Game Theory: The Forgotten War of Minecraft (Minecraft 1.19 Update)

Portion of this video is sponsored by squarespace the wither the second boss of minecraft a haunting floating nightmare that’s eluded all explanations since its introduction back in 2017 the ancient builders a civilization lost to history their works brought to ruin and their name eroded by time the warden the

Newest threat to this world a creature of blind rage engulfed in shadow an unstoppable force fueled by souls and empowered by darkness three groups three distinct mysteries waiting to be solved and all of them united by this hello internet welcome to game theory the show that can’t wait to hear you

Click that subscribe button is it safe are we okay so sorry about that i kind of forgot the warden was a thing but can you blame me the warden was due to come out in the summer of 2021 but then the deep dark ended up getting removed from

The update which itself got split into two parts speaking of two parts no don’t worry this episode isn’t a two-parter but we do have ourselves a second minecraft video happening today over on food theory that’s right we got ourselves a minecraft weekend y’all well here we’re busy dissecting the latest

Editions from the wild update over on food theory we’re talking all about the dream smp which honestly doesn’t sound very foodie but then dream decided to go and kill tommy in it using a potato and you know where there is murder to be had we’ll probably find a way to make a

Theory out of it so head on over there for all your potato murder needs after you’re done with this video because first we gotta finish talking about the warden as of this week it has finally launched as part of the wild update according to mojang not only have the

Mechanics of the warden been refined but they’ve added new blocks to the deep dark new items and oh yeah we’re also getting one of the coolest most complex and interesting structures ever created in minecraft the ancient cities based on the name alone this seems like the thing that we’ve been theorizing about for

Years oh victory has never felt so good but you know what feels even better than being right have a new lore to chew on mojang understands that you don’t just drop an entire underground city complete with giant burning portal frame into your game without considering what it’s

Doing there from a story perspective and similarly you don’t just introduce the single strongest mob to guard it without factoring in the rationale for placing it there so our question is why what does all of this mean for the secret story of minecraft how do these disparate parts wind up working together

Well shockingly not only is everything here connected but all of it is also tied to one of the longest standing mysteries in the game the wither but to decode it all we actually need one key item an item that’s been broken up and hidden throughout all of these updates something innocuous something

Unsuspecting a simple music disc everything is unlocked through this one disc so what is the story of the deep dark and how does it tie into the narrative that we’ve been building over the last three years strap in friends cause today we’re diving in deep to tap

Into the darkest lore of minecraft first let’s talk about the skulk when the skulk family of blocks was originally announced in 2020 we understood the basics a skull sensor reacts to noise and when it does it alerts a fearsome monster known as the warden to your exact location two hits later you’re

Dead son but now we have more details and what we’ve learned is disturbing to say the least a new block called the skulk catalyst basically takes in energy to transform the blocks around it into other skulk blocks that’s how this creature is able to spread but it begs

The question what energy is it using to convert these regular blocks well this ain’t your grandma’s moss blocks that you can just bone meal around my friends these things take something a bit more potent than that the souls of the living you see if a mob dies within eight

Blocks of the catalyst the mob won’t drop xp orbs instead souls appear above the catalyst at which point the skulk spreads to new blocks remind me where have we seen souls in relation to this update before oh yeah the warden in the middle of its chest we have what looked

To be the faces of three trapped souls now in our last theory we speculated that wardens were created using a combination of skulk and souls in order to protect the underground cities however i’m not so sure anymore back in 2020 we got this tweet from 1.19 developer brandon pierce which says

Quote you could definitely argue that the skulk in general is sentient now we just talk about how when a mob dies near the skull catalyst it creates new skulk blocks but it can also create a new block called the skulk shrieker this block is the key because not only does

It have souls swirling around inside of it thereby confirming that it’s being created from the souls of the dead but it also makes these sounds that’s fine i didn’t need to sleep tonight minecraft is totally a kids game anyway that shriek isn’t just signaling that i have to take an adult diaper

Change when it goes off you’ll hear another noise the sound of something burrowing up to the surface that something is the warden so what am i saying here well i’m suggesting that the warden wasn’t created by the ancient builders to protect themselves instead i think it was made by the skulk to

Protect itself when it senses danger it summons a creature made of skull an unstoppable force that acts as the final line of defense trying to ensure the survival of this species and this is actually supported by the warden item drops you see if you manage to take one

Down it drops a single skulk catalyst which honestly feels like a crummy reward for something so difficult however from a lore standpoint it makes perfect sense if the wharton’s primary objective is indeed the survival of the species then in defeat it would want to release a last-ditch attempt to keep the

Species alive hence a single catalyst but that still doesn’t answer the major question where did the skulk come from in the first place for that we actually have to take a closer look at the new biome the deep dark and more importantly those ancient cities once you enter the

