Several new mobs have been added toMinecraftover its 15-year-long history. From the elusive endermen to harmless parrots, dozens of new mobs have filledMinecraft’s many varied biomes and dimensions to enliven the game’s blocky landscape. Most new mob additions were simply added by Mojang via updates, such as guardians in the Bountiful Update, but a few mobs were chosen by the public by mob votes to populate the cubic world. While a few of these voted mobs have helped diversifyMinecraftgameplay, including allays and phantoms, one voted mob is in need of an update: the sniffers.
The History of Minecraft’s Sniffer Mob
InMinecraftLive 2022, Mojang held their sixth public mob vote where players can vote for one of three mobs to be added into the game. Players could submit their vote via theMinecraftLauncher, Minecraft.net, or through a special event server onMinecraft: Bedrock Edition. The three mobs on the ballot werethe tuff golem, the rascal, and the sniffer. Tuff golems could pick up items and move around in a small area before resting in statue form. The rascal could only be found underground and often attempted to hide from players. If players found a rascal three times, they would reward players with an enchanted pickaxe.
Finally, there was the ancient sniffer. Originally believed to be an extinct creature, thesniffer is a large, six-legged, hippo-like mobthat hatches from large red and green eggs. Once hatched, sniffers, as their name suggests, will sniff around the landscape to find ancient and unique seeds buried underground. After receiving over half ofMinecraftLive 2022’s mob votes, Mojang announced that the sniffer won the mob vote. Despite this result, the sniffer wouldn’t be officially added and interactable inMinecraftuntil the Trails and Tales update released in early summer 2023.
How to Find the Sniffer
Unlike most mobs, the sniffer doesn’t spawn naturally in the overworld. Instead, players must look forsniffer eggs hidden in suspicious sandin warm ocean ruins. Players can find sniffer eggs using a brush to excavate gigantic sniffer eggs from the sand. However, there’s only a 6.7% chance sniffer eggs will appear in suspicious sand blocks, so it may take a while for players to find one. Once found, the egg can be placed on any block on the surface to hatch into a snifflet, but placing one on a moss block can speed up the hatching process. The snifflet won’t begin to sniff out ancient seeds until it grows into an adult in about two-game days.
Besides the sniffer, the other mobs that won the five otherMinecraftmob votes include phantoms, pandas, glow squids, allays, and armadillos.
Sniffer Faults and Potential Updates
While the sniffer is an incredibly unique mob inMinecraft, it’s one of the hardest mobs to find with too few rewards to warrant the search. Sniffers only drop moss blocks when killed but can root uptorchflower seeds or pitcher podsafter sniffing around the ground. These plants can only be found by sniffers and are only used to breed sniffers and to grow decorative plants that can be broken down to orange and cyan dyes. Unlike the chicken, sniffers do not instantly produce a snifflet when bred and instead lay an egg, forcing players to wait up to 20 minutes for each sniffer egg to hatch.
Despite these faults,the sniffer can be improved upon. To make it easier to find, sniffer eggs could be made obtainable in all suspicious sand and gravel blocks regardless of where they’re located. Additionally, Mojang could allow players to feed sniffers sugar or another item to speed up their eight-minute digging cooldown to find more ancient plants. The torchflower could be made to give off a slight glow similar to glow lichen so that the plant can truly live up to its name. Both plants could be used as substitutes inMinecraftpotion making ingredients to make them more worthwhile to acquire, such as possibly making the torchflower a farmable substitute for blaze powder.
Minecraft
WHERE TO PLAY
Minecraft is a game made up of blocks, creatures, and community. You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours. But if the thought of exploring a vast new world all on your own feels overwhelming, then fear not!Minecraft has no set goal and can be played however you’d like! This is why it’s sometimes called a “sandbox game” – there are lots of things for you to do, and lots of ways that you can play. If you like being creative, then you can use the blocks to build things from your imagination. If you’re feeling brave, you can explore the world and face daring challenges. Blocks can be broken, crafted, placed to reshape the landscape, or used to build fantastical creations.Creatures can be battled or befriended, depending on how you play. The world of Minecraft allows for epic adventures, quiet meditations, and everything in between. You can even share your creations with other players, or play in community worlds!
