Minecraft 1.21 (Tricky Trials): New Mobs, Features, Expected Release, and More

Minecraft 1.21 is the new major update coming to the game. The snapshot marathon is wrapping up and the update is basically around the corner. In this article we’re shedding light on the release date and new features such as mobs and blocks coming with the Minecraft 1.21 update, aka the Tricky Trials update.

Last updated on May 10, 2024, at 1:00 AM PST to include the new paintings, potions and soundtracks.

Expected Minecraft 1.21 Release Date

The official release date is still under wraps, but we will update this post once we have more details. Though according to the previous update release cycles, we assume the Minecraft 1.21 will launch in June of 2024, so very soon. View the table below of a brief rundown.

Minecraft 1.21 Update Name

The last major update – Minecraft 1.20 – didn’t have an official name when it was first announced in October 2022. Minecraft 1.20 got its official name months later. This was possibly an outcome of the community discontent mentioned in the previous section.

For this reason, the Mojang team took its sweet time with naming the Minecraft 1.21 update, but it has officially revealed the name for the next major update. The Minecraft 1.21 update will be called Minecraft Tricky Trials.

Mojang revealed the official name in the April edition of the Minecraft Monthly video, which we’ve embedded below. The name Tricky Trials aptly describes the upcoming update, which focus on the new challenges that players will face in the Trial Chambers, and well, they will be tricky for sure.

Minecraft 1.21: New Confirmed Mobs

The 1.21 update was officially announced at the Minecraft Live event in October 2023. So, let’s go over the new mobs that will be added to the game in the next major update.

1. The Breeze

The Breeze is a new hostile mob in Minecraft, only found in the new Trial Chamber structure (more on this below). It will have a distinctive attack called the “wind charge”. This attack will damage anything that it collides directly with.

When that happens, it’ll create a wind burst knocking back entities by several blocks. Breeze also drops breeze rods, items used in several crafting recipes (see section below).

2. The Bogged

Bogged is a green skeleton variant that shoots poison arrows at you, applying a poison status effect for 4 seconds. You will encounter the Bogged in swamps, mangrove swamps and trial chambers.

The winner of the Minecraft Mob Vote 2023 was the armadillo, and while we expected this little mob to arrive with the 1.21 update, it was released in the Minecraft 1.20.5 update called Armored Paws.

Minecraft 1.21 New Biomes

With the 24w13a snapshot, Mojang has announced that there will be no new feature additions to Minecraft 1.21. So, to answer your question – No, there will be no new biomes or biome updates introduced in this major update.

New Confirmed Features in Minecraft 1.21

1. Crafter

The crafter block is the ultimate form of the crafting table. It’s a utility block that can allow you to automate crafting. By activating this block, the item you completed the crafting recipe for will get crafted and pushed out.

One more amazing feature of this block is that you can toggle slots, so you can program the crafter where to place the ingredients. We’ve created a dedicated guide about the crafter block in Minecraft 1.21, so check it out to learn everything related to this mind-blowing addition.

2. Trial Chambers

Trial Chambers are new, procedurally generated structures in Minecraft that focus on exploration and combat. You can easily find trial chambers in four different ways. Moreover, this structure has lots of different and unique rooms.

While exploring the tunnels of the Trial Chambers, you will stumble upon parkour challenges, underwater rooms, safe rooms with beds, vaults, ominous vaults, and lots and lots of trial spawners.

3. Ominous Bottle

The ominous bottle is an item that grants the Bad Omen effect of the level the bottle itself has. You may get it by killing pillager raid captains, looting standard and ominous vaults. With the Bad Omen effect, you can walk into a village and it’ll turn into Raid Omen.

4. Trial Spawner

The trial spawner is a special spawner type that will adapt to the number of players around. It spawns a limited number of mobs, which are divided into 4 categories – melee, small melee, ranged and the Breeze’s category.

Every trial chamber will spawn mobs from all four categories and only one mob per category. The blocks around a spawner indicate the mobs that will spawn from it. Once you defeat the mobs, the trial spawner goes into the cooldown state and drops some precious rewards.

5. Ominous Trial Spawner

When you have the Bad Omen effect, you can approach a trial spawner and it’ll automatically turn into an ominous trial spawner. This spawner will summon mobs with equipment and also random projectiles and potions above you and the mobs.

