Minecraft’s new Snapshot makes the Warden more powerful

A new snapshot for the Java version of Minecraft has been released and introduced a mighty new ability for the fearsome upcoming Warden boss. Snapshot 22W15A is a response to players who felt the Warden was easy to escape and the new ability added for the Warden specifically combats this.

Players who tested the previous Minecraft snapshots found that if they towered up away from the Warden there was nothing the creature could do to reach or attack them. This made escaping the Warden rather easy as long as you had a few blocks and some patience since the Warden would previously eventually give up and retreat back into the ground giving players a chance to sneak away.

Now, the Warden has a mighty ranged sonic boom attack that activates when players attempt to hide behind walls or tower up. Whenever players perform these actions or become otherwise out of range for the Warden’s melee attack, the beast will switch to its formidable ranged attack that can penetrate through walls.

Having a shield is essential while facing the Warden. However, while a shield can block one wave of the Warden’s sonic boom, the attack disables shields which means after one hit players will be left temporarily defenseless.

Taking on the Warden is now nearly impossible even whilst wearing full enchanted Netherite armor and using enchanted Netherite tools because the creature is relentless and incredibly powerful. Ultimately, when facing the Warden players’ best hope for survival is to try to sneak away from the powerful creature.

A complete list of the features showcased, changes made, and bugs fixed in the 22W15A snapshot is available below, courtesy of Mojang.

New Features in 22W15A

• Added advancement “When the Squad Hops into Town” for getting each Frog variant on a Lead
• Added advancement “Sneak 100” for sneaking near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it hearing you
• Added a new ranged attack to the Warden

Warden ranged attack

• Building up high, hiding behind walls or being out of range of their powerful melee attack will cause Wardens to switch to their ranged attack
  • Their rib cages will open up to shriek a sonically charged ranged attack that can penetrate walls

Changes in 22W15A

• Added Darkness effect to “How Did We Get Here?” advancement
• Allays have a natural health regen of 2 health per second
• The main menu background now shows a Wild Update panorama
• Mud generates all the way from the surface down to stone in Mangrove Swamps
• Tall Mangroves are far more common than Short Mangroves in Mangrove Swamps
• Moss Carpet generates on top of Mangrove Tree’s roots
• The Wandering Trader will now sometimes offer Propagules for sale
• A previous change to Noteblocks that only Wool and Wool Carpets would block the sounds has been reverted
• Wardens can now sniff you from further away
• The vertical range Wardens get angry at a target while sniffing is now 20 blocks instead of 6 blocks

Changes to Vibrations

• Carpets, like Wool blocks, will now dampen the vibrations caused by their placing, breaking or dropping as items
• Carpets now also dampen the vibrations caused by running and jumping over them

Technical changes in 22W15A

• Removed item_delivered_to_player advancement trigger
• Added thrown_item_picked_up_by_player advancement trigger
• Added avoid_vibration advancement trigger
• Added sonic_explosion particle

Advancements

New triggers

THROWN_ITEM_PICKED_UP_BY_PLAYER

• Triggered when a player picks up an item that was thrown by an entity
• Conditions:
  • player – a predicate for the player picking up the item
  • entity – a predicate for the entity that threw the item
  • item – a predicate for the item

AVOID_VIBRATION

• Triggered when a vibration event is ignored because the source player is holding the sneak key
• Conditions:
  • player – a player for which this trigger runs

Game events

• Renamed game event tag ignore_vibrations_on_occluding_block to dampenable_vibrations
• Added block tag dampens_vibrations to indicate blocks that will not trigger vibrations when placed, broken, or stepped on
• Renamed item tag occludes_vibration_signals to dampens_vibrations item tag as well

Fixed bugs in 22W15A

• MC-36783 – Item frames/Glow item frames don’t change their hitbox if they contain a map
• MC-147686 – Joining a world that uses custom resources shows default resources until fully loaded
• MC-183520 – Phantoms with NoAI can go through blocks
• MC-212610 – Glow lichens cannot be put on soul sand
• MC-212629 – Leashes from two or more invisible entities connect to each other
• MC-216567 – Vines cannot be placed on the sides of 8 layers of snow
• MC-216569 – Glow lichen cannot be placed on the side of 8 layers of snow
• MC-219642 – Vines cannot be placed on the sides of soul sand
• MC-231458 – The word “ingot” within the “Serious Dedication” advancement description is improperly capitalized
• MC-235035 – Sleeping in a custom dimension with “natural” set to false causes crash
• MC-237924 – The word “villager” within the “Star Trader” advancement description is improperly capitalized
• MC-249072 – Sculk shriekers replace water blocks
• MC-249087 – The inside texture of mangrove roots darkens when solid blocks are placed adjacent to them
• MC-249094 – Unexpected culling of inner sculk shrieker faces
• MC-249111 – sculk_charge cannot be used in /particle command
• MC-249208 – Vines, glow lichens, and sculk veins cannot be placed on the side or top faces of mud
• MC-249315 – Mangrove Roots cannot be composted
• MC-249347 – Map color for mangrove sign and mangrove wall sign is incorrect
• MC-249423 – You can’t open the boat with chests without a shift, even when you can’t get into the boat
• MC-249445 – Activated sculk shriekers fail to summon the warden when broken
• MC-249488 – Darkness pulsing option is not saved
• MC-249495 – Inconsistent shading in boat item sprites
• MC-249664 – Warden despawns when far away
• MC-249688 – Mangrove stairs come after nether wood stairs in the Building Blocks tab
• MC-249737 – Allay can be pushed around with {NoAI:1b}
• MC-249741 – New advancement names are not properly capitalized
• MC-249785 – Warden can be pushed when emerging and digging
• MC-249917 – Mangrove trees don’t replace certain blocks with roots
• MC-249923 – Recovery compass isn’t sorted with regular compass in creative inventory
• MC-249927 – You can use a Recovery Compass on a Lodestone
• MC-249931 – Growing a Mangrove Tree with bone meal creates a ghost block
• MC-249933 – Game crash related to the frog occurred (Accessing LegacyRandomSource from multiple threads)
• MC-249934 – Mangrove roots sometimes don’t generate waterlogged when generating within water
• MC-249936 – Cave carvers don’t cut through mud
• MC-249938 – Mangrove Leaves do not drop from Silk Touch tools
• MC-249942 – Water got removed after waterlogged Mangrove Propagule grows
• MC-249947 – Top of Sculk Shrieker model is vertically squished
• MC-249966 – Warden can forget a target it just roared at
• MC-249968 – Powering a beacon disconnects player from server
• MC-249977 – Harsh chunk borders appear when upgrading a 1.18.2 world
• MC-249979 – Chance to have mangrove roots not waterlogged when growing from a sapling while underwater
• MC-249980 – The Birthday Song advancement description is incorrectly capitalized
• MC-249984 – note_block is inconsistently spelled as noteblock in the allay_deliver_cake_to_noteblock advancement
• MC-250017 – UUID launch argument required
• MC-250025 – The “You Got a Friend in Me” advancement is incorrectly presented in the past tense
• MC-250099 – Mangrove Log and Mangrove Planks don’t spawn in bonus chest
• MC-250101 – Can’t plant sugar cane on mud
• MC-250103 – Can’t plant bamboo on mud
• MC-250104 – Can’t plant big dripleaf on mud
• MC-250106 – Overworld vegetation cannot be placed on muddy mangrove roots