As the full moon rises on a cloudy sky, the fog dances at my feet, and on my way home in the dark, the cold wind whispers tales of monsters and ghouls in my ears, that’s when I know it’s finally here. Halloween, my dear, how I’ve missed you! 

Like every October, the map makers have treated us to a range of wonderful and scary maps. They are not always for the faint of heart, and you’ll need to decide who you can trust and who is out to get you. You never know what might be lurking in the dark… 

Oskar is currently lurking in the corner of the office, laughing a twisted little laugh to himself. “Heh… heh.. heh” is what it sounds like.  Earlier he watched me very intensely while I had my morning coffee, and later I found a scribble in this notebook that says “Phase 1: Complete. Phase 2: Ongoing. She has no idea”.  

He’s been acting weird all of October, and I fear he’s finally gone mad from all the pranks I’ve put him through, just to steal these blogposts away from him…  

I’m not sure. But I have a creeping suspicion that I’m about to find out. 

How do I play the new Java Realms maps?  

Boot up Minecraft on your device of choice, then find Minecraft Realms in the starting menu. Press the “Configure” button, then choose the “Reset World” option on the Realm slot you’re ok with overwriting (or use the “Minigame” slot for minigames). Now you can pick the map you want to play from the corresponding categories! 

A shroomy night

by Fasading

Map type: Adventure

One thing I can always count on with my grandma is that when I go visit, I don’t leave her house with an empty stomach. So, when Grandma invited me for mushroom soup and a sleepover, how could I say no? But after going to bed, I heard a commotion and when I got up to check, Grandma had gone missing.  

Walking through the dark forest to find her, I ran into mushroom-shaped monsters and had to activate my puzzle muscles before I finally found Grandma. However, she wasn’t alone… 

Oskar was the one who recommended this map to me. He said that I should “Stay there for as looong as I want” and laughed a little darker whenever I squealed at the jumpscares. I’m starting to wonder if that was part of his so-called “Phase 1”… 

Eclipse of Soul

by pigwa, eepyhana, InterWall, SmorOfficial

Map type: Adventure

In this dark adventure map, you and your friend play as the Eclipse Twins, chosen to restore the balance between day and night in a world swallowed by eternal darkness. Explore the frozen lands, solve puzzles and battle terrifying and powerful bosses, to bring back the light.  

Since this map needs 2 players, I asked Oskar if he would be my twin. That might have been a big mistake, and I’m pretty sure I ended up as bait for the mobs more than once, while he was calmly watching from a distance and whispered something along the lines of “The worst is yet to come”. 

He has been smiling ever since. 

The Masquerade

by Gamemode 4

Map type: Minigame

After all of that running from mobs, I needed something fun and social, so Oskar suggested that we and a few friends play this map together. 

In this social deduction game, players are split into two teams: The good and the Evil. Every player gets a role, with a special ability. The Good team needs to banish the Demon and his companions, whilst the Evil team wins by taking down the Good team. Collect clues around the mansion, call for trials and accuse your friends until one side wins.  

I was SO SURE I had figured it out, and Oskar agreed. We ran around the mansion, collected clues and called for trials, taking down every suspicious player we could find. But we still haven’t found the Demon and Oskar is starting to lose it. He laughs quietly from the corner. A quiet heh..heh…heh…. The same laugh from before… Oh no... I think Oskar is the–…

ALSO RELEASING TODAY
 

Inspiration

Crimson Eclipse

by Cold pals

Eerie Hills

by BlockTitans

Phantasmic Anomaly

by Totally Not A Build Team & TinkelMuffin_

Spooktacular Settlement

by Block by Block

Spooky Town

by ERROR 404

Adventure

The Am-Ba Hart

by Ctarron

Shadowbound Run

by CubicArchitects

Gourd Guard

by craftdiamonds, Sir_Reddev, CaelusZ

World Template

Jokla

by GroupMCB

UPDATES TO CURRENT MAPS 

Map names with major updates: 

Volley Charge: Reworked most events and added new Low Gravity and Ice events, plus some small tutorial fixes, a hopeful fix for mobs not spawning on Realms, a fix for the missing arena shrinking timer, and an update to 26.3. 

Songs of Greavesoyl: Added Narius and Faril, reworked Venorax and Cer, and gave most marksmen their own custom ranged attacks. Also added the new Howling Homestead map, updated the practice room, made a bunch of balance adjustments, and fixed several bugs.

Bug fixes: 

Beaconators, The Hauntpuzzled House, The Ancient Temple, Boom Brawl, Pizza Time!, Project Astro, Sumo Smackdown, Rhythm Break, Trident Blitz, Paradox Effect, Void Chains

Back on Realms: 

Puzzle Wars, Picture-It!, Against Iskerside, Anaglyph, Sandstorm

DARE TO PLAY? THIS IS HOW YOU START:

If you want to learn how to load this content into Java Realms, you can visit this help site. If you haven't yet tried Realms for yourself, you'll have a blue diamond on the Minecraft Realms button, located on the main screen called Minecraft: Java Edition. Click that diamond, then follow the instructions to try Realms free for 30 days. 

Want to have your own Minecraft creations featured on Java Realms and on Minecraft.net? Head over to the Java Realms Content Creator Program page. If you have questions about this process, you can find me at Bine Birk on X or Oskar Thysell on X. 

Phase 2 complete, and the blogpost is mine at last. Don’t worry, Sabine will be fine… Probably.

Happy Halloween from the Javas Creator Team – Oskar.