Last Friday, November 11, both Microsoft and Mojang released news about a new update for the popular world-building game ‘Minecraft‘ that will come out close to the end of 2016. The new patch will be aptly named the ‘Ender Update.‘
This addition follows the previous Minecraft patches released at the beginning of the year, the ‘0.14 Overworld Update,’ which introduced Redstone as a new material along with witches.
The ‘0.15 Friendly Update’ added multiplayer add-ons while the ‘0.16 Boss Update‘ introduced the Elder Guardian and Wither as bosses.
The Ender Update marks the end of the Minecraft beta for its Windows 10 version and Pocket Edition, acting as its 1.0 iteration, mirroring what the company did with the original PC version, introducing the End to graduate from beta.
The 1.0 Ender Update will take players to higher planes, literally
The first feature the Ender Update will add for Minecraft is the addition of a third dimension, known as the End, where players will be able to face the powerful Ender Dragon.
However, this will not mark the actual ‘end’ of the game, as beating the monster will grant users access to the mysterious End Cities.
To help them achieve this feat, Minecraft will also update the world height to 256 blocks, which is a huge change from the previous 128-block ceiling for Windows 10 and Pocket Edition.
Microsoft and Mojang hinted more features were also on the way, but that they would reveal them later.
Exploring the End Cities and their secret items and characters
Inside the End Cities, players will encounter new game elements such as the Shulker mob, which commonly give five points of experience when killed or a Shulker Shell that players can use to craft a Shulker Box to transport and store items.
The End Cities also contain a unique type of block that only appears in the area, called Purpur because of its purple tone. Players can mine Purpur blocks (and pillars) as usual, but if they do it without a pickaxe, they will drop no items.
Other in-game elements like the Chorus Plant make an appearance at the End. This plant restores a high amount of hunger and can teleport the player. Within item frames and end ships found in End Cities, the player might also encounter an Elytra, which gives them the ability to glide.
Where can I get Minecraft’s Ender update?
This Minecraft Edition will also come with the upcoming shipment of Apple TV Edition. Enthusiastic Android users can also sign up to get the beta version for testing and debugging, available right now.
Source: Xbox