If you run a Minecraft server, the upcoming Minecraft game drop is one you’ll want to prepare for. Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem is landing just in time for the holidays, putting the spotlight on mounts, desert and aquatic combat, and a more polished overall experience, with features first revealed in Java snapshots 25w41a, 25w44a, 25w45a, and 25w46a, plus new mobs and an aquatic challenge.
In this guide, you’ll find an overview of all major content, a focused look at the most important bug fixes and polish changes for both players and server owners, and how to install snapshots on Minecraft servers so you can safely test Mounts of Mayhem before rolling it out live.
Snapshot 25w41a: Nautilus Zombies and Zombie Horses
In Snapshot 25w41a, various new mobs make their first appearance, along with a new combat item and new advancements for defeating the new mobs.
Nautilus
The Nautilus is a new passive aquatic mob that spawns in all ocean biomes. It attacks using a Dash attack if you attack first. The Nautilus can also be tamed with a saddle and adds the "Breath of the Nautilus" to mounted players. It can also attack pufferfish using its dash attack and can be bred with pufferfish or a bucket of pufferfish. Its weakness: it suffocates on land.
Zombie Nautilus
The Zombie Nautilus is a new hostile underwater mob that spawns with a mounted Drowned holding a Trident. If it doesn't have a hostile mounted mob, it will remain neutral. It has similar behaviour to the Nautilus except that it cannot be bred.
Spear Weapon
A brand new weapon was added that can be crafted in Wood, Stone, Copper, Iron, Gold, Diamond and Netherite versions with each material having its own durability and attack speed stats. It comes with two attack variants, the jab and the charge whilst having a minimum reach and maximum reach for damage. Being far away from a target will deal damage but being too close to a target will not deal any damage. Zombies, Husks, Zombified Piglins and Piglins can spawn holding the Spear.
Zombie Horse
Another hostile mod that was added is the Zombie Horse. It spawns in the darkness and burns to death with sunlight like other undead mobs. The horse itself is neutral towards players, unless ridden by a zombie. If the rider is killed, the zombie horses can be tamed. Untamed zombie horses will despawn like any other mob. Fun fact: they can be healed with red mushrooms and have a chance of dropping red mushrooms on death.
Updated Advancements
How did we get here? advancement now includes the Breath of the Nautilus effect
Best Friends Forever advancement now includes the Nautilus, Zombie Nautilus, and the Zombie Horse
The Parrots and the Bats advancement now includes the Nautilus
Two by Two advancement now includes the Nautilus
Monster Hunter advancement now includes the Zombie Nautilus
A Throwaway Joke and Take Aim and It Spreads advancements now include the Nautilus and Zombie Nautilus
Snapshot 25w44a: Camel Husks, Parched Skeletons and Swimming Mounts
Snapshot 25w44a is where Mounts of Mayhem really starts to show its identity. It introduces new desert mobs and mount changes that affect traversing across the world.
New Desert Mobs
- Parched – A new skeleton variant that replaces some regular skeleton spawns in deserts at light level 0. It does not burn in sunlight, fires arrows of Weakness, and uses a slower rate of fire similar to the Bogged.
- Camel Husk – An undead camel variant that spawns in deserts at light level 0, also immune to sunlight. It usually appears with two riders: a spear-wielding husk and a parched skeleton, turning simple desert travel into a dangerous encounter.
Both mobs follow husk-like spawning rules (no cave spawns), and camel husks behave like camels when used as mounts, though they cannot be bred and have rabbit foot as their favourite food.
Spear Lunge and Visual Options
25w44a also tunes the new spear weapon:
- The Lunge enchantment now consumes far less hunger (1, 2 or 3 points depending on level instead of 4, 5, 6), making it more sustainable in survival.
- Lunge now carries a durability cost of 1, placing a natural limit on constant use.
Mounts That Swim
This snapshot also updates horses, mules, donkeys and camels so they no longer sink like stones when ridden in water. Instead, they now float and can move through water at a reduced pace, making rivers and small lakes far less of a chore for mounted players.
Anisotropic Filtering
Finally, to support visual clarity on modern hardware, 25w44a introduces anisotropic filtering as a graphics option, with multiple strength levels and an explicit note that it significantly impacts video memory usage, especially with high mipmap counts.
