Minecraft 26.2. Chaos Cubed Update: What's New?

Mojang just dropped the Chaos Cubed Update (Version 26.2), and the name fits. This one is all about a new mob that bounces around like crazy, eats your blocks, and can be turned into a walking grenade if you feed it TNT.

It lives in a brand new underground biome packed with bright yellow and red blocks, bubbling toxic pools, and geysers that launch you into the sky. There is also a new music disc to hunt down and a built-in Friends List. Here is everything new in 26.2.

⏰ TL;DR: The Chaos Cubed Update

Short on time? Here's a quick rundown:

• The Sulfur Cube: A new passive mob that eats blocks. What you feed it changes how it bounces, slides, or rolls. Feed it TNT and you get an explosive cube on legs.
• Sulfur Caves: A vibrant new underground biome filled with sulfur, cinnabar, toxic pools, and geysers.
• Sulfur and Cinnabar: Two new building blocks that come with the full set right away, including stairs, slabs, walls, polished, bricks, and chiseled versions.
• Potent Sulfur: A block that releases toxic gas underwater and creates sky-launching geysers when placed over magma or lava.
• Sulfur Springs: A surface version of the cave that doubles as a treasure map, because there is always a Sulfur Cave directly below it.
• Music Disc "Bounce": A rare new track hidden in mineshaft minecarts inside Sulfur Caves.
• Friends List: A new built-in friends system, so you can see who is online (more on the catch below).

Sulfur Caves: A Whole New Underground Biome

The heart of this update is the Sulfur Caves, a new underground biome that looks like nothing else in the game. It is incredibly vibrant, filled with bright yellow and red blocks that make it stand out the moment you wander in.

The yellow blocks are sulfur and the red ones are cinnabar. Together they give the cave a unique, never seen before look. You will also notice the biome generates with bands of sulfur and cinnabar running through it, plus bubbling pools and spikes hanging from the ceiling.

Sulfur and Cinnabar: Builders Are Going to Love These

Both new blocks arrive with the full set straight away. That means stairs, slabs, and walls, plus polished versions, brick versions, and chiseled variants for each one. No waiting around for a future update to fill in the gaps.

If you have been after a clean yellow or deep red palette for your builds, you now have two complete block families to work with.

Sulfur Spikes: Pretty, but Watch Your Head

The Sulfur Spikes look almost exactly like dripstone, and they behave in a similar way. If you stand under one and it falls, it will hurt you. You can also break them by throwing a trident at them, and four spikes can be crafted back into a full sulfur block.

Potent Sulfur: Toxic Gas, Geysers, and Endless Contraptions

Next you will spot the green pools, and no, that is not slime, and it is definitely not a hot tub. The bubbling comes from a new block called Potent Sulfur, which reacts with water.

Place Potent Sulfur under up to four blocks of water and it releases a cloud of toxic gas that spreads across the surface and gives nearby players the Nausea effect. The bubbles are not just for show.

Here is where it gets really fun. Put a magma block underneath the Potent Sulfur and it turns into a geyser. About every 50 seconds it erupts, shooting a tall column of water particles into the air and launching anything standing on top. The more water you stack above it, the higher it sends you flying, and the best part is the eruption itself does no damage.

Swap the magma block for lava and the geyser never stops. You get a constant stream that keeps launching players and mobs, and it looks really cool.

You do not have to go cave hunting every time you want some either. Potent Sulfur can be crafted from nine regular sulfur blocks. Between the toxic gas, the geysers, and the redstone options, this is one of the more creative blocks Mojang has added in a while. Think steam powered doors, elytra launch courses, and all kinds of cursed contraptions.

Sulfur Springs: Not Only Underground

The Sulfur Caves are not only hidden underground. They can also break the surface as a Sulfur Spring, which is another bubbling pool surrounded by sulfur, spikes, cinnabar, and other blocks. If the water is bubbling, that means there is Potent Sulfur underneath, so keep that in mind before you jump in.

Sulfur Springs come in four sizes, from small all the way up to extra large, and the bigger ones are rarer. So if you stumble across a massive one, count yourself lucky.

And here is the handy part. If you find a Sulfur Spring on the surface, there is a Sulfur Cave waiting directly below it. Free directions to the new biome.

The Music Disc "Bounce"

There is a brand new music disc called "Bounce," and it is a fun one to track down. You can find it inside mineshaft minecart chests, but only when that mineshaft generates together with a Sulfur Cave.

So the hunt goes like this. First you need a Sulfur Cave that crossed paths with a mineshaft. Then that mineshaft needs a minecart with a chest. Then you still need to get lucky on the disc actually being inside. It is a real challenge, which makes finally finding it feel pretty great.

The New Friends List (and the Catch)

26.2 also adds a built-in Friends List. You can send friend requests, accept incoming ones, and see whether your friends are offline, online, or in a world.

But there is a twist. Early in the snapshots, this feature let you join your friends' worlds directly. In the official release, Mojang removed that part. So you can see when your friends are playing, but you cannot actually hop into their world, which was the most fun bit.

So if you want to play the new update with friends in a world that is always online, you can use a platform like WiseHosting, which we built ourselves. Setup takes about two minutes and the server stays online 24/7 for your friends to join whenever they want. As a nice tie-in with this update, you can use the code SULFUR for 25% off your first month.

The Sulfur Cube: The Star of the Show

Now for the mob the whole update is named after. At first glance the Sulfur Cube looks a lot like a slime, hopping around the cave, but it is completely passive and will not attack you.

The fun starts when you interact with it. Hold a block and right click the Sulfur Cube, and it will absorb that block and stop moving. From there you can punch it to send it sliding or bouncing around, and how it moves depends entirely on what is inside it:

• Wood makes it super bouncy.
• Ice makes it slide across the ground.
• Metal makes it slow and heavy.
• Wool makes it incredibly light.

Chaos Cubed lives up to its name. Between the bouncing block-eating mob, the sky-launching geysers, and two full new block sets, there is a lot to mess around with here. The best way to experience all of it is to jump in and play.

So spin up a server, get your friends online, and go cause some chaos in the Sulfur Caves.