I have a promotion running for all Patreon backers at $5 USD a month and above (the Builder rank), and you have about three days left to claim yours! Here's the original announcement if you need a refresher.

If you're not a fan of having an additional monthly bill, that's okay - an annual option now exists, which gives you a free month in value! Several currencies are now available as well, so you can pay in USD, CAD, EUR and GBP among others. This lets you know its exact worth, without the surprises that come from conversion rates.

New backers at the Builder tier or above, you get a sticker! Current backers at the same tiers, you get a sticker! Backers at a lower tier that choose to upgrade, you also get your sticker! But only until the end of the month. If you don't add a mailing address to your Patreon profile, I'll assume that you chose to opt out.

Check out my campaign on Patreon for the various options offered! If this isn't an option for you, you can also check the other ways you can help right here. Have a great day!

A message from Groovy!

Tapestries were woven, assembled, and then displayed. Dracula's castle has acquired some fine pieces of art, making the Dark Lord's eventual return all the more classy.

With that said, the top three winners of the tapestries contest:

1st place: GroovyBanana
2nd place: Doctacosa
3rd place: AndrewDowning

Congratulations to all participants, the artwork added shows the effort that was put into it! You can see the list of entries and SaneTezz's comments on the contest results page, and I invite you to tour the castle itself to see how the art was placed within.

To claim your Amazon giftcard, please get in touch with SaneTezz through Discord. I'll be handing out the Merit Points and Vouchers shortly.

A message from Kimonellos!

As some of you know, I've got an ongoing Patreon campaign to help me cover the various expenses of the Creeper's Lab and encourage me to push further. To show my appreciation, I decided to do something extra for you!

For the next two weeks, anyone who pledges at $5 USD or above (monthly or yearly, at the Builder tier) will get an exclusive Squid Beaker sticker! Of course, if you're already supporting me at that level or higher, you will get it as a thank you for your loyalty!

The next month is the yearly postcard for those that are eligible; your sticker will ship with it.

What's in it for you

Of course, you might be wondering what's in it for you. That's a fair question. In return for your support, based on your pledge level, you can get any or all of the following:

• Custom titles and custom name colors
• Fancy particle trails
• Postcards
• An exclusive access to my musings on Patreon
• And the warm, fuzzy feeling of helping the Creeper's Lab!

How it helps

On the flipside, where is this money going to? What's the goal? Here are a few concrete examples:

• The dedicated server hardware we use was upgraded multiple times.
• The monthly email newsletter requires some ongoing expenses.
• Ads are published to gather more players.
• Ultimately, open up the door for me to do this full time!

I'm planning several more additions to the Creeper's Lab in the upcoming year, plus I have another major project that's in development, so your support matters a lot. It's a good source of motivation for me to know that I can count on others to have my back!

You have until the end of the month to make up your mind and claim your sticker; don't wait too long! Also, as always, thank you!

A new minigame is now available to the lobby: Bedrock Runner, desinged by Twixxi!

This new challenge has you entering a stage. After a brief countdown, bedrock blocks will start falling from the ceiling, while lava will rise from below. Your goal is to survive the heat and the crush as long as possible!

This is designed to be played by one or multiple players at once. If teams jump in, they could be able to help or hinder each other, so strategy is key! Scores are individual and set in seconds. Head over to the lobby now to give it a try!

Once you've tried it, your best score will be displayed in your player profile. You can also compare your result to other players with the leaderboards!

Enjoy!

Based on recent feedback on the player profiles, I have two notable improvements to present to you today!

On your own player profile, the activity chart has been expanded to cover the life of your play history, back to its beginnings! You can click on any of the years below the chart to jump back. Each square represents a single day in a year; the darker the square, the more hours were played on that day.

Notable exception: the players who have been around since the near beginning only have a display starting on 31 January 2012. That's when the data recording process began!

To let the data load faster, the global statistics page was split into three sections. The first section regroups the common gameplay stats; the last one is focused on the minigames results. New is the second section, which presents a breakdown of the newly added player levels.

The first list displayed is the same one as in the global section, while the following leaderboards show the XP earned in each category along with your ranking. If you were wondering how you were comparing to others on your distance traveled, wonder no more - it's right there!

Minecraft 1.19 - The Wild Update has been released today and the network has been updated to let you play using the new version. This is only a compatibility check for now, as the new features will only be available once all our tools are in place. For now, Java players, I recommend sticking to 1.18.2 to play with us. Bedrock players, you have to update to continue.

Also of note, as of today, people playing under Windows who only own either Java Edition or Bedrock Edition can claim the other version, for free! Here's a FAQ from Mojang with more information; you should be able to redeem the one you won't have directly from the launcher.

If you're not whitelisted yet on the other edition, all you need to do is login to your Interordi Account and add your username for "Minecraft (Java Edition)" or "Xbox Live Gamertag" (Bedrock). Then, the doors are wide open for you!

As a reminder, you can also choose to link both accounts to have a single player body on the network. This way, no matter if you're playing at home, on mobile or on your console, you can have a single body and inventory that follows you everywhere! For more information, see our information page on Bedrock support and read through the "Account Linking" section.

A set of reminders for you on this Sunday!

First, we have three polls currently ongoing, where we'd love to have your feedback:

• Doc is wondering when you are usually available to participate in events!
• Coneva wants to know what you thought of last month's roleplay story and the streams!
• Sora and the team would like your opinion on future /points features!

Second, the tapestries contest is entering its last week! You have up until next Saturday to complete your work. As a reminder, the target is to place map art inside the spawling castle, as decor fitting of Dracula. For the full details, please see the original news post.

Make sure to read through the entire news post, there are some notable new features and changes found within!

Polls!

First, some feedback: we have three new polls to get your opinion!

• Doc is wondering when you are usually available to participate in events!
• Coneva wants to know what you thought of last month's roleplay story and the stream!
• Sora and the team would like your opinion on future /points features!

Kenorland: Race Away!

This month marks the return of a classic - Race Away!

Your goal, as always, is to run to the East as far as you can within the month. Get to the highest X coordinate possible; your highest position will count at the end. Don't expect to rely on horses or the Nether, as both options are disabled! Using the /pos on command might be useful; don't stray more than 1000 blocks on each side as you could be bounced back with unpredictable results.

New this month, to keep things fresh, is a different world generation from Twixxi. Those who liked to dig their way to victory might need a different strategy, while ocean boaters might run dry. Check it out!

Merit Points will be awarded in the usual model for this event: the player with the highest score will get 30 points, second place 29, and so on until the 30th player with 1 point.

Science

The agonising heat of summer returns to the Hunter's Lodge! Have a little fun in the sun with Heat Miser and the Bone Tower. Stay cool.

New Horsemen Quests are also available for all five of the Four Horsemen. Plus, don't forget to submit an application to gather tokens toward your Acolyte status!

Guilds

As with every new month, the guilds have new targets. You have until the end of this month to complete them and claim your tokens!

If you need details on any of these, the wiki page about the Monthly Challenges is updated as soon as each of these is ready at the beginning of the month!