Much like humanity's own space-faring ambitions, it's time that Minecraft looks up to the midnight sky instead of deeper underground to once and for all let players officially set foot on the moon. Despite being a straightforward voxel sandbox with hardly any story or objectives, the sheer creative freedom Minecraft provides its players is a testament to its status as the best-selling game of all time. But with regular updates expanding the scope of what's possible within Minecraft, Mojang will sooner or later need to go big to impress players with an update that's literally out of this world.

While fans have developed a range of sci-fi space-faring mods for Minecraft to let players explore the game's final frontier, an official update would allow everyone the opportunity to share in the experience. Moreover, such an update would rival the scale of previous updates like 1.7's 11 new biomes or 1.16's Nether overhaul, as it would bring an all-new realm to explore with a breadth of new features from adaptive gravity mechanics to alien-inspired mobs. After Minecraft has dedicated itself to pushing limits with its caves, oceans, and alternate dimensions, it seems inevitable that space will ultimately follow.

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Minecraft's Moon Is Always Just Out of Reach

The moon in Minecraft was almost certainly not intended to be something the players would one day reach, but the attention to detail behind its design does invite a little curiosity. For instance, the in-game and real-world moons share lunar phases, but these phases are more than just superficial as they influence Minecraft's mobs, through means such as the spawn rates of Skeletons, Zombies, and Slimes. So not only does Minecraft maintain an in-game day-night cycle complete with eight lunar phases, but the moon's presence and impact throughout gameplay imply that it's much more than just a texture in the sky.

Then there's also the fact that the recent Caves and Cliffs update expanded Minecraft's altitude to triple figures, but outside of standard gameplay players are still able to reach much further than this. Though players can't place blocks any higher than a level of Y-320, it's possible to reach heights that soar into and beyond the millions through in-game flight or teleportation. However, the moon remains unreachable even though Minecraft has proven it has the capacity to push its limits. But even if it's not accessible in the overworld, Minecraft shouldn't let that hold its moon back.

A New Moon or Space Biome Would Switch Up Gameplay

While adding full-blown space travel to Minecraft might be a near-impossible challenge, the moon would be the ideal compromise that wouldn't just add to the game's overworld or its alternate dimensions. If it faced any limitations for size, then the moon could justifiably be smaller than the overworld based on the real scale of Earth versus the Moon. Also, since moving vehicles are still tricky within Minecraft's mechanics, an actual rocket might not be possible for the time being, but less scientifically accurate approaches are available. Just like the Nether, the End, and even Portal 2, Minecraft could introduce a new portal to the moon.

By extension of this, Minecraft would need to continue to pull away from science when it comes to its lunar biome, considering that the real-life Moon is barren and lifeless. Minecraft's moon could instead find influences from elsewhere throughout the game, such as extraterrestrial Villagers, cosmic Slimes, or even updating and expanding the End with End Ships buried on the lunar surface. Beyond mobs and structures, new mechanics like oxygen and low gravity alongside new resources such as alien metals from meteorites for all-new gear to rival diamond and netherite could all significantly reshape the player's Minecraft experience.

Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

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