Trails & Tales

Trails & Tales is a major update released on June 7, 2023 as Java Edition 1.20 and Bedrock Edition 1.20.0. Its theme is "creativity and self-expression through representation and storytelling", focusing mostly on decorative blocks, customization options and resources for player-driven in-game storytelling and roleplay. It introduces trail ruins, the camel and sniffer mobs, the archaeology system, the cherry grove biome, and other features. The name of the update was revealed in Minecraft Monthly on March 2, 2023.

Trails & Tales

Release date	Java and Bedrock editions: June 7, 2023 Minecraft Education: August 8, 2023
Version(s)	Java Edition 1.20 Bedrock Edition 1.20.0 Minecraft Education 1.20.12
◄◄ The Wild Update Bats and Pots ► Tricky Trials (Java & Bedrock) ►► Cloud Update (Education) ►►

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    "footer": "<div style=\"display:inline-block\">\n<div style=\"display:inline-block;padding:0 .4em\"><span style=\"margin-right:-0.35em\">◄</span>◄ [[The Wild Update]]</div>\n\n</div><div style=\"display:inline-block\">\n<div style=\"display:inline-block;padding:0 .4em\">[[Bats and Pots]] ►</div>\n<div style=\"display:inline-block;padding:0 .4em\">[[Tricky Trials]] <small>(Java & Bedrock)</small><div style=\"display:inline-block;padding:0 .4em\"><span style=\"margin-right:-0.35em\">►</span>►</div><br>[[Cloud Update]] <small>(Education)</small> <span style=\"margin-right:-0.35em\">►</span>►</div>\n</div>"
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Trails & Tales logo.

“	The 1.20 update is all about self expression, specifically self expression through representation, story telling, and world building. And, it’s the journey - your trails - that ties it all together. The Minecraft worlds belong to the players – and so do the stories, or tales, about those worlds.	„
	— Agnes Larsson on minecraft.net

Notable features

New blocks

• Calibrated Sculk Sensor
  • Crafted using a sculk sensor and three amethyst shards.
  • Can be used to filter vibrations.
• Chiseled Bookshelf
  • Crafted using six wooden planks and three wooden slabs.
  • Can store books, enchanted books, written books, and book and quills.
• Decorated Pot
  • Crafted using bricks or pottery sherds.
• Hanging Signs of all wood types
  • Crafted using six stripped logs and two chains.
  • Can be placed on the wall or ceiling.
• Piglin Head
  • Obtained from piglins killed from charged creepers.
• Sniffer Egg
  • Found by brushing suspicious sand in warm ocean ruins.
  • Hatches into snifflets.
• Suspicious Gravel & Suspicious Sand
  • Contains loot that can be obtained by using a brush on it.
• New bamboo blocks:
  • Block of Bamboo and its stripped variant
    • Crafted using nine bamboo.
    • Cannot be turned back into regular bamboo.
  • Bamboo Planks
    • Bamboo Stairs
    • Bamboo Slab
    • Bamboo Sign
    • Bamboo Button
    • Bamboo Door
    • Bamboo Fence
    • Bamboo Fence Gate
    • Bamboo Pressure Plate
    • Bamboo Trapdoor
  • Bamboo Mosaic
    • Bamboo Mosaic Stairs
    • Bamboo Mosaic Slab
• New cherry wood type, found in the cherry grove biome:
  • Cherry Sapling
  • Cherry Leaves
  • Cherry Log and its stripped variant
  • Cherry Wood and its stripped variant
  • Cherry Planks
    • Cherry Stairs
    • Cherry Slab
    • Cherry Sign
    • Cherry Button
    • Cherry Door
    • Cherry Fence
    • Cherry Fence Gate
    • Cherry Pressure Plate
    • Cherry Trapdoor
• New flowers:
  • Pink Petals
    • Found in cherry grove biomes.
    • Can be crafted into pink dye.
  • Pitcher Plant & Torchflower
    • Obtained by growing their respective seeds.
    • Can be crafted into cyan dye and orange dye respectively.

