The upcoming Minecraft Legends is understandably commanding quite a lot of attention. The exciting new game takes the franchise to the completely fresh genre of real-time action strategy, and many veteran fans are curious as to how the game will work.
While Minecraft Legends will of course be looking to establish its own unique identity, it should not shy away from the rich universe in which it is set. There is a multitude of core game mechanics from base-game Minecraft that would lend themselves surprisingly well to the strategy genre, and would only aid Legends in showcasing the genre in a truly engaging manner.
Minecraft's Day and Night Cycle
One of the most engaging and layered aspects of Minecraft that Legends could adopt is the iconic day and night cycle of the former, and how it could interact with the mobs at the player's command within the upcoming strategy spin-off. Many of Minecraft's iconic mobs only spawn at night, with some of them then dying from the sunlight of the following morning.
Minecraft Legends sees players combine forces with the traditionally hostile mobs of the Overworld, such as creepers, zombies, skeletons, and spiders, and it would be interesting to see sunlight prohibit the usage of some of these unit types. In base Minecraft, zombies and skeletons cannot survive in sunlight without the use of helmets, spiders enter a more docile state, and creepers are the only hostile Overworld mob that remain relatively unaffected.
This would add a very interesting dynamic to Legends, in which the traditional safety of sunlight instead becomes an inherent disadvantage to the player. Zombies and skeletons could be unavailable for use within day-set missions, necessitating a reliance on villager-based attack units instead.
Minecraft's Resource Gathering
As showcased within the Minecraft Legends reveal trailer, the game will feature a fair amount of traversal outside of battle as well as open and expansive maps. While not currently confirmed, it would make sense that the mining and resource gathering of Minecraft is translated across to Legends, opening up a variety of avenues that can influence gameplay.
Resource gathering within Legends could play an imperative role toward the confirmed base building that the title is set to boast. Players could put in the time to collect the correct amount of a certain material to create a stronghold, which could act as a base of operations or a position that needs to be defended from the invading Piglin threat. A choice could then be made between weaker but more accessible material such as wood, and much more durable but hard to gather blocks such as stone.
Minecraft's Weapon and Gear Rarities
Within the same vein of resource collection is the gathering of different crafting materials to produce better weapons and armor, a core tenet of the classic and successful Minecraft formula. Different tiers of weapons and armor could be crafted by the player and distributed among the different unit types at the player's disposal.
In the Overworld, weapons and armor can be made out of wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond, with armor also being craftable out of leather and chainmail. Stronger armor could be given to weaker mobs to increase their combat efficacy, and helmets could be given to zombies and skeletons to negate their aforementioned weakness to sunlight.
The reveal trailer also showed that the player will eventually lead their army into the Nether to strike at the heart of the Piglins. The Nether is now home to one of the strongest materials in the game called Netherite, opening up a late-game resource that should be scarce but extremely useful in crafting the ultimate gear. While the strategy genre is a completely new step for Minecraft, the core formula that has made the original game so successful clearly has many features that can be carried over to the fresh experience that is Minecraft Legends.
Minecraft Legends is set to release in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.