Minecraft’s 1.21 update set to add game’s first new weapon in 5 years

The weapon roster in Minecraft has always been decently limited and rarely expanded upon. Since the arrival of the crossbow with the 1.14 update on April 23, 2019, fresh weapons have been completely nonexistent. As of March 14, though, Mojang plans to change this trend with a surprising addition.

Another melee weapon is finally being added to Minecraft in the 1.21 update, and it’s a powerful mace. This weapon requires you to take on the formidable Breeze mob found in trial chambers for a Breeze Rod and to obtain a heavy core block, so it’s not an easy one to craft but seems to be worth it for the immense power it provides.

The mace delivers brutal smashing damage based on how far you fall. This means the longer you fall, the more impactful your hits on opponents will be. And to make this weapon even more effective, all fall damage is completely negated as long as you successfully land your hit.

Currently, the only two official melee weapons in Minecraft are the axe and sword. The trident can also technically do melee damage, but it’s also a ranged tool you can throw. With just these three as options, combat is pretty limited, which makes the addition of the mace an exciting new combat option.

All other weapons in Minecraft come in an array of different materials so you can steadily work toward unlocking the most powerful Netherite version of them, but it’s currently unclear if the mace will have all the usual variants too. Since you need two fairly special items to craft it, it seems unlikely that you can make any variants of the mace like a diamond or iron one. The mace will probably be more similar in nature to the trident, which there is only one kind of.

Everything in the 1.21 update is designed to change crafting and combat forever, but up until this addition, the only real change to combat was the new trial chamber system. A new weapon to work with is massive and sure to shift the entire combat system moving forward.

Minecraft’s 1.21 update will include the mace, and although the release date for this update is currently unknown, it shouldn’t be too far off at this point. In the meantime, you can test out the mace for yourself in future Minecraft snapshots with the first one including the mace expected to drop either sometime today or sometime next week.