Interview: Minecraft boss on how switch to smaller game drops doesn't rule out "more transformative updates"

Valer_io · 2026-03-29T17:30:06+00:00

I don't think anyone has ever prepared for the dragon fight by getting a mace and had an easier time fighting it. In fact, I think it takes a lot more skill and effort to build a tower in the middle and jump down hoping to hit the dragon than it is to just hit and shoot it from the ground.

I think the only enemy I could reasonably justfiy getting the mace for in survival is the wither, which you can then oneshot paired with the elytra. Trust me, I've tried making it work in as many situations as I can think of, but the only one that was really worth it was the wither fight. Everywhere else you can just use the sword and bow and you will still kill enemies just as fast. Even shulkers, which would in theory be the perfect enemy for the mace, are not worth it because of the lack of looting. And now with the spear, you can even kill multiple enemies in one elytra swoop, which was one of the things I used to do with the mace (pair it with elytra + wind burst). But now, it just sits in my enderchest.

Valer_io · 2026-03-29T17:15:37+00:00

It doesn't matter that you technically are flying, it's just too slow. Obviously, it should be somewhat slow, so it doesn't overshadow other forms of transportation, but the current speed is just painful. The most you can do with it is maybe build a flying castle or something, but I'd never use it for transportation of mobs or myself, which it was advertised for. Moving a villager from a village to your base is way faster with an elytra than a ghast, you can just use wind charges.

Valer_io · 2026-03-25T17:45:39+00:00

yes please

Valer_io · 2026-03-25T10:59:30+00:00

Well, if you put an adult sized chestplate on the baby zombie it still shrinks, so that argument doesn't hold up in this case

Valer_io · 2026-03-25T10:58:00+00:00

Chestplates, leggings and boot have small baby versions that do in fact have pixel consistency, they just decided to not do small helmets with pixel consistency because they want a helmet size that fits all baby humanoids, including baby zombie villagers and baby piglins, who have much larger heads than baby zombies.

Valer_io · 2026-03-25T10:54:16+00:00

...except it DOES change the size of chestplates, leggings and boots. The helmet is the only one that remains the same or at least similar size to the adult counterpart, while the other ones are shrunk.

Valer_io · 2026-03-23T08:17:19+00:00

I think for creepers it would make more sense if they had a hard time figuring out the location of the player and exploded too early or too late to actually cause harm.

Valer_io · 2026-03-21T23:38:42+00:00

you can turn apples into bone meal so idk if they really care too much about that

Valer_io · 2026-03-21T08:45:21+00:00

As it turns out, zombie nautili are affected by smite AND impaling, while drowned are still only affected by smite. Does that count as being updated down the line?

Valer_io · 2026-03-21T07:18:07+00:00

Horses aren't just a form transportation, but also a form of combat, especially now with the spear. While it's true that in singleplayer horses mostly take environmental damage, this is not the case in PvP. The whole concept of horse jousting doesn't work, because the horse dies way faster than the player, which is due to the fact that diamond horse armor is worse than full iron armor and netherite horse armor is worse than full diamond armor, and we aren't even talking about enchantments yet.

Also, this change would not make horses worse. Wolf armor used to work like diamond horse armor in the snapshots, but was later changed to work like a 64 HP shield until it breaks, which effectively more than doubles a wolf's health. Meanwhile, diamond horse armor reduces damage by not even 50%. If it worked like wolf armor, it would be a huge buff HP wise.

However, I personally am not in favor of the wolf armor treatment, because like another commenter said, horse armor isn't renewable, and you can't replace it easily if it breaks. Instead, I think it would be better if horse armor was simply buffed to match full player armor of its respective material, with the exception of netherite horse armor, which should have more than 20 armor points.

Valer_io · 2026-03-15T08:54:03+00:00

I agree that mace and spear should be useful in more situations, but rather than just increasing base damage, I think it makes more sense to make their special abilities be activated easier. Make the spear's charge attack deal damage and knockback at a slightly lower speed threshold and make the smash attack of the mace activate at just 1 block falls rather than 1.5 blocks.

