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Here’s everything that’s coming to Minecraft in the upcoming 1.11 Exploration Update

Minecraft update 111

Minecraft lead designer Jens Bergensten took to the main stage of Minecon on the final day of Minecon 2016 to go through the changelog of the upcoming 1.11 update for Minecraft. Dubbed the ‘Exploration Update’,  most of the additions are aimed at adding more things to do in the game outside of mining and, well… crafting.

If exploration is what you’re after, check out the best Minecraft seeds.

All of the new features were also demoed in brief videos, each seemingly minor tweak met with rapturous applause from the thousands in attendance. No need to worry about the community staying passionate, then. There’s no solid release date for update 1.11, but snapshots are already available. Anyway, here’s what’s up in Minecraft’s next feature haul.

Minecraft update 1.11 Mobs – Llamas and more

Minecraft update 111 llamas

By far the fan favourite announcement of the whole convention, the revelation that llamas would be coming to Minecraft is, bizarrely, huge news. Apart from looking like llamas, the new Minecraft mobs will have a number of bespoke features to make them stand out. For starters, they’ll be able to spit, which despite being incredibly rude and obnoxious is also an effective means of ranged attack.

Jens also said the player would be able to “swag them out with carpets,” which are essentially saddles but with some added visual flair. You can also attach satchels to llamas in order to use them like pack mules. Better still, if you use a lead on a llama, all nearby llamas will automatically form a caravan behind the llama you’re leading.

Some raw data on how they work straight out of the snapshots:

  • Spawn location: Extreme Hills.
  • Drop: Leather.
  • Attacks: Spitting, new particle effect.
    • When hit will spit once, dealing 1 damage.
    • Will aggro Wolves naturally.
  • Can be equipped with a carpet as a saddle and a chest for storage.
    • Different carpets have different textures when used as saddles.
    • Amount of storage slots available depends on the strength of the Llama.
  • If you put a leash on one, other Llamas nearby will be attracted and try to form a caravan.
  • Caravan groups are passive to all mobs.

And the rest of the new mobs:

Illagers

  • Look like Villagers, but have pale gray skin and wear dark clothes.
  • Come in two types.

Vindicator

  • Spawn location: Woodland Mansion
  • Drop: Emerald, Iron Axe
  • Attacks: Iron Axe
    • Hostile to villagers and the player.
    • Hostile to everyone except other Illagers with a custom tag or when named Johnny.

Evoker

  • Spawn location: Woodland Mansion (upper floors)
  • Drop: Totem of Undying (guaranteed), Emerald
  • Attacks: Fangs
    • Summons a series of fang traps from the ground.
    • These are either in circles around the Evoker or in a line.
    • Deals 6 damage, ignoring all armor.
    • Hostile to the player and villagers.
  • Can summon Vexes, another new mob.
    • Flying mobs capable of flying through blocks.
    • Spawns only from Evokers.
    • No drops.
    • Attacks with an iron sword.
    • Die over time.
  • Will change any blue colored sheep in a radius of 16 blocks to red. Because evil.

Why would you risk this, well…

Minecraft update 1.11 – Woodland Mansion

Minecraft update 111 vex

New places for treasure and dungeon crawling are always welcome among the Minecraft community, and the addition of incredibly difficult, procedurally-generated mansions should give players plenty more to do when they reach the end of the game. The Woodland Mansion dungeon type will be very rare, but will offer some intriguing rewards courtesy of its three new hostile mobs.

  • Spawns in Roofed Forest biomes.
  • Always has three floors, the first two larger.
  • Mostly built of Cobblestone and Wood blocks, with the odd window.
  • Can be found with the new map functionality.

The reason you’d risk it all is for one of these drops:

Minecraft update 1.11 Items

Totem of Undying

Giving you reason to stalk a Woodland Mansion, the Totem of Undying is a rare drop from the new Evoker mob. You can equip the Totem of Undying as a consumable item in one of your hands, so that should you receive a fatal blow, you’ll instead use the item and be granted a temporary boost to your stats – ensuring that you can survive any near-death experience. Extra handy for Survival Mode, providing Absorbtion

Spawn eggs

Some new spawn eggs to be added:

  • Wither Skeleton
  • Mule
  • Skeleton Horse
  • Zombie Horse
  • Donkey
  • Elder Guardian
  • Stray
  • Husk
  • Llama
  • Evoker
  • Vex
  • Vindicator

Shulker Shell

  • Drops from Shulkers at a 50% rate.
  • Can be combined with a Chest to make Shulker Boxes, which can be moved without destroying the items inside.

Exploration Map

  • Can only be obtained from Cartographer Villagers.
  • Used to locate Ocean Monuments and the new Woodland Mansions.
    • Ocean Explorer Maps are blue, while Woodland Explorer Maps are slightly brown.
  • Draws the area of land you’re exploring, and fills it in as you progress.

Minecraft update 1.11 general changes

Minecraft fishing

Curse Enchantments

New enchantments that give negative effects. Two so far in-game.

  • Curse of Binding makes you unable to drop or take off an item, though it will be removed when you die.
  • Curse of Vanishing makes an item disappear if you die.

Curses can be found on various items generated by the game, as well as applied to items in creative mode.

Location Command

Finally, a more official way of finding your way around a gigantic Minecraft world. The new slash command will give players the coordinates to key locations in the world, which players can string into the command if they’re looking for something more specific, like how to find a village in Minecraft. Here’s a list of possible commands:

  • EndCity, Fortress, Mansion, Mineshaft, Monument, Stronghold, Temple and Village

Will return a message that reads what structure was located and its coordinates, assuming you are in the same dimension.

Shields

  • Minecraft shields now block 100% of damage in melee combat, increased from 66%. This has some added benefits:
    • Zombies without any weapons and creeper explosions will not deal any damage to the player.
    • Wither skeletons will not inflict the wither effect and burning zombies will not set the player on fire.

Exhaustion

The exhaustion table is being overhauled to be much nicer on players in all but one instance. Easy comparison table over on the Minecraft wiki.

Fishing

In the snapshot 16W43A update, Mojang introduced a “fishing overhaul.” This didn’t change a massive amount of the core gameplay, but it did fix an absolutely massive batch of bugs. Full list over in the official post, but some of the most annoying, and longest-lasting, have now been defeated.

That’s everything in the 1.11 update that’s been discovered so far. For the nitty-gritty details, check the official wiki.