For the longest time, players were wondering what this update was going to be! There was many ideas people were thinking from an Overworld overhaul to a potential change to how Mobs work.
Luckily nothing that extreme happened, phew! Instead we got warm and cold variants to the most common of passive mobs, new foliage blocks added to biomes, alongside a few other key ambience features.
Main Highlights to 1.21.5
A few new flowers and flora from Leaf Litters to Bushes
Warm & Cold variations to the Cows, Pigs, and Chickens
Different Wolf Sounds to give them new personality
A visual overhaul to the Spawn Eggs you know and love
Mobs Changing based on Biome
A new predicate has been added to Minecraft! They’re now known as Temperate, Warm, or Cold. These changes the biomes to give a unique feel to each. It has some simple changes from how often each sheep wool appears from each place.. BUT it also changes certain mobs! There’s new cows, pigs, AND chickens to be discovered. It’s perfect for explorers and farmers.
A More Natural World
Minecraft is entirely meant to be a natural game. It’s filled to the brim with many wonderful biomes that ooze charm and enjoyment. With the introduction of Firefly Bushes, Wildflowers, Bushes, Dry Grass, Cactus Flowers, and many more; ambience has been given a whole new upgrade! Decorate your base, improve your terrains, and feel the greatness that has been brought in. Not to mention, we got Bedrock’s fallen trees.
The Spawn Eggs spawned a New Look
You know something that needed a new look? Spawn Eggs! There was so much confusion when trying to figure them out! Either you were about to spawn a Polar Bear.. or you could’ve spawned a Ghast! Luckily now they got a cool visual overhaul. It’s so much easier to distinguish if I’m about to put down a Villager or Evoker. Thanks Mojang for these changes!
It’s great to be the Village Hero
Another wonderful change is the adjustments to Cartographers and Wandering Traders. These villagers were once seen as just okay. The Wandering Traders being useful for Superflat Survivalists and Cartographers not offering as many maps as before. The new changes to them though? They brought in new ways to farm emeralds while also collecting a whole slue of exploration maps!
A Ghastly New Drop
The first Minecon Live of 2025 has came by!
From the Happy Ghast to help travel the skies to locating players easier, the Summer Drop promises things such as..
Dried Ghast – A dehydrated ghast needing assistance
Ghastling – A rejuvenated Dried Ghast that follows you
Happy Ghast – The friendly ghastling that has grown up
Ghast Harness – A saddle to put onto the Happy Ghast, holding up to 4 players
Player Locator Bar – A whole new UI feature that allows you to see other players
Hey it’s time to retire StickyPiston Hosting. We’re now just Piston Hosting…
…April Fool’s! We’re actually here to let you know about all the newest additions coming to StickyPiston in April 2025. We’re talking about the new Minecraft Drop that came out! Not to mention there’s the Minecraft Maps to discuss about alongside new Minecraft Modpacks.
Okay fools. Let’s take a step into April 2025:
Spring to Life | Minecraft 1.21.5
We’re ready to Spring to Life! Minecraft’s Spring Drop has came by under the guise of Minecraft 1.21.5. It is time to to explore and see what the first Minecraft Drop of 2025 has to offer for us.
First things first – the changes to all the mobs! Let’s see what we got..
Temperate, Warm, and Cold variants of the Chickens, Cows, and Pigs
Many new barking dogs to listen to
Different wools for different biomes
Then there was also many new moderate changes from blocks and various other ambiences.
The New Firefly Bush is quite fly
The leaves fall and litter the ground
Tons of creative and custom Spawn Eggs
Want to learn more about what was introduced? Read our Article Blog on the Spring to Life Update.
Overall? It is a well-liked and adjusted update and amazing. People have sprung at the seams to get themselves ordering a StickyPiston Server and playing around with the additions on here.
Minecraft Snapshots
If you thought Mojang was done with Minecraft Snapshots, think again! They have started releasing more snapshots this month. What are they? Well…
As always, we will see releases of various Minecraft Modpacks. Throughout the month we’ve seen things such as All The Mods – Arcana and through its magic comes the Cobblemon Realms. But none of them felt as wondrous as a Broken Script.
Head straight into a Lost World – The Broken Script to experience new horrors. This world corrupted by The Broken Script will destroy over time. Keeping yourself high in Sanity is required even if things like The Anomaly are ready to tear you apart from this reality.
New Minecraft Maps
Not only have Modpacks came, but tons of new Minecraft Maps have come just at the start of the month! We get to see the beautiful landscapes of Mosslorn alongside the cavernous wonders of the Cosmic Cove, but we also have gotten a revival of Call of Duty under No Escape.
Battle against hordes of zombies. Brandish a variety of weapons, equip many types of armor, and find possession into many unique abilities to take down the hordes.
Minecraft Map Updates
As said before, Minecraft Maps are a high priority. We keep the updates that mapmakers have pushed out to various websites. Things like Toy Tank Royale which has seen itself back onto Minecraft Realms or even the mysterious HauntPuzzled House are kept as up to date as possible.
