The rewards of Tricky Trials

The mace is a weapon that allows you to deliver smashing attacks to mobs if you can time your attack perfectly with your fall. Falling from a height is a big risk in Minecraft (unless you have a water bucket!) but if you nail the timing, you can also come away with a big reward: some serious smash damage! 

This interplay of risk and reward is actually why the mace doesn’t pair with elytra, and Ulraf explains why: “If you don’t land your attack with the mace, you take fall damage – and you can even die. Being able to couple the mace with elytra would have removed that risk, which is why we decided that you shouldn’t be able to glide down onto mobs. Elytras are still great for getting up to a high point, but then you have to remove your wings before you use the mace. You have to take the fall risk in order to reap the rewards!” 

With said risk (and reward) in mind, of course everyone (including myself!) immediately started leaping from heights onto unsuspecting hostile mobs to test its crushingly-fun prowess. Yippee! In fact, so many experiments were carried out in the name of “science” that I’ve had to start The Warden Protection Society for the Protection of Wardens. Catchy, right? This isn’t just because I love these grumpy-yet-somehow-cute mobs that joined Minecraft as part of the Wild Update (I hate noise, too!) but because they became the subject of a lot of mace attacks during the testing phase… 

“Everyone was talking about one-shotting the stronger mobs,” says Ulraf. “And I thought it was so interesting – because the scenarios in which you can one-shot them were always very specific and unlikely to actually happen in Minecraft. Yes, you could oneshot a warden [with a mace] if you can get it on the surface and lock it in a cage, but that takes a lot of planning. And of course there are easier ways to defeat a warden.” 

As the self-proclaimed President of the Warden Protection Society for the Protection of Wardens, I didn’t ask Ulraf what mysterious warden-repellent method he meant, and immediately stopped the interview. 

Kidding! I asked him an even harder question instead, which leads to my next point:

2. You shouldn’t have to pick a favorite mace enhancement 

Did you know that the mace has three unique enchantments that each bolster its abilities in different ways? Density deals more damage when dropping down upon your enemies, Wind Burst gives you a chance to chain your smash attacks, and Breach allows you to pierce your foes' armor! Each of these enchantment has a specific purpose, and lends itself to a specific playstyle, which is why Ulraf wasn’t the happiest when I asked him which enchantment he’d pick if he could only have one. Forever. 

“That’s tough,” says Ulraf, “because it’s not like one enchantment is better than the others. When we create features, we try to think of lots of different play styles, and how those players might use it. So they’re all strong depending on how you play. If you play PvP (player versus player) for example, then you might like the Breach enchantment, as you can get through so much of the armor with Breach. Whereas Density might be best if you tend to play PvE (player versus environment), to do more damage to the mobs in your vicinity. Me, personally? I don’t care about being the strongest. I care about how fun it is to bounce around with Wind Burst. I like jumping between mobs – I don't even wanna fight. I just want to jump around the battlefield, and add to the chaos.” 

This is a sentiment that fellow developer Cory Scheviak shares, as when I asked him if he would choose the wind charge over every single weapon in the game, his answer lead me to our third and final point: 

3. You shouldn’t ignore the wind charge’s bouncing possibilities

The wind charge is an item dropped by defeated breezes that lets you harness some of their wind-tastic power. Using a wind charge, you can leap even higher or deal some of the breeze’s gusting knockback damage to your foes. Which is why Cory actually doesn’t mind the idea of being tied to the wind charge until the end of days: 

“I think I would rather be trapped with an item that allows me to bounce around and have fun, and also blow mobs away, than one that is only good at inflicting damage!” 

In fact, the inspiration for turning the wind charge into an item the player can wield was partly because of how fun it would be. “Once we decided we wanted to add a ranged attack to the breeze, we did some thinking about what that ranged attack could be. We quickly realized how fun it would be for the breeze to be able to interact with the world – like trapdoors and levers – from a distance. Our original intention with the wind charge was for the breeze to be able to activate traps, but we quickly realized that it was also super fun for players to bounce themselves around, rocket-jump style!” 

In fact, Cory is planning on redesigning his base to make it only accessible via a few carefully-placed wind-charged leaps. “It’s going to be a jump-step course surrounded by a moat to keep mobs out. So it’ll require people to parkour to get into my base!” 

Which means this is the last time we’ll see each other Cory, because parkour has never been my Minecraft strong suit. No, 100% of my gameplay will now be focussed on creating a safe haven for wardens. By this, I mean carefully and deliberately avoiding the deep dark, so they can nap in peace! 

Have you played with the mace or the wind charge yet? Jump into the Tricky Trials Update today and experience them for yourselves!