Mojang’s release schedule has accelerated in recent months, causing updates to drop more frequently. While this does lead to the individual updates often containing less content than some previous content drops, the overall effect has been a very expansive year for Minecraft. The new schedule has also encouraged the company to revisit previous mechanics, adding further depth and variants as they did with copper and the happy ghast earlier this year. In order to close out the year, Mojang released their newest update today, Mounts of Mayhem.

As the name suggests, the main features focus on expanding the variety of mounts available to players. Horses are some of the oldest mobs added in Minecraft, but other than rare cases like pigs and striders, there were few mobs that behaved the way that they did. The new update seeks to compensate for this gap in design by first allowing players to access zombie horses in regular play, which had previously only been available while playing in creative mode through spawning. In addition, other zombie mobs such as the husk camel and zombie nautilus to coincide with the addition of the regular nautilus were included as tamable mounts.

For players looking for varied combat experiences, the new mounts will also include hostile mobs that must be defeated to claim the new creatures. Once these mobs are tamed by the player, they can also be equipped with new Netherite armor by upgrading the standard armor found by exploring.

The second feature of note in the update is the spear, a brand-new weapon with different applications than the sword. Spears, available at every level that swords are, are less powerful but further reaching than their classic counterparts, also offering a unique charge attack. Much like the mounts, enemy mobs are able to use the spear to create more challenging situations. Minecraft’s newest update is available for both Java and Bedrock versions of the game now.