But a surprise to see is Evergrowth coming to the latest version! This wonderful block pusher may seem like it’ll be simple at first, but the amount of puzzle mechanics alongside collectables hide themselves inside of here. It racks peoples brains and makes them go further into a fun thought provoking journey!
Minigame Mash
You know the drill by now! Minigame Mash happens on the weekly on the StickyPiston Discord. It always happens on Fridays and featuring many minigames.
Want to see your Minecraft map or Minigame featured in Minigame Mash? Submit your Minecraft Map to the StickyPiston Trials to see it featured here! If you’re just wanting to play passively on the server though, join on Java version 1.21.1 or 1.21.4 @ minigamemash.com.
Minigame Mash this Friday on April 11th, 2025
Throughout this week on MGM, we feature 3 various Minecraft Minigame Maps. All of the games can be found on the trials if you wish to get some practice.
Minigame Mash will start @ 2 PM EDT / 6 PM UTC / 8 PM CEST / 5 AM AEDT and last for 2 hours. Everyone is invited so come along!
We also talk in the voice chat on our Discord during MGM, just be sure to keep it family friendly.
Looking Into May
It’s only a matter of time until Mojang drops their next update with the Happy Ghast alongside many other features! We May see them early, we May not.
What we’re looking forward to here at StickyPiston is more people dropping their Minecraft Maps, more things to come from Minecraft Modpacks, and maybe we’ll see some changes with our User Interface (UI)? Only way to find out is by keeping a watch at us!
Did we say that 2025 was a quarter of the way through? Well now it’s a third of the way through! Only a couple of months until that halfway mark.
Time and time again, Mojang has released these new snapshots just about every April 1st. We call them the “April Fools Snapshots”. I mean, what else would you call them? They’re jokes and fun updates that the developers make to give players more fun!
You can play all these updates on the StickyPiston Trials. There are instructions to add these updates on the trials themselves. Just click the button underneath each update to learn how to install the updates!
Let’s explore and find out what each of these goofs and gags have brought to Minecraft!
Java Edition 2.0 – April Fools 2013
Hoo boy, a lot has been added to this version of the game. Filled with many community members giving support, things like the Super Hostile mode alongside the Diamond Chicken have been added. Best play and experience it for yourself to see all that’s there.
Minecraft was intended to be played for those of all ages. So gone is the violence and gone is the problems that would expose a younger audience to many issues. Now players can experience and fun and joyous update that removes the dangers of harm.
Gotta set up all the fashion trends right now! Going through The Monster Market, we’ll be slaying the best of all kinds of trends. New tools, the latest gear, heck even modern technology has been added!
Warning: These gadgets need to be charged to stay active. If they die, so do the player.
Minecraft 3D – 3D Shareware v1.34 – April Fools 2019
Mojang has found one of their first boxed copies of the award-winning Minecraft 3D! This masterpiece was given Game of the Year and even an Oscar for the best supporting actress. The team decided to spruce up these old copies and make them better for all to enjoy again.
Ultimate Content Update – 20w14∞ – April Fools 2020
Welcome to the constant small steps to Infinity. Technology has been utilize to simulate the best content possible. Dive into headless dimensions ready to partake in all sorts of challenges from oceans of creepers to many error blocks. The fun is Infinite with Mojang Studios!
One Block at a Time – 22w13oneblockatatime – April Fools 2022
Time to save the world of Minecraft. One. Block. At. A. Time. The blockiest minds have come together to slow the game down considerably. No more inventory problems with the world being the inventory, constant carrying of one block, and much more!
Oh man.. what to vote for. Do I want a large head, or do I wish for bouncy grass? In this update, the awesome folks at Mojang have made it possible to vote for the next feature instantly! No worries on waiting for each update anymore. They fulfilled our promises just like we asked.
Poisonous Potato Update – 24w14potato – April Fools 2024
Living life as a potato is tough. So tough it’s toxic, turning folks into Poisonous Potatoes. Luckily, the team has came up with a way to utilize these new fumes. The Poisonous Potato Dimension adds many useful items and gear that you won’t want to leave!
Better prepare to head into the Mines! No, seriously, you’re going to be crafting up a lot of “Mines” within this update. First, pick the resources you want to put into a mine. Next, using the Mine Crafter, see how each of these mines unfold before your very eyes. It’s that easy!
Premium StickyPiston Customers can install them a different way. Instead of using the trials, they can use the Click and Play Installer inside of their server to grab these updates instantly! Want one of these servers yourself? Place an Order for an April Fools server here!
Time to put a spring in your step and start moving forward! We move our clocks ahead an hour which means releases have to start coming earlier in the month.
StickyPiston is ready to bring out more Minecraft Map Drops alongside promotions to Minigame Mash! Of course we also have some Minecraft Map Updates to talk about while we continue to bring in new Minecraft Modpacks.
See what sprung forth inside of March 2025:
Minigame Mash
Just as a reminder that we host Minigame Mash on the weekly! These events happen on Fridays and feature an assortment of different minigames.
Excluding the weekly events, it also features many minigames to play! Want to join on the fun that’s in here? Head over to minigamemash.com on either Java version 1.21.4 or 1.21.1.
