Minecraft's mace weapon is overpowered, but here's why it's fine

Mojang Studios recently introduced a new melee weapon called mace that will be released in Minecraft with the 1.21 update. This is a unique weapon with completely different damage mechanics that make it somewhat overpowered. Furthermore, it will come with new enchantments that further increase its capabilities.

Despite being overpowered, the mace still fits perfectly in Minecraft.

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Reasons why Minecraft's new mace weapon works despite being overpowered

Mace's crafting ingredients are hard to obtain in Minecraft

Breeze rods and heavy core are needed to craft a mace (Image via Mojang Studios)

One of the very first obstacles that balances a mace's overpowered capabilities is the rarity of its crafting ingredients. The weapon can only be crafted using the new breeze rods and heavy core.

To obtain breeze rods in Minecraft, players must explore Overworld's cave systems and find the new trial chamber. The structure will generate various new trial spawners that summon different hostile mobs. One of these spawners will be surrounded with chiseled tuff blocks, indicating that it spawns breeze mobs. When players fight and defeat these new enemies, they will drop breeze rods as loot.

The heavy core is even more difficult to obtain since it can only be found in an ominous trial vault, a rare block located in the trial chambers. To unlock the ominous trial vault, players first need to enter the new structure while having a bad omen status effect applied to activate the ominous event in Minecraft. Then, they need to fight off stronger hostile mobs from ominous trial spawners. These special spawners will then drop an ominous trial key which opens the special rare vaults.

Note that these vaults will have an 8.3% chance of rewarding users with a heavy core.

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Mace's risky damage mechanics

Despite being overpowered, the mace comes with certain risks (Image via Mojang Studios)

Once a mace is crafted, players can try out its true capabilities and unique damage mechanics. They can infinitely increase a mace's attack damage by falling from a height and performing a smash attack. The higher they fall from, the more damage the hammer will deal.

This is the main reason why the community feels the weapon is too powerful. However, using the smash attack has its risks. If a player successfully performs a smash attack, they will completely negate the fall damage, but if they fail, they will instantly take damage and even die from falling to the ground.

Furthermore, if they are fighting a strong hostile mob, the fall will not only hurt them, but they will land closer to the enemy while their health is low, which can be deadly in itself.

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In conclusion, the mace is surely overpowered in Minecraft, but it comes with some risks that make it balanced. Furthermore, these rare crafting ingredients make the weapon an endgame gear like elytra or netherite armor.