New items

• Brush
  • Crafted using a feather, a copper ingot, and a stick.
  • Used for archaeology.
• Pitcher Pod & Torchflower Seeds
  • Obtained from sniffers.
  • Has to be grown like a crop.
• Pottery Sherds
  • Obtained by brushing suspicious sand or gravel.
• Smithing Templates
  • Found in various structures, including the trail ruins.
  • Can be duplicated with seven diamonds and its corresponding material
• New music disc:
  • Aaron Cherof - Relic
    • Obtained by brushing suspicious gravel in trail ruins.
• Spawn eggs:
  • Camel Spawn Egg
  • Sniffer Spawn Egg

New mobs

• Camel
  • Spawns in desert villages.
  • Support two riders.
  • Has the ability to dash.
  • Can be bred with cacti.
• Sniffer
  • Hatches from sniffer eggs.
  • Digs out torchflower seeds or pitcher pods occasionally.
  • Can be bred with torchflower seeds.

New non-mob entities

• Cherry Boat, including a chest variant
• Bamboo Raft, including a chest variant

New biomes

• Cherry Grove
  • Generates with cherry trees and pink petals.

New structures

• Cherry tree
• Trail ruins
  • A buried structure found in taiga, snowy taiga, old growth taigas, old growth birch forests, and jungles.
  • Four armor trims, seven pottery sherds, and a music disc can be found here.

New gameplay

• Archaeology
  • Allows the player to find artifacts from suspicious sand or gravel.

New soundtrack

• Four new ambient tracks from Aaron Cherof were added; all would play on the main menu until Tricky Trials.
  • "Echo in the Wind"
    • Plays in cherry groves, flower forests, lush caves, old growth taigas, and badlands.
  • "A Familiar Room"
    • Plays in any biome that does not already have a corresponding set of biome-specific music.
  • "Bromeliad"
    • Plays in badlands, bamboo jungles, cherry groves, flower forests, forests, jungles, old growth taigas, and sparse jungles.
  • "Crescent Dunes"
    • Plays in deserts and badlands.

Other additions

• Mob heads can be placed on note blocks to produce the mob sounds associated.

Further revisions

Java Edition

• 1.20.1 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.
• 1.20.2 was released to add the Villager Trade Rebalance experimental toggle and the /random command, and fix bugs.
• 1.20.3, retroactively dubbed as Bats and Pots, added experimental additions to the 1.21 update, and fixed bugs.
• 1.20.4 was released soon after to fix a critical bug involving decorated pots.
• 1.20.5, dubbed as Armored Paws, added armadillos and wolf armor.
• 1.20.6 was released soon after to fix a critical bug involving trader llamas.

Bedrock Edition

• 1.20.1 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.0.
• 1.20.10 was released to bring more parity from Java Edition and fix bugs.
• 1.20.12 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.10.
• 1.20.13 was released to fix a crash in 1.20.12.
• 1.20.14 was released exclusively on PlayStation to fix a crash in 1.20.13.
• 1.20.15 was released to fix a crash in 1.20.13.
• 1.20.30 was released to add experimental changes to the villager and wandering trader trades, bring more parity from Java Edition, and fix bugs.
• 1.20.31 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.30.
• 1.20.32 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.30.
• 1.20.40 was released to bring more parity from Java Edition and fix bugs.
• 1.20.41 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.40.
• 1.20.50, retroactively dubbed as Bats and Pots, added experimental additions to 1.21 update, brought more parity from Java Edition, and fixed bugs.
• 1.20.51 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.50.
• 1.20.60 was released to add experimental additions to 1.21 update, and fix bugs.
• 1.20.62 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.60.
• 1.20.70 was released to add experimental additions to 1.21 update, and fix bugs.
• 1.20.71 was released for an unknown purpose.
• 1.20.72 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.70.
• 1.20.73 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.70.
• 1.20.80, dubbed as Armored Paws, added armadillos and wolf armor.
• 1.20.81 was released to fix critical bugs related to 1.20.80.

World

Timeless Trails key art.

