Game Theory - Minecraft Mobs Were Created To SAVE Us!

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he explorer the new Minecraft update and what it means for the LORE of Minecraft! Credits: Writers: Tom Robinson and Eddie “NostalGamer” Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi, Tyler Mascola and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

The trial chambers fill in an important gap in the Minecraft timeline. That's right, these secret underground rooms are more than just a new challenge for veteran players. They are a window into the lives of the civilization who came before. The mobs and weapons left behind revealed they weren't just hiding underground from a monster. They were preparing to fight back. And they were doing so with the help of an unusual ally. Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that's always up for a challenge. And Mojang definitely heard that call because they've just released a new update.

and it is called The Tricky Trials. This update is designed to seriously test your metal, introducing a new structure called the Trial Chambers filled with spawners that continue to spout enemies until the trial ends. It's a nice new challenge for long-time players, especially since the last major challenge was the Warden, and now that's basically just become a plaything rather than a threat. Cheese!

I got a picture. You're not scary, are you? But of course, that's not the only thing this update offers. These chambers are filled to the brim with the stuff that we theorists love. We've got brand new mobs like the bogged and the breeze. We've got new enchantments, shards and armor trims. We've even got new offensive weapons like the wind charge and the mace, which make a devastating combo if mastered.

But the main reason this place stood out to me was because you can only find the trial chambers underground between levels Y minus 20 and Y minus 40. And with that, we have our second key word. You know when we hear the word underground and structure, that can only mean one thing. Ancient builders. original race of builders who summoned the wither and fled underground to escape its wrath. One update at a time, we have been slowly getting more clarity on who these guys were and what their story is. But we've never really known much about what life was like for them after they

fled underground until this update. Because it turns out, redstone contraptions and mysterious portals weren't their only solution to the current problem. Nor were the ancient builders the only ones who decided to take matters into their own hands. There was another group who formed an alliance with the ancient builders and the proof for all of this was right under our noses the whole time. So grab your trial keys theorists because we are going to unlock the secrets hidden in the tricky truth. Outside of the fact that the trial chambers are underground, just like the ancient cities and the strongholds, there were a few other details that tip me off to the ancient builder's involvement in these chambers. First of all is the obvious sense of craftsmanship.

It's built out of tough and copper blocks and while those raw materials are common at this adept, These variations are not naturally occurring in the overworld. Someone had to chisel these blocks to look like that. Villagers and illagers aren't capable of that, as we see their villages and woodland mansions only use simple blocks. The only place we see these types of chiseled blocks in the overworld are in places like the desert temples and jungle pyramids, which were also built by the ancient builders.

There's also the use of redstone. The trial chambers are full of redstone contraptions like dispensers and copper bulbs. In the ancient cities, we saw the ancient builders experimenting with different redstone circuits, and they'd even set up redstone traps in the jungle pyramids. So, redstone contraptions are in their repertoire. Finally, there's those all-important pottery shards. I thought these things were so uninteresting when they were first announced, but man, have they turned out to be crucial to the law of this game?

Previously, we've said how the pottery sheds were the ancient builders depicting parts of their own history, and they have been a big help in understanding different elements of this society, like the fact they were multiple tribes rather than one cohesive group. And now, the shards are here again in the trial chambers, meaning the ancient builders had to be here at some point. But some point is a little vague, and we can do better than that. In fact, we can find out exactly when these trial chambers existed in the timeline,

and it's all thanks to one thing, the loot chests. In the past, we've found chests in various structures built by the ancient builders, and the specific loot you get helps to show the development of their civilization. In the nether fortresses, you can find things like golden armor, golden weapons and diamonds. But in the end cities, they've evolved into turning diamonds into armor, and weapons, even learning how to enchant them. Over time, the ancient builders grew and developed their technology. So, depending on the kind of loot we get from these trial chambers,

we should be able to figure out where in the timeline it fits. The key items that stood out to me were the diamond chestplate and the enchanted books. Why? Because it falls right in the middle of the two points I'd mentioned. The Nether fortresses and the N-Cities. In the end, we basically have every kind of diamond armor or weapon. But here, we only have one piece of armor, the chestplate. They hadn't developed the full suit of diamond.

