Minecraft Live 2021 was highly anticipated because of the second part follow-up to, arguably, the biggest and most sought after update to Minecraft since its inception:, “The Cave Update.” Players around the world eagerly waited for what Mojang Studios had in store for the latter half of the Caves and Cliffs update as the first part was lackluster with the features they added. These are the major announcements for Minecraft Live 2021 and what they bring to the table.

Since the release of Minecraft 1.17 (Caves and Cliffs Part 1), Mojang Studios has been releasing incremental snapshots (early test releases) of the next part of the Caves and Cliffs update. Because of this, there was not much more new information to be revealed for Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Part 2.

New Terrain
They opened the show with the new terrain generation in 1.18 that overhauls the cave and mountain world generation creating huge vast features that populate your world so that you have the grandeur of scaling an Everest sized mountain, or diving into the depths of what’s below the surface. The world height has been changed to span from y=-64 to 320.

They’re also changing what the world looks like in general. If anything, this is more of an “update that changed the world” than what 1.7 ever was. Every biome now has more mountainous variations and the ground has more height variation.

The new Caves and Cliffs terrain generation breathes new life into this decade old game that at the same time calls back to an older period of time. See, a long time ago, the terrain generated in a similar fashion, creating many hills, mountains and natural structures that give you a sense of wonder. Over time, the world generation has been flattened until what we get today. But now Minecraft is going back to interesting geography. With a new coat of paint and polish, this new world generation makes Minecraft look the best it’s ever been.

For devoted players who have stuck with the same world for countless years now, don’t worry. This new terrain generation will not break your world. Mojang has also implemented a system called blending that will help smooth out the world in order to transition from the old world chunks to the newly generated caves and cliffs chunks.

Smaller but still noteworthy news, is that both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition seeds will generate the same world now.

As with every year’s Minecraft announcement event comes Minecraft politics in the form of the mob vote. This year’s candidates were The Glare, The Allay, and Copper Golem.

The Mob Vote
For the first time, probably ever, players’ options were all mobs that helped the player in some form, rather than a hostile mob that seek to kill the player. The Glare is a mob that will indicate whether or not the light level is dark enough for mobs to spawn. The Allay is a mob that when given an item, will fly off and try to find and pick up more of that item. (Think the Boo in “Mario Kart.”) The only information given about the Cooper Golem’s function, is that it will have the ability to push buttons. It also becomes oxidized over time, turning green like other copper blocks in game and once oxidized, will become a statue.

The mob vote was conducted in two rounds. The Allay won the mob vote with 54.3% of votes while the Copper Golem only had 45.7%.

The addition of the Allay has a lot of potential for game-play mechanics and farming. While players don’t know too much about what the limits of the Allay are, we must remember that they are one of the few mobs in the whole game that has the ability to pick up and hold objects. Personally, I don’t have the creativity to think of all the things that can be done with this, but I know that they will be making a big splash.

The Wild Update
The final big announcement for Minecraft Live 2021 was the reveal of the next major update after 1.18’s Caves and Cliffs Part II. Slated for 2022, Minecraft 1.19 was officially announced to be “The Wild Update.”

The Wild Update will include an update to swamps, such as the mangrove swamps and the addition of mud. Tadpoles and frogs as well as boats with chests, a long sought after feature, will also be included in the future update.

While swamps are not my favorite biomes, I can appreciate the update to them as they’re one of the barest biomes in the game. Maybe this update will make me like them more. The addition of chests in boats however, is one of my favorite takeaways. Not only is it convenient to be able to have massive amounts of items around now, but they will allow for better ocean exploration. Think of sailing across the ocean, not knowing what you’ll find and coming across a far off land. Using the chests you can now carry back more stuff from your adventures in the New World.

Mojang Studios also announced that the Deep Dark, originally announced last year, will be delayed once again for the Wild Update instead of the Caves and Cliffs update. But more info was revealed about the deep dark, contained in them will be deep dark cities, ancient abandoned cities deep underground for the player to explore.

Although I am disappointed about the delay of the deep dark again, at least I know that it will be even better than I thought it already would be. The deep dark was one of, if not the most, exciting announcement for the Caves and Cliffs update last year. The deep dark gives you a sense of unease but also curiosity that makes you ponder, “What happened here?” Similar to when you first found the stronghold and the abandoned mine-shafts, your mind races with a thousand different things that could have happened to whatever may have lived there before.

Conclusion
Overall, this has been one of the most exciting Minecraft Live events by far. We got not one, but two update announcements in the same day with one major feature after another.

If there was ever a time to get back into Minecraft, now is it. The future of Minecraft is only looking up.