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Minecraft’s 1.19 The Wild Update will add many new features to the game: a new swamp biome variant in the mangrove swamp, the sculk-infested ancient cities and their ever-present protector, the warden, and adorable frogs that can be bred in any number of biomes to add a bit of life and ambiance. One feature that was shown off and cut at nearly the last minute was the firefly.
Despite a significant outcry from the community at the exclusion of this two-pixel mob, Mojang seems to be holding strong in its decision to remove it from Minecraft altogether.
The reasons why the firefly won’t be added to Minecraft
1) It's Poisonous (Sometimes)
When the firefly was first announced, there was one major use. It was to be eaten by frogs, which would result in a colored froglight, with the color depending on what color the frog was. However, shortly after the reveal, some Minecraft players submitted feedback that some firefly species are poisonous to some frog species.
Mojang took this feedback to the extreme and gave the froglight feature to small magma cubes, and removed all functionality from the firefly altogether. However, one could assume that Mojang wanted to distance themselves from any potential animal harm issues as much as possible and went on to remove the firefly in its entirety to avoid any risk of the two interacting.
2) Lack of purpose
With a singular purpose, the firefly would serve stripped from them and instead given to magma cubes. Mojang realized something: Fireflies were another useless mob, in the same vein as polar bears, llamas, bats, pandas, and silverfish.
Mojang might want to avoid adding another useless mob to the game, especially after a decent amount of community backlash from just how little in-game functionality polar bears, llamas, bats, pandas, and silverfish all have. This would cause Mojang to see that it would be better to remove the mob altogether rather than risking an uproar over the inclusion of another useless mob.
However, Mojang has sold The Wild Update as an update to overhaul, update, and enhance the biomes of the game. While the community wasn’t super excited about another useless mob, players were looking forward to the firefly as a way to make nights prettier and more atmospheric.
Despite this, Mojang has committed to keeping this otherwise useless mob out of the game due to lessons learned in the past.
3) Basically, a particle effect
Since the firefly was going to be Minecraft’s smallest mob, at a mere two pixels, it serves to reason that Mojang decided that they weren’t worth the effort to continue to bug fix. Instead, should they want to revisit the idea of some ambiance enhancing effects for some of the more wooded biomes, they could reintroduce the firefly as a simple particle effect.
This way, they would be able to avoid the risk of poisoning any frogs. They would not be interactable entities. Instead, they would merely add effects that introduce some visual element and life to swamps and forests, spicing up the otherwise dim and dull nighttime.
For those disappointed about removing the firefly and lack of birch forest update, the community has come to the rescue, with both being added to the game via mod.
