Roadmap

Magic is coming to the world. Learn spells and cast them through staffs and wands you craft yourself, from simple utility charms to powerful spells for exploring, building and battle. Magic will be something you grow into rather than something you're handed: wands to start with, stronger staffs as you master the craft. Mages, enchanters and rune smiths will finally have a craft worthy of their name, and towns like White Foot a reason to become true centres of arcane learning.

The forge gets a skill of its own. Blacksmithing grows as you work metal: smelting ore, crafting gear and working at the anvil all earn you experience.

The finest gear will be a blacksmith's work. Crafting armor, weapons and tools is unlocked as your Blacksmithing climbs, so a master smith's work is something few can match. And at the highest levels, blacksmiths can forge gear even more advanced than anything they could make before, worth seeking out a skilled smith for, or becoming one yourself.

Cultures are about to matter more, and to be fought over. A culture's cultural centre will grow stronger the further its culture spreads: the more towns that follow it, the bigger the benefit its heartland enjoys. Spreading your culture becomes a real goal rather than something that just happens over time.

And it won't just happen on its own any more. New ways to promote a culture let you strengthen its hold on a town, while sabotage lets rivals weaken it, shifting a town's loyalty toward another culture. Win hearts and minds, or quietly undermine your neighbours.

Nations will be able to stake a claim on land their towns intend to grow into. A nation can stake as many chunks as its towns have unclaimed room left, for a small daily upkeep paid from the nation's treasury. Staked land shows as that nation's territory on the map, so nation borders reach beyond the towns themselves, and no other nation can stake land that's already spoken for.

A stake isn't a wall: anyone can still found a town on staked land. But doing so gives the nation that staked it a legitimate cause for war, once wars arrive.

Your companions are getting a lot more company. New animals become tameable, giving you more friends to keep by your side as you explore and build. Pets will also be easier to look after: pick one up and carry it in your inventory, bring it along wherever you go, and place it back down when you arrive. You'll even be able to trade pets with other players, so a rare companion can change hands.

Explore dungeons hidden across the world, each with its own layout, traps and monsters. Fight your way through alone or bring friends along, with tougher challenges that reward working together.

Every dungeon ends with a boss fight, and the deeper you go, the better the loot gets: rare items, gear and materials you can't find anywhere else. Some dungeons may only open at certain times or need a key to enter, so they stay something to plan for and look forward to.

Carry more on your adventures. Backpacks are wearable bags that add extra storage on top of your regular inventory, so you can haul back more ores from a long mining trip or more supplies on an expedition without running home every few minutes. Your bag goes wherever you go.

Play as something other than a human. You'll be able to pick a species for your character, each with its own look, strengths and weaknesses. One might be bigger and tougher but slower, another quick and nimble but fragile, another suited to a certain climate or way of life. No species is simply the best: each one plays differently, so pick the one that fits your character and your playstyle.

Every third full moon, the night sky over the overworld turns blood red. That's roughly once every 8 hours of real time, as long as nobody sleeps the night away. During a Blood Moon the overworld fills with scarier, stronger monsters that hit harder and are tougher to bring down. The danger pays off: attack and defense skills earns more XP until the sun comes up. You can hide indoors and wait for dawn, or grab your best gear and head out for the hunt.

Choose who you want to be. Every player starts as a Commoner: no bonuses and no drawbacks, just Minecraft as you know it. If you want more, you can take up a class that shapes how you play, each with real strengths and real weaknesses to match.

Take the Bandit. Bandits can steal from any chest left out in the open, but they can never hide from a fight: PvP is always on for them, wherever they go, so anyone they've wronged can come looking for payback. Other classes follow the same rule. A class might make you a better fighter but a poorer trader, or a skilled crafter who tires quickly in battle. Every class is a trade-off, not an upgrade, so pick the one that fits how you want to play, and live with the consequences.

A new skill for those who'd rather tame the wild than tame the land. Beastmastery is learned by caring for, taming and riding animals, and the higher it climbs, the more of the world's creatures will answer to you.

New mobs become tameable, and new epic mounts await those skilled enough to ride them, from swift beasts for long journeys to fearsome steeds that turn heads wherever you go. The rarest companions won't follow just anyone: pets and mounts are unlocked as your Beastmastery grows, so a legendary mount is something you truly earn.

Land is about to be worth more than the space it takes up. Scattered across the world, certain chunks will produce resources over time, depending on their biome and what's found there. A rich forest, a fertile plain or a mountain full of ore can quietly fill your town's stores every day.

