Highlights

  • Minecraft's upcoming update will introduce the armadillo mob and its scute drop, which can be used to craft wolf armor.
  • Players voted for the armadillo in the mob vote due to its cute appearance and useful mechanics.
  • However, there is a trend of newer mobs in Minecraft lacking in gameplay impact and versatility compared to older mobs.

Minecraft's next update, 1.21, promises to add the armadillo mob and its scute drop—an item that can be used to craft wolf armor. However, this opportunity for players to clothe their furry friends is part of a recurring issue with Minecraft's mobs.

The armadillo fought a hard-won battle for its place in the next update. It finished first in Minecraft's contentious 2023 mob vote, not only because of its cute exterior but its mechanics. With only one winner per year, players naturally want to maximize the gameplay impact of the victorious mob. The possibility to craft wolf armor with the armadillo's scute beat out both the extended reach of a crab claw and the speed boost penguins could've given boats. Given how protective gamers can be of their in-game pets, this makes a good deal of sense.

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The Armadillo Is Part Of An Alarming Trend

However, there's an issue with the pitch for armadillo scute and their application in crafting wolf armor. Not the ability to craft wolf armor itself, but the fact that this is all its pitch centers on. Whilst other mob vote winners have had some applications outside what was explicitly stated in the run-up to their release, most mobs in recent years (whether they're from a mob vote or not) have not had as many capabilities as their predecessors. Armadillos are another cute Minecraft mob with very little in the way of impacting survival gameplay. Whilst older mobs had a broad array of abilities and multipurpose drops, newer creatures are closer to one-trick ponies.

How Other Minecraft Mobs Can Make a Difference

Taking the humble spider as an example, these basic creatures set themselves apart in a number of ways. They have less health than zombies, skeletons, or creepers, but a shorter body that can help them maneuver through tight spaces. They're slightly faster than the aforementioned mobs and attack with a pounce. They can climb walls and turn neutral during the day.

When slain, the spider eyes they drop not only serve as a last-resort food source but can be used in a variety of crafting recipes, including in the creation of Minecraft's Fermented Spider Eye. That item can be brewed into Potions of Weakness, which are essential in curing zombie villagers. All of that is without recounting the myriad uses of string, their second drop.

Compare the spider to a slate of newer mobs, most of whom come after The Nether Update (1.16). Whilst that update added hoglins and piglins, which occupy an ecosystem rife with unique interactions and mechanics, many mobs that have been added since have not been so impressive. Minecraft's Glow squids act as regular squids do but with a slight sparkling effect, one that does not 'glow' but is only unaffected by light levels. Their glowing ink sac drop has a few uses in brightening sign text or item frames, but they're still punching below their weight. It only gets more egregious from there:

• The sniffer, after a lengthy process, can unearth two seeds that grow into flowers with purely aesthetic value (save for dyes that already had simpler recipes).

• Goats can leap and ram, but their horn drop only produces a noise.

• Pandas and polar bears, though from before the Nether update, have no unique drops or useful behaviors.

These examples follow a wider trend of Minecraft introducing new ideas without deepening existing systems; therefore, newer mobs that don't interact with older systems (such as spider eyes do with brewing or skeleton bones do with farming) make the game feel less holistic. There are signs of Mojang doing this with recent updates to Minecraft's bat, but to stop new entities from lacking the breadth of use found in their elders, Mojang must look at upcoming creatures from the perspective of what already exists.