Minecraft's latest test lets you play with spears, zombie mounts, and more starting today

Minecraft is slated to receive one more update this year, and we're already seeing the first features hit early testing for interested players. A bit of time has passed since Mounts of Mayhem was announced, and now you can go hands-on with a decent chunk of it.

All the Mounts of Mayhem features shown during Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025) are present in the latest Minecraft: Java Edition snapshot, and Mojang Studios has already confirmed the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition preview will be able to join in on the fun soon.

There's one surprise here that wasn't included in all the best Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025) announcements, though, and it makes the Mounts of Mayhem update even more exciting. Here's what you need to know.

The first Mounts of Mayhem features... and one big surprise

Just to recap, the Mounts of Mayhem update is the fourth game drop of 2025 for the long-running survival-crafting game. As the name suggests, this update is all about rideable mounts... with a few extras on top.

This first preview includes all the features first revealed for the update, including the spear. This is a brand-new, tiered melee weapon for Minecraft, joining the sword and axe as your blade of choice. The spear is excellent for jabbing at your opponents from a safe distance, but it can also be used to charge — the faster you move, the more damage it deals. The spear even has an exclusive "Lunge" enchantment that surges you forward.

All that makes it ideal for mounted combat, as it can be used with the horse, camel, or anything else you can ride and control. That includes the nautilus, a new tamable mob joining the Minecraft ecosystem with Mounts of Mayhem. The nautilus is an underwater creature that can freeze your oxygen levels, keeping you safe from the dangers of drowning.

Mojang also announced zombie nautiluses and revealed that the zombie horse is hitting survival, but originally positioned those two as hostile mounts for drowned and spear-wielding zombies, respectively.

In this first preview, though, you're actually able to tame zombie mounts, too! The prerequisite is that you skillfully dispatch their angry riders, of course, but you can absolutely tend to a herd of undead equines or bond with a rotting cephalopod. I think this is awesome, so hopefully the feature sticks around (the wording of Mojang's announcement post suggests it's not completely set in stone).

I'm positive we'll see the Mounts of Mayhem update get other new features and changes before it arrives across all platforms during the holidays later this year. For now, Java Edition players can go test these first features right now (and Bedrock players won't have to wait long)!

In case you missed it, Mojang also recently teased the second Minecraft movie, and we already know it's release date, too.