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Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot Feedback

This week we released a side snapshot for Java containing a work in progress version of the Deep Dark feature set, including the Deep Dark biome, Ancient City structures, Sculk blocks and...THE WARDEN!

As well as your general feedback, the team also prepared some questions that they would love to hear your thoughts on after playing:  

  • Was the Warden challenging? If so, what did you enjoy / not enjoy about your encounters with the Warden? 
  • Describe any encounters you had with the Warden - did they feel enjoyable? 
  • Were you able to figure out how to sneak around the Warden? 
  • Were you able to loot chests in the Ancient Cities without being killed by the Warden? 
  • Describe how the darkness effect felt 
  • In your encounters with the Warden, how scared did you feel?  

For more details on in this snapshot and how to access it, check out the blog post over on Minecraft.net.

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  • 0
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    It feels a bit odd to see the deep dark cave biome spawing above y0, I'll be interested to see what the final range is for it to spawn, and I'm sort of hoping it'll only occur naturally below y0, so that the "Deep" part of the title remains accurate.

  • 0
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    Ok, for 1,

    ALMOST EVERYTHING IS AMAZING I LOVE THIS SNAPSHOT!!

    However, the new enchantment, "Swift Sneak" is a little bit flawed.

    When running and then sneaking, the enchantment works very well.

    Still holding sneak, you can go backwards at a smaller amount.

    But when you try to go forwards again, it keeps the same speed as when you were going backwards.

    I have a feeling that's a bug...

    This was very annoying but overall that enchantment is great!

  • 0
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    Since everyone already pointed out how cheesable the warden is, as well as the lackluster loot in the ancient cities I'll focus on the deep dark biome itself.

    It is looking extremely lackluster compared to the other two cave biomes. There's literally zero atmosphere entering into one, barring the fact that it sometimes contains a structure (the ancient city)

    On its own it is just some very repetitve patches of deep dark blocks that add 0 feeling of you being in another biome, rather than the regular deepslate caves with some patches of some special blocks.

    I hope there will be some vines hanging out of the ceiling and much more corruption of everything surrounding the cave in order to make you feel like you're actually in a new biome and not just some random deepslate cave.

  • 0
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    Encountering the Warden was a truly terrifying experience, whenever it arrived to try and find me, I was really on edge trying not to make a single sound while getting away from it. But when it does find you being chased is like something out of a horror game, I think that's what the Warden does best. but personally the only things I didn't enjoy was how sometimes the Warden would get easily distracted by bats, or other mobs that are in its way like Zombies and Skeletons (Which shouldn't be spawning in the deep dark to begin with) I think the Warden's behavior should be tweaked a bit so that it ignores other mobs other than you.

    Sneaking around the Warden was very easy at times because like I have stated it gets distracted way too easily, that and it can get stuck in bodies of water and be completely immobile. I think that the warden should be able to easily move through bodies of water to get to you, because having a terrifying beast chase you and then get stuck just ruins the fear factor.

    Looting the End cities right now doesn't feel all that rewarding because most of the loot you get aside from enchanting books are really lackluster. I hope there are plans to add more unique loot to the ancient cities would give players more of a reason to go there other than just for harvesting sculk.

     

    Overall, I think the Warden is pretty scary, but there should be some adjustments to make it as scary as it can possibly be.

     

  • 0
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    I feel like it’s amazing besides the fact you can just tower,swim or block off the warden he should be more difficult. Than there’s the deep dark biome which I feel needs help as a whole like it’s cool and all but it’s just to patchy

  • 1
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    I had a lot of fun exploring the ancient city, however a lot of the fear is taken away when I know I can just outrun the warden if it is angered. I would love to see the warden given the ability to walk up single blocks, much like how horses or iron golems do, as running up a slope slows the warden down by quite a lot. As for its speed, if making it faster isn’t an option, perhaps the warden can lower a players hunger down to 3 haunches or maybe the darkness effect prevents a player from being able to sprint? Anything that would really drive in the “if I upset the warden I’m dead” vibe would make the encounter so much more scary

  • 1
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    I feel like sculk blocks generated way too high in the caves, this may be unintentional, but I just think encountering the Warden so close to the surface isn’t right.

  • 0
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    I was able to get the warden to spawn in an area too small for itself, and with its massive health you could just hear it getting hurt for as long as it takes to suffocate.
    And can confirm it is a LOT less scary when you can have a entirely empty inventory except for a bucket, and be fortunate enough to find lava coming down, stack up 4 wool blocks and have the entire challenge nerfed.

