Minecraft will receive an influx of new underwater content this week, and more slated to arrive in the near future, as we continue down the road to Update 1.13 (or the Update Aquatic if you’re a Steve Zissou fan). Additions include seagrass, kelp blocks and an equippable trident. But Minecraft’s new turtles will probably absorb the most attention from the community.

It’s always exciting when Mojang adds new content to Minecraft. The sandbox game is very mod-friendly and the community has added plenty to it over the years. Still, millions of gamers prefer “vanilla” Minecraft. Now, they finally have more reason to spend time exploring large bodies of water than the ocean monuments added in 2014. Longtime Minecraft developer Nathan “Dinnerbone” Adams says more aquatic content is on the way in upcoming snapshots. Mojang still hasn’t determined the final slate.

Snapshot 18w07a also introduces the Phantom, formerly known as the Monster of the Night Skies. The flying, manta-like creature will spawn at high altitudes and prey on players who go “many days” without sleeping. Phantoms currently drop leather, which suggests they aren’t meant to be especially tough to fight. However, Mojang says that reward could change in the future, presumably in response to feedback from the Minecraft community.

Here are the complete patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 18w07a:

Sea grass

  • Generates in all oceans, but this is temporary
  • Also exists as tall sea grass

Kelp blocks

  • Kelp doesn’t generate in deep oceans, but this is temporary
  • Kelp can be smelted to get dry kelp
    • Edible for half a hunger bar – can be consumed much faster than regular food
    • Fuel source
    • Craftable into dried kelp blocks
  • Grows upwards into multiple blocks tall plant

Stripped logs

  • Strip logs by using an axe on them
  • Stripped logs act like regular logs

Squids now shoot ink particles when attacked

Added stairs and slabs for all 3 kinds of prismarine

Maybe: Underwater stone brick structures

Turtles

  • Only spawn on warm beaches, but this is temporary
  • They lay eggs on their home beach throughout various biomes for baby turtles to hatch from
    • Baby turtles will scamper down to the water
    • Can be picked up using silk touch
    • Cracking texture in 3 stages
    • Up to 4 eggs per turtle egg block
    • Hatch during the night
    • Can be trampled, will be trampled intentionally by zombies
      • Zombies will also attack baby turtles
  • Turtle shells wearable as helmets
    • Constantly give 10 seconds of water breathing effect (while not underwater)
    • Crafted from turtle shell pieces
      • Also used for brewing
  • “Turtles are known for their strength, not their speed”
  • Drop sea grass

Maybe: Cavern-like structures with wooden walkways

  • Contains oak bark blocks

Maybe: Features that affect combat

  • Maybe: Shields disable when used frequently

Swimming animation

  • “Sprint underwater!”

Maybe: Warm, cold and frozen ocean biomes

  • Different kind of terrain
  • Ice bergs

Bubble columns

  • Underwater magma blocks will produce bubbles
  • Items and other entities fall down into bubbles
    • Items float on the surface otherwise
  • Shakes and sinks boats
  • Underwater ravines/deep sea vents
  • Hearsay: allow breathing
  • Doesn’t generate anywhere currently

Trident

  • Throwable and melee weapon
  • Works under water and when raining
  • Enchantments
    • “Loyalty” makes tridents come back to the thrower
    • “Riptide” pushes the player forward when thrown while swimming
    • “Impaling”: “very useful against creatures of the sea”
    • “Channeling”
  • Player model animation for throwing
  • Currently unobtainable in survival, that will change
  • Super overpowered, to be balanced later
  • UI icon is not yet implemented

Water rendering

  • Slabs, fences, tall grass, etc share a block space with water
  • Not fully designed yet
  • Implemented using minecraft:hacked_water block tag

Maybe: Multiple variants of shipwrecks

  • Loot inside

A new mob, one of four options voted on at Minecon 2017

  • “The Phantom” – old names: “The Monster of the Night Skies”, name not final, titled mob B for the Minecon vote
  • Manta-ray-like flying monster
  • Spawns at high altitudes
  • Attracted to insomnia: seeks out players who haven’t slept for many days, swoops down in groups and bites
  • Hearsay: only attacks players high above sea level
  • Maybe: Dying resets time awake statistic
  • “Bad things happen to those who don’t sleep… they start to hallucinate, and see what’s really there.”
  • Spawns in the overworld and the end
  • Drops leather, but this may change

Fixed some bugs

  • Fixed the big tree generator handling tree height variable incorrectly
  • Fixed being unable to insert charcoal into furnaces
  • Fixed the “Balloon oak” tree variant generating upside down
  • Fixed furnace recipes working in crafting interfaces and interfering with crafting recipes
  • Fixed a random crash in snow biomes: java.lang.NullPointerException: Exception ticking world
  • Fixed horses, rabbits, parrot, llamas and sheep generating in their default color/variant only
  • Fixed chorus plant generation being broken
  • Fixed the game crashing when pressing “show craftable” in the furnace recipe book
  • Fixed large oak trees not generating with the new generator
  • Fixed the debug world not generating
  • Fixed the world generator not being fully cleaned before making new world

Minecraft is available on pretty much anything that plays video games, from PS3 and Xbox 360 to iOS, Android and the Switch. Snapshot 18w07a is available via the Minecraft launcher.

Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft news in 2018 and however long Mojang supports Minecraft in the years ahead.