Minigame Mash this Friday on March 28th, 2025
Minigame Mash (MGM) is a weekly event that features 3 various Minecraft Minigame Maps. All of these games can be found on the trials and are linked below. Get some practice in before MGM starts!
Minigame Mash will start @ 3 PM EDT / 7 PM GMT / 8 PM CET / 6 AM AEDT and last for 2 hours. Everyone is invited so come along!
We also talk in the voice chat on our Discord during MGM, just be sure to keep it family friendly.
Minecraft Map Drops
Not every month will be having these Map Drops, but we still recommend giving them a look as soon as you’re able to! This review series features John Glacious playing through a variety of singleplayer maps for the StickyPiston Stream Team on Sundays.
The “second” map talked about is actually a series of them! The Kitatcho Laboratories. Test Subject 3, or John in this case, has to go through various grueling tasks and puzzles for Mr. Jake Kitatcho. What secrets are hidden inside of these labs? Will John be able to escape? Only way to find out is by either reading the blog post or watching the YouTube playlist.
Minecraft Modpacks
Speaking of the Stream Team, we still see the release of Minecraft Modpacks this month. Dragon Claw Persistent is one of said new modpacks to help keep the world vanilla, even with it filled with content. There’s also the third iteration of Techopolis that has arrived. But the most notable modpack this month has to be Create Astral‘s sequel.
Leap into Create: Ancestry for a grand old time! This modpack melds the mythical aspects of the various Origins and makes them work with Create. This helps mitigate their negatives and introduce some new fun to experience. Players of the Create Astral pack will enjoy this and those who aren’t familiar to the mods can feel something amazing.
Minecraft Map Updates
Outside of Modpacks, maps are also a priority for us too. Something StickyPiston tries to do for all the mapmakers who submit a map on the website is updating your map as fast as possible. Maps such as Randomania continue to be updated as much as they can come, fixing whatever bugs are around. And even the titular Wii Party in Minecraft is getting new minigames as it continues its development.
Then you have the developers behind Minecraft Party 2 constantly go at it for map updates! Not only does ClashAssassin & Loominardy host weekly testing sessions on the MCP2 Discord, but they practically update the map every week! Even if it’s some simple bug fixes or introducing new minigames, they make sure to keep it fresh and enjoyable for everyone.
Minecraft Snapshots
Not only are map developers constantly updating maps, but Mojang keep bringing in snapshots. These snapshots are constantly filled with content as you’d expect! Let’s look at what they bring in for the next update.
We hope these releases put a “Spring” into your step! It’s always a good thing to make sure we recap as to what happens each month.
As per usual, let’s take a look at to what April might bring in. There’s always going to be new Minecraft Maps and we’ll keep bringing in Minecraft Modpacks. Even the lesser known modpacks should be talked about because everyone deserves a chance in the spotlight.
With Minecraft Live having came this month, we also got to see the Spring to Life update for 1.21.5.
2025 is a quarter of the way through, but we still got a long way to go.
Welcome inside to the ever-infamous Kitatcho Laboratories! Being a test subject inside of this facility will lead you to going through many of the High-Tech Puzzle Chambers inside.
Specifically, you’re Test Subject #3, or TS-03. Throughout this series of maps you’ll be learning how slimes work, understand the basics of redstone, learn what different contraptions do, and learn what goes on beneath the surface. Just be careful as to not dive too deep or else cryo sleep will have to remain permanent.
Highlights
A fully voice acted storyline
50+ Puzzle Chambers to solve
Variety of difficulty in the puzzles
New mechanics not seen in previous maps
Complementary key chains
Compared to most other maps, the story is separated into 3 different chapters. So for this review, you’ll be seeing a separation between each map to lead to a final, overall conclusion at the end.
This review was from John Glacious playing the map live on StickyPiston.TV.
If you wish to catch me live playing Minecraft Maps, tune into 📺StickyPiston.TV on Sundays @ 1 PM CST / 2 PM EDT / 6 PM GMT. You can catch the playthrough of The Kitatcho Laboratories on YouTube. StickyPiston has provided a playback that is forever saved here:
Chapter 1
Re-visiting this map was a fun time. The puzzles weren’t too complicated and some of the later ones had quite a few different ways to get to the same solution. It was very fun and listening to Jake Kitatcho (who I accidentally called John Kitatcho multiple times) give what could sound like a bit of encouragement.
I also love the Portal vibes this map gives off. Not just in the way you’re spoken to, but also with the secrets that are hidden from the overgrowth and what’s hiding behind each testing chamber. Good start to the series, 8/10.
Overview of The Kitatcho Laboratories’ walkways. Play it here.
Chapter 2
Now we start getting into parts of the series I haven’t played. Off the bat I already love the expansion of the puzzles given. Using moving platforms alongside introducing automation is a great way to make the previous mechanics get added onto. Gotta say I enjoyed one chamber requiring you to go back and use the levers of the past 2.
