocks in random directions until they find a valid block they can convert into sculk.

Things to know about sculk blocks: All blocks require Silk Touch to acquire. The hoe is the most efficient tool for all sculk blocks.

In case you want to experience the power of these blocks, here’s some footage of my exploration through the Deep Dark experimental snapshot.

The Warden

The horror entity we’ve all be waiting for (which I find terrifying) has arrived. This creature has no eyes, and seemingly has souls embedded into its chest. The lore behind that is up for discussion, but right now, I can’t handle thinking about it.

In case you don’t believe me, here are some stats on the warden:

• Immune to lava and knockback
• Isn’t slowed down in water
• Has 250 hearts (500 health points)
• Does 15 hearts (30 points) of damage in Normal difficulty
• 3.5 blocks tall (making it taller than iron golems and enderman)
• Has a ranged attack that deals 10 damage with a distance of 15 blocks
• The ranged attack bypasses shields, armor, and penetrates walls

Wardens use vibrations as a way to navigate around, and when that’s not enough, they use their sense of smell to track down prey. Mojang Studios states, “In the Deep Dark, wardens are everywhere-you just can’t see them.”

Spooky.

It can detect and path find toward the general location of a player or mob through a “smelling” action. Thankfully, it will prioritize smelling the player or mob that it is most suspicious of, rather than the one closest to it. So if you’re playing with a friend, then there’s a chance you’ll survive.

In the Deep Dark, Wardens are everywhere–you just can’t see them.

The more vibrations a warden detects, the angrier it will get. In fact, the souls within its chest will beat. Meaning, the faster the beat, the angrier it is. Also, if you set off a shrieker block, you can hear the warden responding back to it.

If you’re wondering how strong a warden is, let me put it into perspective. I tested with both full netherite and diamond armor. I died in two hits.

Wardens can also disable shields, drops a sculk catalyst, and are better off left alone.

Darkness

Unique to the warden and sculk shrieker, the Darkness effect will afflict you when nearby. It lowers the gamma down to “moody” and, in periodic pulses, will dim the overall brightness of the world.

There is a new accessibility slider called “Darkness Effect” which controls how dark it gets when a warden of sculk shrieker gives it to you, but doesn’t affect the fog distance.

Swift Sneak Enchantment

The newest enchantment to Minecraft! This enchantment, when added to leggings, allows your crouch movement to be as fast as if you were walking.

It can only be found in chests in Ancient Cities, has three levels, and can only be applied to leggings. It cannot combine with Soul Speed, Frost Walker, or Depth Strider.

Hint: You can use a command to get level 4 and 5 of this enchantment.

Originally, the Wild Update was going to add both frogs and fireflies. However, in their February Minecraft Now, Mojang Studios announced to scrap fireflies. Because in reality, fireflies are poisonous to some frogs, they didn’t want to give misinformation in their game.

Instead, frogs eat tiny slimes, slime balls, and magma cubes. While you can’t tame frogs, you can breed them, lead them, and put tadpoles into buckets.

Frogs have three variants: temperate (orange), warm (white), and cold (green). To get different variants of the frogs, currently the best way is by bringing a bucket of tadpole to a different temperature biome and letting them grow up there.

Frogs croak, jump, swim, and (slowly) walk on land. They can jump over five blocks and prefer lily pads and big dripleaf.

Tadpoles

Tadpoles are born when two frogs are bred with slimeballs. It takes 20 minutes for them to grow into a frog after birth, which can be sped up using slimeballs. The frog type depends on which temperature it grows within. They jump around like fish when on land (and can perish that way).

Axolotls keep up their brand of predator when it comes to tadpoles. Be warned, they will attack and eat tadpoles. However, once your tadpole grows to a frog, they’re safe from harm. At least from an axolotl.

Froglights

There’s also a new set of blocks tied to the frogs: froglights! A new light source block, the froglight, is dropped when a frog eats a small magma cube. Depending on the variant, there are three new colored light blocks in orange, green, and purple!

