Mojang released today the latest version of Minecraft, the Village & Pillage update. While I know that many of you are waiting to explore and discover the new elements, the servers will remain on 1.13 until we're ready to properly make the switch. Thankfully, the technical changes are minimal this time around, so this should happen relatively soon. Keep an eye on this space for more information!

For the previous three event releases of this series, please click the following links:
Wychwood | Snowhead | Shattered Sands

It’s April 1st and time for another Horsemen Event! April Fools! There were some... delays of a physical and non-physical matter, but it’s time now.



Located within the vast ocean surrounding the Castle of Death, the Shoals of the Departed await any who have braved the previous three Horsemen castles.

Death’s castle can be accessed like the rest, through the warps at the Citadel or the top of the Keep of Time during Events Night, or via the Nether using the second floor of the Lemuria Nether Hub. The hub itself can be accessed via the first floor of the Eden Bay station on the Southern Mainline.



The main attraction here is a massive storm cloud in the middle of the ocean, the Tempest of the Divine; containing the very Gods themselves. What you’ll find there… you’ll have to find out for yourself. Especially if you check into the two new story chapters, accessible soon.

To reach this storm, you must navigate through the ancient city of Laputa, an island castle floating over the north of the ocean. Find the hidden keystone (pictured above), summon the Guardian of the World, and use its treasure to open the gate to the gods.

An entrance to the floating island lies somewhere on the ocean floor nearby, unless you reach it by… other methods.

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In addition to the storm, several shipwrecks and all manner of ocean ruins are spread throughout the ocean. The shipwrecks provide ‘keys’ which can be used to unlock the ruins and their treasure, provided you can find which key matches which ruin. Be warned, however, as the ocean here is teaming with danger- and just as many prizes.

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Hunter's Lodge
Due to the late release, last month’s raid boss will run the remainder of this month. And lucky that, the event item - the Mythical Lake Gourd, which can no doubt help in the oceans.

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UHC
This month’s challenge, for those that haven’t discovered it yet, is UHC! This new map features quite a few mountains along with large mysterious boulders scattered all over the place. Supplies should be plentiful, so please give it a shot!

I've pushed a series of improvements to the website to polish up the new version that was launched in January. These include higher resolution images for mobile and 4K display users, corrections to the sidebar and improved navigation among other things.

I've received little feedback on the website changes since the last revamp, and I'd like to hear from you, especially if you're viewing the site on your phone or tablet. Is there anything that stands out, in good or bad ways? Something that'd still need to be improved on? Please reply to this post to let me know!

The month is over, and the results are in! Here's the final score on the targets completed by all players who participated in the Grindatron.

Raegal: 93
GingeKoda: 78
Doctacosa: 65
Coneva: 58
Pteryx: 40
MineshaftBob: 19
axe_y: 6
AlexTheTrain: 2

Raegal keeps the lead in score, while several others were worthy competition. Congrats everyone! Each player earned his score in Merit Points, and the global leaderboard has been updated.

The Grindatron has proven to be popular and it'll be back later as part of the rotation of challenges. If you have improvements or suggestions on what could be changed, please speak up!

Our main resource pack was updated tonight thanks to Sphenicus. If you're set to auto-download, you'll get it the next time you connect. Otherwise, you can grab it from the resource pack page. Here are the changes straight from the horse's mouth:

"Updates include some changes to paintings, a fourth song for the nether, some new mob sounds, and a lot of new fun and excitement for the End in the form of a long awaited request, including a new surprise when you leave the End for the first time. Be sure to have your music volume turned up the next time you go to kill the dragon or travel the nether rails! And remember to sleep regularly :)"

Did you know that we have a monthly email newsletter? It's true, and you can subscribe to it for some exclusive content!

Every month, we send out an email to all those who have chosen to received it. Found within is a recap of the major news items for the past month, a summary of the ongoing events, a new render, an interview with an established player, and more! As a sample, here is this month's newsletter, which was sent out yesterday.

Interested? You can subscribe today to make sure that you don't miss the next issues!

