By Maddox Brown
Salutations:
Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, will be releasing a big update sure to excite a lot of avid Minecraft fans. In the middle of 2021 and around the holiday season, they are releasing the ‘Caves and Cliffs’ update, bringing new features into the game, such as new mobs, ores, etc. I am fairly ecstatic about this update, as it will introduce more features for me and others to get hooked on.
Let’s start with the mobs of the update. They will be adding four new mobs: the Warden, the Goat, the Axolotl, and the Glow Squid. 
The Warden, the newest hostile mob to be added to the game, will present new players as well as veterans with a challenge when entering the dangerous caves. They are also the first “blind” mob, only reacting to sound from the player as well as from other entities. I am especially excited about this mob because it is deadly to any player, no matter what armor you are wearing. It is best to not aggravate this beast as the more you hit it, the more it grows stronger—dealing up to 15.5 hearts of damage. It will also gain gradual speed. The best way to avoid the Warden is by sneaking past it as you will not generate any sound. You could also throw certain projectiles, like snowballs, to trick the mob.
Goats will be a neutral mob, only attacking when provoked. They will spawn mostly in snowy slopes and mountainous biomes. When provoked, they will ram charge you with extreme force so it’s best to let them be. They can jump up to two blocks high, instead of the usual one block most mobs (and even us with no potions) can reach. When encountered with a hole in the ground, or layers of snow, they will, and I am not bluffing, jump up to 10 blocks high.
If you love the presence and looks of axolotls, then you will be hyped to know that they are coming into Minecraft with this update! They’re aquatic passive mobs that will aid you in your journey through lush caves. They do this by attacking aquatic mobs (even drowned) except for turtles and dolphins. You can bring a whole group with you to take on the Elder Guardian. As you may have guessed from the previous sentence, they spawn in the waters of the lush caves. They spawn in different color variants such as brown, blue, cyan, gold and leucistic. You can also ‘tame’ these beauties by simply capturing them in a bucket and placing them near your house. 
Last, is the glow squid. It was decided on in a mob vote by the Mojang team, choosing between it, the Moobloom and the Iceologer (Chillager). I personally wanted the Iceologer to win the vote, but I am happy nonetheless. Like the axolotls, they are passive creatures that spawn naturally in underground water sources and deep ocean biomes. They don’t really do that much other than looking pretty good aesthetic-wise, and if you’re wondering, no, it does not glow outright, but its texture and the fact that it emits cool particles (as the picture shows) is cool anyway. They and axolotls are not good friends—as proven by the fact that axolotls do attack them—so if you want to make an aquarium, please separate these two mobs. The glow squids themselves are pretty useless, but their drops are fairly good. They can drop up to 3 glowing ink sacs that can be used to create flowing texts on signs, and glowing item frames. 
Now it’s time to transition to the blocks that’ll be added in the update. Because of how vast the blocks that will be added are, I will be talking about the biggest ones of the bunch. The biggest of the blocks is the Deepslate. They will completely replace stone blocks at the lowest levels of world generation, which by this update will be known as the “Deep Dark”. They, to the iconic stone, will also drop it’s cobblestone version called “cobbled deepslate”. These take longer to mine than stone and ores that are surrounded by the block, and will have a totally new texture.
Azalea flower leaves and blocks are found lying on top of moss blocks in lush caves. They can be broken practically instantly with any tool and even by hand. They can be used as sufficeable fuel for furnaces. Additionally, they can also be found on Azalea trees, trees that spawn on the surface above lush caves. 
They are also adding a new ore to minecraft: Copper. Like Iron and Gold, it can be mined and smelted into ingots. Copper can also be crafted into various building materials like slabs and blocks. Despite that, I would probably not use them myself, due to the fact that after a certain amount of time, the Copper materials decay and turn sort of blue.
Sculk sensors will also be a new addition to the team. Here’s a fun fact: The materials in Sculk Sensors are also found in the composition of the Warden; in fact, they are found where it dwells. They are an incredibly unique block. They can detect sounds forming vibrations when it detects it. They can also generate a redstone signal whose potency is determined by the volume of the sound that is being detected. 
The last block I will be talking about will be Dripstone. Like sculk sensors, they are also unique in their own right. After they’re placed, over time they will form “pointed dripstone”. Pointed Dripstone is also called stalagmites and stalactites. Stalagmites are formed when pointed dripstone is positioned to the ground facing the sky or ceiling. If you happen to be unfortunate enough to fall onto them, they’ll do damage to you. Mobs that don’t take fall damage and if you set the gamerule: fallDamage to false will not take any damage from stalagmites. Stalactites have relatively the same function as stalagmites but are found on the ceiling facing the ground. They can grow to pretty long lengths, putting that decorative feel into the mixture. They can also drip water or lava, depending on what dimension they’re placed in. 
Gamers will discover that there will also be new cave generation in the upcoming update, generations that’ll make you want to live in those caves. Due to this, Mojang will increase the height limit of the average world to 320 blocks instead of the past 256 blocks. There will also be archaeology in the game now as well, allowing players to find excavation sites in their worlds, and start digging to look for various rewards and entities.