Instead of giving the vibes of Portal, it starts to separate itself and become something wholey unique. I didn’t get to see all of the secrets hidden around, but I would say it got me curious to come back and play the map again. Great followup to what was already a good map, 9/10.
I honestly didn’t realize this came out almost 2 years ago. I thought this was released not long ago! Well playing it for the streams I got to speak real quick to Stockley himself. So might as well keep this fresh and say – wow! Not only do the puzzles require more brain power this time around, but they’re all still so innovative and fun!
This unique and fun puzzle map keeps you engaged throughout. And I can safely say it’s definitely worth the 7 to 9 hours of playing through. It just makes me wonder.. what will Chapter 4 be offering? Will we finally get to the surface? Is there something deeper that’s hiding?
This great map deserves my first 10/10 rating. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
Near the end of Chapter 3 we learned about what really happened between Jake Kitatcho and his wife.. and to what happened with Catherine. What will happen now we must wonder?
Well while we don’t know all the facts, I can take an educated guess that Cindy Ombra will be forcing us to partake in some difficult puzzles. We’ll be trying to escape Ombra Enterprises and making our way out. Not 100% sure if this will be the case, but given the teaser trailer, we can only wait to find out.
If you want to play Chapter 4 before I have a chance to stream it, then be sure to follow Stockley.
The month of love has arrived. February comes to give you many different things to love, from both a community point and a hoster’s point of view. Let’s dive into what this month has offered.
StickyPiston is back again with a quite a few more things to see. Not only are we releasing Minecraft Map Drops during the month, but we’re back to promoting Minigame Mash for everyone to enjoy! Of course there’s still new Minecraft Maps and the large assortment of Minecraft Modpacks that release every month. All of this pairs well together like the Parrots and the Bats.
Time to show what we loved about February 2025:
Minecraft Map Drops
We’ve seen the release of a new Minecraft Review series – Minecraft Map Drops! Similarly named to the new Drop system that Mojang has release, these reviews are to talk about a variety of Minecraft Maps (mostly singleplayer) that anyone can see! This is made by none other than our resident writer and Sunday Stream Team member – John Glacious!
The first map to be talked about is Witchcraft & Wizardry! What mysteries was discovered about this map? What sort of wacky hijinks was brought into the school from this man? Only way to find out is by either reading the blog post or watching the YouTube Playlist.
Minigame Mash
Minigame Mash is back! Well, technically, it has never left. We’ve just decided to promote it more so that way more players can come to our weekly event on Fridays. Not to mention getting more people to passively join and play the games would make it more enjoyable for all. 👀
There’s many games to experience! Want to join in on this fun? Head over to minigamemash.com on Java version 1.21.4.
Updated Games
Gladiator Games
Sprint Racer
Dimension Dash
Glenwood Parkour
Good Phantom
Bleps
Duel: Insurgency
New Games
Snowy Skirmish 2: Avalanche
Advancement Hunters
Space Aces 3
Void Chains
Crafty Cannoneers
Temple Topper
Toxic Escape
Parkour Donut
Minigame Mash that happened on February 28th, 2025
Minigame Mash (MGM) is a weekly event that features 3 various Minecraft Minigame Maps. All of these games can be found on the trials and are linked below. Get some practice in before MGM starts!
Minigame Mash will start @ 2 PM EST / 7 PM GMT / 8 PM CET / 6 AM AEDT and last for 2 hours. Everyone is invited so come along!
We also talk in the voice chat on our Discord during MGM, just be sure to keep it family friendly.
New Minecraft Maps
We got many more maps to talk about though! Some singleplayer releases came out like Sandurs’ QuickMeal 01 being brought into the light or Apatche & Luiql’s newest map – Amulet: The Conquest (still in a demo so be gentle with them!). The highlight for this month is definitely ZeroniaServer’s The Purple.
This strange infestation has started taking over various people on these expeditions. The only way to be rid of this is.. by tagging other people! This take on tag has you exploring alien landscapes, collecting artifacts, and avoiding the infected players. And let’s say if you happen to lose. Well you can shake up the game with new spectator abilities. It’s almost as the fun never stops.
New Minecraft Modpacks
A lot of releases came for the Modpacks this month. Many new things to discover such as a reimagining of a zombie apocalypse from TeamLUP’s Apocalipsis Minecraft. There’s also a new edition of Minecraft on the block. The Legendary Edition from the Legendary Workshop brings itself forward to all to experience. It’s probably best to take a look at hosting your own Feed the Beast’s OceanBlock 2 Server.
Best prepare that FTB Quests book to know what to do. A lot of things are changed between FTB OceanBlock to FTB OceanBlock 2. Start out by choosing one of the various islands to start surviving on, gathering scrap and materials. There’s a variety of not just airdrops, but smaller ships and islands to take loot around. Best be prepared to tackle the foes under the water though, as the ocean hugging you isn’t ready to let you go.
Minecraft Snapshots
You might have guessed it, but more Snapshots are coming in this month! What has exactly released already? Well take a look at what we’ve got here.
Traders, Flora, and many changes hiding in this image.
