Minecraft's powerful new mob just arrived in Java, and I can't wait to see what players build

The Minecraft Chaos Cubed update has just landed on the Java side of the sandbox game, and I'm already eager to see what the wealth of inventive Minecraft creators and modders can do with its incredible new Sulfur Cube mob. It's been a week since the new Minecraft update came to Bedrock, but the more open-ended and mod-friendly nature of Java means it's likely to be where we see the most unique creations. With the latest addition opening up a whole world of possible minigames, it's the most excited I've been for a Java snapshot in years.

The Sulfur Caves biome can be spotted from the Minecraft Overworld by looking out for any Sulfur Springs, which can appear on the surface directly above it. You definitely can't miss it if you're digging underground, because it's lit up in the vibrant reds and yellows of the Cinnabar and Sulfur blocks that make up its walls. Water pools in the region will have a specific block called Potent Sulfur under them, which produces spreading bubbles of gas that rise and cause nausea to anyone who stands too close. You can also craft this new resource yourself using nine regular Sulfur blocks.

It's the Sulfur Cube that makes this new Minecraft snapshot so enticing, however. Along with being another adorable, bouncing, slime-like mob, it has the unique ability to absorb other blocks that are dropped nearby. When this happens, it will stop behaving autonomously, and will instead turn into a 'ball-like' entity with properties based on the object it sucked in. If you want to restore the Sulfur Cube to its original form, simply use Shears to strip the block out.

There are currently nine possible behavior archetypes that the Sulfur Cube can turn into: regular, bouncy, slow flat, fast flat, light, slow sliding, fast sliding, high resistance, and sticky. These affect the speed it moves when hit, how much it bounces off blocks and other entities, its ground friction, air drag, and ability to float.

That opens up the potential for all manner of creative uses, such as the range of sports and minigames demonstrated by Mojang in the recent Minecraft Live. Want to emulate a volleyball, for example? The 'light' option, from wool blocks, moves slowly but bounces a lot. If you'd rather take some Olympic inspiration and attempt to emulate curling, icy blocks will give you a 'fast sliding' Sulfur Cube that doesn't bounce, but has low friction along the ground.

Alongside this, Mojang has made a tweak to the way that both Beds and Slime Blocks behave when something collides with them. It explains that this will now allow Slime Blocks to bounce mobs indefinitely, providing you have removed any air drag on them using the modifiable attribute. The developer does warn that the change "may affect player perception of the bounciness of Beds and Slime Blocks," so keep that in mind when you're building.

The new update also includes a switch from OpenGL rendering to Vulkan, although the former will continue to be used on older hardware that does not support the newer option. Mojang notes that this change will now favor using your dedicated graphics card over any integrated graphics. You can check what's being used by pressing the F3 key to pull up the debug overlay, and there's an option to set your preferred default in the video settings menu.

The Minecraft 1.26.2 snapshot is live now on the Java edition. You can also test the new update via Bedrock preview. We're not expecting the full Minecraft Chaos Cubed release date until some time around June, so you'll want to get in now if you're eager to start experimenting with everything it has to offer.