Minecon Earth 2020 [Cheat Sheet]

[Kiaria]

I will post all the interesting details here for people who do not wish to sit through a three hour video, or who missed it.

Caves and Cliffs update is finally happening!

Lush Cave Biomes

See that tree with purple flowers and the purple bush? They are called Azalea trees. Apparently their roots lead to Lush Cave Biomes


Lush Cave biomes will not be plentiful on a MC map.


Look at the block the Azalea Sapling is placed on. So far in MC, saplings cannot be placed on leaf blocks.
Is this a new plant-type block? Perhaps a Moss Block?! There are several of these mossy blocks all over the cave.



Large pink Spore Blossoms will open and close on the roof of the cave. Spore Blossoms will drip particles. You can mine and move the flower.
The vines have light sources called Glow Berries that you also can eat.


You can find the new Drip Leaf plant in Lush Caves. It will act like a platform. You can jump on the leaves, but stay too long and you will fall as the leaf droops. The leaf will go back to normal after a while.

From the drawing, it almost looks like the plant will grow the way chorus plants do.

Many people will use this new plant for parkour and mini games.

[Kiaria]

The cave update will introduce new natural cave formations





Underground waterfalls and rivers means that player can explore caves in a new way: cave rafting





New Dripstone Cave Biomes



They will have stalagmites and stalactites





Minecon said nothing about this in the video, but I caught some stills of a breaking stalactite, and it looks like there are drops.

[Kiaria]

Falling on these can harm you and mobs.
I did not see the drops from the zombie in the video despawn like they would with cactus, so it looks like you can use these for PvP or Grinder drops.





Putting a cauldron under a dripping stalactite will fill it with water (new renewable water source)




There is a new redstone block found in the "deep, dark depths" of a new cave biome.

Minecon kept calling it "deep, dark depths", but gave no official biome name on it. I will just refer to this biome as they did until a proper name is given.

You can find this new redstone block in Sculk Growths.



Sculk Sensor Blocks detect "vibrations" nearby (arrows, levers, pistons, footsteps, trapdoors, snowballs, and such).

Minecon did not mention the range of detection.

Here it is in a continuous loop, being set off and powering a piston from the piston originally powered by a player walking by:



Using wool, you can make the new sensors directional.
Wool will block the Sculker Block from reacting in whatever direction the wool is placed.



This led to MC Devs realizing they created wireless redstone.

[Kiaria]

In the "deep, dark depths" where you can find Sculk Growths, there is a new dangerous mob called a Warden.

This blind mob reacts to vibrations like just like the sculk sensors. In the video, the player threw snowballs to attempt to lead the Warden away from them.

The mob is called a Warden (Warden: a person charged with the care or custody of persons, animals, or things; keeper.) is it guarding an interesting secret?





The Warden is VERY fast and deals a ton of damage.
The player in the footage died easily with full netherite armor on.





(the red shown in these pictures is just the damage animation)



Here is the 6 1/2 heart damage the player in full netherite took from one swing of the Warden. If the Warden also attacks other mobs and can be trapped by a player, I'm sure some interesting grinders are about to be made.



Not mentioned in Minecon, but in the background of the video, I found a few interesting stills.
The stone looks like a new block. Limestone?

There are some sort of new light sources (black and white candles? Pickles?). These light sources have the same cluster effect sea pickles do. If these are candles, does this mean we can potentually craft candles from beeswax and perhaps dye them in different colors?







in the video, these light sources are clearly massed around the entryway and inside what looks to be an abandoned mine room

[Kiaria]

On to the Cliff Updates with Goats



Goats will live on the cliffsides of the mountains and can be very dangerous because they can knock you to your death. (rip cow). Perhaps this mechanic can be used to push mobs in a grinder.



Goats will also have extremely high leaping skills










Mountains will have height dependent generation with tree growth lines, etc. "With lots of snow and ice" for that promised Snowier Snow update from Minecon 2019.

There will be a New block called Powder Snow that will act as a trap block. It will look similar to snow, but if a player of mob walks on it, they will fall right through.
No image was shown during Minecon, they only mentioned this in passing.


Crystals/ Amethyst Geodes



Crystal deposits will be very rare.

Crystals make a beautiful chiming sound when you walk on them.

You can break a crystal, but they grow from a special block that is unattainable (like a spawner is), so you will need to stay in the area for more crystals.

Crystal Shards can be used to craft a telescope






Now everyone can experience an Optifine feature.

