The hero of Minecraft Legends

When you step into Minecraft Legends (as soon as April 18!), you’ll have only one goal: save the Overworld from its snouty invaders. How you go about it is mostly up to you, but taking on piglins is no easy feat, and the key to victory is preparation. And snacks! Let's get ready together by looking at tools, upgrades, and friends that will help you in your fight against the piglins. The snacks are a different story, you're on your own for that one.

The hero’s tools

A hero without their tools is just a very brave person flapping their hands. Which is all well and good, but when your task is to save the Overworld, you'll want some help! Let's look at the different tools that you'll wield as the hero of this legend. What do they do? What makes each of them special? And will they match your outfit?

The hero’s sword

First off, let’s start with something basic but trusty: the hero’s sword. It’s a tried-and-true companion for many Minecrafters, and it’ll work quite well when you need to get a handful of piglins out of the way, but it won’t work on larger enemies. Most importantly, it doesn't do any damage to the piglins’ structures or their portals, which makes it a secondary tool, as satisfying as thwacking runts with it may be. To do some real damage to enemies and their buildings alike, you’ll need to spawn some mobs to aid you in battle. Which brings us to our next and very essential tool...

The Legendary Lute

The hero’s lute not only sounds lovely but is also an essential communication tool. We already know how much allays love music, and by playing a specific tune on your lute, you can ask them to collect resources and build (or dismantle) structures for you. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock the melodies for some very effective (read: explosive) structures that you can use for both defense and offense. All the melodies you discover will be stored in your songbook so you can play them again and again. You can also play the lute near spawners that you've built to create new mobs and golems to aid you in battle. But how will they know what to attack? Well...

The Banner of Courage

The Banner of Courage is what your allies rally around, and it allows you to lead and direct them in battle. Want your friends to follow you? Attack a base from afar? Pummel a Nether portal into obsidian dust? With a simple wave of the banner, you can do that and more! Plus, if you want to micromanage your units (unlike humans, they really don’t mind), you can also use Banner View. This special menu allows you to control your units individually if you’d like. It’s a very powerful tool, but it takes a bit of practice and some quick thinking to master!

The Flames of Creation

You might be wondering: why is there a small cage stuck to the side of the hero’s mount? Unlike the piglins’ cages, this one doesn’t hold disgruntled Overworld mobs – instead, it houses the Flames of Creation. As long as these Flames are burning at your side, you can summon allies to fight with you. Whenever you repel the first piglin attack on one of the three mob homesteads, you also light a Flame of Creation there, enabling you to build their spawners. The more types of mobs you protect, the more will fight by your side!

Mounts 

The golems and mobs that fight alongside you aren’t your only friends in Minecraft Legends. The Overworld is filled with friendly mobs, and some of them are eager to aid you in your journey, (but not by fighting!).  

When you start the game, the Hosts introduce you to your trusty steed, a horse that’s very happy to see you and excited to start the adventure. But as you travel throughout the Overworld, you’ll run into other creatures that will be happy to journey with you as your mount – and they each have a special ability, from running faster to climbing up walls. Imagine the piglins’ faces when they see you casually scaling their defensive walls! These mounts can change your gameplay significantly, and you should choose them based on what kind of strategy you want to adopt. Make sure you explore every nook and cranny and find them all! 

Improvements

As fun as exploring the Overworld may be, it’s worth returning to your home base regularly. Why? The ground around the Well of Fate is special, not just because of the unbearably cute mobs that hang out there, but also because that’s where you can build improvements! This category of structures doesn’t have a palpable effect in the Overworld, like a defense tower would. Instead, improvements enhance your hero’s abilities. Want to rally more allies at once? There's an improvement for that! Want more allays to build more structures simultaneously? There’s an improvement for that too! Want to store more resources? There’s– well, you get it. Some improvements even unlock new unique allies and structures, but I’ll let you discover those for yourself! 

Before you start planning improvements to everything and anything, I should probably tell you that the improvement hub has limited space, so you can only build a certain number of structures before it’s full. Make sure you choose wisely and try to figure out which improvement would work best with your strategy! While we’re on the subject...

Strategies 

Your strategy is exactly that... yours! Meaning I could give you advice, but it’s a lot better if you craft your own plan (plus, you don’t need any strategy tips from the person that's been trying to get the good lunch table for several months without success). As a Minecrafter, you already know that there are many solutions to the same problem. Whether you’re taking on a piglin base or defending a village, just keep in mind that there are many ways to tackle it. Some might be less effective than others, but they’re never “wrong” – they’re learning experiences.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pester the game devs about the intricacies of Banner View. The urge to micromanage those cute plank golems is too strong... While you wait for the release of Minecraft Legends, make sure you keep an eye on @legends_game and Minecraft.net for the latest news, pre-order info, downloadables, and other cool stuff!