Minecraft adds game-changing new block, and you can try it now

18.10.2023 - 23:41 / pcgamesn.com / New / Minecraft / You Can

Minecraft continues to impress us long-time players more than a decade after its initial release with regular updates and fun new content. The recent Minecraft Live event showcased this year’s mob vote winner, the armadillo, and more of what we can expect out of version 1.21 when it rolls around. One of the most exciting features coming with Mojang’s big update is a new kind of block, the Crafter. It’s a game-changing block that enables auto-crafting with the use of redstone, and we can try it now.

If you’re active in the Minecraft community, then you probably know about snapshots. If you don’t know about them, they basically function as beta tests for Mojang’s sandbox game. You can test any upcoming features included within a snapshot and send feedback to the developers so that they can finalize any necessary changes prior to the full patch’s release. This gives you a chance to familiarize yourself with future builds, too.

The latest open test, snapshot 23w42a, is free for all Minecraft Java Edition players. Bedrock players can also access the test via the game’s beta or preview tool. The snapshot’s primary focus is the new Minecraft Crafter, a utility block powered by redstone. With the Crafter, you can automate your crafting. Hoppers and droppers can also access the block’s inventory, making for an easier crafting experience overall.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see the armadillo from the recent Minecraft mob vote in-game soon, too. For now, we can test the snapshot’s Crafter and check out the new block’s UI as well as how it interacts with other blocks. Mojang specifies that the team wants to “hear your feedback on the Crafter,” asking anyone with the snapshot to post their  Crafter-related thoughts to its dedicated thread.

For a full look at all of the changes with the new snapshot, check the official website. You can browse through the Crafter-specific highlights below. Mojang notes that snapshots “can corrupt your world,” and asks that you “please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds” if you choose to take part in the open test.

If you’re looking forward to exploring the recent snapshot test yourself, you can browse through some of our favorite Minecraft texture packs to make the world feel even more different. Alternatively, look around our roundup of great Minecraft mods to spice your base game up before the upcoming 1.21 patch arrives.