With Minecraft 1.9 on the way, I thought I’d give you guys a peek of whats in store. Keep in mind, the following things could be changed (nerfed, buffed or even removed) before official 1.9 is released. All these things are in snapshot 15w43b.

First of all, 1.9 is a combat update, but something I’m super excited about, stronghold cap limit has now increased to 128. Which means there can be up to 128 end portals. (which is most important in multiplayer) Often times, the strongholds are taken right after world resets, so you can’t have one to yourself, but now you can!

The next big thing I want to talk about is boats. Boats don’t sound like they do a whole lot, but in 1.9 (or at least the snapshots) you have oars to row yourself with. So if you want to forward you hold in A and D, if you want to turn, you press one or the other.

While playing on this snapshot, I found out you can put mobs in the boat. Up to 2. I also found out, you can ride in the boat with up to 1 other mob. So you can boat around with your pets! This could very well be a glitch of some kind, that could be removed before the official release of 1.9. I have not tested this in multiplayer yet. Maybe you could have 2 players in one boat?

Now we get into some of the combat aspects. First, we have 14 new arrows, they are all just a arrow combined with a potion. (totaling 15 arrows) We also got lingering potions, which when splashed , leaves that potion effect in that area. When you walk through that area, you get that potion effect.

Now for the biggest and best part of Minecraft 1.9. Shields. Now I know a lot of you already knew about this. I knew about it for a while now, I just thought it would make combat worse. But having tried it today, I feel like this could make combat EPIC. When your blocking, any damage coming from that side doesn’t effect you.

Wanna know what I would really love to see? Adding pikes into the game and better horse mechanics. (That lag less) Then we might see battles as they might have happened hundreds of years ago. (with each unit having a unit that it counters) There is so much more in 1.9 ranging from Igloos to islands in the end. But that, is for another time.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article.

Justin (IGN: Antares330)