Ever wanted to charge across a desert ridge with a spear in hand, then dive into an ocean and keep breathing — all without dismounting? Mojang’s Mounts of Mayhem drop, released December 9, 2025, answers that exact fantasy with a messy, thrilling mix of mounts, mounted combat and a handful of undead surprises.
The update rolled out across Java and Bedrock editions (expect staggered server rollouts), and Nintendo confirmed the drop is available on Switch in its own announcement. For players who watched countdowns, the community’s best bets for the go‑live window fell between roughly 7:30 AM PST and 10:00 AM EST on December 9 — but as always with wide rollouts, your mileage may vary.
New toys, new tactics
Mounts of Mayhem isn’t a content trickle. It’s an explosives‑grade gameplay shift: a new weapon class, underwater mounts that preserve your air, desert mounts that spawn with their own enemies, and upgrades for classic horses.
- The spear is the star weapon: a tiered implement built for both foot and mounted combat. It has two attacks — a jab with knockback and a charge attack whose damage scales with your speed. Want to feel like a jouster? Enchant the spear with Lunge for a burst of forward motion during a jab; it eats your hunger like sprinting, but it also opens up genuine mounted tactics for PvP and PvE.
- Oceans now include the nautilus and zombie nautilus, both tamable with pufferfish. Ride one and you gain the Breath of the Nautilus effect, which preserves air while mounted so you can explore monuments and ruins without frantic resurfacing. Don’t expect it to be a calm commute: zombie nautiluses often carry trident‑wielding Drowned on their backs, and there are whispers of a rare warm‑water variant.
- Deserts got dangerous in a stylish way. Meet the camel husk — a sun‑resistant mount that can spawn with two hostile riders, a husk and a new skeleton variant called the parched (it doesn’t burn in daylight and likes a bow). Taming one means dealing with mounted and ranged threats at once.
- Undead steeds arrive in survival: zombie horses can spawn at night ridden by spear‑wielding zombies. Defeat the rider, and you can tame the mount for yourself.
- PvP communities: spear mechanics will be tested and balanced on public servers fast. Expect new meta discussions around Lunge levels, spear tiers and mount choices.
- Adventure builders and mapmakers: mounts that preserve air and horses that can swim change what level designers can plausibly throw at players.
- Survival players who love late‑game kit: Netherite horse armour and tamable undead mounts give long‑term goals beyond diamonds.
A few quality‑of‑life and progression notes: regular horses can finally swim across Overworld waters (slowly, but useful), and Netherite horse armour joins the kit. You craft Netherite horse armour by combining Diamond Horse Armour with a Netherite upgrade template and a Netherite ingot at a smithing table — a late‑game reward for players who like to kit out their steeds. For a deeper look at the armor and desert additions, see the earlier preview coverage of the drop that outlined Netherite Horse Armor and the Camel Husk.
How this changes the game
Combat pacing just shifted. Speed matters now: sprinting with a spear mounted on a fast creature deals more damage than standing still. That changes how fights open and close; maps, builds and PvP loadouts will evolve quickly. The Lunge enchantment also gives reach and mobility that can unseat other riders or let aggressive players close gaps without awkwardly dismounting.
Exploration benefits, too. Oceans — historically awkward and slow to traverse — now reward deeper, longer dives thanks to rideable nautiluses. If you’re the sort who hoards maps and ruins, this update hands you a practical reason to master underwater travel.
Who should care right now
If you play on Switch, the update is confirmed live for that platform; Nintendo’s post has the essentials and a trailer for the drop on their official site. The timing and broad platform support also underline how Nintendo’s ecosystem continues to attract major updates and support, a trend that ties into the platform’s larger momentum in recent announcements about hardware and third‑party support in Nintendo’s broader release plans.
This is the kind of update that will ripple through streams, servers and community builds. You’ll see new jousting arenas, ocean scavenger hunts with nautilus cavalries, and desert ambushes where a parched archer rainchecks your plans. No single patch note captures the chaotic joy of charging a dune on a camel husk while your buddy spears a flying target; you’ll need to play it to understand the messy poetry Mojang has built here.
If you’re heading into the update: update your game client, give servers a minute to stabilize, and consider a spear in your inventory before exploring new biomes. This drop is an invitation to move faster, fight smarter and, occasionally, get thrown headfirst into a river while trying to remount — which, for many players, is exactly why they play.