Suddenly that chunk past your border might be worth more than the land you planned to claim. Do you expand to grab it, trade for it, or fight over it?

Your own plots join in too: farm plots will produce resources passively based on what's planted on them, so a well-tended farm keeps paying off even while you're away.

There's more to eat in the world than bread and steak. This update brings new, better and more unique food, like venison from hunting deer. Expect dishes that are more filling, more satisfying and more worth the effort, and some with special effects you won't find anywhere else. Hunters, farmers and cooks get more to work with, your Cooking skill gets more reasons to level, and every tavern gets something special on the menu.

Your job is about to pay off in more ways than one. Jobs will reward more of the work you already do, with new tasks that earn you money. Take on job quests for a little extra on top, and earn rewards as you climb your job's levels.

Every job also earns you Job Points alongside your Sovereigns. Spend them at the Job Shop on items you can't buy with money alone, so sticking with a job and mastering it truly pays.

The Nether is about to live up to its name. Once you step through a portal, the rules of civilisation fall away: PvP is always on, and when you fall to another player they can claim part of what you carried, items and coin alike. Every trip becomes a calculated risk.

The Nether itself turns hostile too. Its scorching heat will wear you down the longer you stay, unless you're protected against it, and a new heat protection enchantment lets you brave the depths for longer. New mobs and bosses are added to the Nether too. Go in prepared, go in together, or don't go in at all.

Set sail between towns. Speak to the boat master at a town's dock, pay a small fare, and step aboard: smaller boats ferry you to nearby towns, while larger ships sail between coastal towns across the world.

The journey isn't instant. You'll spend a few minutes on board while the boat makes its way, with a timer showing how long until you reach port. Pass the time talking to fellow travellers, or cast a line over the side for fish you won't catch anywhere else. Don't think about jumping overboard though, the open sea is no place to swim.

And the sea isn't always kind. Every now and then, a voyage runs into trouble, and something large rises from the deep.

Death is about to mean more. When you die, your belongings are taken from you, though not for good. You'll wake at the nearest graveyard instead of spawn, and to get your items back you'll have to earn them, through a short quest to reclaim what death took. Dying becomes a setback with a story rather than a simple trip back, and a reason to think twice before taking a risk you can't afford.

The wilderness is about to get a lot more dangerous. Bandits will roam in greater numbers, and some won't travel alone: expect tougher, better-armed outlaws who fight smarter and hit harder, ambushes on the roads, and a few names that every traveller learns to fear. The reward matches the risk. Bandits will carry real treasure, and the most dangerous of them guard hoards worth hunting down. Travel prepared, keep your chests under a roof, and think twice before wandering alone.

Runes are getting a lot more to offer. Today a few runes carry you home or to spawn; this update brings new runes with new kinds of magic, and makes the runes you know more powerful and more worth hunting for. Expect more ways to find them, more reasons to carry them, and runes that become a real part of how you travel, explore and survive.

When diplomacy fails, steel decides. War mechanics will let towns and nations formally declare war on one another, turning rivalries into real conflict with real stakes. Wars will have clear rules for how they're declared, fought and ended, so battles stay fair and meaningful rather than random, and every peace treaty or surrender is written into the history of the world. The United Nations may yet find itself the last place where war can be stopped.

Faith comes to the world. Once you reach a certain level, you'll be able to found your own religion, give it a name and gather followers around it. Followers draw strength from their faith: praying, or gathering near their religion's leader, grants temporary blessings. A shared belief can bind a town together, spread across nations, or become a source of power and rivalry of its own.

Post offices are coming to the world. At any post office you can send a letter to a single player, to every town leader, or to every nation leader. Letters aren't delivered by magic: players can pick up waiting mail at the post office and carry it to its recipients, earning their keep as couriers. Important news travels the same way, with official letters sent to every leader when a town or nation is founded, falls into ruin, or something else of note happens. If nobody delivers a letter within a week, the recipient can collect it themselves at any post office, so no message is ever lost.

Give your nation a home at the heart of diplomacy. Nations will be able to rent an embassy plot in the diplomatic district near the United Nations at spawn, and build their own embassy there in their own style. The rent is paid from the nation's treasury, and the plot stays yours for as long as you keep paying. A place for your representatives to meet, host foreign guests, and fly your banner where every nation can see it.

The United Nations passed the International Railway Initiative: a railroad network connecting towns across the map. The UN builds and maintains the lines through unclaimed land, while each town builds its own station within its borders. Alongside it comes a railroad update that makes minecarts faster and more useful, so rail becomes a real way to travel and trade between nations.