If you want to test these features, installing snapshots on your Minecraft server in a staging environment will allow you to experiment with these additions safely and experience them first-hand, before updating your main environment.
Snapshot 25w45a: Netherite Horse Armour and Coral Zombie Nautilus
In 25w45a, Mojang rounds out the feature set for Minecraft Mounts of Mayhem with both land and aquatic additions.
Coral Zombie Nautilus
This snapshot also adds the coral zombie nautilus, a rare variant that spawns in warm oceans, replacing normal zombie nautilus there. Combined with earlier nautilus features, this deepens the roster of underwater threats and potential mounts for aquatic-themed servers.
Netherite Horse Armour
Diamond horse armour can now be upgraded via a smithing table into Netherite Horse Armour, bringing the strongest existing armour tier to your mounts.
On the technical side, 25w45a also introduces timelines for data packs: an experimental system that lets creators define how environment attributes change over in-game time, enabling custom sky colours, mood shifts and more.
Snapshot 25w46a: Final Polish and UI Improvements
Snapshot 25w46a focuses on refinement rather than headline additions, making it particularly important for Minecraft server stability.
Key changes include:
- Item and UI tweaks: Spears stop triggering item-interaction vibrations, and the nautilus plus zombie nautilus now have their own inventory UI.
- Creative inventory organisation: Spawn eggs receive a full thematic re-order, splitting entries into Overworld, Nether and End groups, with sub-categories like Mounts, Aquatic or Illagers for easier access.
- Music Toast option: The notification when music starts can now be disabled entirely or shown only in the pause menu, helping players and servers that want a quieter UI.
If you want to see how the near-final behaviour feels in play, to install the 25w46a snapshot, make sure to check out our guide on how to install Minecraft snapshots and treat it as a dress rehearsal for the full Mounts Of Mayhem release on your Minecraft server.
Key Bug Fixes And Polished Changes
While the snapshots are packed with new features, Mojang also calls out several important fixes and refinements that will be particularly relevant for anyone managing a Minecraft server:
- Mount behaviour has been adjusted so that horses, mules, donkeys, camels, zombie horses, and camel husks no longer panic when controlled by mobs.
- Nautiluses and zombie nautiluses now play a dash sound when they perform their underwater dash attack, improving feedback and clarity in combat.
- The spear weapon no longer triggers “item interact” vibrations when used, making combat feel cleaner and avoiding misleading game events.
- Spawn eggs in the Creative inventory are now sorted into thematic categories such as Overworld, Nether, and The End, with sub-groups like Mounts, Aquatic, Undead, and Monsters.
- New UI options such as the “Music Toast” behaviour and an inventory interface for nautilus and zombie nautilus help keep information more organised.
- Anisotropic filtering received balancing to improve visuals at a distance while clarifying its impact on video memory.
These changes come across the three snapshots as Mojang’s “polish pass” on the Mounts of Mayhem features, giving servers a more stable foundation to upgrade onto.
What This Means For Your Minecraft Server
From a Minecraft server perspective, Mounts of Mayhem is a content drop that changes how players move, fight and explore:
- Desert biomes become far more dangerous with camel husks and parched roaming day and night.
- Mounts now serve as practical transport across rivers and coastal areas instead of being forced to stop at shorelines.
- Underwater spaces become more attractive to designers, with nautilus mounts and zombie nautilus variants creating new event and dungeon possibilities.
- Data-pack and resource-pack creators gain more control through timelines, item atlas changes and refined visual options.
Server owners should plan world backups, spin up a test instance on the new snapshots or pre-release, and check that any plugins touching mounts, entities, AI or underwater combat behave correctly under 1.22.
Minecraft Mounts Of Mayhem Server Hosting
If you want a smooth transition to the Mounts of Mayhem update, solid Minecraft server hosting will make the difference between a laggy, crash-prone rollout and a clean, exciting launch day.
Pine Hosting specialises in game servers and offers performance-oriented plans tailored for Minecraft. With high-clock CPUs, generous RAM options, DDoS protection and snapshot/pre-release support, it is well-suited to running events for your community. Their support team can help you set up test environments, migrate worlds, and fine-tune performance so your players experience the update at its best.
Planning some mayhem for the Minecraft 1.22: Mounts of Mayhem update release? Pair that with reliable Minecraft server hosting from Pine Hosting and create a smooth experience for your community.
