10 hidden features coming in Minecraft 1.21 update

The Minecraft 1.21 Tricky Trials update finally has its release date confirmed for June 13, 2024, and players are quickly running out of time to research and prepare for it. While some of the update's features, such as trial chambers and new mobs, are very well known, there are just as many additions that might have flown under the radar.

This might be due to the changes being less impactful or just being lost in a particularly large snapshot. Detailed below are 10 lesser-known features of Minecraft Tricky Trials that players might have missed, along with what makes them features so interesting.

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10 lesser-known parts of Minecraft 1.21 Tricky Trials

1) The Wind Burst enchantment is very rare

Tricky Trials is adding an entire new weapon type in the mace. It's also adding three new enchantments for the weapon, which get progressively more rare. The rarest of these is Wind Burst. This Minecraft weapon enchantment allows players to spring back up into the air after power-attacking.

But it is important to note that this wonderful enchantment cannot be obtained via the enchanting table or village trading. Instead, it can only be obtained from Minecraft's ominous vaults as a very rare reward. This means that players shouldn't waste time re-enchanting a mace looking for Wind Burst and should instead turn their attention back to the update's trial chambers.

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2) Trial chambers can stand out

A cave leading right to a trial chamber (Image via Mojang)

Trial chambers have had their generation changed quite a bit over the different Tricky Trials snapshots. They've been coded to avoid deep dark biomes, for example. However, they tend not to avoid large caves at all. This can make them quite easy to spot, thanks to the open caves the game is now known for.

They will either generate in the open air, where their copper blocks and tuff bricks are easy to spot, or be covered by smooth stone. However, since this just puts a layer of stone on the outside of the chamber's walls, it still looks blocky and artificial. This means that any strangely flat spots found while mining should be explored, as there might just be a trial chamber hiding behind them.

This gives players a valid way to find these impressive structures without having to exclusively rely on the new Minecraft cartographer trial chamber map trade.

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3) Trial chamber wall easter eggs

The breeze face found on the trial chamber's wall (Image via Mojang)

A small feature of Minecraft's trial chambers that might have gone entirely unnoticed are the easter eggs found within their design. The walls of the atrium room can have different mob face designs on them. These can include both of the update's new mobs: the breeze and Minecraft's new bogged skeleton variant, as well as a regular spider's face.

These details are easy to miss, especially while trying to fight off hordes of hostile mobs spawned by the structure's trial spawners.

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4) The mace has no damage cap

A player attacking zombies with the mace weapon (Image via Mojang)

The new mace weapon has a ton of fun utility to it. It has an AOE knockback effect when striking mobs, which is already a powerful and unique effect. However, the real draw of the weapon comes from its ability to convert all fall damage into attack damage if a successful hit is landed. There's also no cap on this damage, meaning that the mace can one-shot any Minecraft mob with health, bosses included.

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5) Trial chambers and monster rooms

This monster room almost looks like an intentional part of the trial chamber (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned previously, trial chambers tend to generate through caves and other structures they're near. This can also cause them to override portions of monster rooms, the oldest structure still in Minecraft. This might cause a trial chamber to become even deadlier, as these spawners will continue to produce hostile mobs until they're lit up or destroyed.

It's kind of eye-opening in a way to see such a simple structure next to what is the game's most complex one by far. It shows just how far Mojang has brought the game in the last 15 years.

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6) Trial chambers have hidden rooms

One of the secret rooms hidden in trial chambers (Image via Mojang)

Trial chambers have an extra hidden feature in secret rooms that can be generated in different spots of the chambers. There are hidden rooms found behind copper grates in the bedrooms of trial chambers. Additionally, there's a chance for a hidden room to appear in the wall beneath the tree rooms found near the chamber's entrance.

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7) New paintings

The new Tricky Trials paintings (Image via Mojang)

Paintings are interesting items. They're wonderful decorations, but their limited selection also limits their usefulness. This has resulted in them becoming quite underutilized. This also means that it's very possible that many players hadn't noticed that there are a huge number of new paintings in Minecraft Tricky Trials update.

There are 20 paintings being added in total. Five of them are by the artist Sarah Boeving. The other 15 are all by Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who, fun fact, is the same artist that did all of the original paintings for the game.

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8) Cartographers have a new trade

An example of a trial chamber map (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft villager trading has been made even more powerful with Tricky Trials. Cartographers have been given a new trade at the Journeyman level that can replace the map to an ocean monument or woodland mansion. This new trade is also for an explorer's map, but this one will take players straight to a trial chamber. This makes these underground structures much more convenient to find.

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9) New music discs

Just like how new paintings are hard to organically discover, music discs can be almost impossible to just stumble into, especially if a player doesn't know they exist. Tricky Trials is adding a total of three new music discs to the game, obtainable from vaults, ominous vaults, and pots. These are for the tracks Precipice by Aaron Cherof and two different versions of Creator by Lena Raine.

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10) Bad omen got a major rework

Part of this rework is a new status effect icon for bad omen (Image via Mojang)

Bad omen is a Minecraft status effect that used to be exclusively obtained from raid captains and was used to start raids. However, Tricky Trials has snuck in a complete overhaul to how the mechanic works that might have gotten missed by players that avoid raids.

Bad omen is now no longer automatically applied by raid captains on death. They now drop an item known as an ominous bottle that, when consumed, applies bad omen. Minecraft's ominous bottle can also be obtained from vaults found within trial chambers.

Bad omen has also been changed to no longer be the effect that starts a raid. It's now a foundational effect with branching paths depending on where the player goes. If bad omen detects a village, it will become raid omen, and then a raid will start. If bad omen detects a trial chamber, it will become trial omen and kick off a Minecraft ominous event.