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.

A pair of new Minecraft snapshots are out this week, offering a more complete (but still unfinished) preview of what to expect when the Update Aquatic rolls out later this year. But there’s still no word on when Minecraft Update 1.13 will be ready for the general public.

Last week brought our first look at some of the most exciting content developed for the next Minecraft patch. Mojang’s beloved sandbox game received an influx of new material, including turtles(!!), wearable turtle shells and a new Trident weapon that can be thrown or used as a typical melee weapon. This week, Mojang followed that release with another pair of snapshots that introduce 10 new ocean biomes, new underwater features and a plethora of fish we’ll now see scurrying around below the water’s surface.

Water visibility also got a second pass during the creation of Minecraft snapshots 18w08a and 18w08b. Players’ ability to see underwater will improve over time, mimicking our own eyes’ ability to adjust to new lighting conditions, and will diminish quickly after resurfacing. Ocean floors will also have greater variation determined by the temperature of the water. Puffer fish have also been reworked in the new snapshots, receiving new spawn points and a slight change in behavior.

Here are the complete patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 18w08a, via Jens Bergensten:

More ocean biomes

• 10 different ocean biomes
• Oceans are now split into five temperatures: frozen, cold, normal, lukewarm, warm
  • In addition to deep vs shallow
• World generation should stay the same, but old chunks will only have normal oceans
• “We'll be using these for something real soon!”

Underwater ravines/deep sea vents

• Caves under the ocean can be filled with water
• Ravines will appear in all oceans
• Some ocean ravines cut deep, exposing lava to the seas
  • Some of the lava is turned into magma blocks instead of obsidian
• Added a clickable link to the /locate command output

Fixed some bugs

• Fixed items getting deleted when the inventory is overflowed by using the recipe book to return items from a crafting table
• Fixed items laying on the ground for a long time when not picking them up after /give
• Fixed /enchant being usable by non-ops
• Fixed a crash when generationg woodland mansions (Exception generating new chunk “Not yet implemented”)

And here are patch notes from snapshot 18w08b:

Actual fish

• Added new fish item icons
• Some fish items exist as mobs
  • Cod will spawn in moderate oceans (cold/normal/lukewarm)
  • Salmon will spawn in frozen/cold oceans and rivers
  • Puffer fish will spawn in lukewarm/warm oceans
    • Expand when near players, give poison on expanding
    • Shrink down to their normal size after expanding, three sizes in total
• Cod and salmon are sideways when on land
• Cod and salmon are very social and prefer to swim in groups
• Can be caught with water buckets, yields a bucket with water and non-despawning fish inside
• Concept art
• Not complete yet, more changes coming soon (tropical fish, clownfish!)

Changed natural water visibility

• Respiration & Water Breathing no longer directly change your visibility underwater
• You can see better the longer you stay underwater
  • Maximum visibility is achieved after less than a minute
• If you go back out of water, you'll quickly lose your water vision

Warm and lukewarm oceans now have sand floors

• Removed deep warm ocean biomes, warm oceans can only be shallow now

Fixed some bugs

• Fixed testing for a score of x or a minimum of x doesn't work in execute if/unless score
• Fixed taking an item out of the output slot of a furnace giving the player the recipe for the item in the input slot
• Fixed clicking into the first seven inventory slots cancelling the smelting recipe preview
• Fixed dried kelp block not being craftable
• Added recipes to turn dried kelp into storage blocks and back again
• Fixed a crash when logging into multiplayer without logging into single-player first
• Fixed the furnace experience rewards depending on the item in the cooking slot, rather than output slot

Minecraft is currently available on every major gaming platform and pretty much anything else with a screen attached to it.

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.