Minecraft 1 20 Release Date New Mobs Biomes Features Leaks

Minecraft 1.20 Update: Everything You Need to Know (2022)

We have included confirmed features, announced changes, and a few speculations for the upcoming Minecraft 1.20 update. Use the table below to easily browse through the different feature speculations and officially confirmed features.
Note: This article was last updated on 1st November 2022 at 11:00 AM PST to include the latest information from Minecraft Live 2022, including the release date, mob vote winner, and the new mob added the Minecraft 1.20 update.

Minecraft 1.20 Update: Release Date

During the Minecraft Live 2022 event in October, game developer Mojang revealed that the next major Minecraft 1.20 update won’t release until 2023. Following the previous release patterns, we expect this update to reach the players in January 2023. This is much later than the previous speculations, but hopefully, the additional wait will be worth it.
Looking back in time, Minecraft released its last five major updates in the following months – June 2022, November 2021, June 2021, June 2020, and December 2019. Now, if we don’t count the gap in the pattern because of the pandemic year (2020), the timeline announced falls in line with this pattern.

Minecraft Live Mob Vote 2022 Winner

With over 50% of the votes, Sniffer has won the Minecraft Mob Vote 2022 and is coming to the game with the next update. This mob will also feature a baby version, opening more breeding possibilities for the players. In terms of gameplay, the sniffer is supposed to sniff out seeds for new and unique plants in the overworld. We are excited to see how many new types of Minecraft farms this mob leads to.
Though, all hope isn’t lost for the losing mobs. The developers assured players in the Minecraft Live 2022 event that the mobs from other Minecraft titles and previous announcements can make it into the game in a future state. That is, only if they fit with the plans they have for the future of Minecraft.

What Is the Minecraft 1.20 Update Called?

The Minecraft 1.19 update was truly different than any other game updates in the past. It added a bunch of new features, including biomes, blocks, and even the strongest mob of Minecraft, the Warden. Yet, most of the community thought that it didn’t live up to its title of “Wild Update”. So, learning from its mistake, developers of Minecraft are presenting the next update without an official name and with a ton of evolving features.
As per the developers, the official name of the next Minecraft update will be revealed alongside other major features within the upcoming months. However, making a guess based on the latest announcements, it could easily be the Minecraft 1.20 Desert Update. But, here are some other possible names:

The End UpdateFarming UpdateDesert UpdateSavanna UpdateCombat UpdateArchaeology Update

Minecraft 1.20 Update: New Features (Confirmed)

As revealed during Minecraft Live 2022, the Minecraft 1.20 update will bring a bunch of new features to the game. Though there are many features planned for it, the developers have only revealed a few of them. They don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, as they’ve done in the past. More features for this update will be revealed in the upcoming months. For now, let’s go over all the features that, for sure, are going to be the part of Minecraft 1.20 update.

New Default Skins

Bringing natural diversity and representation to the game, Minecraft has added 7 new default character skins. They are not only available as the new official default Minecraft skins but will also be featured in all the upcoming official videos and trailers. We highly appreciate this major step towards inclusiveness.

Hanging Signs

Solving the ever-lasting problem of not finding the right place to put your sign, the hanging signs can be hung on any block. You can place them on the side and even the bottom of the blocks. You no longer have to put them on the ground. Moreover, you can create a bunch of decorative items by putting signs under signs as well, creating a wind-chime-like structure. We already have a guide to help you quickly learn how to make and use hanging signs in Minecraft.

Bamboo Wood and Rafts

Minecraft 1.20 is bringing a new family of bamboo wood in Minecraft, featuring their own planks, blocks, and more. They are a part of the developers’ attempts to bring a more accurate representation of wood types to the game.
Moreover, this wood set is even more special due to its exclusive sets of blocks. You can use the bamboo wood can be to craft decorative bamboo mosaic blocks. There is no such block for other types of wood in Minecraft, making it truly unique. Not to forget, you can also use bamboo wood to craft rafts in Minecraft. They work like boats in Minecraft but are more open looking in appearance.

Chiseled Bookshelf

At last, bookshelves are useful in Minecraft. After crafting the new chiseled bookshelf, you can store regular and enchanted books in them. You’re free to place any book in any slot on the chiseled bookshelf, but it’s visually impossible to differentiate between them. Though, this doesn’t mean that each slot is equal. Every single storage slot of the bookshelf sends out a Redstone signal with different strengths. So, with the right mechanic, you can use a chiseled bookshelf to make secret doorways (as shown during Minecraft Live 2022) and much more.

