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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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  • 1
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    A few thoughts on the deep dark/skulk

    I feel that skulk patches should only spawn below Y=0 in the deepslate area or even below Y=15. Being above deepslate makes it seem out of place and too common to find.

    The deep dark city loot needs to be better, and have more exclusive things along with the new swift sneak enchantment to give incentive to go down there. Some items that would work well is the “Otherside” disc, enchanted golden apples and other exclusive items.

    I feel like swift sneak should pair with depth strider, like how soul speed can, but be incompatible with soul speed and frostwalker. Depth strider is a really good enchantment and I feel like most players wont want to switch out that enchantment for anything.

  • 0
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    Here is an idea to stop warden cheesing:

    The warden can jump attack, jumping himself up a few blocks to attack people above him. The warden can also kick, kicking you if you hide in a hole.

    Also, I think the warden should do heaps of knockback with each attack it does, considering how powerful it must be to kill you in 2 hits while in netherite.

  • 0
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    warden feels insanely hard to defeat when done the intended way but just pillaging up and killing it seems very easy , i would recommend something like spiders that warden climb pillars or have a very long reach idk, just stopping the people pillaging up and crit ting them out

  • 0
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    please make the ancient city loot worth it, not on the level of end cities but like bastions(better than bastions probably) like we can find raw gold as well as raw iron on chest and even diamonds , maybe used tools and armour of diamond or something 

  • 0
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    bags are way too common in the deep dark so the warden focuses the bats rather than the player , i feel like can you make it that no bats spawn in the deep dark biome and helps not distract the warden , bats don’t really add anything to the deep dark so i think that’s fair

     

  • 0
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    For me the whole thing was boring 😅
    The Warden is kinda cool but everything else is bad
    Like the Warden have no drops
    The city's are empty and the loot is garbage 🗑️
    So why even bothering your self to go there
    Like at least give us a loot warden heart whould be cool a new villagers or mobs of dark that the player can interact with them

  • 0
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    Evrything is just mindblowing, but I have two tings to say:

    1. I would really apriciate new, very scary music

    2. I would put the sculk blobs deeper, after all it is named Deep dark

  • 0
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    On my first encounter with the warden, my first instinct was to just pillar up and he actually couldn't get me. I think it would be a great idea for the warden to have some kind of counter attack for that. And during another one, I was getting chased, and two other wardens spawned on me in the meantime, which was kind of annoying.

    Other than that, I think the warden veels very scary, and I think the sound design fits perfectly with what's happening. It really helped setting the mood during all of this.

    I already knew before this that the warden only works with sound (and smelling). I think if I didn't know this, I would've probably straight up ran away, triggering him by making sounds. That he smells you, is quite clear due to the sniffing noise he makes.

    Looting chests in the ancient cities took a while (and a few deaths) to figure out a good strategy how to loot them, but it was definitely possible.

    The darkness effect felt a bit over the top. Even with brightness on bright I couldn't really see what was happening. Of course, I get that you shouldn't be able to see much, but it still felt a bit too much.

    My first encounter with the warden, was when I was messing around in creative. I actually got jumpscared thrice by him spawning in whilst me doing some goofing around in creative. The sound dedign really helps with creating that dark/scary mood. And it really feels like a boss by itself thanks to that.

  • 0
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    The Warden is a very challenging mob to avoid. I did find out that you can prevent the spawning of a warden if you break the shrieker that is calling to the warden, whether this is a bug or not I'm unsure about. Was also playing with the spawn mechanics of the Warden and it can apparently spawn on any block, including barriers (is quite silly seeing the warden climbing through the air). The deep dark could use some more loot. While the sculk blocks are nice, the deep dark is covered in them. While a new enchantment is nice, I'm not sure people will risk hardcore worlds just for the ability to move faster while sneaking. Maybe adding some loot similar to the bastions would make the experience more rewarding. I'm guessing the Warden isn't fully finished, so I'm curious to see how it prevents players from towering up. Will it climb up walls like spiders, or throw a projectile? Also you can cheese it with a lava bucket apparently, just saying. The Warden itself is perhaps one of the most well done mobs I've ever seen. I wish more mobs were animated like that, it would make the Minecraft world seem so much more alive.

    And yes... it is creepy and hard to avoid.

    About that frame in the center of the city, some speculate it's a new portal. I hope it is, because why would you make it unbreakable? The only other blocks like that are Bedrock and the End Portal Frame. If there is a new dimension, I expect it'll be released after 1.19 (which would be fitting as the next one is 1.20)

  • 0
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    the warden is quite challenging but I feel like it should have a way to get players that are pillaring or in a small hole.

    I had this one encounter outside of the ancient cities, and it jumped scared me.

    i used snowballs to get away from him.


    yes I was able to get the loot chests by juking him


    the darkness effect was a little scary and when the warden came out it felt like I was in a nightmare especially if his frown face was a little bit in front of the edge of the darkness

  • 1
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    I suggest giving the Warden a "fatigue" area of effect similar to elder guardians. It would prevent the player from placing or mining blocks. This would not only prevent players from easily "cheezing" the Warden but also force players to interact with the labyrinthine deep dark structure. Better hope you don't accidently turn into a dead end! The more advanced players could also use this property to design mini-games.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    The atmosphere that the darkness effect creates is perfect, but the warden is far too easy. You can easily build up a few blocks and then the encounter is as good as done.

