Minecraft’s social media team has been hard at work the past few days announcing two new add-ons. For new or casual Minecraft fans, it is important to note that add-ons are only available for Minecraft: Bedrock players. Add-ons essentially serve the same function as official mods for the Minecraft: Java version, and add some sort of mechanic, overlay, or new item to the game. Both of the new add-ons, Hive of Harmony and the Hello Kitty and Friends Furniture set, appear to be primarily aesthetic based, though the Hive of Harmony add-on does have some additional mechanical bonuses.
Hive of Harmony
The Hive of Harmony add-on was both announced and released yesterday, July 27. The social media team came to Instagram to announce that, “in celebration of Stockholm Pride,” they have decided to release the “Hive of Harmony add-on for free on Marketplace.” The add-on features block style bees with stripes matching the colors of various pride flags. The team behind this add-on felt that the sense of community in a beehive was similar to the strength of the LGBTQ+ community.
The mechanics are relatively simple- players “assign new colors to a bee and feed it a specific flower and it’ll turn into a Pride bee.” Pride bees “aren’t just colorful, though – having multiple Pride bees in a hive will grant it specific advantages, making it more productive.” Players are able to use these bees to build a Harmony Hive, which requires “at least five different Pride bee variants.” A Harmony Hive is helpful because “Crops around a Harmony Hive will grow twice as fast, boosted by the strength of the bee colony.” A colony of over ten bees results in a mystery achievement.
Hello Kitty and Friends Furniture add-on
This add-on does not include any major gameplay upgrades, as it was designed to be cute and ‘aesthetic’, taking some of the ‘creepiness’ out of Minecraft. “This add-on, inspired by the Hello Kitty and Friends DLC, brings supercute decor to any Minecraft world, from plush sofas to charming end tables.” Players who already have the DLC are still in for a new experience, since “Furniture seen in the DLC has been retextured and expanded with new functionality” along with brand-new furniture. The Instagram post teases nine different rooms dedicated to different San Rio characters: Hello Kitty, Kerroppi, Cinamoroll, Pochacco, Chococat, Pompompurin, LittleTwinStars, U*SA*HA*NA, and Badtz-maru. Additionally, this add-on is home to fifteen unique achievements.
Developers at Mojang say that this furniture is relatively easy to come across, stating that the method is to “simply craft the cutest Vending Machine around and slot some heart-shaped Gems into it.” These special gems are found in the wild through mining, with an increased chance of finding them in rarer ore. Players are able to claim a free Kerroppi costume when they visit the Minecraft Marketplace website, as announced earlier today.