The Wild Update was Minecraft 1.19, released on 7 June 2022. It added the mangrove swamp and the deep dark, plus frogs, allays and the warden. Everything in it is part of the game today, so any current server has it. This guide covers what it added and how to find and use each part.
Checked against the Minecraft Java Edition 1.19 release notes and Minecraft 26.3, October 2026.
What it added
- Two biomes: the mangrove swamp and the deep dark.
- Mangrove wood, mud, packed mud and mud bricks.
- Frogs and tadpoles.
- Ancient cities, with sculk blocks, the warden and the Swift Sneak enchantment.
- The allay, goat horns and the boat with a chest.
- Echo shards, the recovery compass and a music disc called 5.
Find the two new biomes
An operator can find the nearest of each in game with these commands. They print coordinates you can travel to:
/locate biome minecraft:mangrove_swamp
/locate biome minecraft:deep_darkMangrove swamps sit in warm, humid places, where ordinary swamps generate. Mud covers the ground and mangrove trees stand on tall roots. The deep dark is far underground, so dig down at an angle rather than straight down.
Mud and mangrove
You can make mud yourself by using a water bottle on dirt. Craft packed mud from a mud block and wheat. Four packed mud make four mud bricks. Mangrove wood works like other wood, and four planks come from one log. A boat with a chest is a chest and a boat crafted together.
Frogs and tadpoles
Frogs live in swamps and mangrove swamps. They eat small slimes, which drop slimeballs, and small magma cubes, which drop froglights. A tadpole grows into a cold, temperate or warm frog depending on the biome it grows up in.
The deep dark and the warden
Ancient cities generate in the deep dark. Their chests hold echo shards, disc fragments and the Swift Sneak enchantment for leggings. A naturally generated sculk shrieker can summon a warden, so tread carefully.
- Sneak and keep out of the warden's way. If it does not notice anything for 60 seconds, it digs back into the ground and despawns.
- A warden has 500 health.
- Craft a recovery compass from a compass surrounded by eight echo shards. It points to where you last died.
- Nine disc fragments make a music disc 5.
If wardens would spoil the early game on your server, you can stop them spawning. That is covered below.
On your server
Wardens can be switched off with a game rule. On 1.21.11 and newer the rule is spawn_wardens, and gamerule spawn_wardens false stops shriekers summoning them. Before 1.21.11 it was called doWardenSpawning. Change game rules on your Minecraft server shows how to run it from the Console tab.
Everything in this update works on current versions, so you do not need an older version to use it. If you want to run the original 1.19 for some reason, you can pick an older release in the JAR Manager tab, but never move an existing world back to an older version. Change your Minecraft version or mod loader explains why.
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