Minecraft 1.11: The Exploration Update

Released on November 14, 2016, Minecraft 1.11, officially known as "The Exploration Update", marked a significant shift in focus towards encouraging players to venture out and discover the wider world. Before this update, while exploration was always a part of Minecraft, dedicated rewards for long-distance travel were somewhat limited. 1.11 addressed this directly, adding new structures, challenging mobs, valuable items, and helpful mechanics that vastly expanded the adventure side of the game. With a renewed focus on exploration, looting, and tracking down specific locations, players gained exciting new reasons and compelling rewards to journey far and wide across the Overworld, facing new dangers and uncovering hidden treasures.

New Structures

Woodland Mansions

• Location: Generate exclusively, albeit rarely, in Roofed Forest biomes, often thousands of blocks away from the world spawn point. Their scarcity makes finding one a true achievement.
• Finding Them: Due to their rarity and specific biome requirement, locating a Woodland Mansion usually requires the use of a Woodland Explorer Map obtained from a Cartographer Villager. Randomly stumbling upon one is exceptionally uncommon.
• Size: These are among the largest naturally generated structures in Minecraft. They are massive, imposing multi-floor buildings constructed primarily from dark oak wood and planks, cobblestone, and stone bricks, giving them a dark and foreboding appearance. Their internal layout is procedurally generated, meaning each mansion has a unique floor plan, though certain room types are common.
• Contents: The interior is a labyrinth of corridors, staircases, and various rooms. Players can find dining halls, libraries, bedrooms, storage rooms, workshops, farms (like melon/pumpkin patches or tree farms), and even peculiar rooms like wool statue chambers or mock End portal rooms. Scattered throughout are loot chests containing valuable items like enchanted books, diamonds, music discs, name tags, and more. Additionally, mansions often feature secret rooms hidden behind walls or requiring simple puzzles to access, rewarding thorough exploration.
• Challenge: Woodland Mansions are heavily guarded fortresses. They are the primary home of the dangerous new Illager mobs – Vindicators and Evokers – making them perilous to navigate. The sheer number of hostile mobs within, combined with the complex layout, low light levels, and potential for surprise attacks, presents a significant PvE challenge, often requiring good armor, weapons, and strategic thinking. Conquering a mansion is a notable feat for any adventurer.

New Mobs

Evoker

• Type: A powerful hostile Illager spellcaster, distinguished by its grey robes with gold trim. Found exclusively within specific rooms of Woodland Mansions during initial generation.
• Abilities: Evokers possess two unique and dangerous attacks:
  • Fang Attack: Summons a line of Vex-like fangs that erupt from the ground, dealing significant damage to entities caught in their path. The fangs travel in a straight line towards the target. Evokers telegraph this attack with a distinct arm-raising animation and sound cue.
  • Vex Summoning: Conjures 2-4 Vexes to attack the player. This is indicated by the Evoker raising its arms and emitting purple particles, accompanied by a horn-like sound. They can summon Vexes relatively frequently, quickly overwhelming unprepared players.
• Combat Strategy: Keeping distance and using ranged attacks (bows or crossbows) is highly recommended. A shield is invaluable for blocking the fang attack. Prioritizing the Evoker is crucial, as eliminating it will eventually stop the Vex spawns. Their relatively low health makes them vulnerable to focused attacks, but their high damage output demands caution.
• Drops: Upon death, an Evoker is guaranteed to drop one Totem of Undying. This is the only way to obtain this powerful item. They also drop 0-1 emeralds (up to 4 with Looting).

Vex

• Type: Small, ghostly, flying hostile mobs summoned exclusively by Evokers. They resemble miniature, winged Illagers wielding small iron swords.
• Behavior: Vexes are aggressive and relentless attackers. Their most dangerous trait is their ability to phase through solid blocks (including walls, floors, and ceilings), allowing them to bypass defenses and attack players from unexpected angles. They fly towards their target and attack with their swords.
• Combat Strategy: Their ability to ignore terrain makes them tricky opponents. Sweeping Edge enchantment on swords can be effective due to their tendency to swarm. Their small size and erratic flight pattern make them difficult targets for arrows. Be aware of their presence even when behind walls.
• Lifespan: Vexes are temporary summons. They begin taking damage spontaneously after about 30 seconds to 2 minutes and will eventually die on their own, even if they haven't been attacked. This means if you can evade them long enough, they cease to be a threat. They drop nothing upon death.

