New on Realms: Cubes, crosses and cruisers

This week in Java Realms we’ve got three thrilling new maps for you to tackle: a crafting challenge, a modern twist on a classic board game, and a fleet of high-flying ships to explore. It’s a short and quick release this time around, so let’s hop right in!

The Crafting Cube

by Vertex Creations

The Crafting Cube is a Minecrafter’s Minecraft map! It doesn’t test your skill in blasting aliens, moving pieces around a board, or even jumping between blocks that hover over the void; this is a pure test of Minecraft knowledge. Players are given a recipe, then asked to craft that item. Easy! But that dispenser contains redstone, and I can’t mine that with my wooden pick. Iron will work, but first I need a furnace, and a crafting table before that! If you’ve internalized the quickest way to obtain an item by climbing the Minecraft tech tree, you’re going to have a sizable advantage.

TIX.TAX

by Wector11211

Tic Tac Toe, or Noughts and Crosses, is a game that many of us played as children. Since it’s a “solved” game, where perfect play is well-known and results in a draw every time, it’s not a popular game at board gaming nights. But what if you made a 3x3 board of 3x3 boards, and your piece placement determined where your opponent would play next? Thinking a step ahead is easy, but thinking multiple steps ahead while trying not to give your opponent an easy win is much more challenging!

NM Corporation

by Spark Universe

Cheat Code Central

In a bygone era, when gaming magazines ruled the world, gamers would eagerly flip to the back to find the latest cheat codes for their favorite games. Some gave extra lives, some enabled bonus levels; generally, these were pretty fun to mess around with.

Since our team works so much with custom mapmaking, we thought it’d be fun to drop in our own version of a “cheat code” in Minecraft: Java Edition. All you have to do is ensure cheats are on in singleplayer, you're using the latest snapshot (and you probably want to be in creative mode, so it doesn't kill you), then toss this command into the chat:

/summon minecraft:illager_beast ~ ~ ~ {Passengers:[{id:"minecraft:illusioner",Passengers:[{id:"minecraft:guardian",ActiveEffects:[{Id:14b,Amplifier:1b,Duration:5000,ShowParticles:0b}]}]}]}

What exactly does this mess of text do? If you know something of commands, you can read through and get most of it. The game summons the new illager beast at your position, which is ridden by the currently-unused illusioner, which is being ridden by an invisible guardian. When combined, it looks like the illusioner is riding the beast, shooting lasers at you. Nifty!