Creative Inventory Reshuffling

The inventory in Minecraft 1.20’s creative mode is systematic and features items in a much cleaner manner than the earlier versions of the game. It now consists of the following set of tabs:

Building Blocks: Common blocks and items that are used in structure creationColored Blocks: A variety of blocks that have multiple color variants like beds, candles, terracotta, etc.Natural Blocks: All the blocks that generate naturally within Minecraft’s overworld and other dimensionsFunctional Blocks: Blocks that can be used for a variety of purposes including job site blocks, beacons, light blocks, etc.Redstone Blocks: All blocks that be used in or impacts a Redstone circuit

Tools & Utilities: Various useable items that fulfill a variety of purposes in MinecraftCombat: Weapons, projectiles, armor, and other items that can be used during combat in MinecraftFood & Drinks: All items that can be consumed in the game including potions (all types), stews, and foodIngredients: Items that serve as the most common crafting and brewing ingredientsSpawn Eggs: Almost all of the Minecraft mobs in the form of spawn eggsOperator Utilities: Blocks like light, barrier, structure blocks, and various command blocks that affect a Minecraft world’s default properties.

Fill Biome Command

Introduced with Minecraft Snapshot 22w46a, you can use the “/fillbiome” command to manually change the biome of any given region in your Minecraft world to any other Minecraft biome. To make it work, you have to set the coordinates for two points between which you want to replace the biome.
It’s similar to the popular fill command in Minecraft, except it focuses on biomes instead of blocks. Expanding on that, the new “fill biome” command also allows you to bring biomes from one dimension to another. Though, these biomes don’t affect the dimensional features like exploding beds in the Nether.

New and Better Mob Heads

Mob heads, which some mobs drop when killed by a charged creeper, have been part of Minecraft for a while now. But, other than using them as a mask or a decorative item, their purpose has been quite rudimentary. Fortunately, this changes with Minecraft 1.20, as it allows us to connect the mob heads with Note blocks to create ambient mob sounds. These sounds relate to the mob whose head you are using. For example, the skeleton skull makes the sound of an arrow being fired.
Not to forget, Minecraft 1.20 is also expanding the mob head library by bringing Piglin heads to the game. To obtain one, you have to go to the Nether and then kill a Piglin using a charged creeper. This new head makes Piglin sounds and waggles its ears when triggered by a Redstone signal.

Fixed Mob Spawning in Nether Portal

Giving a major nerf to the Nether farms in Minecraft, the upcoming update will significantly reduce mob spawning around the Nether portal. As you might be aware, every hostile mob in Minecraft requires the light to be below a certain brightness level to spawn itself. So, the upcoming update is bringing down the light level for the spawning of Endermen, Skeletons, and Wither Skeletons to level 9 in the Nether dimension.
This light level was 11 in the earlier versions, which is the same as the light level of the Nether portal. Because of this change, these mobs can’t spawn and directly teleport into the Nether portal. If you were using the existing mechanic for a farm, you will now have to give an incentive to these mobs for entering the portal.

Minecraft 1.20: New Features (Speculated)

Based on the recent developer editions, here are a few features that you can surely expect to find in the Minecraft 1.20 update:

Spectator Mode

First spotted in a Minecraft Preview earlier this year, the developers are testing the spectator game mode for Minecraft Bedrock. It was also shown off at Minecraft Now in April. This game mode allows players to see through blocks and freely fly through the solid parts of the world. Since this mode is already a part of the Java edition and its Bedrock edition is quite stable, we surely expect to see it in Minecraft 1.20 update.
If you don’t want to wait, you can use our step-by-step guide to get the spectator mode in Minecraft Bedrock right away. Do keep in mind that it’s not completely functional because this feature is still under development.

New Bedrock UI

It’s no surprise that the Minecraft Bedrock edition doesn’t have the best UI when compared to the Java edition. And that’s not only for its settings and pre-game options. In the touch edition of the game, even the gameplay gets compromised due to misplaced buttons.
Fortunately, recent preview versions of the game have shown off a new UI for the Minecraft Bedrock edition. It feels more or less finished so seeing it with or before Minecraft 1.20 update is a given.

New Mobs Added in Minecraft 1.20 (Confirmed)

Mojang currently has three games within the Minecraft franchise, including Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, and the upcoming Minecraft Legends. Even though the games aren’t directly linked, the developer is known for porting mobs from one game to another. But instead of adding one of the mobs that we saw in Legends or Dungeons teasers in the past, Minecraft is adding a new mob to the desert biome.

Camels Come to Minecraft

Minecraft is bringing camels to the game. As you might expect, they will naturally only spawn in desert biomes. They are one of the largest mobs in the game, and you will be out of the reach of hostile mobs while riding it at nighttime. When tamed, two players can ride one camel at the same time. You can use our guide to learn how to ride a camel in Minecraft 1.20 in no time. But keep in mind that, unlike horses, camels are much slower than horses in complex terrains.
Though, thanks to their dash ability, they can cover comparatively flat areas much faster. This same ability also allows them to jump over ravines. Not to forget, you can breed camels in Minecraft using cactus as food in desert biomes to create baby camels. So, under the right circumstance, they can end up being a common mob breeding farm in the game.

Redesigned Vex

Not every new mob has to expand the existing roster in Minecraft. Some can simply improve the existing ones. That’s what the Minecraft 1.20 update will do by bringing us a new design for the Vex mob. This design change makes Vex look similar to the Allay, giving birth to a bunch of new lore for Minecraft.
When compared to the original Vex, the new design is a bit smaller and much more detailed. Though, even with a smaller body, the new Vex still has a larger hitbox to make it easier for the players to attack. Moreover, just like the original design, the face of the new Vex also turns red when it’s targeting an enemy.

