Minecraft snapshot 24w13a patch notes: Ominous trials, mace enchantments, and more

The highly anticipated moment for hardcore Minecrafters has finally arrived with the release of another Minecraft Java Edition snapshot: 23w13a. This launch introduces new content as well as changes to existing experimental features.

This update features the ability to enchant maces, adjustments made to the breeze mob and wind charge mechanics, as well as new ominous trial spawners. It's worth noting that maces could only be enchanted in Creative mode but not in Survival.

With that in mind, here are the patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 23w13a for the Java Edition.

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Minecraft snapshot 24w13a patch notes

EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES

• Changes to the Mace
• Tweaks to the Breeze and Wind Charges
• Redesigned Bad Omen
• Added Ominous Bottle
• Added 6 new mob effects
• Added Ominous Trial Spawner
• Added Ominous Vault
• Added Ominous Trial Key

MACE

• Added a new explosive particle effect when executing a smash attack with the Mace to really show the player's power
• Increased the power and range of the knockback effect from a smash attack
• Introduced an even stronger knockback when falling for more than 5 blocks before attacking
• When successfully striking a target, all vertical momentum will be reset in addition to negating any accumulated fall distance
• The baseline additional damage dealt by the Mace smash attack has been slightly reduced to 3 (1.5 hearts) per fallen block
• These existing enchantments can now be applied to the Mace:
• Mending
• Unbreaking
• Smite
• Bane of Arthropods
• Fire Aspect
• Curse of Vanishing
• Three new enchantments have been introduced that are unique to the Mace:
• Density:
• Common Enchantment, accessible in the Enchanting Table and on Enchanted Books in loot
• Has 5 levels
• Maces enchanted with Density do more damage per fallen block per Density level
• Damage dealt per fallen block is increased by 1 per level of Density
• Breach:
• Rare Enchantment, accessible in the Enchanting Table and on Enchanted Books in loot
• Has 4 levels
• Maces enchanted with Breach reduce the effectiveness of armor on the target
• The effectiveness of the armor is reduced by 15% per Breach level
• Wind Burst:
• Unique enchantment which can only be found in Ominous Vaults
• Has 3 levels
• Maces enchanted with Wind Burst will emit a Wind Burst upon hitting an enemy, launching the attacker upward and enabling the linking of smash attacks one after the other
• Each level will bounce the attacker higher up in the air

BREEZE & WIND CHARGES

• The Breeze now avoids jumping into dangerous blocks or air
• Wind Charges no longer collide with End Crystals

OMINOUS EVENTS

• Bad Omen has been expanded to give access to an optional experience in Trial Chambers
• These optional experiences accessed through Bad Omen are now known as Ominous Events
• They are more challenging than usual, and are designed to shake up the experience in unique ways
• Illager Raids are an example of an existing Ominous Event
• Bad Omen is getting some changes with this redesign:
• It has a new, shadowy icon and a sound for being applied to the player
• It no longer triggers a Raid directly when entering a village
• Instead, it will transform into a Raid Omen variant with a duration of 30 seconds
• Once the Raid Omen expires, a Raid will start at the location the player gained the Raid Omen
• Like any other effect, players can drink a Bucket of Milk to clear the Raid Omen to prevent the Raid from starting
• It is no longer given to players that defeat a Raid Captain outside a Raid
• Instead, players can gain access to Bad Omen by consuming a new Ominous Bottle

OMINOUS BOTTLE

• An item which can be consumed by players to receive the Bad Omen effect for 1 hour and 40 minutes
• Comes in 5 variations, one for each Bad Omen level
• The bottle breaks when consumed
• Can be stacked to 64
• Can be found uncommonly in any Vaults that are unlocked with Trial Keys, and is dropped by Raid Captains when defeated outside a Raid

OMINOUS TRIALS

• A new Ominous Event that can be accessed by exploring a Trial Chamber with Bad Omen
• This event will have players facing more powerful Trial Spawners if they dare!