Vindicator

• Type: A hostile Illager melee combatant, recognizable by its grey robes and the menacing iron axe it wields. Found abundantly throughout Woodland Mansions.
• Behavior: Vindicators are highly aggressive. Upon spotting a player or villager, they will draw their axe and charge swiftly, delivering powerful melee attacks. They sprint towards their target, making them close distance quickly.
• Combat Strategy: Their primary attack is a strong axe chop. Using a shield to block their attacks is highly effective. Kiting them (attacking while backing away) or using ranged weapons can also work well. Be mindful of their numbers, as multiple Vindicators attacking at once can be overwhelming.
• Drops: Vindicators drop 0-1 emeralds (up to 4 with Looting). There is a small chance (8.5%, increasing with Looting) they will also drop their iron axe, sometimes even enchanted.
• "Johnny" Easter Egg: If a Vindicator is named "Johnny" using a name tag, it will become hostile towards almost all other mobs (except other Illagers and Ghasts), attacking them on sight with its axe.

Llama

• Type: A neutral mob, meaning it's passive unless provoked. Became the first neutral mob capable of carrying inventory items via chests.
• Functionality: Llamas can be tamed by repeatedly attempting to ride them until hearts appear, similar to horses (though they cannot be controlled while riding). Once tamed, they can be equipped with carpets in the saddle slot, resulting in unique blanket patterns depending on the carpet color. More importantly, they can be equipped with a chest, giving them 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 inventory slots, depending on their hidden "strength" attribute. Leads can be used on one llama, and nearby tamed llamas (up to 9) will form a caravan, following the lead llama. This allows players to transport large amounts of items across distances.
• Behavior: If a llama is attacked, or if its owner is attacked by another mob nearby, the llama will retaliate by spitting. This spit attack deals minor damage (1 heart). Llamas will also spit at wild wolves unprovoked. Tamed wolves, however, will attack llamas.
• Spawning: Llamas naturally spawn in Savanna Plateau and Extreme Hills (now Windswept Hills) biomes, typically in small herds. They come in four coat colors: creamy, white, brown, and gray.
• Breeding: Tamed llamas can be bred using Hay Bales.

New Items

Totem of Undying

• Use: An incredibly powerful defensive item. When held in either the main hand or off-hand, it prevents the player's death upon taking lethal damage.
• Activation: When the player receives fatal damage while holding the Totem, instead of dying, the Totem is consumed, a distinct sound plays, and a golden particle effect surrounds the player.
• Effect: Upon activation, the Totem immediately restores 1 health point (half a heart), removes all existing status effects (both positive and negative), and grants Regeneration II for 40 seconds and Absorption II for 5 seconds. This brief window of regeneration and extra health gives the player a chance to escape or recover.
• Obtained From: Exclusively dropped by Evokers upon death (100% drop rate).
• Significance: Essentially provides a "second life," making it invaluable for dangerous activities like exploring Woodland Mansions, fighting bosses (Wither, Ender Dragon), navigating the End Cities, or playing in Hardcore mode where death is permanent.

Woodland Explorer Map

• Use: A special map item that reveals the location of the nearest undiscovered Woodland Mansion relative to the map's creation point.
• Appearance: Resembles a regular map but with a unique brownish, sepia-toned texture. It shows the outline of landmasses and water bodies. A small mansion icon marks the structure's location, and a white dot represents the player's position (updated as the player moves, but only when holding the map). The player icon may initially be off the map if the mansion is very far away, indicating the direction needed to travel.
• Obtained From: Purchased from Cartographer Villagers as one of their higher-tier trades (usually requiring emeralds and often a compass).
• Companion Item: Alongside the Woodland Explorer Map, the Ocean Explorer Map was also added, functioning identically but pointing towards the nearest undiscovered Ocean Monument. This further incentivized exploration of different structure types.
• Journey: These maps often point to locations thousands of blocks away, turning the journey itself into a significant part of the adventure, requiring preparation and navigation skills.