Another handful of things to be shown off ah-hah. It’s fun to get everything recapped for players to better understand about everything we got in StickyPiston.
As per usual, let’s peak into March for what might be coming. Of course there’s always going to be new Minecraft Maps, but will there always be Minecraft Modpacks? Maybe we’ve topped off with the watery depths of OceanBlock 2, but you’ll never know..
We’ll keep up to date with the latest in Minecraft Snapshots, but could we be seeing a new drop incoming for Minecraft in March? Only way to do is by finding out what goes on. Maybe keep a watch on these blogs to know for sure.
2025 has stayed strong, so let’s see it continue strong!
Welcome in to the magical world where wizards, witches, and many other creatures have grown to live in. Inside of this world, people have learned to harness the power of spells and brew an assortment of potions.
As a new student inside of Hogwarts, you’re expected to be able to learn all of this and more. A variety of quests are waiting for you to complete whether it’d be by the other students or even the faculty at hand. Not to mention there’s over 73 different locations to discover on Hogwarts, in the Wizarding World, and even inside of London itself.
Highlights
An impressive recreation of the J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
Immersive locations to discover and get lost in
Various monsters recreated into Minecraft
Tons of puzzles to complete
A good amount of magic spells for different situations
This review was from John Glacious playing the map live on StickyPiston.TV.
If you wish to catch me live playing Minecraft Maps, tune into 📺StickyPiston.TV on Sundays @ 1 PM CST / 2 PM EST / 7 PM GMT. You can catch the playthrough of WitchCraft & Wizardry on YouTube. The playback can be found in the YouTube Playlist here:
Now it’s time to get a bit personal when it comes to this map. Originally I didn’t find myself wanting to play this map in my spare time. It’s not that I wasn’t impressed with the work I saw when being introduced to it – I was! It’s moreso just that, recently, I got stuck with moving consistently and playing a decent amount of magic-based modpacks with a group of friends. So playing another magic-based game just wasn’t on my list of playing.
However, I was recommended to start this out as my Stream Team Map for StickyPiston and I gotta say that I wasn’t disappointed. I want to tackle each point of interest individually so let’s go with the Resource Pack itself first. I think Floo Network did a good job at trying to translate what different characters looked like from the movies and games into Minecraft itself. The limit that Minecraft offers hinders what the team can do, but it’s not like I wasn’t recognizing characters the moment I saw them.
Argus Filch with his cat Mrs Norris, waiting for new students to arrive.
Moving onto the environments, they’re absolutely gorgeous. It’s not just that the team did well in making them look pretty, BUT they also recreated just about everything to the best of their ability! Hogwarts is an ever-changing environment and they did well in making it a confusing yet organized mess of a building. This is not to say it’s bad, but rather to say it shows how well they know what they’re doing! Even out of Hogwarts, places like Diagon Alley or the Ministry of Magic. I could go on and on about how everything looks.
An overlook to the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft & Wizardry.
Now we’re moving onto the final part of the map which is the gameplay. There’s a couple positives to it, but also a few things I feel like could’ve been improved into the game. Let’s go over the positives first. The use of potions and handling of spells out and during combat is pretty good. The variety that’s offered from Stupefy to Expecto Patronum has their uses and don’t feel like they’re overpowered for a beginning student. It also doesn’t feel like enemies overpower you too much to begin with. There’s easy ways to avoid them so long as you utilize the location around you.
However, unlike everything else there are some downsides to the combat that I experienced. Certain spells with double clicking right didn’t always activate and did require a 3rd or sometimes 4th click. Not to mention once there becomes a large group of enemies, it’s hard to deal a decent amount of damage to them asides from one spell. It’d be cool if we had a way to overcharge or handle spells a bit differently. I also learned a little after I finished the map itself that there was ways to utilize melee weapons, something I didn’t notice as nothing was told about them during the main game. The bag in general was a bit hard to get used to so I did wish there was another way that was handled asides from chat scrolling. I know the team did their best so it’s not a huge complaint, just a personal gripe at the end of the day.
A small look into what the gameplay appears as in-game.
Overall, Witchcraft & Wizardry looks great and was handled the best the team could’ve made it. While there is some irks to spells and combat, I do believe it was handled as well as it could be. Overall, I’d give the map a crisp 9/10. There wasn’t enough to hinder it from being a fantastic to play and I’d recommend everyone else to give it a look.
Want to play this map for yourself? Check out our Witchcraft ordering page to get yourself into the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
Already a month has passed by here in 2025 huh? January has come and gone for many folks, not being as long as some would’ve wanted it to be. What a way to start this new year, huh?
StickyPiston has seen quite a few things through this month. Just to mention a few, quite a few new Minecraft Maps alongside a handful of Minecraft Modpacks have been released to our platform. Outside of that content we’ve also seen the introduction of another member to the Twitch Stream Team! Oh what else.. oh that’s right, the newest Minecraft snapshots have been coming out too.