    It's also very easy to avoid the encounter in the first place if you know what you're doing, just sneak up to the shrieker and break it, and if you activate it by accident you can simply run away from it and the warden won't emerge.

    I am worried that new players won't be able to grasp the vibration concept considering that their first encounter with the sculk could very possibly summon the warden that would quickly kill them.

    The warden doesn't seem to have a filter on what blocks it's able to emerge from? It seems to emerge out of blocks it clearly shouldn't such as slabs (bottom), walls, trapdoors and fence gates even when open!

    I'm really excited to see how this turns out in the release!

  • 7
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    the generation around the city walls does not look right, it looks like someone has done /fill with air around the walls, to improve this around the generation make it less blocky and rectangular maybe add some weathering and "blocks that have fallen off the ceiling"

  • 0
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    The atmosphere in the deep dark is already great, but what would make it better is ambient tracks similar to the nether. We saw something like this in the trailer but it doesn't seem to be implemented in the actual experimental snapshot. It'd be great if we could have some spooky music/noise for when we're down there.

  • 0
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    Currently, the only unique worthwhile loot the deep dark offers apart from sculk is the swift sneak enchantment. It'd be great if we could see other treasure enchantments show up in the deep dark loot pool. Currently the most efficient way of acquiring these is through trading, which seems a bit unfitting for something called a "treasure" enchantment.

  • 0
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    The Warden shouldn't be heavily affected by water/lava to the point where it just sits there not being able to move. The Warden also shouldn't be easily cheesed by a player who pillars up 3-4 blocks and kills it. The whole purpose of it is to be avoidable and challenging and those should be addressed. 

  • 0
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    The snapshot feels good excluding 2 things.
    1. The swift sneak enchant may be applied to leggings, because there are a few enchants unique only for boots, but none for the leggings and I think the enchants unique only for them (and for chestplate too) have been a bit forgotten.
    2. The warden can't touch you when you pillar up, so it should jump from its own hands and land on your position (or something like that). Also the sculk shrieker first needs to be activated 3 times to summon the warden, but when summoning the warden another time it needs to be activated only once, so the
    3-times activation system works only once per world.

  • 0
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    I enjoyed the encounter with the warden; it was thrilling. One thing I'd like to be changed though is the number of skulk catalysts around the city. While testing I was able to get from the edge of the city to the centerpiece without summoning a single warden. I think it might be better if there were a few more scattered around the city.

  • 0
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    I absolutely loved messing around with this snapshot and overall I'm truly excited for this update. Despite this in my opinion my first warden encounter was very anticlimactic. I was genuinely terrified and blocked myself into a crack in the wall with the warden's heartbeat on the other side, scared I dug open one of the blocks of my wall only to find that he couldn't do anything about it and I killed him. Perhaps a way for the warden to realize this and crawl through the hole or something after you could fix this? My next encounter with him building 3 blocks up completely prevented him from even touching me meaning it was just a minute of waiting before I could continue exploring. Later on I decided to not use blocks and have a more genuine warden experience. Eventually after messing with him enough he started chasing me but alas he was very easy to outrun by just running down the wool paths in the ancient city, plucking bow shots on occasion at him. I would love it if the warden had some sort of counter to make all three of these experiences more scary / difficult. Again I absolutely loved this snapshot despite that and am very excited for 1.19, keep up the good work Mojang!

  • 0
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    Love the idea, and the spawning mechanic seems really nice, although as others are saying it's too easy to get around. If you pillar at all, it just isn't a threat. While this isn't inherently bad, if it's meant to be something you have to avoid by sneaking, it should have a different attack, or a new environmental hazard should be created so that you cant just go above things. For example, maybe a new type of flying shulker enemy to knock you off pillars, or the warden itself could break blocks/ pull you down/ hit you with something to knock you off. 

    Regardless, despite this, I think it's a really cool edition that helps the biome feel more complete. Likewise with the darkness effect. 