New Biomes in Minecraft 1.20 (Speculated)

Over the years, Minecraft has teased several new and revamped biomes, but they never reached the players. Hopefully, we might see some of them finally find their way into the game in Minecraft 1.20.

Desert Biome

In 2018, Minecraft held a biome vote where the community chose Tagia as the biome they wanted to get revamp. But developers assured that the losing biomes will be implemented in a later update. We think it’s finally time to update the Desert biome in Minecraft 1.20, as the new mob will live in this biome.
The new desert biome is supposed to get camels, palm trees, and possibly an oasis in the revamped version. We also expect to see some new variants of the cactuses in the desert biome, as the developers gave a green light to such an idea here. The different variants of the cactus could also tie in with the camels to give you a new item, much like froglights in Minecraft.

Savanna Biome

The second biome that lost in the 2018 vote is the Savanna biome. If the developers decide to update this biome instead of the desert, we expect to see a revamped Savanna in Minecraft 1.20 update. It might have Baobab trees, decomposing plants, termites, and even ostriches.

Badlands Biome

Minecraft also had a biome vote in 2019 in which the mountains won, and a revamped version went live in the Minecraft 1.17 update. But what’s interesting is that the losing Mangrove swamp biome also got updated in the Minecraft 1.19 update. So, what’s left is the Badlands biome, which might finally get an update in Minecraft 1.20.
The new badlands are supposed to get tumbleweeds, new cactuses, and some loot-stealing vultures. Interestingly, the vultures are teased to have an item-picking mechanic similar to the Allay in Minecraft 1.19. They just don’t like to return items to the players as Allay does.

Parity Changes in Minecraft 1.20

In the past 2-3 years, Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions have become much more similar than ever before. But the two editions still have major differences that might get resolved in Minecraft 1.20 update.

Banners in Maps

In Minecraft Java, you can put banners in your world, and they show up on your maps. This functionality allows players to mark certain locations around the world. But the Bedrock edition has no such option. Because this is a much smaller change when compared to other parity concepts, Minecraft 1.20 might finally address it.

Custom Shields

In Minecraft Java, you can combine banners with shields to make custom shields in the game. But no such feature exists in the Bedrock edition. Fortunately, the developers confirmed that they are working on it in Ask Mojang 2019. So, we might finally see it in the new update.

Combat Changes

In 2016, Minecraft Java received a combat update with the 1.9 updates. This update changed the way combat worked in the game and even turned axes into a weapon. But unfortunately, this update never reached the Bedrock edition. We expect Minecraft 1.20 to finally bring those combat changes to the Bedrock players too.

Spectator and Hardcore Mode

As mentioned earlier, Minecraft’s spectator mode is already in development for the next update. So, it won’t come as a surprise if this mode is released alongside the hardcore game mode for Minecraft Bedrock.
The hardcore game mode doesn’t offer any major feature other than permanent death. But in the Java edition, the hardcore game mode includes the spectator mode as an internal feature. Because of that, we expect Minecraft to bring spectator and hardcore mode to the Bedrock edition at once in the 1.20 update.

Speculated Features of Minecraft 1.20

Leaving the new features aside, the team of Minecraft also has some pending features in the game. So, Minecraft 1.20 can also act as a gap filler update to let developers plan for the future while fixing the existing issues. Some of these features might include:

Fletching Table, New Village, & More

Villages: All major Minecraft biomes are supposed to have their own unique villages. But the meadow biome spawns a copy of the plains biome. Similarly, the game has villagers for swamp and jungle biomes, but no villages spawn in either of them. So, Minecraft 1.20 can bring the missing villages to the game.Illusioner & Giant Zombie: Both of these mobs are currently in the game, but they don’t spawn naturally. Their implementation can make the game’s hostile mobs more interesting.Fletching Table: This block is in the game and spawns naturally. But other than giving jobs to Minecraft villagers, it does nothing. Hopefully, developers might give it some functionality soon.New Dimension: Even though it seems like a full-fledged update of its own, we are expecting Minecraft to get a new Ancient City dimension in the future. You can check our dedicated guide to speculations of the new Minecraft’s Ancient City portal dimension to understand the complete theory behind our guess.

Get Ready for the Next Major Minecraft 1.20 Update

With that, you now know every possible feature that might come with the Minecraft 1.20 update. And if we end up getting even half of the speculated features, Minecraft 1.20 will be one of the best updates to reach the game. But that mystery will only be solved later this year in November or December. For now, if you want to make the most of the Wild Update, our list of best Minecraft 1.19 seeds can definitely help you out. We even have a dedicated list of the best Ancient City seeds in Minecraft 1.19 to help you locate and defeat the Warden. With that said, Minecraft still has a long way to go when it comes to perfection. So, what else do you want to see added in the Minecraft 1.20 update? Tell us in the comments!