Deep dark biome you start to find these patches of skulk blocks if you follow these patches further down into the cave eventually you’ll find an ancient city ruins covered in even more skull logic would dictate that since the concentration of skulk is higher in the cities this must be where it originated

And this seems to be correct in ancient cities the hallways are covered in wool and carpets that’s an important detail since the skulk and wardens are sound based entities they respond to your steps and wouldn’t you know wool and carpet are the only blocks that don’t activate the skulk when they’re walked

On this tells us that the inhabitants of the ancient city were clearly aware of the warden and they were trying to live their best alongside it however just because this seems to be where the warden lives now doesn’t mean that it’s always been here right in the middle of

The ancient cities is a massive structure made out of a new block called reinforced deep slate and a movable indestructible block similar to the end portal frames but that’s not where the similarities end in the game files this big structure of reinforced deep slate is known as the city center it’s a

Pretty generic name right doesn’t really tell us all that much however there are smaller versions of that same city center dotted around and in the game files they’re known as small portal statues portal you say now sure mojang has said for years that it isn’t adding any new dimensions but that’s missing

The point i don’t think mojang is introducing a new dimension i think they’re introducing the idea of a new dimension as they continue to explain minecraft’s history a history that becomes a lot more clear thanks to one little item or should i say nine little items that make up a bigger one disc

Number five that’s right ladies and gentlemen we’ve got ourselves a new numbered disc and you know what that means sound-based storytelling but before i can start piecing together the disc and the lore i’ve got to tell you about how you can start piecing together a great website because this portion of

Today’s episode is sponsored by squarespace squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online or in my case your cat’s business that’s right i made a website dedicated to my cat skips beauty picks why because while i could have done something predictable

Like show you one of the multiple professional sites that we’ve made in the past using squarespace i instead wanted an excuse to show you some top tier skip content and making websites with squarespace is so fast and easy i was like why not so true story i’ve

Tried to make websites in the past and i could barely get one picture on the front page and when i did it was pixelated and weirdly sized and stayed oddly skewed to the right it was a hot mess my c plus was more like d minus minus but with squarespace’s editable

Templates you can make a website that looks professional and amazing in minutes no joke you have to actively try to make them look bad i mean look i’m practically designing skip’s new site in real time using their template as i talk to you look at him how can you resist

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Looking for a new job and you want a place to showcase your resume done and done want to offer exclusive content to loyal members squarespace makes that sort of thing easy to implement also note to self only cat section of skip’s site for the spiciest images like

Sleeping and post bath so if you want to start building your perfect website using these incredible tools then head on over to squarespace.com matpat or you know the drill by now just click the link in the top line of the description make sure you use the code matpat m-a-t-p-a-t spelled the correct

Way to save 10 on your first website or domain thanks again to squarespace for sponsoring this part of the episode thank you for supporting skip’s modeling career and now back to our episode as i alluded to disc five is actually split into nine fragments which can be found

In chests throughout the ancient city but instead of delightful music this one follows in the footsteps of discs 11 and 13 a sound effect driven track that’s designed to tell us a story in order to fill out the lore of what’s going on here the track starts off with the

Classic sound of static like you’d expect from an old record player but it begins to ramp up into a loud rumble which is then immediately cut off followed by what appears to be the speed up of time we’ll hear these sorts of speed ramp effects a lot throughout the disc the

Next set of sounds are ones that are familiar to anyone who knows discs 11 and 13 the sound of someone walking underground this time on drip stone you can tell based on the footsteps using their flint and steel to light a fire while bats flutter through the cave However as this character walks it eventually turns into a march which is then joined by other footsteps coming from what seems like heavily armored soldiers we can make out sirens going off in the background it all comes to an abrupt halt when something that sounds like a lever gets

Pulled now i look through a lot of minecraft sounds but there are a number of sounds in this track that i couldn’t find exact matches for sounds like they’ve added extra sound effects to help build out the story like in this case the sound of a lever is more like a

Switch being flicked but in the track it feels much bigger like a lever that’s attached to a large mechanism cause following that sound we hear some creaking and the sound of wind rushing in like a huge door that’s being opened after this we hear our character take a

Deep breath only to then hear a monster shriek so far it feels relatively self-explanatory the first person we hear walking is someone leading a charge or a group of soldiers lighting a torch to help them walk underground in the distance we hear the warning sirens of a

City blaring they open the door in order to defend the city against something when suddenly the disc has a weird break we hear 23 seconds of just music it’s almost like different discs have been smashed together it wasn’t fragments after all that would also probably explain all the time warping effects we