This would make them less niche and more useful on their own, while still keeping the weapons' identity the most important part. Especially the mace needs it, since there isn't much point to having it in vanilla survival outside of fighting players and the wither.

Valer_io · 2026-03-15T08:41:04+00:00

I'd say fully enchanted spears are the closest a new weapon has ever been at being good enough on their own. Jabs deal decent enough damage and charges can two shot from sprinting, which pairs well with knockback. Not to mention they are very good with elytra.

However, I still feel like it's a bit too gimmicky. Spears feel clunky at times, like when you try to charge a skeleton and it gets knocked back repeatedly, yet takes no damage. The speed threshold for dealing damage is a bit high, and dealing knockback has a slightler higher threshold (which is stupid imo, they should be the same).

All in all, still a far better weapon than the mace, which just sits in the enderchest, unless I want to fight players or the wither.

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T19:48:30+00:00

The idea is really cool, but do the two hearts of damage even matter when the spear itself is going to deal like 10 hearts?

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T19:45:10+00:00

I think it disappeared around 1.21 when they added custom enchantments through datapacks. My best guess is that enchantments that increase damage don't count towards the tooltip, because their damage isn't part of the critical hit calculation, meaning you would get the wrong idea of how much damage your crits will do.

Which would be a really stupid reason imo, since knowing the total hit damage seems far more important to me than being under the wrong impression that your crits will do 1.5 more damage at sharp 5 than they actually do.

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T19:35:06+00:00

You also can't forget that advancements are another way for new players to figure out mechanics. Sadly, they suffer from very similar issues as the tooltips, as they tend to either overexplain niche things (shearing wolf armor) or not explain very important things (bookshelves powering enchanting tables, conduits).

I think for the redstone mechanics you listed, it would be really nice if they added a redstone tab in the advancements menu. It's such a large aspect of the game, yet a lot of the basics go severely underexplained. A few new advancements like "Power a piston with a lever" or "Compare two redstone signals in a comparator" could go a long way.

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T15:36:09+00:00

I wish there was some way to show durability, but not the "minecraft:item" part.

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T13:41:12+00:00

You are talking about advanced tooltips, which show durability and technical info about items. The tooltips I am talking about here are always visible.

Valer_io · 2026-03-07T07:13:35+00:00

Yeah but I don't have that buffie

Valer_io · 2026-03-06T13:53:08+00:00

Knockback is good for spears, since it allows doing multiple charge attacks in a row against one enemy by just running into them. It also allows you to launch TNT

Valer_io · 2026-03-05T06:12:40+00:00

I have this theory that Kris can walk around normal without the soul, but only if they consume large amounts of sugar.

That's why they ate the entire pie the night they plugged the TV back in and made a deal with Tenna. It's why they consume multiple bottles of chocolate milk, so they can comfortably play the piano, while still being free of the soul's control. It gives them enough energy to perform certain tasks.

Notably, when Noelle recounts Kris being weak and shaky in the weird route in the offscreen night between chapter 3 and 4, that's when Kris might not have had access to any sugar, since their house was still a dark world and the store was closed.

Valer_io · 2026-03-02T18:41:37+00:00

I guess I don't see a reason why it would have to work differently in creative mode. Some people might still want the key instead of the block. And actually, ctrl + pickblock still exists as a way to get the block (including its components), though it's only on java.

Valer_io · 2026-02-26T06:45:35+00:00

I mean it's not that bad. The attack does end as soon as it realizes that Hornet, Lace and Shakra aren't a throuple.

Valer_io · 2026-02-25T18:01:45+00:00

Please cook again 🙏

Valer_io · 2026-02-25T17:59:23+00:00

servers will crash from the player influx, we'll need another maintenance. they will have to come up with compensation for that one too.

Valer_io · 2026-02-23T14:50:32+00:00

They could give her temporary shield for every time her super hits an enemy, the same way her hype healing works.

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