6 most impactful updates in Minecraft's history

Minecraft has received loads of updates ever since it first released in 2011. Mojang worked hard on their sandbox title, adding some of the biggest features and bringing significant changes to existing mechanics. To this day, the community talks about some updates that massively shaped the experience that Minecraft offers today.

Here are some of the major updates that made the most impact on Minecraft.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

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List of the 6 most impactful Minecraft updates in history

1) Combat Update

The combat update brought various new features and overhauled the combat system (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

In early 2016, Mojang dropped the now-infamous Combat Update for Minecraft. At the time, the entire community was split for and against the update, particularly because of the new combat mechanics it offered. The update added a new cooldown bar to every melee weapon and tool, which needs to be full in order to deal maximum damage.

Apart from that, it is also considered the most important update because of the addition of End Cities, elytra, shields, end crystal, and more.

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2) Redstone Update

Redstone update added lots of new redstone blocks that are now essential to any contraption (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Mojang released the Redstone Update for Minecraft in March 2013, a few years after the game launched. Since redstone is a massive part of the game in recent history, it is worth mentioning the importance of this update.

It brought notable features like comparators, hoppers, droppers, daylight sensors, weighted pressure plates, and blocks of redstone. It also added nether quartz, which became a default XP grinding block for new players after they enter the Nether.

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3) Caves and Cliffs Part 2

Caves and Cliffs massively changed the world generation (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Caves and Cliffs Part 2 is probably the most latest Minecraft update on this list since it was released in 2021. However, it marks a major milestone in the game's history. Ever since the game was launched, it consisted of mountains and caves, but they were not as tall or deep as players wanted.

Hence, Mojang decided to completely change the game's world generation, bringing much deeper caves and taller mountains through this update. The bedrock layer shifted from Y level 0 to -64, opening a large area for new deepslate caves. Additionally, the developers added six new mountain sub-biomes to bring more variety.

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4) Nether Update

Nether update completely overhauled the hellish realm (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

The Nether Update is another recent installment for Minecraft that brought a lot of changes. As the name clearly suggests, it was focused entirely on the hellish realm of the game.

The update brought notable features like netherite mineral, piglins, hoglins, all four new Nether biomes, Basalt Remnants structure, and much more. This update became one of the biggest the game ever received, in terms of sheer amount of new features.

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5) The Update that Changed the World

This update brought massive chunk rendering and world generation changes as well (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

The Update that Changed the World was another pivotal installment for the block game. It was released in October 2013 and brought a completely new world generation and chunk rendering code to the game.

Previously, in Java Edition 1.6, a Minecraft world mostly consisted of extremely large oceans, followed by an island with multiple biomes on it. This resulted in players traveling in boats for hours before finding any land.

With this 1.7.2 update, Mojang drastically changed the world generation, making oceans a lot smaller. Along with this, a plethora of both ocean and land biomes like Birch Forest, Deep Ocean, Flower Forest, Mesa, Savanna, etc., were also added.

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6) Village and Pillage

Village and Pillage update completely changed villager trades and added pillagers (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

Village and Pillage update was also a major one since it completely revamped the villagers' trading systems in 2019. It introduced various villager job site blocks like barrels, grindstone, composter, etc.

Along with that, the update also added various important mobs like pillagers, ravagers, cats, wandering traders, foxes, pandas, and trader llamas. Raids were first added with this update as well, which later allowed players to create highly lucrative raid farms.

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