Hear throughout the track different chunks of the disc were recorded at different rpms which is why the audio is constantly warping and shifting anyway when the music ends we’re back to the story bubbling lava can be heard while more footsteps on drip stone move towards an amethyst they break the block

And doing so seems to set off some sort of a cave-in it’s not really a sound i recognize and the closest i could find were mood sounds from the nether wastelands which would explain the lava but not really the drip stone floor of the amethyst after the cave-in we hear screeches off

In the distance screeches of what appear to be phantoms doesn’t make a whole lot of sense underground however very shortly afterwards we hear our character run quickly and the terrain changes from drip stone to stone to dirt Meaning that he’s running relatively close to the surface we are the clanging of tools as they collect materials coughing as they light fires to sea but he clearly sees something that causes him to run away quickly only to then reveal another monster roar which is again quickly distorted by the change

Of scene from the disc thuds are now heard in the background explosions distorted by the cave system our character places down sand scrapes a metal tool against a stony object and finally a mechanical noise is heard all while eerie voices whisper in the background similar to that of the soul

Sand valleys but the explosions are getting more frequent until eventually one bursts into the area there’s a brief moment of silence before suddenly the reverse sound of glass is heard and we hear the souls shriek in a huge gust leaving nothing but a warping hum in the background all of which

Sounds very similar to the creation of a portal in that moment our character takes a few steps towards the portal we know this because the sound gets louder until he places down dirt blocks to help him reach it where we are then met with the

Sound of a skulk sensor and the roar of a warden tape actually winds down here but there’s actually one more sound mixed in with the warden roar listen carefully did you catch it the warden roars and it’s closely followed by a slowed down death sound from one very specific mob the wither

So that’s the breakdown of the disc from what i can hear but thinking about the story fragments that we have the question is what does it mean well let’s actually talk about that last bit a member of an ancient builder society the same one that made these underground

Cities is out caving collecting precious materials when all of a sudden he hears something out in the distance he rushes to the surface only to see the wither floating there this leads to the first section of the disc with the emergency sirens blaring the wither is on its way

So the city needs to mobilize its army to try and take it down they travel through the caves until they get to a secure entrance when they open the gates it’s clear that their worst fears have come true the wither has followed the colonists down into the depths they can

Hear the withers explosions in the distance getting closer and more frequent desperate for an escape they rushed to finish the new portal technology they’ve been working on they’ve clearly built portals before specifically to the nether where they’ve learned about the properties of soul sand we know this because of the

Lanterns that are all around the ancient city they begin to make the final touches to their portal they make it out of a block that is so impenetrable not even the wither can destroy it this is gonna be their ticket out they place soul sand underneath this new portal and

They light it which is exactly what we see left over in the ancient cities there are also still remnants of their experiments underneath the portal redstone circuits experimenting with powering blocks how much power you can output with different objects redirecting power ultimately soul sand seems to be the most powerful source of

Energy combining all of these things together allows them to open the portal the souls from the soul sand screaming as they’re used to power it at that moment the wither breaks through the builder makes his way to the portal to escape but it’s not what they expect

From the portal comes the warden who destroys the wither but also brings the skulk into this world and so that is the story of disc 5 the origins of the warden it’s not an experiment gone wrong it’s a desperate escape attempt to the wrong place which brings with it a new

And deadly invasive species the skulk but the thing is disc five isn’t the end of our story because how did the ancient builders go from here all the way to the end well it may be slightly more speculative but hear me out the warden comes through the portal and kills the

Wither this wasn’t the ancient builder’s intent but hate worked out for him regardless and so they worship the warden as some kind of god this is why there are candles all around the portal along with the portal being shaped to look like the warden however this blissful ignorance doesn’t last forever

The ancient builders carry on with their lives but doing so activates the new skulk that’s around which eventually re-summons the warden the warden then goes on to kill many ancient builders spreading the skull further those that do manage to survive try what they can to remain in the city that they’ve built

They put down carpets and wool to make sure that they don’t make sounds while walking around but it’s not enough even opening their chests sets the skulk off so they’re forced to leave the city the few that remain decide rather than building vast cities to instead build one fortified fortress the stronghold

Built with confusing hallways and winding staircases in order to give them the ability to outrun the warden should the skulk make its way to them in these strongholds they create the end portals and use them to escape from this unforgiving world only to then get stuck

On the other side so there you have it the origin of one of minecraft’s newest and most dangerous mobs the warden isn’t a failed experiment but rather an invasive species that came from another world and while many are begging for a new dimension to be added to the game

Disc 5 serves as a warning of what happens when you open portals to mysterious new lands if the warden is what popped out last time i fear what lies in wait should we open it again but hey that’s just a theory a game theory thanks for watching You