Feed

Vaelor has wrapped up its two-week Alpha 2, and players got a lot to put through its paces. The standout addition was the Buried Castle, the server’s first group dungeon: five bosses, five lives each, and a one-hour limit. No pressure, right?

The test also covered regenerated mining with new biomes, structures and ores, plus daily quests with ten tiers and fishing competitions at spawn. Dungeon portals in the End and Nether now announce their opening to the whole server. The team says player reports helped it fix bugs, tackle lag and adjust balance along the way.

The alpha ended with an evening of custom mini-games, including Spleef and duo BedWars. Vaelor reports 34 players joined during the test, with 17 online at once and more than 570 combined play hours. The page says the server has since moved into open beta, with no reset planned—so this recap also gives you a peek at what the community tested before that stage.

Vaelor’s semi-RP beta is open to everyone, and the server’s new RPG world is ready to explore. There’s no whitelist or application, and the beta starts everyone from scratch; the team says no reset is planned, so your progress is meant to stick around.

The starting region, Val d’Aube, circles the city of Aubeval, with its castle and port. Creatures range from level 1 near the city to level 7 farther out, alongside roaming groups and rarer encounters. You’ll also find 19 characters and 91 quests, which reward solas and class experience.

There are seven jobs to level up to 100, refreshed mining and habitable worlds, daily quests, a spawn market with stalls to rent, and rebalanced dungeon bosses. The server is listed for Minecraft Java 26.3 at play.vaelor.net. Proximity voice chat is optional and available through Vaelor’s official modpack. It’s a French-language server, so keep that in mind before hopping in.

Minecraft 26.4 is shaping up to bring a chilly new place to explore: Ice Caves, an underground biome planned for cold Overworld regions. The Game Drop is still in development, so details may change before release.

The caves are described as featuring glowing ice crystals, calcite, icicles that can fall, and brittle ice that breaks underfoot. They’ll also be home to Strays and the Frostbite, a zombie variant that can throw ice balls from a distance. Its attacks build up a freezing effect, while leather armor helps protect you. Ice balls also have uses as projectiles and in freezing-effect potions and arrows.

Builders get new ice, snow, and calcite block variants. There’s also a new Flurry music disc, plus a jukebox playlist feature that uses discs stored in a chest above it. Java Edition is getting a refreshed friends list and player-management screen, too.

The changes are appearing in Java snapshots and Bedrock previews. Mojang has not announced a final release date yet.

Cookie Build has opened the public beta for Nomad Wars, a survival mini-game where the safe zones keep moving and only one player can win. You can queue with 2–8 players on either Java or Bedrock, but you’ll need to join through the game menu or use /nomadwars play; Quick Play doesn’t include the beta.

Each match starts with 30 seconds to prepare, followed by two 240-second passes. The first is peaceful, while player combat begins in the second. Gather supplies at your camp, craft gear up to iron, and keep an eye on your compass as four refuges move and eventually converge on the centre. A public forge can turn raw iron and coal into ingots, but whoever grabs the result gets it. Shared caches aren’t private storage, either.

The last survivor wins, unless multiple players remain after the 90-second final, when it’s a draw. Sunken Oasis, Forgotten Kingdom and Redrock Frontier are the three maps to explore. It’s a beta, so rules, timings and balance may still change.

Cookie Build has opened the public beta for Fat King, a team mode where gold is your score—and your king is the biggest target. It supports Java and Bedrock, with 4–8 players split into two teams; you can queue from the game menu or use /fatking play on the server.

Each team gets a randomly chosen king. Pass them gold to earn points over time, but piling it on makes them slower, and everyone’s compass points toward the king carrying the most. Your crew can mine shared gold routes, escort the king, grab food to offset the weight, or spend an ingot to contest the sanctuary and siphon some points from the leading rival.

Rounds last 15 minutes, and the highest score wins. If your king falls, the team keeps its points, but carried gold is lost. This is a beta, so settings may change after playtests; matches currently award no server currency. GG to anyone who can balance a rich crown with a mobile team.