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Pigs explode and witches ride chickens in Minecraft’s mod-style Add-Ons

Minecraft Add-Ons

Minecraft Add-Ons have arrived for the Windows 10 and Pocket Editions of the blocky building sim, letting players tweak parameters until their heart is content. Want a 50ft tall creeper with red skin? Go for it. Want massive, exploding pigs or chicken-riding witches? Fire away. It’s like modding, only built into the game and accessible to all. 

For vanilla, here’s our list of the best Minecraft mods.

That introduction video above should give you an idea of what Add-Ons offer to the Minecraft experience, but getting into the game and experimenting seems to be the best way to learn.

Once you’ve got to grips with it, you can even upload your creations to Realms. Speaking of which, you can upload and download your worlds to Realms on Windows 10 now too.

To prove the power of this new addition, you can download Mojang’s Alien Invasion scenarion from the Add-Ons page, all created with the power of the new tools. Here it is in action:

If you want to check out a tutorial before digging in, head to the Mojang site and watch the video there. We also recently spoke to the Minecraft team about Add-Ons, mods and more, so be sure to have a read of that while you’re at it.

If all that isn’t enough for you, the new patch also makes it worth exploring the depths in Windows 10, adding Ocean Monuments along with their various sea creature inhabitants.

For the full changelog, see below:

New Features

  • Ocean Monuments
  • Guardians and Elder Guardians
  • Prismarine, dark prismarine & prismarine bricks
  • Prismarine shard & prismarine crystal
  • Sea lantern
  • The Wither!
  • Nether star
  • Beacon
  • Wet & dry sponges
  • Slash commands (with a handy auto complete feature). Enable cheats for a world in the options screen for access, but note that Xbox Live achievements will be disabled when you’re using ‘em!
  • Custom key bindings! Hooray for lefties!
  • A new Creative inventory search feature
  • Add-On section for world settings
  • You can change game modes in Realms (note that doing this will restart the realm)
  • Ability to upload & download worlds in Realms
  • Ability to promote players as operators in Realms

Tweaks

  • UI improvements!
  • Performance improvements!
  • Tweaks to various mob action/behavior triggers, including fixing creeper explosions
  • Elder guardian de-buff visuals fixed (feedback from Android beta)Fishing rods & arrows will fire in more than just one direction
  • Lots of tweaks to water textures to make underwater more fun
  • Tweaks to Realms settings
  • Visual tweaks to sun, moon & stars when rendering in VR immersive mode
  • Ridiculous numbers of bug fixes!