Mojang has announced a new aquatic-themed update coming to Minecraft.
The sizeable update will launch sometime next spring. Chief among the additions in the update are things like different biomes for oceans – each with their own fish, coral, and even kelp pending the temperature of the water. You’ll also be able to catch fish in a bucket and “move” them around as objects, opening up the possibilities of building your own aquariums and populating them with real fish.
The games oceans will be populated with structures like icebergs and shipwrecks, each of which hiding treasures within. Dolphins are coming as well, they apparently can guide you to the aforementioned treasure. A new weapon, the trident, is confirmed as well – it lets you fight at melee range and even throw it, enchanting it with “loyalty” will let you recall it as if it were a boomerang. There’s also an enchantment to let you dash through water or in the rain.
Water physics will be tweaked to allow for “proper” water movement, with a focus on trying to prevent weird air pockets from happening from building things underwater. There’s also bubble columns that are created from magma blocks, which also affect buoyancy and how items float or sink in water after being dropped.
Mojang also confirmed the fan-voted mob to be added into the gme is “mob b,” which they prototyped as a flying stingray that comes after you if you haven’t slept in awhile.
Finally, the developer also confirmed that the “Super Duper Graphics Update” and Nintendo Switch cross-play have been delayed into next year.
The reasoning is that they want to make sure the collab with Nintendo is “just right” and that it won’t launch with issues. It’s worth pointing out that Sony’s reluctance on cross-play for non-PlayStation platforms prevents the PlayStation versions from talking to others, as the PC, Xbox, mobile, and Switch players can all play in the same servers.