Minecraft Winter Drop: Release Date, New Mob, Biome, Blocks and More

Minecraft Live 2024 brought about a lot of new and interesting things with its mini-update. The new drop coming after Bundles of Bravery is currently known as the Winter Drop and packs a lot of stuff. But what is it and what can you expect? Well in this guide we’ll go over everything you need to know about the Minecraft winter drop including the release date, mob, biome, blocks, and other fantastic features. That said, let’s jump straight in!

Minecraft Winter Drop Release Date Announced

The Winter Drop name suggests that this cool drop is coming in winter. But when exactly? Well now, we have the dates because Mojang has officially announced that it will release this winter drop on December 3, 2024. So, as your winter holidays begin, you can finally play these epic features. Can’t wait? Check out our Minecraft Winter Drop countdown timer to pass the hours.

Minecraft Winter Name

Along with the release date, Mojang has set a name for this Winter Drop: “The Garden Awakens.” The title definitely reflects the creepy Pale Garden biome and how most of the things here have a life of their own. It almost seems like the garden is trying to communicate with you.

Minecraft Winter Drop: Upcoming New Mob

One of the most exciting additions coming in this drop is definitely the new mob.

The Creaking

The Creaking mob is an epic new hostile mob with a very unique model resembling a tree bark. It also has three glowy horizontal eyes that are fairly ominous. The Creaking has a special mechanic that allows it to move and attack only if the player isn’t looking at it. So, if you encounter it, do keep an eye on it at all times.

This hostile mob spawns naturally inside the new Pale Garden biome, which we’ve explored in the next section. However, that’s not because of the biome itself but rather because of the special creaking heart block that acts like a Creaking spawner and controller. This block is also needed to defeat the Creaking.

Minecraft Winter Drop: New Pale Garden Biome

Unlike the previous major Minecraft 1.21 update, the Winter Drop includes a brand new biome and a very special one at that. It’s the Pale Garden biome located above ground in the Overworld dimension. It’s a forested biome with a brand new type of tree – Pale Oak.

The floor of this biome is mainly made up of grass blocks, but it looks rather washed out. The sky is also gray in this area and water is fairly desaturated. This is also a place where you’ll find the new pale moss blocks (see section below) that go with the washed-out aesthetics of the environment.

Minecraft Winter Drop: All New Added Features

Now, let’s take a look at all the new features in the Minecraft Winter Drop.

1. New Pale Oak Wood

One of the most important parts of a Minecraft update for me and many other players is the new wood type and this drop doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. The pale oak trees from the Pale Garden biome consist of the new, very light wood type with a dark bark that produces essentially white, even pinkish planks and other blocks.

This wood type is called pale oak wood and it goes very well with other wood and stone blocks. The door and trapdoor look especially brilliant in my opinion. The leaves of pale oak trees have quite a dense texture and appear pale in every single biome.

2. Creaking Heart

The Pale Garden is not just a source of the amazing pale oak wood, but it’s also a place where you can find the creaking heart. This block naturally spawns inside some pale oak trees. Its main purpose is to spawn the Creaking mob. The Creaking doesn’t take any damage from your attacks, but instead, it emits line particles leading to its creaking heart block. You kill the Creaking by breaking this block.

Furthermore, you can break and collect it using a silk touch enchanted tool and then move it to wherever you want. If the creaking heart is in between and aligned with two pale oak logs, it’ll activate. At night, a Creaking mob will spawn no matter the light level.

3. Pale Moss Blocks

As we mentioned while explaining the Pale Garden biome, several really beautiful new moss blocks have been added to the Winter Drop. The pale moss block and pale moss carpet are desaturated equivalents of the vibrant moss blocks.

However, pale moss carpets behave a bit differently than regular moss carpets, as they can produce a bit of moss texture on the sides of the blocks that are near them. Pale hanging moss behaves like vines you can place on the underside of blocks. Finally, you may use bone meal on the pale moss blocks and pale hanging moss to multiply them.

4. Resin Family

This Winter drop brings a new type of material called the Resin. Resin can only form on the Pale Oak Logs in the form of clumps once you start hitting the Creaking. There is an alternative way to get Resin in the game, however that will take a bit of courage. The reason is that you must raid a Woodland Mansion and loot the chests inside to get a few clumps of resin or a few resin bricks.

Now, once you get your hands on this new squishy material, you can use it to craft many items. The most important of all is being able to craft a Creaking Heart, which was a nonrenewable item at the time of its release. Furthermore, you can make Resin blocks, Resin Bricks, Brick Blocks, Stairs, Walls, Slabs and Chiseled Blocks as well.

With this new item, you are surely going to love the new armor trim color, which is bright orange. This can be achieved by using the Resin Bricks as a Smithing ingredient along with the armor trim pattern and armor piece you desire.

5. Eyeblossom flower

There is a new kind of flower coming out in this drop called the Eyeblossoms. The unique thing about this flower is that it reacts to the day and night cycles in the game, keeping its petals closed during the day and blooming in the night. As the Eyeblossoms bloom at night, a bright orange eye appears in the middle.

Picking up these flowers during the day will drop Closed Eyeblossoms while doing so at night will drop the Open variants. You may use these flowers to get dyes of two different colors and two unique suspicious stews having two new effects. If you want to know more about this flower, simply check out our article on Eyeblossoms in Minecraft.

With that said, those were all the new features, mob, and biome that will be coming in the Minecraft Winter Drop. Do share what your favorite feature from this drop is in the comments section below!