The allay won the Minecraft Live 2021 mob vote. Its main function is to find blocks or items for a player, collecting the same items from the world as it holds in its hand. It can carry up to a stack at a time and will drop its collected items when in range of a note block. The note block it connects to will have a vibration particle visualization.

If holds an item it got from a player, it follows that player, up to a distance of 64 blocks away. It also is immune to damage from its owner while holding an item! They can sometimes spawn in cages next to pillager outposts and inside woodland mansions.

There are a plenty of new items to get excited about in the Wild Update:

• Boat with chest (all wood variants)
• New music and associated discs
• New paintings that were unused in Java Edition and were only available in Bedrock Edition
• Recovery Compass: A new type of compass which can point to the last place where the player died.
• Disc Fragment: A fragment of the Music Disc “5”, which can be crafted into the disc. Can be obtained only from the chests in the ancient cities.
• Echo Shard: Can be found only in loot chests in ancient cities and used to craft recovery compasses.
• Goat Horn: Drops when a goat rams coal ore, copper ore, emerald ore, iron ore, log, packed ice, or stone. Can play a loud sound that can be heard from afar, with a cooldown around 7 seconds between each use. There are 8 variants, each variant has its own unique sound. The Seek variant sounds eerily similar to the Horn of Gondor…

A handful of new advancements were added in the 1.19 update:

• “Birthday Song” – Have an allay deliver a cake at a note block
• “Bukkit Bukkit” – Catch a tadpole in a bucket
• “It Spreads” – Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst
• “Sneak 100” – Sneak near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it from detecting you
• “When the Squad Hops into Town” – Get each frog variant on a lead
• “With Our Powers Combined!” – Have all three froglights in your inventory
• “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” – Have an allay deliver items to you

Added new Lena Raine music:

• “Ancestry” plays only in the deep dark.
• “Aerie”, “Firebugs”, and “Labyrinthine” plays in the lush caves, all types of swamps, forests, and jungles, as well as the menu screen.

Even textures and models got updated:

• Brewing Stand: Slightly changed its texture, to make their arms connect to their bases. Updated base UV’s and texture to match a graphical fix in Bedrock Edition, which has no effect on visuals.
• Cocoa pod: – Slightly changed the stage2’s texture, to make width consistency with other stages’ textures.
• End portal frame: Slightly changed its texture, to make better transition with the end stone texture.
• End rod: Removed unused pixels in its texture.
• Mycelium: Slightly changed its side texture, to match other dirt-based blocks.
• Piston and sticky piston: Changed their textures, to match the color of the oak planks on the piston head.
• Smoker: Rotated pixels in the bottom left corner in their textures, to make a correct direction.
• Boats: The paddles represent their respective wood color and their inside rims of the boats are darker, to match Bedrock Edition.
• Evoker, illusioner, and witch: Changed their models, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render.
• Fence: Changed the model when in an item frame, to make their two horizontal bars thicker, matching the thickness in their block form.
• Leather cap: Changed its texture, to extend the center bar on the back face to the bottom.
• Llama: Changed all variants’ chest texture, to use the chest texture since the texture update.
• Spiders and cave spiders: Fixed texture mapping of both types of spiders.
• Pillager: Changed its model, slightly shortened its coat to match its actual texture.
• Villager: Changed their models of all biome variants, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render. The color of the top and bottom of their legs now matches the sides correctly.
• Vindicator: Changed its model, slightly shortened its coat to match its actual texture. The “gap” between the two arms is connected correctly now. Changed the color of the seam face between their upper and lower arms, which is not visible in default.
• Zombie villager: Changed their models, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render. Changed their clothes texture in all biomes (except desert and swamp), the color of the top and bottom of their legs now matches the sides correctly.