Observer Block

• Function: A unique redstone component block designed to detect changes in the block or block state directly in front of it. When it detects a change (e.g., block placed/broken, crop growing, redstone dust changing power level, furnace activating/deactivating, door opening/closing), it emits a single, short (1-tick) redstone pulse from its back.
• Redstone Utility: Observers revolutionized many redstone contraptions. They provided a compact, reliable, and directional way to detect block updates, effectively replacing many older, often bulkier and less reliable BUD (Block Update Detector) switch designs. They became essential components in automated farms (like sugar cane, melon, pumpkin, kelp), flying machines, traps, and complex redstone circuitry needing state detection.
• Crafting: Crafted using 6 Cobblestone, 2 Redstone Dust, and 1 Nether Quartz.

Shulker Box

• Use: A revolutionary portable storage block. It functions like a chest with 27 inventory slots, but with one crucial difference: when a Shulker Box is broken, it retains all the items stored inside it as a single inventory item. Picking up the Shulker Box allows the player to carry its entire contents within one inventory slot.
• Crafted From: Made by combining one Chest with two Shulker Shells (dropped by Shulkers found in End Cities).
• Game-Changer: Shulker Boxes fundamentally changed inventory management, especially for exploration, mining, and large building projects. Players could now carry vast quantities of resources ("inventory inception" - carrying boxes full of items within their own inventory). They can be placed, accessed, and broken repeatedly. They can also be dyed any of the 16 standard colors.
• Interaction: Hoppers, droppers, and dispensers can interact with placed Shulker Boxes to insert or remove items. However, a Shulker Box cannot be placed inside another Shulker Box.

New Villager Career: Cartographer

• Profession: Introduced as a new villager profession, initially classified as a variant of the Librarian (wearing a white robe with a golden monocle). Later updates gave them their own unique appearance and workstation (the Cartography Table in 1.14).
• Trades: The Cartographer's key trades are the Woodland Explorer Map and the Ocean Explorer Map, essential tools for locating the new structures. These maps are typically offered at higher trade levels (Apprentice or Journeyman onwards).
  • Other trades include selling paper, empty maps, compasses, and item frames, and buying items like paper, compasses, and glass panes. They also offered various banner pattern items.
• Accessibility: The Cartographer provided a reliable (though potentially expensive) method for players to embark on the specific exploration quests offered by the update, bridging the gap between regular gameplay and finding these rare, distant structures.

Other Features

• Entity IDs: A significant technical change occurred under the hood: entity IDs were switched from numerical IDs (e.g.,

  50

  for Creeper) to string-based namespaced IDs (e.g.,

  minecraft:creeper

  ). This change was crucial for future-proofing the game, reducing conflicts between vanilla content and mods/data packs, and making commands and data more human-readable.
• Spawn Eggs: Correspondingly, spawn eggs now use the new string ID format within commands and data.
• Loot Tables: The loot table system, which allows customizing the drops from mobs, chests, and fishing via JSON files, was fully implemented and expanded to cover more entities and loot sources. This gave map makers and data pack creators immense control over customizing game rewards and progression.
• Game Rules: While many game rules existed prior, the system continued to be refined. New rules and functionalities were often added in minor updates following major ones (e.g.,

  maxEntityCramming

  in 1.11.1). The overall system allowing server operators and players with cheats enabled to tweak game behavior (like mob griefing, fire spread, command block output) became more robust.

Conclusion

Minecraft 1.11 "The Exploration Update" successfully delivered on its promise, breathing new life into the adventure aspect of the game. By introducing the daunting Woodland Mansions guarded by fierce Illagers, providing the means to find them with Explorer Maps, and offering powerful rewards like the Totem of Undying, players were given compelling objectives for venturing far from their established bases. The addition of Llamas and especially Shulker Boxes provided invaluable logistical support for these extended journeys, fundamentally changing how players managed inventory and transported goods. Combined with technical improvements like string IDs and the versatile Observer block, 1.11 didn't just add new content; it enriched the core Minecraft experience, encouraging players to explore deeper, prepare better, and face greater challenges hidden within the vastness of their worlds. Many of these features remain central pillars of Minecraft's exploration and adventure gameplay today.