The latest Minecraft update, version 1.19, was released on June 7, but it hasn't fixed all the problems from version 1.18. Dubbed The Wild Update, it primarily focuses on the game's swamp biomes and introduces several features first planned for Minecraft 1.18, including the Warden mob and the Deep Dark biome. While The Wild Update mostly stays true to Mojang's promises and even goes so far as to fix several of the problems Minecraft players had with the Caves & Cliffs update, as evidenced by the lengthy list of bug fixes on Minecraft 1.19's changelog, there are still a few areas where it falls short. Not all of Minecraft 1.18's issues have been resolved as of 1.19, though some are more significant than others.
First announced during Minecraft Live 2021, The Wild Update was set to overhaul Minecraft's swamp biomes completely, adding new blocks, mobs, and even a previously unseen tree and wood type to the game. Some of these additions include the winner of Minecraft's most recent community mob vote, the Allay, and the long-anticipated introduction of frogs. Also coming to Minecraft 1.19 is the Deep Dark biome and its new enemy, the Warden. Both were initially announced as part of Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update but were delayed due to difficulties during development. In addition, the Ancient Cities structure can be found in the Deep Dark biome now, as well, allowing players to find new rare pieces of loot as they're wandering. Overall, The Wild Update provides a great opportunity for players to get back into the game and find new areas to explore.
That said, despite all the changes that came with Minecraft's The Wild Update, many Minecraft fans still feel there's much to be desired. Mojang has drawn criticism from the Minecraft community in the past for promising too much and providing too little in the form of updates, especially in comparison to Minecraft mods, the majority of which are much larger in scope than any of Mojang's official Minecraft releases. Unfortunately, The Wild Update is no exception. Although Minecraft 1.19 includes plenty of bug fixes, some Minecraft players feel that the game's developers could have gone further in improving the overall gameplay experience. For example, several other features were postponed from Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update that have yet to see the light of day, even as of 1.19.
Minecraft 1.19 Doesn't Have Enough Variety
Minecraft's overworld biomes are arguably one of the most important aspects of the game. Most Minecraft players will spend most of their time in the overworld, exploring and gathering different resources to help them complete build projects. As a result, it's little wonder that so many dedicated Minecraft fans regularly push for improvements in the form of new biomes - such as the Lush Caves introduced in Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update - or overhauls to existing ones. Minecraft's mountains were the last biome to receive an overhaul, again as part of Minecraft 1.18, and The Wild Update was supposed to alter both its swamps and its birch forests. Concept art showed new flowers, shelf fungi, and fallen logs.
Unfortunately, it seems as though Mojang removed several features from Minecraft's The Wild Update. Improved birch forests are nowhere to be found, and one of the new mobs set to be added to The Wild Update, the firefly, was removed entirely for fear of endangering real frogs. One of Minecraft 1.18's largest problems was that, despite all the changes made to the game's mountains and underground biomes, the majority of the world felt lacking in unique features. Although Minecraft 1.19 does take steps to change that, it still leaves players wishing for more. Unfortunately, major biome additions and overhauls are few and far between. Even new mobs are typically only added one at a time.
Minecraft 1.19 Still Hasn't Added Bundles
One of the most anticipated Minecraft Bedrock edition is cited as the primary reason for this delay.
That isn't the only Caves & Cliffs feature that's yet to be added into the game properly, though. Archaeology was similarly announced and then excluded from the most recent Minecraft releases. Through archaeology, players would have been able to uncover rare artifacts such as ceramic shards, which could then be pieced together into items like painted clay pots. Functional fletching tables, which have been in the works since as early as Minecraft 1.16, have been similarly pushed back with no word as to when exactly this feature might appear in the game. Although plenty of more minor bugs have yet to be entirely patched with the release of Minecraft's The Wild Update as well, it's more disappointing that these significant elements are still missing when 1.19 would have been an excellent opportunity to add them.
Copper Is Still Useless In Minecraft 1.19
Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update added several new items into the game. Deepslate and powdered snow are a couple of common examples. However, amethyst and copper ore are two of the most notable of these elements, helping to add more variety to caves and other underground areas. Unfortunately, their functionality once they've been retrieved is much more understated. Despite being one of the most common ores in Minecraft, copper has also quickly come to be considered one of its most useless. Players can't craft armor out of it, and it can't be used in other recipes, except for a couple of Minecraft items like lightning rods. At best, copper serves as a decorative block rather than an ore with practical use.
Amethyst faces a similar problem, useful only in the case of crafting spyglasses or serving as decoration in unique builds. Given that Minecraft 1.19 did at least make some of Minecraft 1.18's additions more overtly useful, such as adding in goat horns, it feels like a missed opportunity to not give proper functionality to the far-more-common copper and amethyst blocks. Although fortunately, most of Minecraft 1.18's glaring issues have been fixed thanks to the patches that have been applied post-release, from texture problems to strange mob behaviors, players will have to wait and see if future Minecraft game updates help smooth over the rest of its more disappointing areas.