These are changes made to the game that aren’t necessarily related to reported bugs:

• Doors: The top of doors no longer flips unnaturally when opening in certain directions.
• Glow lichen: Can now be placed on the top and sides of soul sand and maximum height snow.
• Leaves: Leaves are now waterloggable.
• TNT: Ores and spawners blown up by TNT ignited by a player now drop experience.
• Vines: Can now be placed on the sides of soul sand and maximum height snow.
• Scaffolding: When used as fuel for furnaces, they now burn as long as a bamboo does.
• Shield: They now properly spin around their own center axis and show up in the right place in item frames.
• Endermen, Skeletons, and Wither Skeletons: Now spawn from light level 0 to 11 in the nether, which is a wider range than before.
• Goat: Now can drop 2 horns each. The number of horns left to drop is represented on the model.
• Parrots: Can now imitate wardens.
• Wandering trader: Now sells 1 mangrove propagule for 5 emeralds.
• Minecart with chest, Minecart with furnace, Minecart with TNT and Minecart with hopper: Crafting recipes are now shapeless, and they drop themselves when broken.

That’s all folks! These are the main features of the Wild Update 1.19 for Minecraft! Plenty of other changes were made to the game, along with bug fixes and behind the scenes coding.

Good luck, adventurers, and we hope you don’t end up fighting the warden before you’re ready!

The biggest biome addition is the Mangrove Swamp! The Mangrove Swamp generates near warmer biomes, such as jungles and deserts. Mangrove trees add color to this otherwise gloomy looking location. These trees have large roots protruding from the ground, and their saplings can be planted on land and in water. A new tree means a new set of wood blocks including planks, doors, trapdoors, and more!

Another new block family is mud, which can be created from a dirt block and water bottle or be found in a mangrove swamp. The mud block can be placed atop pointed dripstone to dry out and turn into clay. Mud can be used to craft various mud brick blocks that players can use to build with.

The darkest biome in Minecraft, the Deep Dark, is dimly lit and eerie. The floor is covered in sculk blocks, with shriekers at every corner, ready to call out to the warden. Thankfully, the warden is the only mob that spawns here (for now).

Ancient City

Long-lost and abandoned, an Ancient City spawns in the Deep Dark biome. Chests are guarded by sculk sensors and shriekers. You can find treasures and the new enchantment (read more below) in rooms hidden beneath reinforced deepslate. The only good thing about the Deep Dark is that regular mobs don’t spawn in Ancient Cities.

Items and blocks you can find in Ancient Cities: Soul sand, soul fire, and soul lanterns Candles Skeleton skulls Basalt and deepslate (with variants of each block) Wool Echo shards, disc fragments, and the Swift Sneak enchantment

Sculk

The newest family of blocks are now available, dwelling in the Deep Dark.

• Sculk: When wool blocks are placed on a sculk block, it will let nearby sensors know, preventing that vibration from being excluded.
• Sculk Vein: Found at the edge of sculk patches, can be placed in any orientation, and can be waterlogged.
• Sculk Shrieker: Responds to sculk sensors that detect vibrations and send out a warning signal to distant wardens. Shriekers are found in the Deep Dark or growing from Sculk Catalysts.
• Sculk Catalyst: Blooms when mobs die within an 8-block radius. Mobs that perish in its presence don’t drop experience, instead a bubbling charge will be created where it died. This charge will spread through sculk veins and sculk blocks in random directions until they find a valid block they can convert into sculk.

Things to know about sculk blocks: All blocks require Silk Touch to acquire. The hoe is the most efficient tool for all sculk blocks.

In case you want to experience the power of these blocks, here’s some footage of my exploration through the Deep Dark experimental snapshot.

The Warden

The horror entity we’ve all be waiting for (which I find terrifying) has arrived. This creature has no eyes, and seemingly has souls embedded into its chest. The lore behind that is up for discussion, but right now, I can’t handle thinking about it.

In case you don’t believe me, here are some stats on the warden:

• Immune to lava and knockback
• Isn’t slowed down in water
• Has 250 hearts (500 health points)
• Does 15 hearts (30 points) of damage in Normal difficulty
• 3.5 blocks tall (making it taller than iron golems and enderman)
• Has a ranged attack that deals 10 damage with a distance of 15 blocks
• The ranged attack bypasses shields, armor, and penetrates walls

Wardens use vibrations as a way to navigate around, and when that’s not enough, they use their sense of smell to track down prey. Mojang Studios states, “In the Deep Dark, wardens are everywhere-you just can’t see them.”

