You read the title, we are here to talk all about Minecraft’s new content drop, Mounts of Mayhem, because today is the day! It is here!
It’s becoming common practice to get a chance to talk with Senior Product Manager for Minecraft, Anna Lundgren, ahead of a new content drop, so we were excited to hear from her ahead of another major update with Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem. This is the fourth drop for 2025 and focuses a bit more on players who are interested in mounts and combat in the game. With the tallest mount in Minecraft to date, an underwater mount, a zombie horse and more, this content drop is one players will not want to miss.
We got to pick Anna Lungdren’s brain a little to dive a bit deeper into Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem before today’s launch.
Could you give us a short introduction to Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem from your expert perspective?
Anna Lundgren: Mounts of Mayhem is the fourth Minecraft game drop of 2025, after Spring to Life, Chase the Skies, and The Copper Age. This time, we’re focused on mounted combat, with a new weapon in the spear, new mounted combat challenges, an underwater ridable mob, the survival debut of the zombie horse, and more! In short, this game drop provides new ways to explore the Minecraft world and new combat options with the spear!
What makes Mounts of Mayhem the perfect drop to end 2025 with?
Anna Lundgren: Great question! With Minecraft game drops, we try to cater to a variety of different play styles. This year’s previous game drops had things like new decorative blocks for players who love to build, the happy ghast for exploration-focused players, and the copper golem for players who enjoy organizing their items and creating redstone builds. So, with the addition of Mounts of Mayhem’s new weapon and mobs, this is a really well-rounded year of new Minecraft content for all different types of players.
How is Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem going to change the way the game is played?
Anna Lundgren: The spear is probably the thing that will affect the most players at different points in their journeys. That’s because, unlike other weapons we’ve added during the more recent years, like the trident and the mace, the spear can both be crafted by the player, and it exists in all the tiers that swords, axes, and pickaxes do (wood, stone, copper, iron, gold, diamond, and netherite). That means you can choose to use a spear as your main weapon from an early point in your journey, wielding it from the backs of camels and horses, underwater on the new rideable nautilus mob, and even later in your adventure as you swoop around with elytra.
How does the spear compare to other weapons in Minecraft?
Anna Lundgren: Being tiered and craftable like lots of other Minecraft gear makes the spear a versatile new part of the gameplay sandbox, with more reach than the sword or axe. The spear also has two different attacks, the jab and the charge, and the latter does more damage based on player velocity — the faster you’re moving, the higher your damage! That’s why it’s so fun to use in mounted combat, or even while flying with Elytra.
The spear’s unique lunge enchantment gives the player a basic dash move that can also be used as an attack. We think this will add more variety as players take on different challenges, from trial chambers to the Ender Dragon, and we can’t wait to see what players do with it in PVP battles, too.
How did the idea for the nautilus to be an underwater mount come up?
Anna Lundgren: Love that question! As we wanted to focus on mounts, both for mounted combat and for exploration of the Overworld, we felt that underwater exploration was one aspect that was missing. We were also inspired by a very early internal prototype of the happy ghast; it had a bug where it allowed the player to fly underwater! That didn’t fit for the happy ghast, but it did spark inspiration. We explored a lot of different possible underwater mob ideas before we landed on the nautilus, which we felt was just the right thing visually, and it fit in with existing features.
We have land, water and flying mounts. Has there been any more talk about new mounts in future drops?
Anna Lundgren: We hope to be able to keep adding new features to Minecraft for many years to come, so anything is possible!
Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem focuses on mounted combat, both with the spear and parched. Is that something the community has been asking for more of?
Anna Lundgren: The requests that we see from players are as varied and numerable as those players themselves — which is to say, nearly endless! However, new mobs, combat challenges and weapons are something we often hear feedback around. When we added the mace in the Tricky Trials update, players were really excited about using a weapon that felt different and created opportunities for new play styles, like dropping from up high to cause high amounts of damage. The breeze and, later, the creaking offered new combat challenges.
Now, with the spear’s velocity-based damage with the charge attack and usefulness for mounted combat, including on the underwater nautilus, we wanted to provide even more opportunities for the players who longed for more weapons and mounts.
Speaking of the community, how have they been reacting to the news about Mounts of Mayhem since the last Minecraft Live?
Anna Lundgren: The community response has been really positive, and we have gotten some very helpful feedback around the spear and lunge enchantment that helped us shape the feature together with our community. From the feedback that we’ve received, I think we’re hitting a really nice balance of frequency and size of game drops. If you look at everything we’ve added in the four game drops released this year, there’s a big variety of different additions that cater to various play styles, so no matter whether you’re an explorer, a builder, an engineer, a fighter, or something else, there’s something new for you to experience in Minecraft.
There is a lot of content coming to this drop. How does Mojang decide which content to group together, or when to release certain additions to the game?
Anna Lundgren: This is a great question, and I think it goes back to wanting to create a variety of game drops that cater to different play styles and types of players. The zombie horse is one example of what I’m talking about from Mounts of Mayhem — this mob has been in the game for some time, but it wasn’t previously available in survival mode without cheats or commands. When we started thinking about a game drop that would feature a new weapon and a new rideable mob, as well as new enemy challenges, it felt like the perfect moment to finally bring the zombie horse over to survival.
So we’re always thinking about stuff like this.
Zombie Horses, Zombie Nautilus, could there be Zombie Ghast for mobs to ride coming in the future?
Anna Lundgren: The standard ghast that players typically meet in the Nether is challenging enough for most people, but we’ll definitely note your request!
And as always, just for fun, what’s your favourite part of Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem?
Anna Lundgren: I want to say that the spear’s velocity-based damage and how that will affect combat encounters is the most exciting, but I’m also very excited about the ability to explore underwater riding on the nautilus, so I need to say it is a tie!
Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem launches today, December 9th, 2025
