Minecraft 1.20 is one of the biggest updates that the community has seen in recent years. Though this update didn’t have an official theme or name when it was first announced back in October 2022, it now brings over a dozen new features. According to Mojang, the Minecraft 1.20 update is a result of them learning from their mistakes from the past updates, especially Minecraft 1.19 Wild Update (over promising and under delivering). But that’s not the case here. So, let’s read about the amazing new features, biomes and mobs, and all other exciting information around the Minecraft 1.20 Trails and Tales update.
We have included confirmed features, announced changes, and the official release date for the upcoming Minecraft 1.20 update. Use the table below to easily browse through the different confirmed features.
Note: This article was last updated on 7th June 2023 at 8:00AM PST to include all the official details for the release date and new features, including the Sniffer, the cherry blossom biome, archaeology features, new armor trim & banner customization features.
What Is the Minecraft 1.20 Update Called?
The Minecraft 1.19 update was truly different than any other game updates in the past. It added a bunch of new features, including biomes, blocks, and even the strongest mob of Minecraft, the Warden. Yet, most of the community thought that it didn’t live up to its title of “Wild Update”. So, learning from its mistake, the developers of Minecraft presented the next update without an official name and a myriad of cool evolving features.
Well, Mojang has finally put all rumors to rest and revealed the official name of the Minecraft 1.20 update. Drumroll, please!! We will get the Minecraft 1.20 Trails and Tales update in 2023, which includes the much-awaited archaeology features, two new mobs – camel and sniffer, a new biome, an armor and shield customization feature, and much more. You can scroll down and read more about all of the new features.
New Mobs in Minecraft 1.20 (Confirmed)
Mojang currently has three games within the Minecraft franchise, including Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. Even though the games aren’t directly linked, the developer is known for porting mobs from one game to another. But instead of adding one of the mobs that we saw in Legends or Dungeons teasers in the past, Minecraft is adding a new mob to the desert biome.
Camels Come to Minecraft
Minecraft is bringing camels to the game. As you might expect, they will naturally only spawn in desert biomes. They are one of the largest mobs in the game, and you will be out of the reach of hostile mobs while riding it at nighttime. When tamed, two players can ride one camel at the same time. You can use our guide to learn how to ride a camel in Minecraft 1.20 in no time. But keep in mind that, unlike horses, camels are much slower than horses in complex terrains.
Though, thanks to their dash ability, they can cover comparatively flat areas much faster. This same ability also allows them to jump over ravines. Not to forget, you can breed camels in Minecraft using cactus as food in desert biomes to create baby camels. So, under the right circumstance, they can end up being a common mob breeding farm in the game.
Sniffer: Mob Vote 2022 Winner
With over 50% of the votes, Sniffer has won the Minecraft Mob Vote 2022 and is coming to the game with the next update. This mob also features a baby version (hatched via Sniffer eggs), opening more breeding possibilities for the players. In terms of gameplay, the sniffer is supposed to sniff out seeds for new and unique plants in the overworld. We are excited to see how many new types of Minecraft farms this mob leads to.
[UPDATE | 21st Jan, 12:00AM PST] In late January, Minecraft’s official social media handles gave us the first look at the Sniffer in the game (image above), and its first impressions are exciting. Contrary to early expectations, this six-legged mob is even larger than the player and has detailed textures. Due to its size, many players might be wondering about its rideability, which is unlikely to happen, but the new ride command in Minecraft 1.20 can give you a workaround for riding the Sniffer.
Leaving its appearance aside, the Sniffer can lie down on the ground when it wants to rest, much like the new camel mob. Otherwise, it roams around randomly. Furthermore, its movement is slow, and its nostrils bounce slightly while the Sniffer is “sniffing” around for newly added seeds – Torchflower and Pitcher Plant. Looking at this new mob in action further validates the community’s choice in the latest mob vote.
If this cute and fluffy mob interests you, read our in-depth guide on Sniffers in Minecraft 1.20 right now. We also dedicated guides on how to find sniffer eggs and breed the adult mobs right now.
New Biomes in Minecraft 1.20 (Confirmed)
Over the years, Minecraft has teased several new and revamped biomes, but they never reached the players. Though we initially hoped to see biome updates for the desert, savanna, or badlands, Minecraft 1.20 has surprised us by adding a new cherry blossom biome. Read all about this new biome right here:
Cherry Blossom Biome
As an unexpected Valentine’s day gift, Mojang revealed that Minecraft 1.20 is getting a new “pink” biome in the form of Cherry Blossom. As you might expect, it is an overworld forest biome that features the iconic cherry blossom trees with their pink leaves. Moreover, the flowers in this biome are also pink. As for the mobs, we are not getting any exclusive mob spawning here, but as per early screenshots, you can expect to see rabbits and bees predominantly.