Spooky.

It can detect and path find toward the general location of a player or mob through a “smelling” action. Thankfully, it will prioritize smelling the player or mob that it is most suspicious of, rather than the one closest to it. So if you’re playing with a friend, then there’s a chance you’ll survive.

In the Deep Dark, Wardens are everywhere–you just can’t see them.

The more vibrations a warden detects, the angrier it will get. In fact, the souls within its chest will beat. Meaning, the faster the beat, the angrier it is. Also, if you set off a shrieker block, you can hear the warden responding back to it.

If you’re wondering how strong a warden is, let me put it into perspective. I tested with both full netherite and diamond armor. I died in two hits.

Wardens can also disable shields, drops a sculk catalyst, and are better off left alone.

Darkness

Unique to the warden and sculk shrieker, the Darkness effect will afflict you when nearby. It lowers the gamma down to “moody” and, in periodic pulses, will dim the overall brightness of the world.

There is a new accessibility slider called “Darkness Effect” which controls how dark it gets when a warden of sculk shrieker gives it to you, but doesn’t affect the fog distance.

Swift Sneak Enchantment

The newest enchantment to Minecraft! This enchantment, when added to leggings, allows your crouch movement to be as fast as if you were walking.

It can only be found in chests in Ancient Cities, has three levels, and can only be applied to leggings. It cannot combine with Soul Speed, Frost Walker, or Depth Strider.

Hint: You can use a command to get level 4 and 5 of this enchantment.

Originally, the Wild Update was going to add both frogs and fireflies. However, in their February Minecraft Now, Mojang Studios announced to scrap fireflies. Because in reality, fireflies are poisonous to some frogs, they didn’t want to give misinformation in their game.

Instead, frogs eat tiny slimes, slime balls, and magma cubes. While you can’t tame frogs, you can breed them, lead them, and put tadpoles into buckets.

Frogs have three variants: temperate (orange), warm (white), and cold (green). To get different variants of the frogs, currently the best way is by bringing a bucket of tadpole to a different temperature biome and letting them grow up there.

Frogs croak, jump, swim, and (slowly) walk on land. They can jump over five blocks and prefer lily pads and big dripleaf.

Tadpoles

Tadpoles are born when two frogs are bred with slimeballs. It takes 20 minutes for them to grow into a frog after birth, which can be sped up using slimeballs. The frog type depends on which temperature it grows within. They jump around like fish when on land (and can perish that way).

Axolotls keep up their brand of predator when it comes to tadpoles. Be warned, they will attack and eat tadpoles. However, once your tadpole grows to a frog, they’re safe from harm. At least from an axolotl.

Froglights

There’s also a new set of blocks tied to the frogs: froglights! A new light source block, the froglight, is dropped when a frog eats a small magma cube. Depending on the variant, there are three new colored light blocks in orange, green, and purple!

The allay won the Minecraft Live 2021 mob vote. Its main function is to find blocks or items for a player, collecting the same items from the world as it holds in its hand. It can carry up to a stack at a time and will drop its collected items when in range of a note block. The note block it connects to will have a vibration particle visualization.

If holds an item it got from a player, it follows that player, up to a distance of 64 blocks away. It also is immune to damage from its owner while holding an item! They can sometimes spawn in cages next to pillager outposts and inside woodland mansions.