  • 0
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    the warden is easily distracted
    with the same sculk sensor blocks and doors you can create a loop in which the sound of the doors opening and closing thanks to the sensors, causes the warden to get distracted and let us "steal" it without further ado

  • 0
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    idea that the warden is more difficult to spawn: the warden can be spawned very easily on any surface, with just a screeching skulk for this reason I propose that the warden can be spawned in at least a 5x5 wide sculk area and long and 3 blocks high, this way there will be no visual bugs and it would make more sense, the same would happen with his despawn in which he needs sculk to hide, and in case of not finding "melt" and replace blocks natural in sculk blocks and if there are no natural blocks fill with sculk vines

  • 0
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     There should definitely be more of a motivation to go down into the deep dark and I hope that when it was stated that unique loot would be added the only loot there was swift sneak. Sure you can find potions and a bunch of other really good late game enchantments but I feel like if you're going into the deep dark then you will have those things anyway unless its for some sort of challenge or you're just crazy you're going in there stacked with netherite and enchantments and other gear while of course knowing that you will get 2 shot which isn't worth it at the moment in my opinion. So yeah mostly just add more of an incentive to go down. You've pretty much nailed everything else in my opinion.

  • 0
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    I know, this is an experimental snapshot. I really hope that the screen of reinforcement deepslate would be funcshionabe. Darkness effect on Java edition. I think it is better, than on bedrock. Your visible area becomes smaller one and the light is starting pulsating. On bedrock it is only pulsating. The strange thing about warden is about shreeker can scream only once and summon the warden. Somewhere I have heard that warden will have something related with End dimension. I extremely excited about full warden's version.

  • 0
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    -add more loot or another incentive other than sculk to visit and endanger your life
    -make the warden climb blocas ir something that doesnt let the player tower up and wait
    -make the deep dark biome a little bigger so mobs dont appear near the ancient city and distract the warden

    The rest is fine :)
    Sorry for bad english im From argentina

  • 0
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    I personally think the warden could get a roar attack like the ravager, would help to knock players off their pillars, and giving him some sort of ranged scteam attack could also help.

  • 1
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    I hope that the warden is immune to fire and immune to enchantments to make it more difficult to beat, also that he can attack players who are above him with a projectile or something

  • 0
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    I absolutely adore the atmosphere of the ancient cities and the feeling I get when avoiding the warden. Even once I'd learned the mechanics, I was still very on edge while sneaking around, mostly thanks to the sound design and the darkness effect, which made me quite paranoid that I would step on a wrong block or just run into a wall and not be able to continue escaping. It felt like my vision going dark because of adrenaline, which is very fitting! I was able to loot chests, but I don't currently feel as if the loot is worth the danger -- I would go there in survival just for the experience of being scared, rather than any practical reward.  My biggest problem is that the warden is easily defeated by pillaring up a few blocks. If it could break blocks only when it's at the peak of its possible anger, burrow through blocks while angry, climb, or shoot projectiles, this could be easily mitigated. Lava and deep water also completely invalidate it, since it can't swim.

  • 0
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    i really enjoyed this snapshot, although i do have one complaint. i think the deep dark should have more to it. it is currently just a plain cave with some patches of skulk lying around and sometimes there will be a city. i think if there was more to the biome to make it stand out more and maybe look more creepy it could heavily impact the feel of the atmosphere when playing. i just think that the basic cave with patches of skulk is quite boring and could be expanded upon.

  • 2
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    The snapshot was really good but there were 2 problems:
    1. When it started chasing me it got stuck in the stalagmites, and from there I could easily hit it and I kill it. It would be cool to have a feature like when it's stuck in stalagmites it could literally break them and then attack the player (that would be terrifying!)
    2. It also got stuck in a small 2 block wide puddle of water and from there I could easily kill it. The warden simply couldn't get out so please fix this bug.

  • 1
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    It's a sad that the players stacking blocks and killed warden easily.

    1. How about setting the heatbox of the warden only to the heart of the warden?

    - I think it's a good way because people attack Warden's head after stacking blocks. However, there may be variables. (etc. attack warden after falling to the point where it can reach warden.)

