Meet the Strider

The Strider serves as the Nether’s very own ferry service. To get across huge bodies of lava, the player can effectively turn a wild Strider into a mount by using a similar method to riding a pig in the Overworld. Personally, I don’t mind the occasional, three-hour bridge-building sessions, nor the misclicks that cause me to plummet right into 2000 degrees hot liquid baths, but the Strider sure makes lava life a lot easier. All you need is a saddle and a warped fungus on a stick, then giddyup – you have yourself a mount!

A ride on a Strider can be a shaky experience. Not just because of your own palpable fear of falling into lava and losing all your belongings, but because of the Strider’s moveset. When it walks, it wobbles back and forth, like that bobblehead in your parent’s car you simply can’t stop poking. Extremely charming, but also a complete accident if you ask Brandon.

“Animations in Java’s version of Minecraft aren’t done with an external tool. Instead, it’s basically math functions that make them move in a certain way. At one point, I was playing around with this, and the Strider just did this sort of wobble from side to side. It felt quirky and fun, especially in combination with the Strider’s… unique appearance. It just made it look so lovable!”

Parking your Strider mount can be quite a hassle. Not because of the Nether’s terrible Sunday traffic or shortage of parking lots in bastion remnants, but because of its relation to anything but lava. A Strider that leaves its boiling bath for a walk on land will soon turn purple and start shivering.

Really? A mob that spends most of its time in a burning ocean will freeze on land? Don’t worry Strider, I’ll knit you a nice warm sweater for the winter holidays! The freezing mechanic wasn’t Brandon’s first idea though, but probably the best given his earlier drafts:

“In one of my first versions their legs would just retract in and they would bounce around and take damage until they died, which was kind of sad,” he admits. “Now people create lava pools just so they can keep Striders warm. There’s nothing that forces players to do that from a mechanics perspective – but they still feel compelled to because they’re so immersed in the world and want to be nice to these creatures. That’s so interesting from a design perspective and I hope we’ll be able to carry that into future features down the line.”

Freezing on land, ferrying players across lava lakes… It's obvious to me that we don’t deserve this pure little beast. If you’re curious to learn more about how the Nether Update came to be, or hear more about intricate insights from its development, check out our latest developer diary. Now, speaking of beasts, I’m off to borrow some ancient debris from Bob’s “hidden” chest.