[Kiaria]

You will also need to have a second item to craft the telescope: Copper



This is where the hosts got confusing. I tried listening to it several times on repeat, but this is the most sense I could make out of it:

"Strategy will now be added to mining"

Ore veins will now be added to Minecraft Mechanics.

"Copper will be different to mine. You will mine through stone, find one, find another, then realize you found a copper vein."

You can Craft Copper into Stairs, Blocks, and Slabs.



They will make Copper mimic real life. Copper will form a patina in game.

(Copper that is exposed elements undergoes a series of chemical reactions that give the shiny metal a pale green outer layer called a patina.)

If you place a copper block, it will first be orange and will turn green after a long while.

"It will add history to Minecraft"

Here is a time-lapse over several MC days of Copper getting a patina.






[sort of disappointing because it looks like a block we already have in the game: prismarine bricks]

You can also use copper to craft lightning rods.

This will prevent flammable roofs in survival from getting hit by lightning and burning down. Perhaps ot can even be used to make charged creeper farms.

[Kiaria]

In order to tackle inventory organization problems in the game, Mojang is adding an item called a Bundle



You can click and drop items into these Bundles






Hovering over a bundle with your curser will show the contents.


You can also drag the Bundle over the items in your inventory to store them inside that Bundle


There is a status bar below the Bundle that shows fullness.


As you can see, a Bundle can hold multiple item types.




Bundles can be stored in chests.

Full bundles look like tied bags.

Bundles will have a status bar on how full it is when curser is hovered over one inventory or chest.

Minecon did not outright mention the capacity, but dropping 32 logs filled a Bundle status bar halfway, and adding another 32 fully filled the bag. A Bundle can hold a stack (64) of items.

[Kiaria]

A new system will be added called an "Archeology System".

Archaeological Excavation sites will be randomly added around an MC world.

There will be a new tool called a brush. Minecon did not say whether you can craft a brush or if you have to find them in chests at an excavation site.




I did notice the brushes seem to be colored differently.



The excavation area in the video looked like it featured a white tent (the player grabbed the brushes from a chest in this tent), a platform with item frames meant to "hold" artifacts, a chest and furnace, and a ladder leading down into the dig site.





It also looks like there are signs placed around the dig site.



You use the brush inside this area to clear away dirt and rubble to find treasure from ancient structures.



Most times, the rubble / dirt has nothing



When you do find an ancient artifact, it will show like this:



However, if you are not careful enough, you can destroy the artifact

[Kiaria]

If you are careful and deliberate, you can uncover an ancient artifact without harming it.


This looks like a pottery shard drawing of an enderdragon.


That pottery shard looks like an Alex painting



And that ended up just being an emerald block, so it looks like you can also uncover treasure as well as ancient artifacts.
Sidenote: do brushes work on blocks outside of dig sites? Does this mean we can create layered dirt and gravel for our builds? Does it work with sand?


The player has used the excavation platform to lay out their findings

Next to the platform there is an area with clay pots.

Are the pots part of the excavation site? Do you craft them? Minecon never bothered to say.



Using these clay pots, you can place the shards you uncovered to "create your own stories or try to guess how those pieces used to connect"







"When you are pleased with your creation, you can fire them up and you have your own painted clay pot"





Minecon did not mention if you can break these with your fists, if you need silk touch, etc.

[Kiaria]

Remember the Lush Caves from the beginning?

Minecon circled back to announce a new mob found in there: Axolotls.



You can find them in the water inside Lush Caves.



It looks like they come in three colors.



Here is what a yellow and a pink look like in game.



Size comparison vs a player



You can capture them in a bucket like you can with a tropical fish.

Minecon did not give any information on whether they can be tamed like a pet and if they despawn if not named.



The game considers Axolotls as predators.

They will fight Drowned and Guardians, and mention was made of them attacking and killing squid.
Minecon did not give information on whether Axolotls will attack land mobs.

You can take Axolotls with you into the ocean.

They seem to be gathered around the player and will give them back up in a fight, but no mention was made if they act like this as a pet wolf would or even if they could be made into pets.





Axolotls have a special healing ability. It sounds like wither regeneration.
"When they take damage, they play dead and no mob will attack them, so they have time to recover health and jump back into battle"
"If you learn how to cooperate with them really well they might even heal you during the battle"

So, in conclusion, there are three new mobs that for sure will be in the next update:
Axolotls, Goats, and Wardens

Mojang even released a canon scale of cuteness:






You are now caught up with everything Minecon plans for the next release.

Hopefully this inspires some designers to tackle some of these new items/mobs/blocks.