    2. How about the warden can break a block when warden notice the enemy and rush into enemy?

    3. And Warden's arms are as long as Iron Golem, so I think it's better to increase the range of attacks.

    4. And a city of deep darkness should be made more complex like a fortress.

  • 1
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    Howdy mojang team, first of all I absolutely love the warden so much I wish I could give it a hug, I too think that the warden needs a way to deal with a player who builds up or uses lava to kill it, issue: Sometimes the warden going back into the ground animation doesn't work and the warden stands there and disappears i know its a experimental snapshot so hopefully is fixed by the time of offical snapshots, as for the biome I saw an image where somebody had bone blocks reaching to the ceiling of the cave and I think that would add to the atmosphere of the deep dark also can't wait to see the reinforced deepslate block could do I hope we can add a cool feature to it because its a cool block That should something incredible. That's all for now

  • 0
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    I played a bit in survival in an Ancient City, and I Spawned in the Warden a few times. The darkness effect, sound design definitely made me on edge, and the expectation of the Warden kept me cautious. It was also pretty scary with how the darkness effect hid the Warden, so it was very difficult to see. However, it was not difficult to avoid the Warden, and the wool walkways made it ridiculously to keep safe from the Warden. As soon as I realized this, I was able to kill the Warden with just my sword (since I was on the walkway and it was not) and I could get in the Warden's face and swing at it with my sword. As for the amount of time it takes for the Warden to leave, it was too short. I was able to distract it, stay still for a bit, and the Warden left. Also the second Warden that was spawned in spawned in a 2 block high area and suffocated to death. Overall the Warden needs a much longer reach, it needs to stick around much longer, and it needs a better detection of where it can spawn. The scariness was quite effective and even after I knew how easy it was to kill the Warden, I was still scared by the Warden emerging.

  • 0
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    I've found the Warden to be an easy encounter overall. Even when I don't stack up or dig into walls to avoid it, it's still easy to avoid by sneaking away when it's digging out of the ground. Drastically increasing its vibration detection and sniffing range could help out with this, as it currently feels like a localized threat that can't do much outside of where it spawned if you're able to get away. I often had to help the Warden get to me in order to experience it fully, and when I did, the experience was amazing. It's absolutely terrifying if you set rules for yourself to improve the experience

    Another major issue I noticed is with the Sculk Shrieker. If you break it before it finishes screaming, it won't increase the Warden's spawn tracker. I was able to parade about an entire ancient ancient city without summoning the Warden once, making tons of noise most of the time, just by breaking the shriekers before they finished screaming. Making the shrieker increase the spawn tracker at the start of the scream could be a good fix

    Lastly, the Deep Dark biome outside of the Ancient Cities feels extremely bare and uninteresting. Even just making sculk spawn in the roof could make it feel like a much richer. The Deep Dark also usually generates in very small patches, and is almost always surrounded by dripstone caves. I like that the Deep Dark needs high continentalness to spawn, but toning that down might help with some variety in and around the biome

  • 0
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    The Warden itself is very difficult to fight, and almost always a death sentence when attempting to fight it. It also has a very cool summoning in, and despawning animation. The design and sounds of the Warden are also absolutely great. That being said, there are many ways to cheese the Warden:

    1. The Warden can sometimes be spawned in a place shorter then three block, immoblizing and suffocating it.

    2. The Warden (like most other mobs) cannot pathfind over or around azaleas, making it easy to kill.

    3. The Warden can be killed with lava.

    4. The Warden cannot get out a one-block deep water pool, making it easy to kill.

    5. The Punch bow enchantment knocks back the Warden enough for the Warden to never be able to reach the player.

    6. The player can hide under a gap less than three blocks tall and easily kill the Warden.

    7. The player can pillar up and easily kill the Warden.

    8. The player can break a sculk shrieker before it finishes its shriek, stopping the Warden from spawning.

    Excluding these issues, the Warden is definitely a challenge. It being able to one-shot me through unenchanted netherite armor was definitely a surprise to be sure (since I did not expect such a large buff from its initial prototype footage), but a welcomed one. It was also a good choice to make the Warden be able to sniff the player out, making the player actively have to avoid the Warden. The stealth aspect of the Warden encounter is pretty well-done.