As announced before, the new version of Cimmeria is now live! The spawn town, Aditus, has been migrated over while everything else is new. Note that this world features a nice variety of oceans and is a great spot for fishermen and coral hunters!

At the same time, Tasmantis has been retired after serving us well for a few months. Farewell!

The Grindatron is back at long last!

This challenge was popular in its first iteration, and I was looking forward to bring it back. Like many other things, it needed a partial rebuild to work properly under Minecraft 1.13. I've worked on that over the past month, and here's the result! The full details are below, for new and returning players alike.

What's the Grindatron?
The Grindatron is this month's challenge, accessible from the lobby. It takes place in its own world, with a fully separate inventory. Every few hours, a new goal happens in the form of a block or item that needs to be provided at the spawn point. Provide the item in time, you get points! However, each action you perform (moving, digging, placing blocks) drains your energy, which is limited!

How it works
Every four hours, a new target is given. For example, "2 x bread", "64 x dirt", or "1 x gold pickaxe". Your goal is to obtain this item and place it in the enderchest that's located at the spawn point, near coordinates 0, 0. If you do it right, you'll get a confirmation and can either continue freely playing to gather more supplies, or wait until the next target appears. You can get a confirmation of the current target by entering /target.

When you're ready, drop the item(s) that are part of the current target in the enderchest, in a single stack. If you're correct, the items will disappear and you'll get a confirmation. Be careful: any and all objects placed in the enderchest at that time will be removed, including those that are not related to the current target!

You only have a limited amount of energy available, which refills at the end of each cycle. The following actions will cause an energy drain:
- Moving around (riding a vehicle cuts the drain by half)
- Breaking blocks
- Placing blocks
- Dying (large drain)
- NEW: Fishing

Once you run out of energy, you'll move way slower, won't be able to break some blocks, and all around will be exhausted. Don't get caught in the open when that happens! New limitations apply: drinking milk buckets is no longer possible when exhausted, so you can't clear the effects temporarily, and fishing will no longer return items.

The interface
Here's a look at what your gameplay screen will look like:


If you break your streak, you'll restart from day one. Staying online doesn't count, as well as accessing other worlds: you need to leave and rejoin the Grindatron for your presence to be counted.

The targets
For the initial round, I created all the targets manually. This time, I've prepared a system that automatically generates them on the fly, with a wider variety. Nearly all items are possible as targets, but I've assigned each one a rarity value to ensure that things like "64 x Nether star" never happen. "64 x stone" is possible, though!

If you believe that one of the targets generated is impossible (for example, "64 x snow balls" since you can only stack these up to 16), please let me know and I'll make the necessary adjustments!

Prizes
Each succesfully completed target will net you one Merit Point, giving you a chance to increase your score very quickly! Remember that we've got new uses for the points, too!

Duration
This new challenge will last for the entirety of March. Have fun!

It's been a while since we've had a friendly competition, how about trying something new?

You're all invited this Saturday for boat racing in Central! I've designed a new racetrack using Central's canals, which now form a loop. Put your navigation skills to the test, and see who can come up ahead of the pack!

A few quick rules:
- The first player to complete 3 loops wins.
- You must ride on boats, not swim! If you fall off, quickly jump back in.
- No attacking other players' boats!

Each participant has to bring in two diamonds as an entry cost. The winner of the race will win the pot, along with 10 Merit Points! Second and third place runners will get 6 and 3 points respectively.

The race will begin at 10pm Eastern time this Saturday, in Central, and you're all invited to join us for some fun! You can show up starting from 9 if you want to discover the track or practice on it ahead of time.




See you then!

For the previous two event releases of this series, please click the following links: Wychwood | Snowhead


It's about that time again; time for another one of the Horsemen Event areas to go live, and this one is quite the addition.




Located in the desert region around War's castle in the west, this event area covers the smallest surface area out of them all- yet contains more content then both the previous events combined!
The desert surface itself is its own battleground, teaming with endlessly spawning Husks alongside War's own personal troops, the Golden Army.
War's castle can be accessed like the rest, through the warps at the Citadel or the top of the Keep of Time during events night, or via the Nether using the first floor of the Salad Facts station on the Western Mainline.



