Sniffer coming to Minecraft 1.20

The winner of the Minecraft Live 2022 Mob Vote is making its debut in Minecraft 1.20! The sniffer is an ancient mob that was extinct… until now! Well, if you decide to help it thrive, that is. To bring the sniffer back to Minecraft, you will need to find its eggs and help them hatch, which you can try out for the first time in a Bedrock beta and preview and Java snapshot that will be coming soon! 

In the earliest snapshots, betas, and previews you will be able find the sniffer in Creative Mode without all its functions, for example finding and hatching the egg. But don't worry, the sniffer that will join Minecraft 1.20 is going to have all the functionality that you voted for during Minecraft Live 2022! As always, we would love for you to send us your feedback, so we can continue working on it and make it the best sniffer it can be. You can send us all your thoughts to our dedicated Minecraft 1.20 feedback site and report any bugs you find at bugs.mojang.com.

When getting to know the final form of the sniffer, the first step is to ready yourself for an adventure. You’re going to have to set out into the Overworld and start searching. Sniffer eggs can be found in suspicious sand, which also contains other objects like pottery shards. Once you’ve unearthed your egg, it’s time to help it hatch! I implore you to pay close attention to this part of the process, because you have not lived until you have seen a snifflet burst out of its shell. 

When your snifflet is born and you’ve stopped cooing over how cute it is, it will grow up into a sniffer. This mob is not only huge, but also helpful. Being a bit of a botanist, it will sniff out seeds that used to exist when they first roamed the Overworld! You can plant them to fill your game with the new unique decorative plants.

Which mob did you vote for in last year’s Minecraft Live? In case you’ve never seen the show or need a refresher, Minecraft Live is our annual epic livestream where we invite our amazing community to share in our excitement for our games, hear the newest news, and vote for a new mob! Last year, the sniffer faced off against the tuff golem and the rascal. I tried to vote for all three but was informed that this was not only against the rules, but would also make all three votes void. 

Don’t worry, this has not discouraged me from trying again in the next vote. What it has done, however, is encourage me to bring the runners up to life through the ancient art of fan fiction. And now that I’ve found this secret library, I have gone ahead and shelved my self-published tomes “Sniffering Heights”, “Lord of the Rascals”, and “The Taming of the Tuff Golem”. Do your Minecraft tales also end up as short stories? Maybe you’re more of an illustrator, or a sculptor? Or perhaps your stories stay within the game, waiting for you to play another page! The world will never have enough Minecraft stories and I want to thank you for creating your own, whatever shape it may take.

Whether or not you voted for this gentle giant, you can still enjoy the excitement of the vote on our YouTube channel! Keep your eyes peeled, we’re not quite done revealing the features that are going to be included in Minecraft 1.20. And if you’ve never tried out a beta, preview or snapshot, the best way to prepare for the sniffer joining Minecraft is to brush up on how to install them on your preferred platform!