The new Combat Update for MineCraft has arrived! The most recent update, which leaked back in April and was spoiled as “The Combat Update” includes a host of new combat mechanic tweaks to make fighting creepers, skeletons and zombies much more interesting.

Shields have been added to the game, and timing attacks have been made easier with the new combat cool-downs; the more rapidly a player swings, the less damage their attacks will do, effectively giving the game a “stamina” type of feature. There are now two item slots, and wielding in both hands is now possible. The player can swap between slots by the hotkey, which is bound by default to “F.” Several weapons have been reworked, and have been given special attacks. There is a new sweeping attack for swords and axes, as well as new reworked guaranteed critical hits which can be activated by falling down, and which require a certain cooldown threshold to actually activate – if you have attacked too many times recently, the criticals will not trigger.

The Skeleton AI has been reworked as well, and is a lot more vicious; it will attempt to back away from the player and prefer to stick to ranged combat. Sword blocking has been removed due to the implementation of shield, and tool damage was rebalanced to make axes a little more effective in combat and reduce the efficiency of items like hoes and shovels.

In addition to the new combat mechanics, there are a host of new blocks, new items, new particles (which are great in showing you how combat is going, and give the game that much needed pop in the thrill of combat), new status effects, and new enchantments. The most noteworthy enchantment is the frost walker enchantment, which can be enchanted to boots and will freeze a radius around the player as they walk on water. However, this can maybe get a little bit tricky as players and monsters can no longer walk through each other – they will instead bump off and collide.

The End, which is home to Minecraft’s “final boss” as well as being a cool end-game area, has also been reworked. The Ender Dragon boss, which is the final boss of Minecraft, has been reworked – the pillars used to damage him have been moved around and are much more fair. Most of the new additional items can only be found in End Cities as well, which are a new addition; End Cities and End Boats have been added, which hold some of the best loot waiting to be found by players. Among these is the Elytra item, which is an item that resembles wings which will allow for a player to glide. Gliding is actually controlled by looking around and the physics feel nice, which is a great addition to Minecraft; this is going to result in many shenanigans.

The care and attention Minecraft has received is great, and really has helped to give the game a long lasting legacy. Minecraft is the world’s most successful, and accessible, block-building and adventure game. Minecraft is friendly for almost anyone of all ages, and is available on several systems; unfortunately, the newest update is limited to the PC for the time being, which is typically the case. Minecraft has received some much needed additional features, as the game’s updates are becoming a little more sporadic as Mojang enters its infancy as a company and looks to release more successful titles to follow up Minecraft.