Alright, time to dive back into January 2025:
New Minecraft Maps
Shoutout to our Minecraft Maps Team! They keep the rotation of games coming in as much as possible, working with mapmakers to promote their maps and a variety of different projects around. Quite a few different maps have released this month. You’ve got maps like Henzoid’s The Trolley Problem 3 and xisumavoid’s Tunnel Rats seeing their releases onto the trials. But there hasn’t been a map that has broken trials in a long while quite like Wii Party in Minecraft has!
What a shock this map drop was! This is one of the very maps outside of Hielke’s maps that have surpassed over 1,400 plays on the trials within a singular week! I think the fact this is an iconic and niche game that has been going through 5 years of development that has made it such a popular pick to all kinds of players. Jevin, dv10, Table, and many of the other talented mapmakers have put their all into making this as great of an experience as it can be.
New Minecraft Modpacks
Think Minecraft maps are all that we have to offer? Well look no further than to Minecraft Modpacks! While not as plentiful as the maps this month, don’t count them out as we have gotten out Valhelsia 7 by Valhelsia Team and even put out the latest of Medieval Minecraft’s Forge series, MMC5. I don’t think anything will top the release of Divine Gaming’s Nightmare Craft however.
How should one talk about this magnificent modpack? Well first off it’s a cohesive storyline filled with an amazingly crafted map with it. Interaction with various NPCs can feel pretty lifelike and working with friends to take down hordes of enemies have never felt better. I think the best way to understand how good the team behind this has worked on it is by ordering a server ASAP and playing it yourself.
The Stream Team Continues to Grow
And already 📺 StickyPiston.TV has grown another member! Now increasing from the previous 150% increased to now a whopping 200%, we welcome in another member to the team.
John Glacious
John here is someone who dabbles around with gaming every so often. Not only is he someone who works for StickyPiston, but he has been a customer since 2018. One of his personal passions is playing singleplayer Minecraft Maps.
Want to know where to tune in for his streams or anyone else on the Stream Team? Look no further than the StickyPiston Twitch Schedule! And if you’re wanting to join this magnificent team yourself, open a support ticket letting us know you’d like to join.
Minecraft Snapshots
You think we’re finished with what has been released this month? Hoo boy. We’ve got the Minecraft Snapshots to talk about! A total of 4 different snapshots have released this month. Let’s take a quick look into what each of them brought in.
A small look into what has been shown from the Minecraft Snapshots.
January 8th – 25w02a
New Falling Leaves Particles for leaf blocks that didn’t have them
Phew. That was quite a bit to see. It’s curious as to what February will be bringing to us. Thank you to everyone who has continued to give us support and thanks for allowing us to give you the best service possible.
Taking a peak into February, it seems like we’ll be seeing more Minecraft Maps and more Minecraft Modpacks! Could we perhaps see something such as a new form of Corrupted Tag or maybe even.. A Fox’s Life 2? Probably not, but we can hope!
We’ll also be keeping up the support for the latest Minecraft Snapshots alongside keeping up with making highlights of StickyPiston.TV. It’s best to keep a watch of everything that goes on with our little company on the sea of Minecraft content.
If there’s one thing we’ve heard the most this year, it’s “where has this year gone?!”. We can’t quite believe how close we are to bringing in the New Year. So with 2025 fast approaching, let’s take a look back at everything that happened in 2024 and look into 2025.
This year saw exciting changes and additions. To mention a few, we had the Easy Map Updater from Dominexis, a brand new dedicated control panel for our Aussie server owners, Control Panel improvements worldwide, the introduction of our brand new Data Pack Manager, and brought on new members to our Twitch Stream Team!
But first, from everyone at StickyPiston, a very Merry Christmas (Happy Holidays) and Happy New Year! 🎅
Right, let’s look back at 2024:
Easy Map Updater (EMU)
What a project to kick off this post! The Easy Map Updater (also known as EMU) is THE tool Minecraft mapmakers need if they want their maps to stay relevant – or just easy to play in modern versions of the game. Created by Dominexis in collaboration with StickyPiston Hosting, and recognised by Mojang(!!!), EMU makes it easy to update your MInecraft Maps with minimal effort.
Working with Command Blocks and Datapacks, simply select the world, type “Update” and that’s it! Your map is ready to play in the latest version of the game! If I was asked to learn the new commands or use EMU, I’d pick EMU all day long!
See EMU in action with Dominexis’ video.
Dedicated Australian Panel
Did you know it takes about 17 hours to fly from England to Australia? Well thankfully it doesn’t take that long to load the Australian Control Panel anymore. Why? Because earlier this year we introduced a dedicated Australian Control Panel for all our Aussie server owners! 🐨
Finally, being on the other side of the world no longer means dealing with a slow control panel experience! Now you can spend less time waiting and more time playing! Exactly how it should be.
A Better Panel For Everyone
It’s not just our Australian users that saw benefits from control panel improvements, everyone saw loading speed improvements to the control panel. Probably the most notable change was the improved navigation. It’s now easier thanever to navigate the control panel and get exactly where you need to be!
Data Pack Manager
EMU wasn’t the only new release every Map Maker should be using. We also released our Data Pack Manager this year. The Data Pack Manager allows you to quickly and easily manage the Data Packs in your world folder, without ever needing to open your world folder
There’s so much to mention about the Data Pack Manager, so we’ve written this helpful guide to show you all it has to offer and how to use it.
