Armadillos, the grumpy pistachio nuts of the animal kingdom, have been added to Minecraft in a recent mob update. You can brush them to harvest “scutes”, the boney armour plating of the animal’s back, which you can then use to craft armour for pet wolves. Speaking of wolves, this update also sees an explosion in canine diversity, with eight varieties of the wolf now appearing across different biomes. Awoooooo!
About that armadillo first. “This shy critter prefers the heat of the savanna and badlands and will roll up if you approach it too swiftly or loudly,” say Mojang in an update post, deftly avoiding any implication that the animal will become in any way ball-like. You can’t tame the armadillo, they point out, even if you give the critter its favourite food which is, let me see… Aha. Spider eyes. Of course.
“Spiders and Cave Spiders will run away from Armadillos, and only if they are not in a rolled up state,” clarifies the detailed patch notes for update 1.20.80. Good to know where these guys stand in the ancient arachno-human conflict.
But what of the wolves? Their furry coats now come in a fanciful variety, including brooding black, husky white, stripey, rusty, spotted, and more. A pleasing spread for dog lovers. Each wolf subspecies will be found in its own particular biome. The snowy wolf (rarer than the others) will be found sauntering alone among the pines, perhaps longing to kill and eat Liam Neeson. The striped wolf will lurk in the badlands, probably far less invested in stuff like that.
They’re also having their health doubled (provided they are tame) and environmental damage now won’t hurt your furry friends quite so much. What else do these patch notes reveal? Ah! “Wolves’ tails are now correctly positioned when sitting.” Very important.
Minecraft’s ecology is looking healthy recently. The game has added a crab to mangrove swamps, the fluffy Breeze mob to underground chambers, and a quasi-extinct creature called “the Sniffer” whose preserved eggs you can find in underwater ruins. It’s like a mildly unsettling episode of Planet Earth.