There are a plenty of new items to get excited about in the Wild Update:

• Boat with chest (all wood variants)
• New music and associated discs
• New paintings that were unused in Java Edition and were only available in Bedrock Edition
• Recovery Compass: A new type of compass which can point to the last place where the player died.
• Disc Fragment: A fragment of the Music Disc “5”, which can be crafted into the disc. Can be obtained only from the chests in the ancient cities.
• Echo Shard: Can be found only in loot chests in ancient cities and used to craft recovery compasses.
• Goat Horn: Drops when a goat rams coal ore, copper ore, emerald ore, iron ore, log, packed ice, or stone. Can play a loud sound that can be heard from afar, with a cooldown around 7 seconds between each use. There are 8 variants, each variant has its own unique sound. The Seek variant sounds eerily similar to the Horn of Gondor…

A handful of new advancements were added in the 1.19 update:

• “Birthday Song” – Have an allay deliver a cake at a note block
• “Bukkit Bukkit” – Catch a tadpole in a bucket
• “It Spreads” – Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst
• “Sneak 100” – Sneak near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it from detecting you
• “When the Squad Hops into Town” – Get each frog variant on a lead
• “With Our Powers Combined!” – Have all three froglights in your inventory
• “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” – Have an allay deliver items to you

Added new Lena Raine music:

• “Ancestry” plays only in the deep dark.
• “Aerie”, “Firebugs”, and “Labyrinthine” plays in the lush caves, all types of swamps, forests, and jungles, as well as the menu screen.

Even textures and models got updated:

• Brewing Stand: Slightly changed its texture, to make their arms connect to their bases. Updated base UV’s and texture to match a graphical fix in Bedrock Edition, which has no effect on visuals.
• Cocoa pod: – Slightly changed the stage2’s texture, to make width consistency with other stages’ textures.
• End portal frame: Slightly changed its texture, to make better transition with the end stone texture.
• End rod: Removed unused pixels in its texture.
• Mycelium: Slightly changed its side texture, to match other dirt-based blocks.
• Piston and sticky piston: Changed their textures, to match the color of the oak planks on the piston head.
• Smoker: Rotated pixels in the bottom left corner in their textures, to make a correct direction.
• Boats: The paddles represent their respective wood color and their inside rims of the boats are darker, to match Bedrock Edition.
• Evoker, illusioner, and witch: Changed their models, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render.
• Fence: Changed the model when in an item frame, to make their two horizontal bars thicker, matching the thickness in their block form.
• Leather cap: Changed its texture, to extend the center bar on the back face to the bottom.
• Llama: Changed all variants’ chest texture, to use the chest texture since the texture update.
• Spiders and cave spiders: Fixed texture mapping of both types of spiders.
• Pillager: Changed its model, slightly shortened its coat to match its actual texture.
• Villager: Changed their models of all biome variants, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render. The color of the top and bottom of their legs now matches the sides correctly.
• Vindicator: Changed its model, slightly shortened its coat to match its actual texture. The “gap” between the two arms is connected correctly now. Changed the color of the seam face between their upper and lower arms, which is not visible in default.
• Zombie villager: Changed their models, now their last two rows of pixels on their robes can render. Changed their clothes texture in all biomes (except desert and swamp), the color of the top and bottom of their legs now matches the sides correctly.

These are changes made to the game that aren’t necessarily related to reported bugs:

• Doors: The top of doors no longer flips unnaturally when opening in certain directions.
• Glow lichen: Can now be placed on the top and sides of soul sand and maximum height snow.
• Leaves: Leaves are now waterloggable.
• TNT: Ores and spawners blown up by TNT ignited by a player now drop experience.
• Vines: Can now be placed on the sides of soul sand and maximum height snow.
• Scaffolding: When used as fuel for furnaces, they now burn as long as a bamboo does.
• Shield: They now properly spin around their own center axis and show up in the right place in item frames.
• Endermen, Skeletons, and Wither Skeletons: Now spawn from light level 0 to 11 in the nether, which is a wider range than before.
• Goat: Now can drop 2 horns each. The number of horns left to drop is represented on the model.
• Parrots: Can now imitate wardens.
• Wandering trader: Now sells 1 mangrove propagule for 5 emeralds.
• Minecart with chest, Minecart with furnace, Minecart with TNT and Minecart with hopper: Crafting recipes are now shapeless, and they drop themselves when broken.

That’s all folks! These are the main features of the Wild Update 1.19 for Minecraft! Plenty of other changes were made to the game, along with bug fixes and behind the scenes coding.

Good luck, adventurers, and we hope you don’t end up fighting the warden before you’re ready!