Set to appear in the upcoming Trails and Tales Update, Minecraft's newest mob, the Sniffer, will breathe life in players' worlds as a new passive mob. The winner of the Minecraft Mob Vote 2022, the Sniffer is an ancient mob that can be spawned through hatching Sniffer eggs. Sniffers eggs can be found in warm ocean ruins hidden in suspicious sand, prompting players to use the new brush tool to dig out the eggs and hatch them. Once hatched, Snifflets -- the baby versions of the Sniffers --take about two in-game days to fully grow, and then they can fulfill their roles as friendly mobs.
The Sniffer is unlike any other mob in Minecraft, just bearing resemblance to farm animals due to its passiveness. The Sniffer is a gentle giant whose main purpose is to sniff and dig out ancient seeds hidden underneath the ground. These ancients seeds will grow into unique-looking plants for players to keep as decorations. At a first glance, the Sniffer and ancient seeds seem like a cute new feature, but from another perspective, they're underwhelming as a whole.
The Sniffer's Seeds and Flowers Are Cool But Weak
So far, the Sniffer can dig up two unique seeds: torchflower seeds and pitcher pods. Torchflower possess yellow and red petals resembling a small flame, and the leaves branching from the stem have purple tips, giving Minecraft's torchflowers a more fantastical design. Pitcher pods grow into pitcher plants, resembling their real-life carnivorous counterparts although with a few changes. Minecraft's pitcher plants are larger than real-life ones, as they're two-blocks in height, and they also appear in a light blue/cyan and purple color, unlike the real ones that come in red, green, or yellow colors.
Besides being cool decorations, the Torchflower and Pitcher Plant have limited uses. Torchflower seeds are used for breeding Sniffers, causing them to drop a Sniffer egg, and they can also be used for breeding chickens and taming parrots like most other seeds. Torchflowers can also be used in the creation of suspicious stew to apply the night vision effect for a short period of time, although adding a poppy into the stew applies the same effect. Pitcher plants can be placed in crafting tables to create cyan dye, which had been previously only craftable by combining blue dye/lapis lazuli and green dye.
What Can Minecraft Do to Make the Sniffer's Seeds and Plants Better
Minecraft should make the ancient flowers a lot more interesting and convenient compared to Minecraft's other flowers. After all, it takes time and effort to find Sniffer eggs, hatch them, and then find the seeds. Mojang could have torchflowers and pitcher plants be potion ingredients. For instance, the torchflower could be used to create a potion that gives players an ability like Fire Aspect but without requiring the enchantment on a tool/weapon.
On the other hand, the pitcher plant could give an acidic effect similar to Poison and Wither that could affect undead mobs and spiders. Although real-life pitcher plants are harmless towards humans and aren't actually poisonous, the liquid used in their digestion dissolves any insects that fall inside them, so Minecraft could exaggerate that effect.
Additionally, torchflowers could become light sources, given their name. Pitcher plants could serve as defensive plants to protect properties against monsters. Minecraft's pitcher plants could swallow up mobs that walk next to them every few minutes, such as spiders, skeletons, zombies, and more. It would be similar to how real-life pitcher plants swallow and digest pests, and it will offer an alternative form of mob defense from iron golems and cacti. Sniffers are adorable and intriguing Minecraft mobs, but the seeds they discover should offer much more uses for players to spice up the gameplay.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