diamond armor while using these chambers. And that means these chambers were in existence before the ancient builders fled to the end. Which makes a lot of sense. It'd be weird if they came after because they're meant to be stuck in the end. Regardless, it also shows us that it comes after they first went to the nether. As diamond armor hadn't been created at that point, they were still using golden armor. Plus, none of the armor in the nether is enchanted. So the presence of an enchanted book in the trial chambers means they've begun experimenting with

enchanting their tools. That enchanted book also ties it to another specific underground. structure, the ancient cities whose loot chests once again offer enchanted books and a single diamond armor piece. These two places offer similar loot, showing the same level of societal development, meaning the ancient cities and the trial chambers existed around the same time. So we know when the trial chambers existed. The question now is, why do they exist? What did the ancient builders need them for? And this is where we get to talk about the new big bad mob of these chambers, the breeze. Though calling them the new big bad might be a stretch.

They're more of a nuisance than anything. They don't actually do much damage, only half a heart if they hit you directly. Instead, they use their wind-charged projectiles to throw you around the room, causing you to die due to full damage rather than actual damage. It's quite annoying, but it does make for an interesting challenge. And that got me thinking. At this point in the story, the ancient builders had been forced underground by the monster they'd created, the wither.

Their scientists were trying to figure out a way to escape using red stones, souls and portals. But what would they do if the wither attacked before then? They would need some form of defense to fend off the threat in order to buy them more time and evacuate the city. Now, the breeze isn't going to help with that. They're hostile to the player and as I've said, it can barely do any damage to the player, let alone the wither. But that's not what I think the breeze was for. Do you remember when the ancient city's released? We got that special law music disc, disc five? Well, on it, we hear this. The sound of an army marching into battle. That was the defense the ancient builders had in mind. However, you don't just gain an army overnight. You have to train

people and to do that, you would need to put them through a bunch of exercises or trials. This is where the breeze comes in. It wasn't there to fight off the wither. It was brought in to train potential soldiers to fight the wither. Just like the wither, the breeze shoots projectiles at them, sending them flying. You can't shoot the breeze with arrows either. Just like how the withers second face is immune to all projectiles. The breeze was the perfect practice dummy for their fight against the wither. And they could practice. is all of this without actually taking too much physical damage or dying. This is why they built the trial chambers.

Potential soldiers could go in again and again, learning and improving each time in order that they could protect their underground cities from the wither. And it was all thanks to the Breeze having a very similar fighting style with none of the destruction. Though, this wasn't just luck on their part. It would be too much of a coincidence for them to just find a mob that happens to do little to no damage and happens to have similar abilities to their number one enemy. No, the breeze wasn't just found like this. It was designed to be this way by the ancient builders. See, the breeze doesn't actually spawn naturally in Minecraft. It only comes from the spawners found in the trial chambers.

And in Minecraft legends, we play as the ancient builders who are shown to be able to make spawners. The Minecraft builders understood how spawners worked and how to use them to create life. They could just make a mob to help them in this situation. Except everything they made in the game wasn't new. They were golems or mobs that had existed prior thanks to the godlike beings who looked over the land. Sure, the ancient builders can make spawners, but that doesn't mean they could just make a new mob using them, right? Wrong, because we have an example of them doing exactly that. And it's with a mob that bears a striking resemblance to the breeze. While the breeze appears to have a complex design, when you break it down,

it's actually quite simple. It's an elemental mob made of rods with a cube head and it can shoot projectiles. That is identical to what we see from a mob we find in the nether, the blaze. An elemental mob made of rods with a cube head and it can shoot projectiles. We've actually had requests to do an episode on these guys, but we never really saw the point because their law is basically spelled out for us in the Minecraft mob beastieri. But for this video, it does give us some interesting insight. Quotes, the Blaze does not spontaneously exist in the Nether. Rather, it is conjured into existence by a spawning.

