All changes made to the Warden in Minecraft 1.19 snapshots

The Warden is arguably the most terrifying hostile mob that will soon be added to Minecraft 1.19 The Wild Update. It is the first blind mob in the game that will hear and smell players to hunt them down. It will be a part of the new Deep Dark Cave biome and will only be summoned through a sculk shrieker.

The Warden was first introduced way back in October 2020 during the Live event. The mob and biome were scheduled to be released in the Caves and Cliffs update. However, it was pushed back since Mojang wanted to expand the biome and mob even more. After a year of development, it has been finalized that the mob will be released in the Minecraft 1.19 update. Since then, the mob has been visible in several snapshots and beta versions where it has received quite a lot of changes.

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Changes made to the Warden in every Minecraft 1.19 snapshot

1) Snapshot 22w12a

The mob does not burn from lava or fire (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

After the mob's initial release in an experimental snapshot and the first official snapshot where the mob was not added, the 22w12a version saw the mob added back with some changes made to it. In this version, the mob was added back to the snapshots and was not considered an undead mob anymore. The vertical reach of the Warden was increased, and it was made immune to lava and fire. It also didn't slow down because of the water.

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2) Snapshot 22w13a

The mob can easily walk over rails (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

Several players were constantly playing these snapshots and trying out what they could do to stop the terrifying beast. One of the old tried and tested ways to trap mobs is by placing rails all around them. This worked with the Warden as well. However, in this snapshot, Mojang fixed the glitch and the mob is able to walk over to them for now.

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3) Snapshot 22w14a

The mob gets angry at any other mob that bumps into it, but its speed slows down when in water (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

In this snapshot, the mob was both buffed and nerfed. If any mob bumps into the Warden, the beast will instantly get angry and kill the mob. Previously, the beast only got angry when they made too much noise. Along with this, they brought back the mechanics of water being able to slow the mob down. This is a great relief to players as they can use water to their advantage to slow the mob.

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4) Snapshot 22w15a

New ranged attack and increased detection range (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

This snapshot contained some of the biggest changes for the mob. Mojang was silently noticing how players were still able to kill the Warden easily with some simple tricks. Hence, they made the mob even more powerful.

Initially, they added a new ranged attack to the mob that can easily penetrate walls, go through armor, and even disable shields. The ranged attack was essentially a loud sonic boom coming from the mob's chest. This way, if the players tower up with blocks, the mob will still be able to attack them.

Along with this, the mob is now able to smell the players from quite far away, and can get angry from 20 blocks away, which made the mob even scarier and stronger.

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5) Snpashot 22w17a

The mob now drops a sculk catalyst block and its ranged attack can now penetrate shields (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

Skipping one snapshot where the mob got no changes, the 22w17a snapshot contained yet another set of changes to the Warden. Mojang noted that players were able to block the ranged attack from their shields. Hence, they removed the ability to defend and the attack was able to penetrate shields as well.

However, they balanced the Warden by reducing the damage from the ranged attack from 30 HP to 10 HP. They also decreased the cooldown time of the ranged attack from 5 seconds to 2. Along with this, Mojang also added a feature in which a sculk catalyst block will be dropped by the mob upon death.