Minecraft 1.20 Will Add This New Mob

howtogeek.com:

Mojang Studios is hard at work on the next major release of Minecraft, and recently has been sharing hints about the update. Now we know something else coming in Minecraft 1.20: a new mob.

Last year during Minecraft Live 2022, Mojang presented several ideas for possible mobs (an animal/monster in Minecraft), and promised the winner would make it into a future Minecraft update. Between the choices of “rascal,” “tuff golem,” and “sniffer,” the last option was picked by popular demand.

Mojang published a blog post today, showing off the sniffer with in-game screenshots and a few new details. It’s described as an “ancient mob that was extinct,” which can only be revived by finding eggs and helping them hatch. The eggs are located in suspicious sand, which was previously revealed as a new type of block that can be excavated to reveal other items, like pottery pieces. In creative mode, the sniffer will be available in the inventory menu as an egg.

The blog post explains, “This mob is not only huge, but also helpful. Being a bit of a botanist, it will sniff out seeds that used to exist when they first roamed the Overworld! You can plant them to fill your game with the new unique decorative plants.” Mojang is also calling the baby form a “snifflet,” presumably because “baby sniffer” is not something you’d want to advertise in a video game.

The new mob will be available to test “soon” in a Bedrock Edition beta and preview, as well as a snapshot release for Java Edition. It seems like the sniffer is one component of a larger focus on (fictional) ancient history that will be a focus for Minecraft 1.20, which sounds like a fun twist for the game.

Source: Minecraft Blog