It's an odd time to be a Minecraft's Spring to Life update brought changes across the board to animals, villagers, and ambient sounds, making its world even more detailed and immersive than ever before.

At the same time, perhaps the biggest recent change to the Minecraft formula has been the introduction of the Happy Ghast. Happy Ghasts are a new mob you can spawn by collecting certain materials in the Nether, then carrying out a very lengthy, multi-stage breeding process to help them grow big and strong. But once you have them, it's incredibly easy to make them overpowered in a variety of different ways. This has caused some players to cry broken, but honestly, a creature as strange and powerful as the Happy Ghast is exactly what Minecraft needed.

Happy Ghasts Completely Change Minecraft

Everything You Can Do With A Happy Ghast

Although Happy Ghasts aren't scheduled to come to all Minecraft players until the Summer Drop in June, some players have already been able to access them by playing in Preview mode (Bedrock edition) or Snapshot (Java edition). They work just like their less-happy Ghast counterparts, but can also be tamed and ridden by up to four players at once as Minecraft's first-ever flying mount.

In order to get a Happy Ghast, you'll have to be playing on one of the above game modes. Then, you'll have to find a dried ghast - they tend to spawn near nether fossils. Otherwise, you can craft one yourself by surrounding a Bone Block with eight Ghast Tears using a crafting table. Place it on a water source block to waterlog it - to make this easier, dig a small hole, put the dried ghast inside, and then pour a water bucket directly over its head.

After 20 minutes, the dried ghast will become a ghastling. This will mature into a Happy Ghast over a period of a few hours, at which point you can attach a harness and take to the skies.

You can help your ghastling grow up more quickly by feeding it snowballs.

Now, having a flying mount in Minecraft is already pretty overpowered. The main check Minecraft puts on your unfettered exploration is the simple fact that you have to walk everywhere you want to go, which takes time and bears an ever-present risk of mob attacks or falls from high places. Being able to fly anywhere you want defeats that purpose - you can pretty easily escape from most hostile mobs, or get to the top of a mountain in moments.

But by itself, that's nothing too special. In order for a player to unlock the Happy Ghast, they'll have to mine obsidian and survive the Nether - in other words, this is a late-game mount. It's not going to break the natural progression of Minecraft because it's only available near the very end of it - at least, not when it's used only as intended.

And of course, Minecraft s have found plenty of unintended uses for Happy Ghasts. Some players are using them as aerial building platforms. Others have discovered that Happy Ghasts can be made to fly faster while you're leading other creatures, improving their intentionally limited mobility. And while the creatures themselves are pacifistic and can't deal damage to other players or mobs, players like SystemNotLoaded have discovered that, using Minecraft's new leashing mechanics, you can strap a series of Creepers onto a Happy Ghast, then drop them on an enemy's base for a makeshift bombing raid.

So there are a lot of ways you can use Happy Ghasts, and it seems like the only real limit is your creativity. Many players have expressed valid concerns about power creep coming to Minecraft as a result of changes like these. What use is an Elytra if you have a flying mount? Still, this could represent a major shift for Minecraft updates, and may lead to even more fascinating mobs down the line.

Minecraft Shouldn’t Always Play It Safe

Some Updates Should Be Monumental

Minecraft updates have played it too safe for too long. While there's been some great stuff added over the years, things like mob votes have caused the game's development over time to stagnate. Its core gameplay is basically the same as it's always been. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it's certainly stayed popular, but it's badly in need of the occasional shakeup.

Things like the Happy Ghast are perfect for that: they don't take away anything from early-game progression, but do give you something extra powerful to work towards at the end of it all. That helps keep Minecraft interesting for long-term players.

It's already worked on me, even though I haven't played in a few months at least - I'm looking forward to testing out the Happy Ghast as soon as it arrives, loading up an old save and using it to build high structures. And while I'm not confident I'll be able to make it work the right way, I have to try at least one Creeper bombing run.

Happy Ghasts Could Be A Sign Of Shifting Tides

Minecraft Needs More Updates Like This One

To some extent, the Happy Ghast will probably be slightly nerfed by the time it makes its full debut - if nothing else, I expect the lead speed exploit to be patched out. But I really hope it's a sign of things to come. Future Minecraft updates should be just as expansive, offering all kinds of new options for gameplay. And I don't just want new mobs and mounts - we could have new ways to craft, new biomes, new weapons, the list goes on.

Hopefully, with this update, Minecraft is signaling that the days of mob votes are over, and it's looking to make more sweeping changes with its regular updates. It doesn't have to be every single patch, but a once-yearly refresh would give returning players a lot to look forward to, and keep bringing new players in. It'd be the best thing for Minecraft and its player base in the long run.

Source: SystemNotLoaded/Reddit