5 things to do before Minecraft 1.20 update releases

Minecraft's long-awaited 1.20 update may still be a little while away, but fans are certainly preparing for the content to come. From gathering resources to completing builds or simply just gathering some friends for the big day, players are preparing for everything that the Trails & Tales update has promised to bring. All that's left after getting ready is to wait for the day when Mojang releases the full update.

But since there still isn't a concrete release date for Minecraft 1.20, what should you do in your world to prepare for it? The simple answer is essentially anything you want, but there are certain gameplay features that you will be able to utilize quickly if you take the appropriate steps right now.

Players have plenty of ways to prepare for Minecraft's Trails & Tales update, but there are a few that stand out in particular.

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5 preparations to make before Minecraft 1.20's debut

1) Find or farm some Bamboo

Minecraft 1.20 is introducing two new wood types to the sandbox game in the form of bamboo wood as well as cherry tree wood. Bamboo planks, in particular, mark the first wood blocks that don't directly come from a tree block, and there are more than a few ways to collect bamboo in version 1.19 to prepare. You can find bamboo growing naturally in jungle biomes, especially bamboo jungle biomes, and you can also loot it by killing pandas.

However, if you feel bad about killing innocent pandas in Minecraft, you can also fish for bamboo in jungle biomes with a fishing rod or loot it in jungle temples or shipwreck structures. Be sure to stock up on enough bamboo to make plenty of the new wood variant, as it's sure to suit many different builds.

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2) Gather feathers, copper ingots, and sticks

After being postponed in Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update, archeology is finally making its way to the Trails & Tales update instead. In order to take full advantage of this new gameplay feature, you will need a brush or multiple brushes. These items can be crafted by combining a stick, a feather, and a copper ingot on a crafting table. Each of these materials can be gathered from different sources and even farmed in some circumstances.

How to collect brush crafting materials in Minecraft:

• Feathers - You can collect feathers by killing chickens and parrots, and the drop quantity is magnified if the mob is killed with a weapon using the Looting enchantment. Tamed cats award you with feathers on occasion when they wake up, and foxes can also sometimes carry feathers in their mouths. You can kill the foxes or give them some tasty food items to get them to drop the feathers. These items can also be looted in shipwrecks and villages.
• Copper Ingots - These ingots are obtained through two primary methods in Minecraft. You can either mine raw copper and smelt it in a furnace block to make ingots, or you can kill drowned zombies, which have an 11% chance to drop copper ingots upon death.
• Sticks - Fortunately, you can collect sticks incredibly easily. Simply cut down a few wood blocks from a nearby tree, convert them into planks in the crafting menu, then place two stacks of wood planks atop each other to create sticks. These items can also be made by stacking bamboo in a crafting menu, fishing them up as a junk item, breaking dead bushes and leaf blocks, killing witches, or looting them from villages.

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3) Find some warm ocean ruins

One of the most exciting new additions in Minecraft 1.20 is the release of the sniffer, an ancient mob that won 2022's Mob Vote by the player community. When the 1.20 update is released, sniffer eggs will be obtainable by brushing suspicious sand blocks within warm ocean ruin structures.

It isn't a bad idea to find one of these structures underneath the waves ahead of time so you can immediately travel to it and brush the suspicious sand blocks present. If you're lucky, you will be able to collect a sniffer egg from the sand and can then hatch it into a baby snifflet.

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4) Build a smithing table

Minecraft 1.20 brings plenty of revisions alongside new content, including a new set of functions for the smithing table block. This block will now be used to upgrade gear into netherite quality as well as create armor trims by utilizing new lootable items known as smithing templates. While the templates won't be available in various generated structures until 1.20 is released, you can get ready by building a smithing table.

Smithing tables are cheap blocks to build, simply requiring two iron ingots and four wooden planks of any type. Combine these resources in a crafting table, and you can have a table ready to implement armor trims and netherite upgrades in Trails & Tales.

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5) Snag a saddle and find a desert village

Although they likely won't be as popular as the sniffer, camels are also arriving in Minecraft 1.20. These mobs will spawn in desert village structures, so it's wise to seek one out and keep it in mind ahead of the 1.20 update. Furthermore, you will need a saddle to ride a camel efficiently, so picking one up ahead of time is advised. Since these items can't be crafted in vanilla Minecraft, you will need to find them elsewhere.

How to obtain a saddle in Minecraft:

• Looting chests within dungeons, ancient cities, bastion remnants, desert temples, End cities, jungle temples, Nether fortresses, strongholds, and villages.
• Fishing them up as a treasure item. It's advised to use the Luck of the Sea enchantment on a fishing rod if this method is used.
• Trading with a leatherworker villager that has reached the Master profession level for its job.
• Saddles can be dropped when players kill striders being ridden by zombified piglins and can also be looted by killing ravagers.

Once Minecraft fans have their saddle on hand, all they need to do is use it on a camel. The camel be fully-controllable while being ridden, and it won't roam away from the desert village that it spawned in either.