6. Trial Key

The trial key is an item you may get from multiple sources – entrance chest, decorated pots in the corridor and from the trial spawner. The trial key opens the vault block in the Trial Chambers.

7. Ominous Trial Key

The Ominous trial key is the ominous version of the trial key. Unlike its regular counterpart, it can only be obtained once you kill all the mobs that have been summoned by the ominous trial spawner. There is a 30% chance you’ll get this scary-looking key.

8. The Vault

The vault in Minecraft is a block you can open with the trial key. It will then spit out items onto itself that you can pick up. Every player that opens the vault will be rewarded, but only once.

9. Ominous Vault

You probably get the point by now, so the ominous vault is an ominous version of the vault. Unlike the ominous trial spawner, this block generates naturally in trial chambers. These blocks give you far better rewards than the normal vaults, including the heavy core item.

10. Breeze Rods

Breeze rods are items you get by killing the Breeze. These items are used in crafting recipes for the wind charge, the new mace weapon, and the flow armor trim. Also, you may combine it with the damaged mace in an anvil to restore 25% of the mace’s durability.

11. Heavy Core

Heavy core is an item that’s smaller than a full solid block. You can only obtain it from the ominous vault in trial chambers, where the chance of it being chosen is only 8.4%. This item can be combined with the breeze rod in a crafting grid to make the mace.

12. Mace

Mace is a new melee weapon you may craft with a breeze rod and heavy core. Its damage increases when you fall, so the longer you fall the more damage it will do. Not only that, but you can enchant it with the exclusive mace enchantments to further increase its damage.

If you manage to hit the target, you’ll negate all fall damage and also deal a ton of damage to the mob. Furthermore, mace will also create an AOE that will knock back nearby entities.

13. Wind Charge

Wind charge is an item and a projectile you can use by right-clicking or using the secondary action button. You can get 4 of them by breaking down breeze rods in a crafting grid.

It creates a small area of effect that will knock back entities and damage them if it hits them directly. Not only that, but it will also fling players in the air, making it a super cool addition to parkour mini-games.

14. Copper and Tuff Blocks

Various amazing copper and tuff building blocks were added in Minecraft snapshot 23w43a and we have showcased all of them in the linked post, so check it out to learn more about them. You’ll find them throughout the Trial Chambers, but you may also craft them.

15. Copper Bulb

The copper bulb is the new light source block and the amount of light it emits depends on the oxidation stage they are at. If this block is fully oxidized, it will emit the lowest light level.

On the other hand, if it’s at the initial stage and fully orange, Copper Bulb will glow the brightest. You can wax the copper bulb as well to preserve its state. It also has special interaction with redstone, so check out the linked guide for more details.

16. New Armor Trims, Banner Patterns and Pottery Sherds

Minecraft 1.21 introduced two new armor trims (flow and bolt armor trims), two banner patterns (flow and guster banner patterns), and three new pottery sherds (scrape, guster, and flow pottery sherds).

17. New Potions

Four brand new potions have been added with the Tricky Trials update. The oozing potion summons two medium slimes upon entity’s death. Weaving effect generates couple of cobwebs around the entity’s death site. Wind charging potion creates a wind burst effect when an affected entity dies. Finally, the infested effect has a chance to summon silverfish when an affected entity is hurt.

18. New Paintings

Minecraft 1.21 also brought not 5, not 10 but a whopping 20 paintings to the game. These paintings have been created by Sarah Boeving and the original artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand. For the names of the paintings check out our article on the Minecraft 24W18A snapshot.

19. New Music Discs and Soundtracks

There are 9 new background tracks created by three artists – Lena Raine, Aaron Cherof and Kumi Tanioka. Not only that, but 3 new music discs are in the game now. Those are Creator, Creator (Music Box) and Precipice. You can find the names of all the tracks and their links in our linked article on the 24W18A snapshot.

We previously mentioned leaks about the Minecraft Marketplace pass, which will be a subscription service available for players with the 1.21 update. However, while the 1.21 update still does not have an official release date, the Marketplace pass has gone official on March 12.

These are all the confirmed new features coming to the Minecraft 1.21 update. The developers have announced recently that no more new additions will come to the game. So, what is your favorite 1.21 feature? Let us know in the comments below!