TRIAL OMEN

• A variant that Bad Omen can transform into
• This occurs when the player is within detection range of a Trial Spawner that is not Ominous
• The Trial Omen has a duration of 15 minutes multiplied by the transformed Bad Omen's level
• Players that have Trial Omen are surrounded by ominous particles

OMINOUS TRIAL SPAWNER

• A more powerful active phase of the Trial Spawner with unique challenges and rewards
• Provides a more challenging experience that advanced players can opt into for better rewards
• If a Trial Spawner detects a player that has the Trial Omen effect, the spawner will become Ominous if:
• It is not in cooldown
• Or, it is in cooldown but was not Ominous during its last activation
• Making it Ominous this way will bypass the cooldown
• While active, it will:
• Glow blue instead of orange
• Emit soul flames instead of normal flames
• Very commonly spawns mobs with equipment if they can wear it
• The equipment these mobs wear have armor trims applied from the Trial Chambers
• Known issue: these mobs can currently drop their equipment on death, but they will not in the future
• Periodically spawn potions and projectiles on top of unsuspecting players and mobs
• Based on their location, spawners in an area will select a random set of projectiles to spawn
• These projectiles will always include a single type of Lingering Potion from a set of possible effects
• Becoming Ominous will despawn any existing mobs it spawned and reset its challenge
• It will stay Ominous until it has been defeated and its cooldown has finished
• When defeated, it will eject a different set of loot to normal Trial Spawners

OMINOUS TRIAL KEY

• A new variant of the Trial Key which can only be obtained by defeating an Ominous Trial Spawner
• They can be used to unlock Ominous Vaults

OMINOUS VAULT

• A variant of Vaults that have a different texture and emit soul flames instead of normal flames
• These can be found throughout the Trial Chambers in harder to find places and require an Ominous Trial Key to unlock
• These Vaults hold a more valuable set of rewards than the standard Vaults unlocked by Trial Keys

MOB EFFECTS

• The following effects have been added:
• Wind Charged
• Affected entities will emit a wind burst upon death
• Brewed with an Awkward Potion and a Breeze Rod
• Weaving
• Affected entities will spread Cobweb blocks upon death
• Non-player entities with this effect can walk through Cobweb at normal speeds
• Brewed with an Awkward Potion and a Cobweb block
• Oozing
• Affected entities will spawn two Slimes upon death
• Brewed with an Awkward Potion and a Slime Block
• Infested
• Affected entities have a 5% chance to spawn 1-2 Silverfish when hurt
• Brewed with an Awkward Potion and a Stone block
• These effects can be encountered while taking on an Ominous Trial Spawner
• Some mobs are immune to these effects
• Slimes are immune to Oozing
• Silverfish are immune to Infested

TRIAL CHAMBERS LOOT

• The loot found within Trial Chamber Vaults has been adjusted
• Standard Vaults will give slightly less items of high quality, but also include the following changes:
• Ominous Bottle I - II can be found
• Flow Banner Pattern, Flow Armor Trim Smithing Template, and Heavy Core can no longer be obtained
• Guster Banner Pattern and Bolt Armor Trim Smithing Template remain exclusive to standard Vaults
• In Heavy Core's place, standard Vaults will instead have a very rare chance of providing a Trident
• Ominous Vaults can provide some particularly valuable items, to mention a few:
• Ominous Bottle III - V
• Enchanted Golden Apple
• Flow Banner Pattern and Flow Armor Trim Smithing Template
• Wind Burst, Breach and Density Enchantments for the Mace
• Heavy Core
• The loot ejected from Trial Spawners have been adjusted
• It now has a focus on providing higher quality food more often to make replenishing between fights more safe
• Ominous Trial Keys have a 30% chance of ejecting from a defeated Ominous Trial Spawner, replacing the usual 50% chance to eject Trial Keys

TRIAL SPAWNER

• All spawners now increase the amount of mobs present at once by 0.5 for each additional player, down from 2
• Baby Zombie spawners now only have 2 mobs present at once for its baseline, down from 3 mobs
• Can now only activate when a player is in line of sight

TRIAL CHAMBERS

• Remade chamber_5 with variations, and renamed it to eruption
• Reduced amount of Trial Spawners in corridors
• Updated layout and placements of Vaults
• Placed Ominous Vaults in chambers, intersections, at the ends of corridors
• Corridors will no longer generate endlessly
• Added an atrium to the corridors
• Made various layout changes in intersections and corridors

Known issues:

• Corner quadrants in slanted may still fail to generate correctly

CHANGES IN 24W13A

• Added unique sounds for Cobwebs

Interested readers can learn more about the technical changes in this Minecraft snapshot by visiting this game's official or clicking the link in the tweet presented earlier.