Upload and manage Data Packs with the Data Pack Manager.
The Stream Team Grows
Now, what’s one thing you need after a long day of managing your Minecraft Server? Blocky entertainment of course! Introducing 📺 StickyPiston.TV! This year, we grew the Stream Team by 150%, welcoming MarioHessel, KeyDevy, and TheHappywheels1 – that’s me!
Meet your Stream Team Members!
MoseMajorMC
MoseMajorMC is a complex life-support system for a magnificent Mosetache and fabulous hair. The Mosetache and hair have been playing Minecraft since the early days. The Mosetache concentrates on the more technical aspects, especially redstone. While the hair takes care of building and aesthetics. Together they make one glorious whole.
Khallador
Khallador, a Minecraft player from the USA, has been part of the game’s community since version 1.8 and ventured into modded Minecraft just two years ago. While building might not be their strongest suit, they excel at following tutorials and enjoy relaxing mining sessions. Khallador streams regularly on their own channel, typically on Fridays and Sundays, and also brings their energy to the StickyPiston channel for Saturday entertainment. They’re always excited to connect with the community and share fun experiences.
KeyDevy
KeyDevy is a Minecraft tech enthusiast with a passion for exploring mods, experimenting with automation, and diving into futuristic machinery. They share their love for the game through engaging mod showcases, detailed add-on reviews, and the occasional adventure on custom Minecraft maps. With a knack for tinkering and building, KeyDevy invites others to join in exploring the endless possibilities that Minecraft has to offer.
MarioHessel
Hessel, also known as MarioHessel, is a Dutch YouTuber who creates animations with friends and produces a variety of gameplay content. While Minecraft is a favorite, his channel also features horror games, vlogs, and streams. Hailing from the Netherlands—proudly referred to as “the cheese country”—Hessel brings a playful and creative energy to everything he does.
TheHappywheels1
I’m best known for creating Minecraft content on YouTube and have done so since 2012. Around here, I’m known as the “Modpack Newbie”, because whilst I update modpacks here at StickyPiston Hosting, my time spent playing modpacks for fun is very little. Catch me on the StickyPiston Twitch channel every Thursday at 10:30 AM GMT (or BST if it’s summer).
Looking Into 2025
Phew, that was a lot! No doubt 2025 will be just as packed – if not more 👀. Thank you for your continued support throughout 2024 and before. It really drives us to continue making StickyPiston the best it can be for you.
Looking into the New Year, we have plans. Even more control panel improvements, a bucket load of additional Modpacks for you to install through the One Click Installer, new features for managing your servers, continued support for EMU, and so much more that we can’t quite mention just yet.
One thing I plan to do is start collecting highlights from StickyPiston.TV and turning them into highlight shorts for our YouTube Channel. I promise they won’t just be me dying all the time, our other Stream Team Members have their moments too!
Thanks again from me and all of us here at StickyPiston Hosting. Have a great rest of 2024 and here’s to 2025!
So now we’ve gone through all different kinds of maps from those that are underrated to those that dominated the top of the charts. So what else is there to do? Our own personal recommendations.
These recommendations come from the maps we’ve played throughout the years and the expertise we have when it comes to fun games. Each member of the team (as of the initial writing this article) has talked about their personal favorites.
These thoughts come from both old and new members of StickyPiston. Each text about the maps today are coming from them rather than the article writer.
If you have a server, you can even check this maps out from the One Click Installer. If not, you can be sure to host all of these and more on our Minecraft Server Hosting Service.
These 2 Maps are recommendations by the boss of StickyPiston – eonic! He’s essentially the backbone and biggest reason as to why StickyPiston even exists. Alongside his brother Tiger_Walts, they know what they talk about when it comes to pretty much ANYTHING Server Hosting related.
Shattered PvP by Panguino
MC 1.8.9 Profile | Can be played between 2 to 24 Players
“This was one of our go to Minecraft Maps back the in the 1.8 PVP/Arrow slinging era. I remember playing game countless times at Minigame Mash. With 7 well designed levels and 4 game-mode to choose there’s not much chance you could get bored with this one. One day maybe it’ll be added to the reforged project and brought to life in newer versions of Minecraft.”
MC 1.8.7 Profile | Can be played between 2 to 16 Players
“I’m a little biased with this PVP map as I worked with SkaranYT to make this game. It’s time to dust this old masterpiece off! It’s an unusual map, as you level up you’ll have an effect applied to you which gives your player a disadvantage, such as slowness or being stuck to the ground. Enjoy the trailer, which I hope inspires you to play some Effect War. You also should search up some of SkaranYT map on the trials such as Light Rush and INVISI FIGHT.”
Alkali is someone who made a lot of coding while working for StickyPiston. He’s the main reason as to why you got some refinements to the coding to the trials site or as to how we build our modpacks. He even created a map of his own during his spare time.