Just like the Breeze, Blaze also don't spawn naturally. They can only be summoned by a sparner. And those sporners only exist in the nether. inside nether fortresses. Structures we believe to have also been created by the ancient builders long ago. The ancient builders are well versed in creating these new mobs for whatever they need at that point in time. In the nether, it was likely a way to farm blaze rods for the potions we see them experimenting with on the pottery shirts. Now, they're just doing the same thing again, creating a new elemental mob that is designed to test their toughest soldiers and prepare them for battle.

There's just one block-sized hole in my perfect theory build. While this proves the ancient builder's ability to not only create spawners, but new mobs from those spawners, you can't just make something out of nothing. To make spawners in Minecraft legends, you need two things. Lapis lazuli, the magical stones that house the souls of the fallen and are the essence of life itself in this world, and the material the specific creature you're conjuring is made from. Wood for plank golems, stone for cobblestone gollums, you get the picture. Now, I suspect the blaze would be easy to make in this way, as we can see from legends that the piglins have access to blaze roars. They are a resource that exists in the nether even before the blaze come into existence. So just mix some lapis and some blaze rods and boom, you've got yourself a blaze sporner.

The trouble is, you need to do something similar in order to create the breeze. There is a new item called the breeze rod, but it is only obtainable by defeating the breeze, which only exists in the spawners that need the breeze rods to be made. But without breeze, how do you get the breeze rods to make the breeze so that you can get the breeze rods to make the breeze rods to make the breeze rods? This was quickly becoming my chicken or egg debate, and despite enjoying the odd philosophical discussion, this was starting to hurt my brain. So, I decided to put it down and take another look at some of the areas I'd already explored to see whether anything could give me some clarity. And when I did, I noticed something odd.

I was taking a look back through the loot chests, and while I'd earlier made note of the armour and enchanted books, I'd not paid attention to the weapons you're given. Despite this being a chamber meant for battle, the only weapons you get are axes, both. and crossbows. Not only is a crossbow going to be pretty useless against the breeze, but we've never had crossbows appear as loot in the chests left by the ancient builders before. This game is pretty consistent with the type of loot you get. Usually the ancient builder chests include pickaxes, shovels, swords, all things they used for mining, building and fighting. But not once do these chests contain crossbows. So why would these weapons suddenly be in the ancient builder item chests?

Simple. Because the ancient builders weren't the only ones making. the trial chambers. They had help. If you're wanting to kick your trial up a notch, you can turn the next trial into an ominous trial, which spawn harder mobs with more armor and offer better rewards, like higher level enchantment or diamond blocks. But what's interesting is the way that these harder trials are triggered. It happens by drinking an ominous bottle, which is a new item you receive by beating the trial chambers. But it can also be dropped when you kill an illiger captain. Before this update, killing an illiger captain would immediately curse you, Now, instead of cursing you, the Illiger will just drop an ominous bottle that will allow you to become cursed once you've consumed it.

With this curse, you can trigger raids or you can trigger an ominous trial. If the Illagers carry these potions, which give you the same curse that historically was given to you naturally by them, then it would stand to reason that these potions have been made by the Illagers, meaning the ancient builders were using Illiger Magic in the trial chambers. And no, this wasn't just the ancient builders killing the Illegers and stealing their stuff. Not only did the Illegers continue to idolize them after they're gone, which I'm not sure they'd do if the builders had killed a bunch of them. But if you take a look at the ancient cities, you'll find one structure that isn't like the others. One that is made up of dark oak instead of deep slates. One that looks suspiciously like a pillager outpost.

