Minecraft's bat receives a new model just before Halloween

Mojang recently released a new Minecraft snapshot, 23w43a, which contains some of the most exciting features that will arrive with the game's upcoming 1.21 update. Apart from these new experimental features, however, Mojang changed the texture of one of the oldest mobs in the game - the bat. These creatures now look nothing like they used to. Furthermore, Mojang did so cleverly right before Halloween.

Here is everything to know about the new bat texture in Minecraft.

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Bat's new texture in Minecraft right before Halloween

Bat's new texture explored and compared to the older one

Comparison between old bat and new bat textures in Minecraft (Image via Mojang/Sportskeeda)

Mojang's timing when it came to adding the new bat textures was perfect, as it was just a few days prior to Halloween. Since bats are one of the most iconic creatures in the spooky festival, this change was welcomed by many.

The developers not only changed a few aspects of the texture, but they also completely changed how bats look in the game. The new bat has a larger head and a smaller body and wings. One of the most striking features of the mob is that it now has adorable, small, rounded ears.

The eye positioning has also changed; it is no longer cockeyed. Instead, the white portion of the eyes are on the side of the face, while the front only has one black pixel. Additionally, there is a small purple nose marked by two purple pixels at the center of the face.

Compared to the bat's previous texture, this one looks much more polished and complete. However, the new one does look more like a mouse than a bat. Nonetheless, the new bat texture looks much better overall.

Apart from the new texture, these mobs have unfortunately received no new features. They do not drop anything upon death and can't even be interacted with; they're only meant for ambiance.

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How to see the new bat texture in the game

Players can look at the new bat textures in Minecraft snapshot 23w43a (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned above, the new bat textures have yet to come to the official stable version of the game. Mojang could make final adjustments to the texture before adding it to the 1.20.3 incremental update.

If players want to see the new bat textures up close, they can do so by downloading the latest snapshot, 23w43a, from the official game launcher. Users need to open the drop-down menu showcasing various versions, select the 'latest snapshot', and hit play.

Once the game opens, players can create a new world and either find bats with new textures naturally spawning in dark caves, or they can open the creative mode inventory and find their spawn egg to summon a bunch of them.