You’ll Nether guess what was released today! That’s right, Minecraft version 1.16, known better as the Nether Update! The long anticipated update was revealed last year at Minecon Live 2019 and we have been steadily getting more features since the first snapshots and beta earlier this year! So lets find out what can you expect in this update!
Of course the core feature of the update is the brand new Nether biomes. These consist of the Nether Wastes (the nether you know and tolerate), the basalt delta, the warped forests, the soulsand valley and the crimson forest. These biomes all have a unique feel to them and will make exploring the nether much more interesting and in some cases, more dangerous.
Living in some of these biomes are some new mobs too. The Piglins, Hoglins and Striders are new and interesting mobs that all bring something different to the update. Piglins are, to put it simply, the villagers of the Nether, you can barter with them for items by trading them gold but they will attack if you do not share their appreciation for the precious metal and will attack you mercilessly if you try to steal from them. Hoglins bring a great new change by introducing renewable food into the nether meaning you can survive there for a lot longer without the need to worry about starving to death. Striders are the most unique mob however, with the assistance of these you can ride across the lava seas and traverse the Nether with a lot greater pace for a low cost
These new biomes will also bring in new building materials, such as two new types of wood (and all the extras that come with that), blackstone, nylium and many more mushroom related blocks. To accompany these new biomes is a new structure, the Piglin Bastion. This huge blackstone structure houses the piglins and a lot of loot, mostly consisting of gold, tools and – if you’re lucky – the new music disk Pigstep, composed by Lena Raine of Celeste fame. Another exciting feature comes from the Respawn Anchor, this block consists of crying obsidian and glowstone and if powered up allows the player to be able to respawn in the nether for the first time ever, so now you can truly live in the fiery hellscape home of your dreams!
On to likely the biggest change of the update, Mojang have finally introduced an ore to surpass even diamond, netherite. This incredibly rare ore is found from mining ancient debris found randomly whilst mining in the nether, fortunately you can upgrade your existing diamond armour to netherite with one ingot but finding enough to kit yourself completely out is going to prove to be a challenge for players of all experience levels.
Finally, the bedrock version of this update includes all of the 1.15 beta features which mostly consist of parity between the Java version and literally hundreds of bug fixes making the game a lot of stable and fixing quite a few major issues that have plagued players for quite a long time. These fixes are very important and shows Mojang’s continued dedication to get the game to be the best it can be.
The Minecraft 1.16 Nether Update is out now for Java Edition, Windows 10, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS!
For a more indepth and visual look at these features try this video by ibxtoycat outlying all of the nether related features.
Video game completionist and 3D platformer connoisseur, Riley is a fan of the whimsical frenzy of bright and colourful characters that blessed us in the late 90's. Their favourite game's are Spyro, Persona 5 and Super Mario Sunshine.