     

  • 0
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    I think some of the wardens animations seem unfinished, I’m assuming more will be added but it’s very easy to avoid him and cheese him, I also think the loot in ancient cities is underwhelming, I see there’s swift sneak but, I don’t really see anyone saying oh wow swift sneak! Time to risk everything to get it ! I think personally there should be more special loot or atleast a purpose of me wanting to go down there and face the warden. Without that I’d fear the deep dark would just feel unfinished

  • 1
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    In order for the experience of the Warden to be great using RTX two features would best be added:

    Entity PBR support - Having the ability to make the Warden's beating heart and other portions use per pixel emissives would significantly enhance the experience, creating situations where the flashing light of the Warden serves as a warning for how near it is to the player as well as adding to the ambience of an encounter with it.

    Darkness Effect - Currently with Ray Tracing turned on the darkness effect simply does not function. There may be a way to get it working in a way that very closely matches the effect used without ray tracing though. I'd suggest using same distance based fog as the blindness effect normally uses with RTX (although the bug with distance fog only using the skybox colours instead of the defined colours would have to be fixed to implement this properly), and to mimic the behaviours of the darkness creeping upon the light levels of emissive blocks, the irradiance cache data could be temporarily flushed. This would result in the secondary bounce GI disappearing temporarily, which would make the distance that PBR emissive light travels become very small in that time period.

    Through RTX the Warden has the potential to be one of the most visually impressive encounters in any video game, and I would absolutely love to see these features implemented!

  • 6
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    The warden fight can be very easy because you can pillar up 4 blocks and it cant hit you

  • 1
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    Warden - Over difficult for mid to high tier gear with full enchants. (Iron / Diamond armor / weapons), a little less HP would even this up a bit more. Games aren't as fun when mobs are "bullet sponges". Combat with this tanky beast should be frightening as it is but not drawn out too long or to the point exploiting mechanics is necessary for a victory.  
     -Optional: Give the warden a Pull Player to it ability (with  a 60 second cooldown or the like) so that height-exploiting is less viable from 8 to 12 blocks away, provided it has line of sight. 

    -Warden's spawn and the sound of the heart beat is pretty intense and spooky. Change nothing about it. (Warden's volume level could stand to be reduced just a tad? Was loud even with my volume down a ways (45% master) 
     -Warden's Spawn needs to make sure it isn't spawning into a wall or 1 block gaps from floor/ceiling. Saw this frequently when testing, and it does not unstuck-itself. Random spawn should check local block clusters for clearance. (like Endermen for example)

    -Wardens chasing bats was a surprise and a neat detail. Would be cool if Bats or another mob were their mortal enemy some how?

  • 0
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    Scary music should play when we encounter Ancient City structures. More sculk should spawn in the Ancient City because I ran around the city with little to no problem. 

  • 17
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    Deep Dark: 
    Feels super whelming and kinda boring. Not much happens and it just needs way more to it to feel more intresting. I feel like the Deep Dark needs the most work overall, it just feel boring, empty, easy, and not scary like you intend. With no mobs spawn, all you have are small patches of skulk that are pretty easy to avoid. Just please add more to the Deep Dark. Prehaps a Sulk trap mob or a turret based skulk enemy. 
    Warden: I will hold off judgement until hes less cheeseable but currently hes...way too easy. 

    Anciet Cities: Need speical loot. 

  • 0
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    (Part 1) Here are my thoughts on the Warden so far:

    1. The Warden in its current state is not challenging at all to evade or defeat as there are way too many ways to cheese/avoid it:
    -Three or even four block towers allow you to attack it with impunity.
    -Digging down two blocks similarly places you in a position from where you can attack with impunity. There was one time that I did this when the Warden actually managed to fall into the hole and get me, but every other time it was stuck spinning around above me. Similarly, one could bore down three blocks and cap off the top to be instantly out of any possible reach, then tunnel out of range of the sensors. 
    -Two block high passages are impassable to the Warden, allowing for easy barricading of its path to the player
    -The scream and dig-out sequence gives you plenty of time to safely undertake noisy maneuvers, like the ones listed above as well as sprinting a healthy distance away, before the Warden actually starts responding to anything.
    -Liquids render the Warden pretty helpless, especially lava
    -The presence of a few mobs completely neutralizes the Warden. The constant noises just make it path around aimlessly as it starts investigating a new noise before it gets to the last one. It ends up actually attacking anything only about once a minute at best. Meanwhile you can run, place blocks, do pretty much whatever. As long as you keep moving and don't walk right into it, the Warden won't even notice you. (Continued)