Java Edition Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1

Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1 is the first and only experimental snapshot for Java Edition 1.19, released on February 17, 2022, which adds features related to the deep dark. This version is a fork of 1.18.1. After the release of 1.18.2, deep dark features made their way into official snapshots starting with 22w11a.

Blocks

 * Reinforced Deepslate
 * A new block only found in ancient cities shaped as a large frame.
 * Is completely blast-resistant, and takes an incredibly long amount of time to mine (82.5 seconds).
 * Can be broken, but won't drop anything, even with Silk Touch.
 * Can be moved with pistons.


 * Sculk
 * Generates in the Deep Dark biome.
 * Has an animated texture.
 * Drops only experience when broken without Silk Touch.
 * When wool blocks are placed on a sculk block, it will let nearby sculk sensors know, preventing that vibration from being occluded.
 * Sculk blocks grow when a mob dies near a sculk catalyst.
 * If sculk shriekers activate three times, a warden may emerge from the sculk blocks.


 * Sculk Catalyst
 * Generates in the Deep Dark biome.
 * Emits soul particles after a mob dies within 8 blocks, and grows sculk related blocks.
 * Spreads sculk blocks to wherever a nearby mob dies. The amount it spreads depends on the amount of experience the mob is meant to drop.
 * Even if the mob doesn't drop experience as it wasn't killed by a player, the blocks would still spread based on the amount of experience it normally drops.
 * The experience will not be dropped in these cases.
 * The charge decays over time, faster the furthest away from the catalyst it moves.
 * If a charge decays more than 4 blocks away from the catalyst, it has a chance of creating either a sculk sensor (90%) or a sculk shrieker (10%).
 * If a charge decays more than 24 blocks away from the catalyst, it merely vanishes.
 * Drops only experience when broken without Silk Touch.
 * Emits a light level of 6.
 * Sculk Catalyst Bloom.gif Blooms when activated.
 * Can only spread sculk on blocks in the  tag.


 * Sculk Shrieker
 * Generates in the Deep Dark biome.
 * Has two soul-shaped patterns in the center.
 * Has the ability to "shriek", emitting ring-like/sonic particles.
 * Is activated by a sculk sensor, redstone signal or player's stepping.
 * Gives players the Darkness effect when activated.
 * If activated three times, a warden is summoned from the ground.
 * Sculk shriekers summon wardens only if there isn't one within 48 blocks.


 * Sculk Vein
 * Generates in the Deep Dark biome on the edge of sculk patches.
 * Generates in a layer on top of blocks and can be placed in all directions, like glow lichen.
 * Has an animated texture.
 * Some have parts that are transparent, allowing the player to see the block it is on top of.
 * Can be waterlogged.
 * Drops nothing when broken without Silk Touch.

Items

 * Spawn Eggs
 * Added Warden spawn egg.

Mobs

 * Warden
 * Spawns in the Deep Dark biome, specifically when too many sculk shriekers are activated.
 * It is the only mob that spawns in the Deep Dark biome.
 * "Emerges" from the ground when spawned by sculk shriekers.
 * Digs back into the ground when it doesn't sense any vibration after 60 seconds.
 * The first fully blind mob.
 * Has a sense of smell. It can detect and pathfind toward the general location of a player or mob through a "smelling" action.
 * Prioritizes smelling the player or mob that it is most suspicious of, rather than the one closest to it.
 * Has a sense of vibration. When sensing movement, it pathfinds toward the source of the movement.
 * It follows and attacks players, mobs, and other entities that make vibrations.
 * When it detects a vibration, the growths on its head rattle and light up, similar to the sculk sensor.
 * If any projectile (e.g. egg, snowball, arrow) lands near it, the warden inspects the location where the projectile landed, due to the projectile creating significant vibrations. This feature can be used in order to cause a distraction.
 * Does not detect players that are sneaking.
 * Can detect players or mobs that have the Invisibility effect.
 * Becomes more suspicious of a player or mob as it detects its location more through vibrations and/or smelling. When it suspects the target enough, it identifies its exact location, which aggravates it, causing it to pathfind toward the target to attack regardless of outside distractions.
 * Has health points and does  damage on Normal difficulty, bringing players wearing full netherite armor from full health to  health points.
 * Wardens disable shields when they hit the players with their fists.
 * The warden doesn't qualify as a target for the advancement "Monster Hunter" and isn't needed to receive the advancement "Monsters Hunted" due to its role.
 * Warden's chest has a glowing core that appears to brighten and dim in tandem with the Darkness effect.
 * The core creates a low throbbing or "heartbeat" sound as it pulses. The sound and animation speed up rapidly as the warden gets more suspicious of or closer to attacking a player or mob.
 * Is about 3.5 blocks tall, making it one of the tallest mobs in the game, exceeding the iron golem and enderman in height and width (the same).