Since this biome is bringing the new cherry blossom tree to the game, we are also getting a cherry wood set. This wood set features light pink blocks and items. As a bonus, you also get the new cherry blossom sapling and cherry logs from this biome. Not to forget, when compared to other forest biomes, cherry blossom has thickly packed trees with a unique branch-based generation. It is not only beautiful but also fitting for creating a hidden base in them.
Minecraft 1.20 Update: New Features (Confirmed)
As revealed during Minecraft Live 2022, the Minecraft 1.20 update will bring a bunch of new features to the game. Though there are many features planned for it, the developers have only revealed a few of them. They don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, as they’ve done in the past. More features for this update will be revealed in the upcoming months. For now, let’s go over all the features that, for sure, are going to be part of the Minecraft 1.20 update.
1. Archaeology Features
After years of waiting, Minecraft is finally adding the much-anticipated archaeology features to the game. With it, you can go around your world looking for suspicious sand and suspicious gravel blocks. These new blocks, when dusted, reveal pottery shards (pottery sherds, as Minecraft has renamed them) that you can combine to create ancient decorated pots in Minecraft
You can’t bake them, though. Not yet, at least. Each decorated pot has a unique design reflecting something from Minecraft. Furthermore, the archaeology system brings a new “brush” tool in Minecraft for the process of dusting. Currently, there are 20 unique pot designs, and they look cool. We started out with just four designs but more have been since been added to the game.
Moreover, unlike the teased archaeology excavation sites in Minecraft Live 2020, you will find suspicious sand and gravel blocks in the existing Desert Temples, Ocean Ruins, and a new location. Yeah, the archaeology system adds a new structure to Minecraft – the Trail Ruins, which you need to dig around to access the entirety of it. Then, you will need to find individual blocks and dust them down. You should read our dedicated guide to find trail ruins in Minecraft 1.20.
2. Armor Trims and Customization
After years of using plain-looking armor, Minecraft 1.20 is finally bringing armor customization to the game. For each piece of your armor, you get 16 pattern designs in 10 unique colors. Considering the various types of armor in Minecraft and how you can mix and match items, you can easily get dozens of styles for your armor selection.
This armor customization feature is possible thanks to a new item known as ‘armor trim,’ a variation of which spawns in almost every major structure in the Minecraft world.
Once you find the trim, you have to combine it with your armor and the color in the new Smithing table UI. While the custom designs look amazing, the purpose of armor trimming is only aesthetic. For example, using gold trim on your armor doesn’t make it Piglin-friendly. Still, uniquely designed armor will be a big hit in the best PvP Minecraft servers as team uniforms.
3. Bamboo Wood and Rafts
Minecraft 1.20 is bringing a new family of bamboo wood in Minecraft, featuring their own planks, blocks, and more. They are a part of the developers’ attempts to bring a more accurate representation of wood types to the game.
Moreover, this wood set is even more special due to its exclusive sets of blocks. You can use the bamboo wood can be to craft decorative bamboo mosaic blocks. There is no such block for other types of wood in Minecraft, making it truly unique. Not to forget, you can also use bamboo wood to craft rafts in Minecraft. They work like boats in Minecraft but are more open looking in appearance.
4. Banner Shields
Minecraft 1.20 is also adding another much-requested feature – the ability to apply banners to shields in the Bedrock Edition. This feature was first introduced in Minecraft Preview 1.20.0.20 in early April. After crafting a colorful banner using a loom, you can combine the banner with a shield on the Crafting Table to put a banner on a shield. Along with the armor trims, this further adds character to your in-game persona.
5. Hang & Edit Signs
Solving the ever-lasting problem of not finding the right place to put your sign, the hanging signs can be hung on any block. You can place them on the side and even the bottom of the blocks. You no longer have to put them on the ground. Moreover, you can create a bunch of decorative items by putting signs under signs too, creating a wind-chime-like structure. We have a tutorial to help you learn how to make and use hanging signs in Minecraft.
Further, Minecraft 1.20 will also let you edit signs and rewrite the text on them. You will no longer have to destroy the sign and create a new one. You can add different text to both sides of the sign.
