Instead of Minecraft 1.22, Mojang is releasing its next planned content 'drop' next week with the new Pale Garden biome

Minecraft is cramming in one more game update before closing out the year, Mojang announced today. The next Minecraft update, called The Garden Awakens, is coming next Tuesday, December 3.

The update's main feature is the new Pale Garden biome where the creepy new "creaking" enemy lives among the spooky greyish trees.

"Venture into the pale garden during the day and you’ll find it surprisingly quiet. Mobs don’t spawn here, leaving you to mine for pale oak logs, pale hanging moss, and pale moss carpets in peace," Mojang says in its announcement post. "The pale garden is home to the creaking—an unsettling type of mob that’ll freeze in place when you look at it and follow at terrifying speed when you look away."

This update is what Mojang is now calling a "drop" as opposed to a major version update. So instead of a 1.22 update in summer 2025 we have the smaller Bundles of Bravery update from October and the Garden Awakens update that have been announced. Based on the current available snapshot builds, it looks like The Garden Awakens will be Minecraft version 1.21.4.

Mojang has pulled this sort of surprise before by adding the armadillo mob earlier than we'd anticipated and expanding how wolves work in another small update. But this year is the first time we're getting a "drop" without any bigger title update following after.

We'll see how these smaller updates are received by the community. Without a big version number release to rally around, updates could feel a bit quieter. They may also put more pressure on the creators of the best Minecraft mods and our favorite Minecraft texture packs as they try to keep up with an increased release schedule.

But hey, we're getting a totally white wood set. That's something to celebrate. I'm already anticipating a huge influx of new "Minecraft modern house" build videos to crop up over the holidays.

Correction: The first version of this story referenced The Garden Awakens as Minecraft's first content drop but Bundles of Bravery actually released in October.