World generation

 * Ancient City
 * Generates within the Deep Dark biome and includes all of the Deep Dark features within it.
 * Made of deepslate and its variants, basalt and its variants, and gray wool.
 * Contains soul sand, soul fire and soul lanterns, as well as candles and skeleton skulls.
 * Contains chests with unique loot, like the Swift Sneak enchantment.
 * Has different levels and open spaces.


 * Deep Dark
 * New biome at the "deepest depths of the world".
 * Tends to generate under continental/mountainous areas, exclusively within the deepslate layer between Y=-1 and Y=-64.
 * Contains Ancient Cities.
 * The floor is covered in sculk and contains all sculk-related blocks.
 * Wardens can spawn there through the activation of sculk shriekers.
 * With the exception of spawners, no mobs other than wardens can spawn there, similar to mushroom fields.

Command format

 * Controls the spawning timers used by the warden: changing it to 3 summons a warden.
 * Likely temporary/experimental due to success messages being bare translation strings.
 * Likely temporary/experimental due to success messages being bare translation strings.

Gameplay

 * Effects
 * Darkness
 * A status effect triggered by the sculk shrieker, causing the player's camera to dim in brightness, thus limiting the vision of players.
 * Lowers the gamma down at an equivalent of “Moody” while having this effect.


 * Enchanting
 * Added the Swift Sneak enchantment.
 * This enchantment can be found exclusively in chests in Ancient Cities.
 * Cannot be obtained by fishing, enchanting, or other loot chests, similar to Soul Speed.
 * Has three levels.
 * Can only be applied on boots.
 * Is incompatible with Soul Speed, Frost Walker, or Depth Strider.
 * Allow the player to walk faster while sneaking, up to 75% of normal speed at level III.

General

 * Options
 * A new accessibility slider has been added in the options menu called “Darkness Effect”.
 * It controls how dark the Darkness effect gets when a Warden or Sculk Shrieker gives it to the player.


 * Particles
 * Added four new particles:,  ,  , and.
 * has an extra parameter representing the delay in ticks before the particle appears.


 * Tags
 * Added the block tag.
 * Contains the  block tag and gray wool.
 * Added the block tag.
 * Contains deepslate, cobbled deepslate, deepslate bricks, deepslate tiles, cracked deepslate bricks, cracked deepslate tiles, chiseled deepslate, deepslate brick stairs, deepslate brick slab, deepslate tile slab, deepslate brick wall and deepslate tile wall.
 * Added the block tag.
 * Contains the,  ,  ,  ,  ,   block tags, gravel, soul sand, soul soil, calcite, smooth basalt, clay block, dripstone block, sandstone, red sandstone, and end stone.
 * Added the block tag.
 * Contains the  block tag, cobbled deepslate, deepslate bricks, deepslate tiles, cracked deepslate bricks, and cracked deepslate tiles.
 * Added the block tag.
 * Contains sculk.
 * Added the game event tag.
 * Contains the  event tag,  and.

Blocks

 * Sculk Sensor
 * Has been re-added to the creative inventory.
 * Can now only be obtained with Silk Touch, otherwise they drop experience.
 * Now always activate when stepped on, even when sneaking.

Mobs

 * Parrots
 * Can now imitate wardens.

Gameplay

 * Advancements
 * The "Deep Dark" biome is now required to be visited to obtain the "Adventuring Time" advancement.

Video
Video made by slicedlime: