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While fans are looking forward to Minecraft 1.21 — as it's bringing trial chambers, the mace weapon, the bogged and breeze mobs, and more — there's another patch arriving before it worth mentioning. This is the 1.20.5 update, which is going to offer a whole slew of its own features.
The five best of these features, additions, and updates can be found below, along with what makes them worth caring about.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.
Minecraft 1.20.5's 5 best changes
1) Wolf armor
Wolf armor is by far the most impactful 1.20.5 addition. It will allow wolves to be the companions they were meant to be all along. The armor is crafted using armadillo scutes (more on those later) and actually works more like Minecraft's customizable shields than regular protective gear.
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This is because it doesn't reduce damage. Instead, it absorbs damage entirely, so long as it has durability left to do so. There are a few exceptions to this, such as damage taken from drowning or the void, but hostile mobs are completely covered. The armor will let wolves be used in combat without a worry, so long as it is in good health.
Additionally, Minecraft's upcoming wolf armor is dyeable, meaning that players will have an extra way to customize and color-coordinate their survival base.
2) Wolf variants
Minecraft 1.20.5 brings several wolf variants to the game. This update will add eight new types, bringing the total number of versions this mob has to nine. The variants are split between cooler and warmer climates almost evenly, with five types in cold regions and four in warm ones.
The original wolf is still in the game's regular taiga. But the mob will now be called pale wolf. Ashen wolves will be found in the regular taiga's snowy variant. Old-growth pine taigas have black wolves, and old-growth spruce taigas house chestnut wolves. The frigid wolf is the snowy wolf, which is found atop mountains in grove biomes.
Rusty wolves are seen in jungles, the woods wolf in regular forests, the striped wolf in wooded badlands biomes, and the spotted wolf is found on savanna plateaus.
3) Armadillos
Armadillos are an exciting new mob meant to make savannas and Minecraft's ever-gorgeous badlands more lifelike. They are the only source of armadillo scutes, which are used to craft the previously mentioned wolf armor. They will drop these scutes randomly, similar to how chickens drop eggs, or players can brush them. This gives the brush a use outside of Minecraft 1.20's archeology.
When near the undead or a fast-moving player, or when hurt, armadillos curl up. This reduces the damage they take, though they can't eat or move in this state. Armadillos will also be able to repel spiders and cave spiders in a very similar way to how Minecraft's cats can drive away creepers and phantoms.
4) Bug fixes
An unexpected area where 1.20.5 has started to shine is bug fixes. There were a whopping 53 issues fixed in just the first pre-release of this update. This kind of attention to problems would actually make the final launch very similar to the Buzzy Bees update, which also had a major focus on bug fixes over extra content.
Some of the most important bugs to get fixed in this update's first pre-release were a bug that stopped old villagers from participating in Minecraft villager trading and another one that allowed 1.21 content to be accessible outside of experimental features.
There's no guarantee that this rate of bug fixes will continue in future pre-releases, but it's still a great sign that 1.20.5 is being launched in a smooth and polished state.
5) New advancements
Advancements are what Mojang has opted to call "achievements." There are two main ways they are used: to guide players towards how to interact with features and structures and to celebrate significant moments as well as player accomplishments.
The five newly revealed advancements in 1.20.5 are:
- Revaulting: Opening an ominous vault with an ominous key
- Isn't it Scute?: Getting scutes from an armadillo
- Snip it!: Taking wolf armor off of a wolf with shears
- Good as New: Repairing damaged wolf armor
- The Whole Pack: Taming one of each wolf variant
These new advancements aren't huge gameplay features, but they're nice ways to learn which parts of an update's content can be interacted with and how. They will be especially useful for players who enjoy going into Minecraft's many updates totally blind.
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