How the Minecraft 1.21 update is making combat more challenging

Minecraft 1.21, also known as the Tricky Trials update, is introducing plenty of new content by way of a new structure, new mobs, weapons, blocks, and more. However, this major content update was clearly oriented around combat and making it more challenging, particularly for players who have gotten used to it over the years.

The Tricky Trials update may not be the Combat Update that many players continue to ask for, but it does present some interesting spins on challenges and introduces a weapon that is powerful with an inherent risk factor.

Minecraft 1.21 doesn't reinvent the wheel so to speak, but it does make it clear to players that combat won't be a cakewalk when it comes to its new content.

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Why Minecraft 1.21's combat is tougher but fair

Minecraft 1.21's mace is powerful but requires risky maneuvers and well-honed timing and precision (Image via Mojang)

Two of Minecraft 1.21's new additions are making combat trickier, living up to the Tricky Trials moniker, but also in a fair way that doesn't make things too difficult or overwhelming. Specifically, the introduction of the mace and the trial chamber structure brings complexities to combat that players may not have been familiar with before Tricky Trials made its debut.

Regarding the mace, the new melee weapon deals fairly standard damage on the ground but has the potential to devastate targets, thanks to its smash attack. However, this move only activates when players make an attack while in freefall, gaining damage the further a player falls. While this can result in one-hit-kill levels of damage, players also run the risk of missing the attack and taking fall damage.

This encourages players to practice with their mace and affix the right enchantments to the weapon, making its use more challenging than simply swinging a sword or axe if it wants to be used to its full potential.

There are also situations where players can gain an understanding that the mace, while strong, isn't always the best weapon for a situation.

Then there are trial chambers, which procedurally generate in different layouts so Minecraft players have a different experience each time. Moreover, the trial spawners inside these structures are capable of spawning various hostile mobs, including the new breeze. The breeze's agility and ability to change the states of certain blocks with its wind charge projectile are unconventional, to say the least.

Minecraft 1.21's ominous trials allow players to ratchet up combat challenges within trial chambers (Image via Mojang)

In contrast to most other hostile mobs, the breeze deals very little direct damage and instead leaps long distances while launching targets into the air with the knockback from its wind charges. This can result in players taking a significant amount of fall damage, especially if they find themselves in one of the high-elevation corridors or rooms scattered throughout many trial chambers.

Minecraft 1.21 has also reworked the Bad Omen status effect, allowing players to trigger ominous trials in trial chambers, increasing the danger of the hostile mobs spawned by the newly converted ominous trial spawners. While this can result in better loot from ominous vaults, players have to be conscious of the more powerful mobs they'll face and prepare accordingly.

The unique ominous trial mechanic gives players the power to make combat more difficult for better rewards, which is a mechanic that players won't find in other Minecraft structures. Between this structure and the expertise required to wield the new in-game mace, combat has certainly been made tougher in multiple ways, even if it remains unchanged with regard to core gameplay mechanics elsewhere.