The main attraction here is the massive mine located beneath the castle, called 'The Heart'. The mine has been split into 5 distinct areas; the 4 corners have been taken over by different factions of different God followings, while the center remains neutral- as it contains the access the warden of the mine, the avatar Telos.
Why do I care about any of this, you ask? WELL, let me tell you a tale. This dungeon allows you to grind for, and assemble, four different armor sets that surpass diamond armor! Their enchantments, as well as armor rating/toughness exceed what is naturally available to diamond. Along with that, the armor is unbreakable - it will never take damage! Each of the four sets have their own advantages and drawbacks, so choose wisely; or go nuts and aim for all four!
Along with these amazing armor sets, as well as a wealth of other items available, four weapons can also be discovered and awakened that are said to have been used by the gods themselves! In other words, they're the most powerful weapons currently available across the game! (Within reason, of course).

Now you may be thinking, "...what's the catch." And you'd be right! These armors and weapons will be no simple task to gather for and create. Such is their challenge, that we're actually providing a quick guide here on how to obtain them (And something more detailed in the future.):

1. There are 4 main items needed to be obtained from the dungeon in order to gain these legendary items: Dormant Armor Fragments, "God" Crests, Anima, and the Dormant versions of the four weapons.

2. God Crests are the easiest of the 4 to get, and naturally that means you'll need the most of them. A litany of mobs occupies the four corners of the mine, and each can be seen holding the crest of their respective gods. Slaughter them in great numbers, and you'll have all the crests you could ever want! (There's a few other uses for rests, so don't shy away from any extras if you run into them!)

3. Among these crest-dropping mobs will be another type of mob, a 'door guardian' that holds a key to a further room in each area. These rooms hold the Generals of the factions and are effectively miniboss fights. On defeat, these minibosses will (always) drop 2 Dormant Armor Fragments, which can be traded in fair numbers for Dormant pieces of armor at the dwarf Brok, in the main area.

4. Along with the Dormant Armor fragments, the Generals have a chance to drop 'Shards' also named after their patron gods. One shard from each area can be combined at 'The Watcher' to form a Priw Mundi carving, which allow access into the World Tree at the center of the mine (Brok can also craft these shards using Dormant Armor Fragments and God Crests). Beyond that, you will find the warden Telos waiting for you. He is the main (and only) source of Anima within the dungeon, as well as how you obtain the Dormant Weapons
Be warned, he will be the hardest fight yet!

5. Anima can then be refined at the dwarf Sindri, along with God Crests, to a Refined Anima in the flavor of whichever god the crests belonged to. This Refined Anima is then used to awaken the Dormant Weapons, or the Dormant Armor Chestplate of that same god. The remainder of the armor pieces are completed directly with crests- this final step for either item is performed at that god's 'Chosen', accessible via the "Island of the Chosen' warp in the mine's center area.

There's no hiding that it's quite a bit of work to get these treasures, but, as you'll see for yourself, they're highly worth it. If you're ever lost on what to do or where you are in the creation process, feel free to ask any of the Horsemen- or, check the villagers themselves, and they can more or less guide you on what they want for what pieces.

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In addition to the mine, there's also another few areas within the desert... one in specific is worth noting - The Fight Kiln! This area lets you fight against, and collect rewards from, endless waves of TokHaar golems- which you can read more about in the new chapters for this event! Chapter 4 and Chapter 5
There's a fair few prizes you can collect from their NPC, some that could even help you out in the mine! Be sure to take a look!

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Hunter's Lodge
The Hunter's Lodge has also been updated with a new raidboss for the month, retiring Santa and the two guests from the Overlook Hotel. and this is one taaall order! Stop by and take a look for yourself!

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UHC
New entries are being prepared to be added to the rotation of challenges. For this month, you get a new UHC world, with a custom map featuring a large mesa, high cliffs and deep valleys. Vegetation is scarce but plentiful enough to supply you! Good luck!