Minecraft Dungeons Diaries: Echoing Void DLC

Today we’ll be talking all about the new DLC for Minecraft Dungeons – what’s free, what’s paid, what’s exciting. My name is David Nisshagen, I’m the executive producer for Minecraft Dungeons. With me today I have Christian, level designer at Mojang in Stockholm,

And Danielle and George, at our partner Double 11 in the UK. Echoing Void is the last DLC, it ends the narrative of the Arch-Illager and the Orb of Dominance. But you can be assured it’s not gonna end the story of Minecraft Dungeons. We have a lot more exciting things to come.

We’re bringing three new missions with this DLC. We’re bringing End Wilds, Broken Citadel, and Stronghold. Two of these missions will require players to delve deep into the otherwordly End dimension, surrounded by the unknown and ever-present Void, far from home and completely isolated.

This will be a challenge both to new players, and to experienced ones. This mission structure is slightly different than potentially what we’re used to before. In this DLC, you’re going to have to complete some of the content in a correct order, in

Order to progress to the final level, it’s like a full epic story that players are gonna have to complete, which is really exciting. As we bring the story of the Arch-Illager and the Orb of Dominance to a close, players are going to have to fight their toughest challenge yet.

Stalking the player throughout the levels, a new boss, that’s bigger and deadlier than anything we’ve previously encountered: the Vengeful Heart of Ender. And we’re really excited for you to meet them. We’re also bringing a new Overworld level. This sends players on an epic quest, something that players from Vanilla may be familiar with.

And on top of this, you might find that some of the Overworld has changed too. This time around it works a little bit differently because The End is sort of creeping into the Overworld and taking hold, while players have to fight back the invaders and reclaim the

Eyes of Ender, and these Eyes can then be used to access the Stronghold, and the Stronghold is sort of this vast sprawling fortress that players have to explore, and using these Eyes they can unlock different doors, different sections, and reclaim pieces of an End Portal

Which can then be used to access the final portion of the DLC. When players get to The End, they’ll be greeted with an ancient expanse of the Wilds, that they’ll have to battle through. After this, players are gonna have to make their way towards the Citadel, which is a

Monolithic floating fortress, for the final battle in the game. Obviously you’re going to find some new mobs in The End, some End-themed enemies. But there’re also new enemies and encounters to be found in the Ancient Hunt, so players can sacrifice gears now for the Ocean and The End DLC,

And they will be able to combat new enemies there as well. So, in Echoing Void, when we reached designing The End for Dungeons, we wanted to implement a series of new mechanics and new status effects that felt organic to the dimension, as obviously we’re bringing dimensions to Dungeons.

So we obviously took a look at the existing things in The End dimension, such as, obviously there’s a lot of Endstone and there’s a lot of the Void and it’s very barren, and we took these elements and we kind of ran with the ideas and saw where we could take them, which was

How we devised loads of new Void-related mechanics and status effects that we are bringing in the form of gameplay mechanics, and we’re bringing in as items, enchantments and stuff like that, which is going to be really exciting. We’ve designed completely new biomes for The End, we’ve filled them with exotic new blocks,

Plant life, structures and hazards that have never been seen before. It’s kind of like nothing we’ve ever really attempted before, which has been quite a challenge, but I think it’s gonna be worth it and I can’t wait to see how players respond to that.

The arenas for the ancient mobs are based on previous levels and new levels for the Ocean and End DLCs. And when I build them I basically try to figure out an interesting layout for people to fight these new enemies, these hardcore opponents that you encounter in those areas, and apart

From that try to mimic sort of the environments that they come from and make them interesting to look at and traverse through. The story of the Arch-Illager is something that we feel like has resonated with our players, and we’re really excited and sad to end the story of the Arch-Illager.

It’s something that we really enjoyed in the base game, and we obviously continued throughout the DLC, and it was a big part of what led us to create this DLC and end it in the most epic and exciting way that we possibly can.

It’s a little bit scary to end the story like this, the story of the Arch-Illager and the Orb of Dominance, but …I mean you kind of wonder if you’ve told all the things that need to be told, you can’t really go back and change anything once it’s final and released

So to speak, but I think that players will be pleased with how we have chosen to end everything. I think the Arch-Illager is gonna be pleased that the Orb is no longer holding him in possession so to speak.

When I first started work on Gauntlet of Gales it was going to be a small part of the mission Gale Sanctum from the Howling Peaks DLC. We decided that it would be better off not as a small part of another level but as a secret level on its own.

And so we decided to rebuild it essentially from scratch. With such a massive change, we ended up saving it and building it and continuing to work on it and just waiting for the ideal opportunity to release it, so it’s now going to be free release with Echoing Void.

The most difficult part was to take something that was originally supposed to be a small, tiny section of a different level and build it into a full, big, proper level, and still keep a really good performance. It’s mostly puzzle-based challenges, which hasn’t really been seen as a focus in any

Minecraft Dungeons level to this point. There are 18 different challenges, as well as usual arenas and features that you would find in the regular Howling Peaks levels. Arena fighting, time challenges, skill challenges, and the occasional luck puzzle. In Gauntlet of Gales there’s a chance that the mobs will drop weapons, gear and artifacts

From base game but there’s a chance that they will also drop artifacts from the Howling Peaks DLC. Because this is releasing as a free level, a free DLC available to all players, we thought it would be nice for them to have a taste of what they could get from the Howling Peaks DLC.

I’m really excited that it’s coming out as a lost mission, I’m excited that it’s finally going to go to the players, that they can finally have a go, have a taste of the level that I’ve designed and been a part of since the beginning.

With it being a subdungeon to begin with, and evolving into a large level, it feels like watching a puppy grow up. So when Echoing Void is released, we will also have the opportunity to provide an Ultimate Edition: the base game and all the six DLCs so you experience the complete story

Of the Arch-Illager and the Orb of Dominance. It might end the story of the Arch-Illager and the Orb of Dominance, but it is certainly not the end of Minecraft Dungeons. Looking forward to seeing you again in the near future.