How to ride camels in Minecraft 1.20 update

Camels are coming in the upcoming Trails & Tales update to Minecraft. They will be a friendly mob, one of a couple of new animals coming to the game. A brand new biome will also join them, as will several new items and much more, as per the usual for a significant update from Mojang. What separates camels from other animals, added in recent memory, is that they can be ridden.

Riding camels is like other mobs but also a unique experience. Here's what you need to know before the official release of 1.20.

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Minecraft camels: How to ride the new mob

Camels cannot be tamed, which is essential to remember. Horses are a rideable mob, as are donkeys and mules. Those can more or less be tamed, but not camels. No matter what, they will remain independent.

However, they are pretty easy to ride. Like a horse, you must approach a camel calmly and attempt to climb on by holding a saddle and pushing the "use" button. When you do, you should climb on top of them and begin riding.

Ensure they are lying down when you do this, or else you can't climb on because the mob is too tall. Also, ensure you have a saddle because, unlike a horse, you can't initially get on one without it.

From there, camels are ridden just like horses and other animals. You control them by moving forward and jumping.

Even though they're not tameable, they are perpetually friendly, so they shouldn't turn you away if you attempt to ride them.

Camels in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Camels can walk but can also sprint if necessary. What also sets them apart is that two players can ride them. The new mob has two seats, one for a driver and one for a passenger. They also have a dash feature.

The passenger cannot harm the camel or the other player while riding. The Minecraft Wiki detailed a key thing to remember about the new mob:

"Camels are tall enough that most melee hostile mobs such as zombies, vindicators, hoglins, silverfish, endermites and golden sword-wielding piglins cannot reach players to attack them. Spiders, wolves, slimes and magma cubes can attack because they jump or climb while attacking. Most mobs never deliberately attack camels under any circumstance, even to reach players riding one; the only exceptions are mobs that attack all other mobs, these being zoglins and vindicators named 'Johnny'."

This makes them advantageous over horses and other mobs that do not prevent attacks in any way. Since hostiles won't attack camels, they are less likely to die.

If they die, they do not respawn in the Minecraft desert village where the camel originated.