Here's an official article: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/the-wild-update-here You can also check out this GameSpot article: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-1-19-the-wilds-update-full-details-on-new-content/1100-6504062/

Before I get started, there are three videos on the Minecraft YouTube channel that do a cool job of showing off the new content. It was difficult to choose which to embed, so chose the one I liked best. It’s more natural and includes some content from the previous update. The first one showcases the Deep Dark biome, new sculk blocks, and the Warden. Check it out: https://youtu.be/chuRE9nxLT4 This next one does a good job at giving an overall view of the new content. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/GXr5glhGkzE

What’s new?

If you’re looking for new Minecraft content to explore then you’re in luck! Minecraft just received it’s “Wild Update.” I’m going to get into details, but there are two new biomes (Mangrove swamps and Deep Dark). The latter can be found in caves. There are four new mobs including the scary Warden, the cute and helpful Allay, frogs, and tadpoles (because you can’t have frogs without tadpoles nor tadpoles without frogs). There are some new blocks including “sculk” blocks that detect vibration and summon the Warden. There’s also mud! (Cue Primus.)

Beware though and make sure you’ve managed your expectations! Minecraft Live mentioned content for the Caves and Cliffs Update (both parts including this one) that unfortunately didn’t make it into the game. This has seemingly caused a lot of players to express disappointment and unhappiness with this update, calling it the “Mild Update.” Xisumavoid has a great video discussing the issue. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/YAMHqVL9Gfs Ultimately, we should be grateful we’re constantly getting free new Minecraft content. The game just keeps getting better all the time!

The Deep Dark (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Deep_Dark) is perhaps the most scary biome in Minecraft now. It is very dark and contains sculk blocks, which are sensitive to vibration. (These blocks are also redstone active.) This includes eating, walking, equipping/unequipping gear, and many other actions. If you’re close enough to them and they detect vibration, they’ll summon the Warden. One way to avoid detection is to put a block of wool between you and the block or walk on carpet. You’ll find some in the Ancient City.

The Warden (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Warden) is perhaps the most scary mob in Minecraft now. When summoned, it will rise from under the ground and cause a “darkness” status effect, which darkens everything. This is definitely not an ideal status effect to get in this already dark biome. It is blind, but sensitive to vibration like the sculk blocks. It has a lot of health and can’t be easily killed. It can kill you in one or two hits even with the toughest armor! It has both a melee and a ranged attack! One way to avoid detection is to sneak (crouch). There’s a new enchantment that allows you to walk faster while sneaking. One place you can find these is in treasure chests located within a new structure called an Ancient City (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ancient_City). This structure is very large, kind of like a Nether Fortress. You’ll find yourself alone without any mobs nearby. Don’t let that give you a false sense of security. Sculk blocks are active and difficult to avoid.

Another good tip for the Warden is to misdirect it by throwing something in the opposite direction, replacing it’s attention. I believe I heard that this is why you’ll find snow balls in chests in the Ancient City.

The Allay (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Allay) is a new adorable, friendly mob voted into the game. It looks like a blue fairy. You’ll find these unfortunately locked up in Illager encampments and in cells in the Ancient City. They are always looking for a player and are really good at staying close by. They can sometimes annoyingly get in the way, too, which is something the devs have worked to correct. They’re also very capable of returning to the player even after being separated by a large distance.

The Allay is helpful. Giving it an item is the same as telling it “go find this item and bring me back all that you can,” because that’s how it acts. It can carry multiples of an item instead of bringing you one at a time. However, it can only do this for one specific item. For example, if you give it an egg, it will only collect eggs. It can’t collect eggs and feathers at the same time. To take an item from them, do so with an empty hand. They also like music boxes, so if you have one playing, they’ll look for items around them and drop items at them. I haven’t played with them yet, but I realized how I can benefit from them.

In my 1.18 world, I had livestock pens (as always). At first the animals stood on dirt, but I removed the surface layer of dirt and replaced it with hoppers. The fence stands on top of the same layer of dirt, so I removed two dirt blocks under the fence (remember a large chest is two blocks wide). So, there are a couple of fence posts sitting on top of a chest. Whenever I killed something or sheared a sheep for wool, the drops went into one of the hoppers. The hoppers pushed the item into the chest. Then, I can access the chest without entering the pen. It’s not a perfect system, because sometimes drops don’t make it into the hopper. It’s also a lot of work and that’s a lot iron to collect!

