Given the huge amount of success that Minecraft has enjoyed, it is no wonder that the core gameplay of the sandbox title is considered to be so varied and engaging. With the core tenets of random generation making the title so unique and replayable, there is a near endless amount of content for players to explore and enjoy.

One fun aspect of Minecraft's random generation comes in the form of armored mobs, which give an unpredictable level of random difficulty and reward to combat encounters in-game. With that being said, there is clear room for improvement when it comes to how armored mobs are implemented to the game, as a more structured and purposeful approach could make for much more rewarding gameplay.

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The Current State of Minecraft's Armored Mobs

minecraft armored zombie

While amor has long been a core gameplay mechanic of Minecraft, the concept of mobs spawning in-game wearing certain armor variants is a slightly newer addition to the game. With complete random chance, certain mobs such as zombies and skeletons can spawn wearing a variety of leather, iron, gold, chainmail, and diamond armor pieces. The quality of mob armor as well as how much armor a mob wears is influenced by the difficulty that the user is playing on, making armored mobs more formidable opponents at higher difficulties.

The armor that these mobs wear can even hold several enchantments, and have a chance of dropping as loot for the player when the mob in question is killed. While this difficulty-sliding already offers a level of direct intent for armored mobs, there is a lot more work that can be done with this game mechanic to make it much more rewarding and driven.

Potential Changes to Minecraft's Armored Mobs

armored piglin minecraft

While the randomness of armored mobs should still be maintained, changes to this particular game mechanic should see armored mobs be given guaranteed spawn points within certain structures and strongholds. For example, armored mobs could be guaranteed spawns in dungeons to denote to the player that more attractive loot can be found within. This could even correspond with the type of armor that mobs are wearing, with leather armor indicating moderate level loot and diamond armor indicating the best dungeon loot possible.

This same formula could be applied to Piglins within Nether Fortresses, and even to a room-by-room basis within End Strongholds. One of the primary complaints that players have with the current state of armored mobs in Minecraft is that there is very little reward to actually engaging in combat with them, with there being a small probability that the mobs will actually drop their armor as loot. Even if armor is dropped, it is often of such little durability that it is not worth even holding in a player's inventory.

The aforementioned changes would see a much higher frequency of armored mobs in the title, and subsequently a much more substantial level of reward should be present. This could be done by increasing the probability of mob armor being imbued with powerful enchantments, as well as increasing the likelihood that this armor will drop as ground loot with more comprehensive durability.

Like the current parameters of armored mobs, these changes could still scale with the difficulty that the player has chosen, meaning that there is still a solid incentive for players to brave more difficult gameplay experiences. While armored mobs are already an engaging aspect of Minecraft, a more driven and purposeful implementation of the game mechanic would be a very welcome change to the successful title.

Minecraft is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and legacy platforms.

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