6. Chiseled Bookshelf
At last, bookshelves are useful in Minecraft. After crafting the new chiseled bookshelf, you can store regular and enchanted books in them. You’re free to place any book in any slot on the chiseled bookshelf, but it’s visually impossible to differentiate between them. Though, this doesn’t mean that each slot is equal. Every single storage slot of the bookshelf sends out a Redstone signal with different strengths. So, with the right mechanic, you can use a chiseled bookshelf to make secret doorways (as shown during Minecraft Live 2022) and much more.
7. Creative Inventory Reshuffling
The inventory in Minecraft 1.20’s creative mode is systematic and features items in a much cleaner manner than the earlier versions of the game. It now consists of the following set of tabs:
- Building Blocks: Common blocks and items that are used in structure creation
- Colored Blocks: A variety of blocks that have multiple color variants like beds, candles, terracotta, etc.
- Natural Blocks: All the blocks that generate naturally within Minecraft’s overworld and other dimensions
- Functional Blocks: Blocks that can be used for a variety of purposes including job site blocks, beacons, light blocks, etc.
- Redstone Blocks: All blocks that be used in or impacts a Redstone circuit
- Tools & Utilities: Various useable items that fulfill a variety of purposes in Minecraft
- Combat: Weapons, projectiles, armor, and other items that can be used during combat in Minecraft
- Food & Drinks: All items that can be consumed in the game including potions (all types), stews, and food
- Ingredients: Items that serve as the most common crafting and brewing ingredients
- Spawn Eggs: Almost all of the Minecraft mobs in the form of spawn eggs
- Operator Utilities: Blocks like light, barrier, structure blocks, and various command blocks that affect a Minecraft world’s default properties.
8. New and Better Mob Heads
Mob heads, which some mobs drop when killed by a charged creeper, have been part of Minecraft for a while now. But, other than using them as a mask or a decorative item, their purpose has been quite rudimentary. Fortunately, this changes with Minecraft 1.20, as it allows us to connect the mob heads with Note blocks to create ambient mob sounds. These sounds relate to the mob whose head you are using. For example, the skeleton skull makes the sound of an arrow being fired.
Not to forget, Minecraft 1.20 is also expanding the mob head library by bringing Piglin heads to the game. To obtain one, you have to go to the Nether and then kill a Piglin using a charged creeper. This new head makes Piglin sounds and waggles its ears when triggered by a Redstone signal.
9. Calibrated Sculk Sensors
The sculk block family in Minecraft has grown in the Snapshot 23w12a update, which also adds the Trail Ruins to further extend the new archaeology system and make excavation a thing in-game. The new Sculk block coming in Minecraft 1.20 is the Calibrated Sculk Sensor, a new Redstone component that lets you “filter vibrations based on their frequency level.”
Calibrated Sculk Sensors are not found naturally in the world of Minecraft, and you need to craft them using Sculk sensors and Amethyst shards.
10. Netherite is Harder to Use
In Minecraft 1.20, you will have a harder time obtaining Netherite items. That is because of the introduction of the new Upgrade Smithing Template, which is now a mandatory item to make Netherite armor or Netherite sword on the Smithing Table. So, instead of only creating Netherite ingots, you’ll now also have to collect the upgrade template from the Bastion Remnant. Not to forget, they are not easy to collect and you need one for every item upgrade.
11. Fill Biome Command
Introduced with Minecraft Snapshot 22w46a, you can use the “/fillbiome” command to manually change the biome of any given region in your Minecraft world to any other Minecraft biome. To make it work, you have to set the coordinates for two points between which you want to replace the biome.
It’s similar to the popular fill command in Minecraft, except it focuses on biomes instead of blocks. Expanding on that, the new “fill biome” command also allows you to bring biomes from one dimension to another. Though, these biomes don’t affect the dimensional features like exploding beds in the Nether.
12. Fixed Mob Spawning in Nether Portal
Giving a major nerf to the Nether farms in Minecraft, the upcoming update will significantly reduce mob spawning around the Nether portal. As you might be aware, every hostile mob in Minecraft requires the light to be below a certain brightness level to spawn itself. So, the upcoming update is bringing down the light level for the spawning of Endermen, Skeletons, and Wither Skeletons to level 9 in the Nether dimension.
This light level was 11 in the earlier versions, which is the same as the light level of the Nether portal. Because of this change, these mobs can’t spawn and directly teleport into the Nether portal. If you were using the existing mechanic for a farm, you will now have to give an incentive to these mobs for entering the portal.
