Minecraft Bedrock Edition Update Introduces Exciting New Mob and Items

Ali Haider April 23, 2024

Minecraft Bedrock Edition update 1.20.80 (patch 2.87 on PS4) is out now bringing a new mob as well as new items to craft.

The latest update to Minecraft brings a range of exciting features that enhance gameplay and social interaction within the Minecraft community. One of the most notable additions is the Armadillo, a passive mob that can be found in the Savannas and Badlands biomes. These creatures drop Armadillo Scutes when brushed, and they have a unique behavior of rolling up when they sense potential threats. This defensive mechanism is triggered when they encounter sprinting players, mounted individuals, undead mobs, or aggressive entities. However, Armadillos won’t roll up when they are fleeing, in water, airborne, or leashed. While rolled up, they remain immobile and resistant to damage, except from significant attacks.

The introduction of Armadillo Scutes opens up new crafting possibilities, especially in the creation of Wolf Armor. This protective gear enhances a wolf’s resilience against various threats until it wears out completely. Players can maintain and repair Wolf Armor using Armadillo Scutes, either directly on the wolf or through an anvil. Additionally, wolf variants now populate different biomes, each with unique characteristics and spawning conditions. These variants include the Pale Wolf, Woods Wolf, Ashen Wolf, Black Wolf, Chestnut Wolf, Rusty Wolf, Spotted Wolf, Striped Wolf, and Snowy Wolf.

One of the experimental features in this update is the introduction of the Mace, a heavy weapon designed for devastating attacks. Players can deal increased damage by striking enemies after falling from a height, thanks to the Mace’s leverage of gravity. Other entities near the target also experience knockback effects from the Mace’s immense force. Additionally, new items like Breeze Rods and Heavy Cores introduce crafting options for the Mace and other equipment.

Numerous fixes and changes address various gameplay, graphical, and user interface issues, improving overall stability and performance. You can read the full set of patch notes for Minecraft update 1.20.80 below, courtesy of the support website.

Minecraft Bedrock Edition Update 1.20.80 Patch Notes [April 23]

New Features:

Armadillo

The Armadillo is a new passive mob that:
- spawns in Savannas and Badlands biomes
- drops Armadillo Scutes periodically
- drops Armadillo Scutes when brushed
- its favorite food is Spider Eyes

Armadillo Rolling Up Behavior

Armadillo rolls up when it detects a threat such as:
- a sprinting player
- a player in a vehicle or mounted
- undead mobs
- a mob, or a player that has attacked it recently
It does not roll up when:
- it is fleeing
- in water
- in the air or
- on a leash
When an Armadillo is rolled up it does not walk, cannot eat, and will not be tempted by food
- It will continue to scan for threats, occasionally peeking to check the surroundings: if none are detected for 4 seconds, it will unroll
- In a rolled up state, its shell will protect it, and reduce the damage dealt to it, even allowing it to fully resist weak attacks
- Spiders and Cave Spiders will run away from Armadillos, and only if they are not in a rolled up state

Armadillo Scutes

Armadillo Scutes can be used to craft Wolf Armor
They are dropped by Armadillos
Dispensers can be used to brush Armadillo Scutes off Armadillos

Wolf Armor

The Wolf Armor will protect the wolf from most damage sources until the armor loses all durability and breaks
Wolf Armor shows signs of increased breakage as durability goes down
Players can repair the Wolf Armor with Armadillo Scutes while it is equipped on the Wolf, or on an Anvil using Armadillo Scutes
Wolf armor can be dyed in similar fashion to Leather Armor
Using Wolf Armor on an adult tamed Wolf will equip the armor on the Wolf
Only a Wolf’s owner can put a Wolf Armor on their tamed Wolf, and with this in mind; Dispensers cannot put Wolf Armor on wolves
Using Shears on a Wolf that is wearing armor will make it drop the armor
Only a Wolf’s owner can repair a Wolf Armor on a Wolf or shear a Wolf Armor from it, and with this in mind; Dispensers cannot remove Wolf Armor from wolves
If a Wolf dies while wearing armor, it will drop the armor

Tamed Wolves health and damage

Tamed Wolves now have 40 health points (20 hearts) instead of 20 health points (10 hearts)
They no longer take half of the damage from most environmental sources like they used to do
- In most cases this change will make no difference given the health boost, but now they can withstand more damage from players and arrows
Feeding a Wolf now heals twice as many health points
Adjusted spawning conditions for Wolves, allowing them to spawn on Coarse Dirt and Podzol blocks

Wolf variants

New Wolf variants have been added. The variant is determined by the biome they spawn in. Read about each one in this paw-some article!

Pale Wolf – The familiar Wolf variant that now spawns in the Taiga biome, with a default pack size of 4
Woods Wolf – A variant that spawns in the Forest biome. This will be the dominant Wolf variant that you will be able to find in the Overworld, since the Forest biome is very common
Ashen Wolf – A variant that spawns in the Snowy Taiga biome
Black Wolf – A variant that spawns in the Old Growth Pine Taiga biome, in smaller packs of 2 to 4
Chestnut Wolf – A variant that spawns in the Old Growth Spruce Taiga biome, in smaller packs of 2 to 4
Rusty Wolf – A variant that spawns in a new location for wolves – the Sparse Jungle biome, in smaller packs of 2 to 4
Spotted Wolf – A variant that spawns in a new location for wolves – the Savanna Plateau biome, in larger packs of 4 to 8
Striped Wolf – A variant that spawns in a new location for wolves, the Wooded Badlands biome, in larger packs of 4 to 8
Snowy Wolf – A variant that spawns in the Grove biome. A rare type, that always walks alone

When summoned in other ways (e.g. using the Spawn Egg or using the summon command), the variant selection follows the natural spawning biome rules with the following extensions:

Rusty Wolf: will be selected in all Jungle biomes, including Jungle and Bamboo Jungle Biomes
Spotted Wolf: will be selected in all Savanna biomes, including Savanna and Windswept Savanna Biomes
Striped Wolf: will be selected in all Badlands biomes, including Badlands and Eroded Badlands Biomes

Realms Stories

Introducing Realms Stories, a new social hub for your Realm
- Realms Stories features include:
  - The Story Feed – lets you share your greatest gameplay moments with your fellow Realm members
  - The Timeline – lets you see when other members are playing on the Realm
  - The Members tab – shows a list of all Realm members and their permission levels
  - Realm Events – Stories that get posted automatically when certain player actions are taken in the Realm. There are 19 unique Realm Events so far – can you discover all of them?
Known issues:
- Xbox-only: If multiple users are signed into an Xbox, then the users might not be able to post to Realms Stories from that Xbox (unless all users besides the primary user log out).
- Xbox-only: If multiple users are signed into an Xbox, Realm Events will not be posted, but they will be recorded. If all users but the primary user sign out of Xbox, and the primary user returns to the Minecraft play screen, the Realm Events that were recorded before should get posted. However, the Realm Events may be credited to the wrong user.
- If users are in split-screen mode, only the primary user will be able to open Realms Stories.
- If users are in with a guest (user who is not signed into their Microsoft account), and the primary user attempts to make a post, the post may fail, or be credited to the wrong user.