Tales of Glarthford by Crowdford
MC 1.19.4 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 3 Players
“An incredibly in-depth RPG with fascinating stories that kept me coming back to it for multiple play sessions with friends. Fantastic use of turn-based combat that’s easy to understand and fun to play.”
MC 1.10.2 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 4 Players
“Simple but fun adventure through 8 different worlds. Took a single play session to finish but it was enjoyable to play with friends and didn’t require an insanely huge amount of skill to be able to finish.”
Our resident expert in all things unfair – it’s TheHappywheels! Not only is he an amazing content creator and human being, but he’s the one who manages a lot of our social posts on Twitter. Being a mapmaker himself, he has some maps he likes to share.
Parkour Pyramid by Hielke
MC 1.21.1 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 16 Players
“Parkour Pyramid is a great Minecraft Map for anyone both new to or experienced with parkour. This is a map that i have come back to year after year and am yet to be bored of it. It is especially good for Content Creators like myself who are looking for something to livestream or speed run.”
MC 1.20.1 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 4 Players
“The concept of Placeholder is amazing! The map is supposed to look unfinished and you, the player, need to solve puzzles to complete each stage. This map has some really unique mechanics, and after watching a behind the scenes video from SimonDMC, it shows how much effort was put into this map. Definitely one I would recommend, not just for people that enjoy puzzles, but just to see the custom mechanics in action!”
It’s Dominexis! This man is responsible for EMU being able to be created and the man behind the legendary Nexus. This guy is a coding genius and responsible for so much that it’s really hard to name. Being a mapmaker for Bedrock & Java, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to finding the right maps to play.
Combat Cube 2 by ArcadiaLabs
MC 1.21.1 Profile | Can be played between 2 to 24 Players
“Combat Cube 2 is exhilarating. One moment you have the upper hand and you’re about to punch someone out, then the next moment TNT blows up on your face and you’re fighting for your life on the fragile glass floor. There are several power ups which really change up the game from exploding arrows and laser eyes, to firework rockets that launch you out of the void. The games are just boom boom boom boom constant action. I can play it for hours at a time.”
MC 1.20.4 Profile | Can be played between 2 to 24 Players
“It’s a fun concept of a map and that it was quite fun for updating as a map. It was successful in what it wanted to tell and easy to grasp the objectives.”
Almost every mapmaker who has been around StickyPiston knows who this guy is. It’s Cosmic Cortex! He’s one of the friendliest fellows of the group and does his best to make conversation to anyone and everyone. If you were contacted to put your map onto StickyPiston, this was more than likely the guy you talked with. He’s a good chap and one of our longest map experts. He’s why Minecraft Maps are able to show their prowess onto Minecraft Server Hosting.
Combat Cube 2 by ArcadiaLabs
“This game I have had the most fun and the most fond memories of. The game is crazy fun and is a different experience each time I play it. Definitely one of the best out there today.”
MC 1.20.2 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 24 Players
“I choose this because its the 1st map I have ever had made. It was also one of the biggest and most put together maps that has ever been done with teaming up with this to make history. It’s a great experience.”
Films was more of a silent fellow who came around time to time. He helped out with some odd jobs here and there and wasn’t the most active dude. Despite this, he was a valuable and great asset to our team while having worked on some maps of his own.
Sprint Racer by Flamingosaurus & AriaZeroQueen
MC 1.21.1 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 3 Players
“Haven’t touched Minecraft in years. This is the only map I’d recommend because of personal bias haha.”
Oh Hessel, you’re always such a fun guy to be around. Whether it’s being around for maptesting, helping out with onboarding and offboarding.. there’s a lot that you know and a lot that goes in your head. What would we be without you?
Honey Missile Wars by Yeggs
MC 1.20.2 Profile | Can be played between 2 to 24 Players
“It’s fun to place machines and trying to reach the enemy’s wall to destroy then see their reactions.”
Oh look, it’s me! I’m the guy writing to you right now through these articles. I’m someone who helps with managing our content alongside a writer. If you got your maps on StickyPiston through our support system, I was the one you were in contact with. Not to mention I have been writing all those descriptions for our modpacks.
Sprint Racer by Flamingosaurus & AriaZeroQueen
“Sprint Racer is just an instant classic. If you like Mario Kart and an easier time with X-Run, this is a map for you. From a cool amount of custom items to the amount of dedicated speedrunners, it was just a ton of fun to see this map grow from its earliest iterations of Mario Kart in Minecraft to a multilingual and optimized success.”
Across The Time 2 -Time for Regrets by Team AdventQuest
MC 1.20.2 Profile | Can be played between 1 to 3 Players
“This is one of the very few maps I can confidently say I spent a long amount of time in it while also spending a fun amount of time in this. I played this back in 1.16 during the 2nd major update and the amount of content not only amazed me, but everything inside of it felt fun and expansive. Lots of side quests, lots of balanced difficulty, tons of progression. I put in 60 Hours into this map to finish it and I wasn’t even anywhere close to completing it. And now it has gotten more large scale updates to a newer version! Definitely recommend checking it out.”
Dedicated Support Staff who know what they're doing
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