Minecraft has had its next big patch update with Vanilla 1.11 coming in, dubbed the Exploration Update. It introduces a small number of new things to the world, as well as a good deal of bug fixes.

The big thing that many have been talking about is the addition of one of the new mobs, llamas – a new passive mob with some of the same mechanics as horses. Llamas will be found in Extreme Hill biomes and can be tamed by climbing on their backs and being kicked off a number of times until it is ‘tamed’. Unlike horses though, llamas will attack back with a spit that takes off 1 hitpoint or half a heart of health. Once tamed you can place carpet and chests onto your tamed llama, and each colour of carpet will have a different design – for example the purple one has an Enderman motif and the white one comes with a nice little neckachief. Although you can climb on the back of a llama the best way to direct them is via a lead, which will then cause all the other nearby llamas to follow on behind in a train, even the wild ones and babies! They drop leather upon death.

Other mobs introduced in this patch take the form of two forms of ‘anti-Testificate’ also known as “Illagers” as well as a small mob that one of them can summon. Both form of Illager are hostile to both the player and Villagers/Testificates, but their methods of attack are pretty different. The one with a physical assault form of attack is known as a Vindicator (with blue pants), and upon seeing an opponent will pull out an Axe and charge forward to attack. The other Illager is called an Evoker (with the gold trimmed robes) and upon seeing an opponent will pull their arms apart to summon small ghost-like mobs with Iron Swords known as Vexes. Vexes can go through blocks and will attack nearby targets but expire on their own after a certain amount of time. Evokers can also spawn ‘Fangs’ which aren’t mobs themselves but more a method of attacking hostiles or enemies. Both spawn inside of a new type of structure called Woodland Mansions, which are buildings of wood and cobblestone you can find dotted around the map rarely. Evokers drop a new drop called the Totem of Undying or sometimes an Emerald upon death; while Vindicators drop Emeralds and an Iron Axe.

Villagers themselves have something new as well, with a new ‘type’ of Villager added to the professions they can have. A Cartographer is a type of Librarian Villager and trading enough with them will give you access to special Exploration Maps – Ocean help you locate Ocean Monuments and the Woodland ones help you to locate Woodland Mansions. There’s also been a type of ‘untradeable’ Villager called a Nitwit added; Farmer Villagers can now give different amounts of apples or cookies on trade and all Villagers can now be named via Nametags.

Other things added to the game include a drop from the Shulker mobs introduced in a previous patch, they now have a 50% chance to drop a Shulker Shell upon death. Two Shulker Shells put on top of and below a Chest in a Crafting Table will make a Shulker Box, which is another way to store items but keeps what you put into it if you destroy and pick up the Shulker Box. It can also be dyed different colours, but unlike chests will not connect to become doubles. They open with an animation similar to how a shulker opens its shell just with a bit more spinning.

There has also been a block called an Observer added, ported over from other versions of Minecraft. An Observer will watch the block in front of it and when it detects a ‘block update’ it sends a redstone signal out of its back port. This block will probably be useful for map makers to get circuits across gaps without having to build a bridge for a line of redstone or similar.

This is just a taste of what 1.11 is bringing into the game. If you want to reach all the patch notes, you can see them here.

And stop by our own Sanitarium.FM server at www.sanitarium.fm. We’ve already set up a llama pen!