“	Minecraft Marketplace creators The Hive bring you the Timeless Trails adventure map! Become a Trails & Tales expert as you explore a cherry blossom village, delve into ancient caves, and trek across the desert on camelback to find a unique armor trim.	„
	— Marketplace description

In promotion of Trails & Tales, a free map was released on the Marketplace. Produced by The Hive, the map tells the story of an archeologist, who is able to travel through time during the night and recover artifacts during the day, visiting a Desert Bazaar, Cherry Grove, and Ancient Caves in the process. Along the way the player is able to learn various new mechanics featured in the map, including archeology, camels, armor trims, chiseled bookshelves, and growing the sniffer's plants.

Event server

“	Have you been having a sniffing time exploring the new update? I’ve hatched a snifflet, met a baby camel, and my cherry wood cottage is looking pretty and pink. But just like the girl-turned-blueberry in Willy Wonka, I want MORE. Luckily, starting in just two days’ time (!) there’s going to be a very special weekend-long event, themed around the Trails & Tales Update!	„
	— Minecraft.net description

In promotion of Trails & Tales, a free event server was released. Open from 10 AM PST June 23rd to 10 PM PST June 25th, players could explore many regions with their own minigames, including the Cherry Grove, Camel Canyon, and the Lost World, and earn many exclusive items.

Videos

Soundtrack

Aaron Cherof - "Echo in the Wind" (view on YouTube) [show]

Aaron Cherof - "A Familiar Room" (view on YouTube) [show]

Aaron Cherof - "Bromeliad" (view on YouTube) [show]

Aaron Cherof - "Crescent Dunes" (view on YouTube) [show]

Aaron Cherof - "Relic" (view on YouTube) [show]

Gallery

Official artwork

• 

  Logo.

• 

  Update logo with background.

• 

  Key art.

• 

  Key art 2.

• 

  Cherry tree valentines artwork.

• 

  Decorated pot valentines artwork.

• 

  Sniffer valentines artwork.

• 

  Animation of Steve and Makena riding a camel.

Development screenshots

• 

  Clay pots.

• 

  Ceramic shards.

• 

  An excavation site.

• 

  A sniffer with an earlier texture and model.

• 

  An early sniffer laying down.

• 

  An early sniffer at sunset.

• 

  A sniffer with its final texture and model. This image is horizontally flipped.

• 

  A sniffer in a desert. This image is horizontally flipped.

• 

  A sniffer laying down.

• 

  A sniffer in a swamp.

• 

  A sniffer in a snowy biome.

• 

  A sniffer in a plains village.

• 

  Trail ruins

• 

  Calibrated sculk sensor

• 

  Hanging sign

• 

  Armor trims

• 

  Many of the features added in the update

Concept artwork

• 

  Concept art of archaeology.

• 

  Concept art of the camel showcasing the different coloring and face shapes considered during development.

• 

  Concept art of the camel showcasing the many designs of its face.

• 

  Concept art of the camel showcasing the camel's height next to a player and three blocks.

• 

  The 2 dimensional pixel art of the sniffer shown at Minecraft Live 2022.

• 

  The 2 dimensional pixel art of the snifflet shown at Minecraft Live 2022.

• 

  The 2 dimensional pixel art of the sniffer egg shown at Minecraft Live 2022.

• 

  Sniffer concept art with rascal and tuff golem.

• 

  Colorized sniffer concept art.

• 

  Sniffer's beak sketch.

• 

  A sketch of a centipede walking which was the sniffer's walking animation inspiration.

• 

  Sniffer's walking animation sketch.

• 

  Watercolor art for the sniffer.

• 

  Watercolor art for the sniffer.

• 

  Watercolor art for the sniffer.

• 

  Watercolor art for the sniffer.

• 

  Watercolor art for the sniffer.

Trailer

• 

  Trails and Tales trailer concept art.

• Animatic of Steve, Ari, Alex, and Zuri's scene in the trailer.

• Animatic of Steve fighting the elder guardian.

• Animatic of Ari recovering a sherd.

• Timelapse of building Zuri's house featured in the trailer.

External links

• Minecraft Trails & Tales Update | Minecraft (Archive)
• Trails & Tales Update Features – Minecraft Help Center