The Illegers didn't just help them build the chambers. They literally lived alongside them, working and learning together, trying desperately to figure out how to solve the problem of the wither. We've known for a while that the Illegers have been followed. and worshipping the works of the ancient builders. They learnt how to fight from them in Minecraft legends and since then they would try and do as they did, recreating their maps, beds and end portals from wool. But throughout all of this, we've always pictured them as watching from a distance, hearing the stories, but never really being involved until now.

The wither was a threat to all of them after all. No one in the overworld was safe. And so just like with the original Piglin invasion, the Illegers wanted to help. They were able to use their magic to create these ominous bottles, and because they understood this magic, were able to help the ancient builders utilize its strange effects to increase the difficulty of the trial chambers. That's why you receive crossbows and axes as rewards from these trials. Those are the Illiger's iconic weapons.

In fact, crossbows can only be found in overworld loot chests at Pillager outposts. They are helping to reward and equip any ancient builder that completes the trials, mixing in their prized possessions and strongest weapons in with the ancient builders. Sure, they might not have fully grasped all the technology that was going on, they were still making portals out of wool, but they didn't need to. They were there to provide magical support and to provide the necessary items to create the trial chamber's primary mob.

That's right, the Illagers are also the final piece to our Breeze puzzle. In 2020, there was a DLC for Minecraft Dungeons called The Howling Peaks. In it, you must head to the top of a large mountain and one of the places you encounter is called Gail Sanctum, which, if you look, is very reminiscent of the trial chambers.

Oxidized copper floors, symbols that match those of the chiseled toughblood. and puzzles all focus around the element of wind. Sounds familiar, right? But the real kicker is that when you travel through the mountain, you encounter a new kind of enemy, an illiger called a wind cooler. These guys have one very specific power.

They could create bursts of wind that push you away, just like what the breeze does with its wind charges, wind charges that require a specific item to create. Breeze rods. This is where the ancient builders got their first breeze rods to create the breeze spawner. They got them from the Illagers who had controlled. control over the wind and got them to assist in the creation of not only this new mob, but the entire

trial chambers, building it out of the same blocks and using the same types of traps in order to create something that would put all ancient soldiers through their paces. And to celebrate this collaboration, the ancient builders created one more pottery shirt inside these trial chambers. You might look at the scrape pottery shirt and think it's the new weapon, the mace. I mean, the other two were of the breeze, so it makes sense for it to be the new thing, right? Except look again, it doesn't have the right shape. No, this is the image of an axe, a symbol of the vindicator, of illagers, the people that helped the ancient builders to take down their greatest foe. So there you have it, the lore behind Minecraft's trial chambers, built as a training ground for the ancient builders to build an army to take on the whither. And it was only possible thanks to their old friends, the illogers.

They would train in the chambers alongside the ancient builders, living amongst them ready to fight when necessary. They helped make the trials harder and gave them the necessary tools to create a mob that would mimic the wither while avoiding unnecessary bloodshed. But that's not where the illogers help ended. They set up outposts on the surface to keep watch. They had their goat horns at the ready, which could be heard from miles around, ready to alert everyone down in the caves if the wither was close by. But despite all the peace and harmony between these groups, we know how it ended. The wither would breach the ancient city. Clearly, all their training wasn't enough.

As a last ditch effort, they summoned the warden who defeated the wither, but would all. also go on to kill many of those who lived in the ancient cities, builder and illiger alike. Eventually, the ancient builders went deeper into the caves, hiding in the strongholds, abandoning what was left of the ancient cities and the trial chambers, and finally they ran away to the end. However, word never made it to the illogers on the surface. They patiently waited to hear from them like they always had, until eventually it was clear they weren't coming back. They'd been left behind.

So, they tried to bring them back. They gathered a lay like the ancient builders used to have during the days of legend. They created more dangerous mobs. They built their own portals, all in the hope that the builders would return. But they never did. That is why the Illagers now attack the player today, because you are a reminder of what they lost. Not an all-knowing God with a mastery of building, but a friend.

And lashing out at you is just an easier way to come to terms with the truth. Not only were they never coming back, but they left them behind to die. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.