    (Sidenote though, please make the structure in the forgotten city a portal, that would be a great edition in my opinion-) 

  • 0
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    • Yes, warden is very challenging in my opnion, cuz he slowly gets closer to you by sniffing(i think).
    • I enjoy encountring warden, cuz he scares me, and i like sneaking away from him and confusing him with snowballs.
    • Yes, my tactic to the warden is as follows: When warden comes out of teh ground, i try to run as far as i can, and when he starts walking, i start sneaking, watching him from safe distance, but i still know his exact location, and i'm trying to not be spotted as much i can. If he get really close i distract him with snowball and while he is going to the snowball i sneak away, and in most cases he burries back to the ground.
    • Yes, by using the tactic mentioned higher, but sometimes, it's really difficult, and i hate when i ACCIDENTALY summon him(just kidding(NOT REALLY)).
    • I really like the darkness effect. It adds so much darkness to the already dark atmosphere of the deep dark and every time i summon warden (wich i do very often) (and get the d. effect of course), im like:"Is he going slowly towards me or not?"
    • I'm terrified everytime, sometimes less, sometimes more (it depends on where i'm, the more room a place have, the less i'm terrified). Once there was lying only one sniffing between my life and death, so i started running, i threw a snowball, and this snowball saved my life (somehow i wasn't noticed,even when i was running ),cuz he went to the location of snowball, so i ran away, after a minute he buried back to the ground, but my heart was going crazy. 
    Bagrijto
  • 10
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    Make it so that you can’t pillar up, and make bats not emit any sound the warden/scull can hear. Many times I have gotten away from the warden because of bats.

  • 0
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    Absolutely in love with the ancient cities and the warden, but I'm a little unimpressed by the deep dark biome itself. The deep dark outside of the cities feels pretty sparse to me--especially with the patchy way that the sculk generates. I might feel better about it if the sculk covered more of the actual cave or looked more like it was growing rampantly in veins; really dominating the place. It's especially underwhelming where it generates above deepslate. I think just a greater covering of sculk, more tendrils/sculk-based structures, or just limiting it to only generating below y=0 would bring out the potential in a biome i am by all means extremely excited for. All of the textures are on point, the concept is amazing--I just want to really be surrounded by it!

  • 0
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    I'd love for swift sneak to be a leggings enchantment. We have a lot of exclusive boot enchantments, but no exclusive legging enchantments.

  • 0
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    Really cool idea, which must make it into the game. Although, in my opinion, it needs a boss, which would run in the dungeon walls(seen in the snapshots) like a snake or something. Also, it would be great if there would be something to do with the portal. Right now, it just feels a bit empty for a "deep dark dungeon". Keep up the good work, Mojang!

  • 0
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    Really cool idea, which must make it into the game. Although, in my opinion, it needs a boss, which would run in the dungeon walls(seen in the snapshots) like a snake or something. Also, it would be great if there would be something to do with the portal. Right now, it just feels a bit empty for a "deep dark dungeon". Keep up the good work, Mojang!

  • 1
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    The Warden was challenging but i would suggest that since the warden is so hard to beat that it should have a drop that would ignite the giant portal frame or where the reinforced deepslate is. the encounter was very good and very scary, well yes in a way i did but still is cool no matter what you besides sneaking. and i was about a 9/10 scared and the darkness effect was very cool maybe tone a down a bit not much just make it where the player can see more like a block or two, but i would hope there will be some kind of portal in the ancient city like a ruins dimension or just a scary dimension that would be a cool feather but also if that does happen the warden could drop the key idk what it would look like but maybe look like a key and it could be called the "Ancient Gate Key". 

    i hope you all like my feedback, thank you and have a nice day.

  • 0
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    I had the same issue with some overlapping structures - in my case, a mineshaft cut through it. Beyond that, I just feel like the caves surrounding the structure aren't big enough to accommodate it? It's not as bad as the Nether Fortress carving perfect squares into netherrack, but it still feels as if the ancient city is creating the cave rather than being placed within a cave.

    Also, the Warden should drop something. Maybe not another "nether star", because then people would be compelled to farm or kill it, but at least a large amount of experience points would fit. If it's possible to kill in the first place, then it feels like a waste to not give it anything.

  • 0
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    i haven't had a chance to play this snapshot, but i've been watching a ton of videos. people are right, it's currently very easy to escape it or cheese it. i know kingbdogz said he was gonna implement some way in which the warden can still get you if you pillar up, and i was thinking: i'd say the best way to make the warden anti-cheese so it can be avoided and sneaked around like intended, is to make it rapidly dig back into the ground and "teleport" to the blocks the player is standing on by digging back up to you. so you can't trap it, hide, pillar up or tunnel down/sideways if you've made it angry because it'll dig back to you. i think that'd be cool so the goal is not to get it to come after you because then you're basically dead already.

  • 1
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    • Well it kinda depends,  you can just pillar up, now I know I know kingbdogz said there is ways to stop this we just haven't seen yet, its still easy to cheese it with water, lava, trap it, dig into a wall, and many more. I am very intrigued to see the ways the warden will have around this. 


    • The Warden is awesome, i feel bad for it for some reason but I don't know why, and i feel like I want to help it, buuuut of course that ends up with me dead.

    • Like I said, very easy read my reasons why in the first line. you can also easily just run from it, just zoom, and 90% of the time the warden cant even catch up.

    • I Summoned MANY Wardens on accident, luckily I can usually escape them.  - Edit: another thing is bats, bats distract the warden and make them run far from where i am and i dont have to do anything. 

    • Its neat, i think its more scary when you cant see the warden, although its super annoying, i think the fog should have some tweaking.

    • I felt excited and nervous but overall, not very terrified. - its also more cute and funny when it chases after bats instead of me.