Getting about that time again, where a new Minecraft update comes in and everything changes!

Well not really, 1.17 doesn't seem to be adding *much* at the moment, that'll be 1.18...

But science wise, we've got some updates to our systems coming down the pipes in two phases:

Coming up first and foremost, starting as of 2021-06-07, The Lost Woods and the 4 Horsemen areas will introduce a Completion Certificate system for advancing through the ranks of Science. What this means is, to advance from one area of lower difficulty to an area of higher difficulty, a Completion Certificate will be required from the preceding area.

For a simple example, to access the Snowhead Temple of Ancients dungeon, you'll first have to have completed the Wychwood Barrows up to and including Nomad.

What does "completion" mean for an area, you may ask? All it means is to defeat the area's boss, obtain their head or otherwise sign of their defeat, and leave alive. Specifically:

Lost Woods: Ganon's Loot Sack -> Hero of the Woods
Wychwood: Nomad Mask -> Master of the Soul
Snowhead: Nex, the Sealed Hybrid Mask -> Master of the Prison
Shattered Sands: Telos Mask -> Master of the Heart
Shoals of the Departed: Defeat of all Gods in the Hurricane -> Master of the Divine

The items above are not taken from players on receipt of the certificates, just used to verify you've completed the challenge area.

Likewise, some players may already have the above certificates from manual handouts via the Horsemen, but find that they can't access the areas in question; These certificates are still legitimate, and need only be "stamped" at the Creeper Citadel to enable access to their related areas. This can be done at the very entrance of the Citadel, where the small Vendor tent used to be. Stamping the certificate will then grant you access to the area in question, and the areas before it! (But not after it!)



On a lighter note, Keep Inventory will be now enabled across all boss rooms and science areas, after some adjustments to boss room exit mechanics.

This all deals mostly with some final cleanup before the big 1.17 change, and again will be active as of June 7th, about a week from now. That gives everyone 1 week and 1 full events night of free access before the locks and major bossroom changes are active. That said, the Completion Certifications are obtainable from said bosses as they are now, if you'd like to maintain access to an area you may already be in!

What's all this for, you may ask? Phase 2! Post 1.17, a massive rebalancing of the mainline weapons, armors, and bosses will occur, to take the addition of Netherite items into consideration. Most of Science was built using Diamond equipment as the top vanilla-available stats; many of you may have noticed, that many equipment sets are falling a bit behind now!

Stay tuned for some new and updated goodies! All effected items will be notated and replacements accepted at the repair workshop as normal once this takes effect.