3 reasons why Birch forests and fireflies were removed from Minecraft 1.19

The Minecraft 1.19 update has just been released to the public today. After months of betas, snapshots and pre-releases, vanilla players finally have access to all that Mojang has promised.

There are a lot of amazing features that have come into the game. After being announced alongside the 1.17 update, the Warden has finally made its way to players. It's probably going to be the most difficult and challenging mob to face, so its arrival was highly anticipated.

Mangrove Swamp and Deep Dark are two new biomes that will arrive later today. The Deep Dark houses Ancient Cities, Sculk blocks, and the Warden. Mangrove Swamps hold frogs, tadpoles, mud, and new trees.

Beyond that, there are several great smaller additions. However, a lot of the focus has been on two things that Mojang curiously removed from the update: Birch forests and fireflies. Their absence is upsetting to many, but Mojang had their reasons. Here are a few of them.

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Why fireflies and Birch forests aren't present in Minecraft 1.19 update

1) Fireflies' code to be rewritten

When discussing why fireflies ultimately will not make the cut, Anna Lundgren, a producer for Minecraft, noted that while they haven't been made a part of the 1.19 update, they are still a part of their ideas library.

This more than likely means that fireflies were not quite ready. The developers removed them for a specific reason (more on that below), but still want to add them in some way.

If they had a fully fleshed out plan for fireflies aside from the initial reasoning, they would have added them in that capacity. Since they didn't, they'll likely just have to try again down the road.

That's disappointing for many players, but they can sleep easier knowing that Mojang hasn't yet abandoned the mob entirely.

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2) Incomplete development of Birch forest

Concept art of the new Birch forest (Image via Mojang)

This is one big update that was supposed to come to the Birch forests that are already in the game. Many gamers feel that many biomes need overhauling, and Mojang was set to start with the Birch forest. That's no longer the case, which was a disappointing announcement for many.

The main reason why the developers elected not to move further with this part of the update is because it was still in the developmental phase. They wanted to add it, but the Wild Update likely got too large and they had to reign it in so that the parts that did get added received complete attention.

This does mean that one day Minecraft will receive an update to the Birch forest. Unfortunately, that day is not today.

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3) Harmful to frogs

The main reason that Mojang elected to remove fireflies after initially releasing them in snapshots, betas and previews is because they ended up hurting frogs.

Frogs were going to eat fireflies, which was a large reason they were even considered in the first place. However, Minecraft players were quick to point out that this wasn't realistic.

Frogs don't eat fireflies in the real world because they're poisonous, which made Mojang removed the mob. They could have altered the code to make them inedible to frogs, but instead of doing that, they opted to remove them entirely.

Ultimately, it's a small part of Minecraft 1.19 that didn't add a lot, so its absence won't be too detrimental. They were going to be cool, which is why players are upset, but they wouldn't have added much to the game, probably.

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Note: This article is subjective and reflects the views of the author.