13. Redstone Changes
Besides the calibrated sculk sensor and the chiseled bookshelves, there are a few notable redstone changes that have been introduced in the Minecraft 1.20 update:
- Jukeboxes now produce a redstone signal depending on the music disc playing in it, which a comparator can detect.
- Most redstone signals produced by vibrations changed.
- Getting in and out of entities (minecarts, boats, rideable mobs) now also triggers a sculk sensor.
14. New Default Skins
For a whole decade, players had to pick one out of two legendary iconic skins, Steve and Alex. However, with the Minecraft 1.20 update, the community is getting a new set of default skins they could play as. Those characters are Noor, Sunny, Ari, Zuri, Makena, Kai, and Efe.
Minecraft 1.20: Java & Bedrock Parity Changes
In the past 2-3 years, Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions have become more similar than ever before. Mojang has worked to eliminate major differences between the two versions, and Minecraft 1.20 update builds upon that. Here are the major parity changes in the latest update:
Spectator and Hardcore Mode
As mentioned earlier, Minecraft’s spectator mode is already in development for the next update. So, it won’t come as a surprise if this mode is released alongside the hardcore game mode for Minecraft Bedrock.
The hardcore game mode doesn’t offer any major feature other than permanent death. But in the Java edition, the hardcore game mode includes the spectator mode as an internal feature.
Editor Mode
Bedrock Edition is getting one of the most unique major vanilla features ever in the Minecraft — Editor Mode. This tool allows you to build more easily and quickly by painting with blocks. This way you are able to create big builds in a matter of minutes. You can also select some parts of the world, duplicate them and start pasting them around.
This is an unbelievable tool which makes you question whether it’s really a vanilla feature. It’s primarily made for helping map creators in building large maps available for the entire community.
Sneaking & Crawling
Yes, you read that right. Minecraft Bedrock is now on par with Java in this simple feature. Players will now start crawling when they’re in a one block gap (which you can create using a trap door or piston). Minecraft 1.20 also brings a new crawl animation and crawling speed will be the same as sneaking.
Fixed Boat Recipe
Mojang is doing everything in its power to bring parity between Java and Bedrock versions. This change bring Bedrock in line with Java, simplifying the boat crafting recipe. You no longer need to use a shovel when crafting a boat in the game. The company has also updated the barrel crafting recipe.
Recipe Unlocking
This is a well-known feature among Java users, but it’s now available for Bedrock players as an experimental feature. What this means is that you will now see a “Recipe Unlocked” notification at the top right when you collect new materials in your Minecraft world. Moreover, this feature also teaches you how to craft items or tools you get from friends.
Commands
Both Bedrock and Java Editions have received exclusive new commands for players to check out. Those are:
- /camera (Bedrock Edition) – allows the players to change the angle of the camera
- /damage (Java Edition) – allows players to deal damage to an entity from a particular source
- /fillbiome (Java Edition) – allows players to change the area from one biome to another biome
Other parity changes include showing a note particle above the jukebox in Minecraft Java, the removal of cobwebs to strings reversal in Bedrock, and a few other minor changes.
With that, you now know every possible feature that has been introduced in the Minecraft 1.20 update. The developer sure took its sweet time revealing all the new features, but it’s amazing to see so many new additions to the game. If you are eager to jump into the game, we suggest checking out some of the best Minecraft 1.20 seeds we have compiled here. Furthermore, in the comments below, do let us know your favorite feature in this update.
Minecraft 1.20: Release Date & Platforms
During the Minecraft Live 2022 event in October, game developer Mojang revealed that the next major Minecraft 1.20 update won’t release until 2023. And well, that turned out to be true, as Mojang rolled out and tested a slew of new features over the next few months. But after a long wait, the Minecraft 1.20 Trails and Tales update has been released on June 7. The release date is the same as last year’s Minecraft 1.19 update, which brought Allays, the Ancient City, and a rather tough mob called the Warden, to the game.
Microsoft-owned Mojang has officially rolled out the latest Minecraft 1.20 update on the following platforms:
- Xbox
- PlayStation
- Nintendo Switch
- iOS
- Android
- Windows
- Chromebook+
- macOS*
- Linux*
*only Java edition
+ only Bedrock edition
Windows users get to download both Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions on their PCs. But, the biggest addition comes in the form of official Chromebook support. Mojang rolled out official support for Chrome OS on June 7, allowing Chromebook users to officially play Minecraft Bedrock on their devices. So, which features are you most excited to try out in the Minecraft 1.20 update? Let us know in the comments below.
