Not long ago, we got the news that Minecraft would be getting a couple of new pig variants, the warm and the cold pig. Following that, we've just heard that cows will also be getting the same treatment, meaning we'll get fluffy highland Minecraft cows which you can test out before it gets added for good.
"Strewn like confetti across biomes, your next expedition might entail meeting two moo-some cow variants, spotting dancing firefly particles glimmering in the dark, hearing howling wind and other ambient desert sounds, or picking up a lush new plant block: the bush," a Minecraft blog post says. "Coated in fluffy fur, our cold cow brings cozy with them wherever they go—which is lucky, since it’s picked the snow-swept chilly biomes as its home. Our auburn, warm cow can instead be found kicking up dust in the sandy biomes."
You'll be able to find the warm cow in hotter biomes like the Badlands, Desert, and Savannah, while the cold cow will be found pretty much anywhere there's snow on the ground. This will be in snow biomes, up high in the mountains, and particularly chilly dark wood biomes.
But unlike the pig, this isn't the first time Minecraft cows have got a new variant. Players can already find the Mooshroom roaming around rare biomes, and while the Moobloom never officially made it into Minecraft after losing out the mob vote to the Glow Squid, it's still very much alive in all our hearts.
These variants may also be a little underwhelming if you're used to using mods to enlarge your livestock farm. I use the More Mob Variants pack, which not only gives me more variants for cows and pigs but also means I get new dogs, sheep, and chickens. The cows on offer in this mod pack are also, dare I say, better than the cold and the warm cows.
The wooly cow is essentially the same thing as the cold cow, and the pinto cow is the same as the warm. But there are also cookie, dairy, ashen, and umbra cows to collect and look after, thanks to this mod pack. Plus, if you add on the More Mob Variants x Fresh Animations pack, your animals will have more idle animations, such as sitting down or rolling around in the grass.
Different shades of cow aside, there are a couple of other new features coming to the first Minecraft game drop of 2025. There will be new ambient desert sounds like howling winds and rustles coming from clusters of sand and terracotta blocks. Then there's the bush; a new lush plant block that is basically just a sprout of greenery that can be found in forests, birch forests, plains, windswept hills, and other green biomes.
But the absolutely best part (other than the new cows) has to be the introduction of fireflies. These little critters were teased way back when frogs made their first appearance in Minecraft, and players have been clambering for them ever since. "This new plant block spawns dancing firefly particles that – listen to this – glow in the dark," the blog post says. "As if that wasn’t enough, you can bury the firefly bush below other blocks to make them sparkle! Trek to swamps and bodies of water (during the day, obviously) to retrieve the firefly bush, and then you can use bone meal to grow more in the safety of your own home."
I have never been so excited to see sparkles on my screen, and together with my army of frogs that worship a newly built frog shrine in my main server, I think my aim of creating a truly magical forest scene is finally about to come together.