You know what would make this process much simpler? An Allay! With an Allay, I can forget about removing dirt and adding hoppers and a chest. If I want to collect eggs, for instance, I can just give one to my Allay and it will bring them to me. I could also set up a music box in a chicken pen so that it’s attracted to the area where it will find eggs. I could get separate Allays for each drop I want (feathers, steak, pork, chicken, etc.). I’m looking forward to getting an Allay. I’m just afraid of losing it, because I "/tp" often. I found them in my snapshot world, but haven’t gone to rescue them yet.

Mangrove swamps are another new biome. Minecraft Live showed them off with frogs, tadpoles, and fireflies. During Minecraft Live, frogs ate fireflies. Unfortunately, they were removed since some of them are poisonous to frogs IRL. This is unfortunate, because they added some nice ambiance. Just as xisumavoid said, frogs don’t have to eat them! Removing the ability for parrots to eat chocolate was good, because you don’t want to influence someone to feed a parrot chocolate IRL, because it’s toxic to them. So, parrots eat grass seeds instead of chocolate now.

Since you can’t have frogs without tadpoles (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tadpole) or tadpoles without frogs, both are now in the game. Tadpoles become frogs which are colored differently depending on the temperature of the biome they’re from. There is a list of biomes on the wiki grouped into three different categories; “temperate,” “cold,” and “warm.” (See wiki entry at: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Frog) One example is that tadpoles in a cold biome will become green frogs.

There are also new blocks of light call “froglights” (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Froglight). Instead of fireflies, frogs eat slime mobs if the slimes are small enough. They’ll drop slime balls when they eat them. To get froglights, you have to take a frog into the Nether and get it to eat magma cubes. Each of the three lights can be created by each of the three different colored frogs. I think getting these sounds complicated. Of course, I’m possibly biased since there’s no blue froglight. 😭

It is my opinion that mangrove swamps are difficult to traverse, especially because of the very large roots of mangrove trees. There’s lots of water and lots of mangrove trees, which are very tall. That’s about it, really. However, mangrove trees are grown from propagules, looking like elongated seeds. They can be seen growing on mangrove trees. They can be planted on both dirt and in water, unlike every other tree.

Some of the land you see in mangrove swamps is made from the new mud blocks (https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Mud). You slip a couple pixels down into them while walking on them, but they won’t slow you down. You can find them here or create them by using a filled water bottle on a block of dirt. Remember the drip stone that was introduced in the previous update? If you put one on the bottom of a mud block, the mud will eventually turn into clay.

What’s missing? It’s unfortunate that this question has an answer, because the last update did as well. In fact it was the last update’s answer to that question that created this update. Yes, the Caves and Cliffs update was separated into two parts and there’s unfortunately some content that didn’t make it.

Bundles are probably the one I’m most disappointed in not getting. Crafted from rabbit hide, they are able to store stacks of multiple items, which are self contained as one item, the bundle. A bundle pretty much turns a single inventory slot into one that contains stacks of multiple items. I often have a full inventory and bundles would be very helpful! However they haven't made it into the game yet, because they haven’t found a way to get them to work properly with Minecraft’s Pocket Edition. The devs are taking version parity very seriously. What I mean is that they are doing their best to reduce or remove the differences between versions. So the game should be exactly the same with the same content no matter which version you play.

I already mentioned fireflies, which is again disappointing. At the last Minecraft Live, we were also shown concept art for birch forests. They even spent a few minutes talking about it. I didn’t realize it was something players wanted. I hadn’t even though about it. Ultimately the devs pretty much stated that “concept art” does not reflect a content “promise.” Thus we need to manage our expectations.

The devs need to also help by making it clear that while all content is intended, it may not end up in the game. Either that or they need to show us content that’s pretty much guaranteed to be added, things that have already been developed or very close to being finished, instead of showcasing concepts.

Are you interested in this update? What do you like most? What do you think it all?

I made an effort to make this post more readable, which is something I'd like to do more, so that my posts aren't just a boring collection of paragraphs. What do you think of the formatting style I gave this post? Do you like it? Does it make it look more readable? Are there any suggestions you'd like to share about how you'd like to see posts formatted and styled? I was really impressed with Jon's last post and I know readability is important (I don't want to read long boring paragraphs either). Let me know!