Mojang has released a crazy new snapshot for the Mounts of Mayhem update in Minecraft, and along with that came zombie horses, rideable nautiloids, and the new Java Edition spear weapon. The latter is soon to be released for Bedrock. Players are already exploring the new additions, which are intended to totally shift our way of fighting and traveling in the pixel world. Some, on the other hand, wonder if the changes will be fun to play with or just be… boring.
So where do we even start with this Mounts of Mayhem? The “zombie horse” really grabs attention – the long-presumed dead horse comes back to life and is immortalized as a mount at last. The eery-looking horse with glowing eyes and the palm-decayed texture can now be tamed and ridden. Not only that, but you can also have nautiloids as mounts which, is so classic Minecraft to allow making a monster of the sea into a mount. Also, there is the spear – nothing but a new close-range weapon that allows the players to quickly get ahead but who is aware of some kind of cooldown that sparks heated debates among players?
The player community’s response has been… at least not that straightforward. For example, RBunFoX has stated that “Fun and Minecraft are enemies” which is a very severe sounding statement but at the same time is kinda right? They pointed out that the ghast mount, which they showed before, is really sluggish – “not a mount, a living scaffold instead” – and now the spear dash has a long cooldown and consumes uses like gunpowder. Anonimo12345 called the spear “useless” and suggested it should deal an equal amount of damage to swords since the slow attack speed already negates the reach advantage plus.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are players like Chocster2002 who could not be more excited – “Zombie horse, please!” – and one can very easily feel the electrifying atmosphere of those who have been peeking and waiting for this stuff since Minecraft LIVE. Gatr has even hinted that the zombie horse texture may have been slightly updated as he has noted some changes in it. And SteveCiaran predicted “Spartan army incoming” with everyone equipped with spears, which honestly sounds really interesting for PVP servers.
But really, the mount possibilities have expanded the player’s imagination. NekuroMC was pondering whether you could ride ravagers (just imagine riding one of those beasts bursting through the villagers) and there was a detailed thread about pillager alliances where AtarasiHida was suggesting making hostile mobs neutral using a “love potion” so players could ride spiders and trade with the illagers. Such are the ideas that come to mind when you think about the creativity of the Minecraft community – they are already thinking way beyond the limits of what the developers have even done.
Nevertheless, there is a certain degree of frustration that is not very overt but it is certainly there, all the same. Beepminer_ was like “Please just bring us the end update already 😔 which is such a sad reality, the End Dimension has practically been deserted for years already while we get… rideable noah’s ark animals? And SuccubusTama feared that this update might turn out to be of less content like the Copper Age where they said “it’ll be 2 things” at first, then they changed their mind to maybe more would be revealed later.
There are also some technical aspects that need to be fixed – plumboglumbus wanted to know if Java snapshot worlds get converted into the normal ones (normally this happens but sometimes there are glitches) and dinotasia123 asked when mobile users would receive these changes. MikeinSPACE2008 was indeed surprised when he said “finally, something comes to bedrock first” which shows that the whole version parity issue is still a barrier to people’s expectations.
It is indeed amazing to witness how rapidly players start to consider the matter of balancing and integrating. Allrite_Hambone was demanding that Mojang “reduce the number of drowned in bedrock” because other than that the nautilus has “little function” – thus hinting at how the new features should be interacting with existing mob spawning. AymenBaaziz8 asked for netherite horse armor and just as well as reworked mob animations, and honestly, both suggestions would be good as improvements.
Biblical references also popped up – rick_give quoted, “And I saw the horse of death and the rider on it was death” which is totally insane for a game that is all about putting blocks. Simultaneously, MrFrischi was talking about “Lord Helix” from the Pokemon mythology because, obviously, the internet would make that association with the spiral-shelled nautilus.
So, what is our stand? The Mounts of Mayhem update surely has been a source of new disorder in the Minecraft universe, but the question still awaits an answer: will it be less interesting to fight with, though? The spear is in need of tweaks according to the initial testers, maybe the mounts should be giving speed boosts, and players are evidently searching for more major, substantial content updates. But, come on – a zombie horse is right around the corner for us, folks! And after all these years! It has to be something, right? The update is already in Java snapshots and will soon be in Bedrock’s preview/beta, so grab your spear and be ready to charge at something… probably a creeper, given how it usually goes in PlayStation and Xbox versions of Minecraft.
