Caves & Cliffs Explorers

Caves & Cliffs Explorers
Map maker(s)	Spark Universe
Price	Free
Release date	December 9, 2021
Tags	Fun; Mining; Caves; Explorers;
Genre(s)	Action; Guide;
Players	Single player, Multiplayer (1-4)
Website page	Caves & Cliffs Explorers in Minecraft Marketplace
Article	"New Year's Celebration: Caves & Cliffs Explorers" – Minecraft.net.

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Caves & Cliffs Explorers is a Marketplace map that promotes the Caves & Cliffs Update, featuring many popular YouTubers at the time.

Summary

The map opens inside of a pitch black void, with a single seafoam green block in front of the player. Pressing a button on top will start the map, triggering a loading screen that shows the logos for the map and Sparks Universe, before transitioning into a cinematic. Stealth and PaintingRainbows walk down a dirt path, which transitions into an expansive mineshaft below, almost entirely held by chains, which ShadowPriestok explores. Inside the cave, Lunar and Funneh come across an amethyst geode, mining several amethyst buds as Jazzghost mines behind them, meanwhile Logdotzip and LDShadowLady explore a lush cave. The two jump into a water reserve with axolotls, before cutting to Hikakin, GoldenGlare, and DraconiteDragon mining ores in a canyon above lava. The ceiling of a dripstone cave begins to collapse, BigB warning the camera to get out of the way.

Players will spawn inside of a house, with a furnace, cauldron, and chairs by a table. In front of the player is a small office room with a crafting table, while above cobblestone stairway is a bedroom attic with a red bed. In the player's inventory are an iron sword, iron pickaxe, iron axe, and iron shovel, each of varying durability. Outside the house is a Shepherd NPC, who will explain that a nearby village is in trouble, and asks for your help. The Shepherd will attempt to lead the player, however walking over a sheet of powder snow, sending the player falling down into a colossal cave, so deep that it has clouds.

Falling into an underwater lake, the player can climb up to safety onto a wooden bridge, and follow several torches up a deepslate steep. At the top, marked by pointed dripstone, is the entrance to the cave, leading the player into the village, marked by a sign. Progressing outside of the map will reveal the various YouTubers waiting for the player, who can each be interacted with and show concern for the village. Progressing on the path ahead shows a troubling sight, with the village severely damaged, filled with blocks such as coarse dirt and dead bushes, with many buildings elevated, sunken, or generally unreachable.

At the end of the depressing path is the Town Hall, identifiable by a purpur flag on top. Inside, the player can find three NPCs: the Mayor, the Historian, and Billy. The Mayor will explain the situation, and ask the player to help the citizens recover from the cataclysm. The Historian will give the credits for the map. Billy is a baby goat, who will baa when interacted with and can then be petted. At the back of the Hall are five missions the player can select to help the town, giving the player a lodestone compass leading to the site of each quest, while behind Billy is a ladder that leads to two more floors of the building, with oak wood floors, several holes and debris, a skeleton skull, and a bell.

Copper Ageing Quest

This quest is set right outside the Town Hall, with players approaching a Builder NPC and being asked to replace a statue destroyed in the collapse. To get started, the player will need to locate the Green Copper Cave, where they can mine copper ore. The cave can be found by following several signs, down a dirt path and marked by a fallen tree beside a green sign, blast furnaces, and a Beekeeper NPC's house. Traversing down into the cave will trigger a title card to confirm the player has found it, as the Builder tells the player to find a copper vein.

Entering the cave will lead into a mineshaft, with an ore blob visible but inaccessible. In order to reach it, the player must travel down several platforms, following several rails and avoiding zombies, before climbing across several more platforms. Once the player has obtained 32 raw copper, players will have to smelt them in nearby blast furnaces, all stocked with blocks of coal, and can then return to the Builder.

Upon delivering the copper, they will convert the copper ingots into stacks of blocks of copper, cut copper stairs, and cut copper slabs. From there, a nearby polished andesite podium will be converted to blocks of gold, signaling that the player can build the statue on top. Once the player has built a statue, they can approach the Builder to solidify, triggering a cinematic showing the copper oxidizing over many days. After this, it is revealed that the Builder forgot to wax the blocks, asking the player to retrieve honeycombs from the Beekeeper. Upon approaching the Beekeeper, they will jokingly request 1,000,000 emeralds, before handing over 32 honeycombs. From there the player can build a similar statue to the right of the Hall, which will have a reprise of the cinematic, completing the quest.

Lightning Rod Quest

The quest begins east of the Hall, across a bridge and up through a cave. Upon reaching the site, players can interact with the Scared Villager outside a house ridden with cobwebs. The villager will explain that a thunderstorm is approaching, and is scared that they won't be able to survive without a lightning rod. If the player agrees to help, lightning will strike a dead tree, creating a bridge into Red Copper Cave, which can be found by following several red signs.

Similar to the Green Copper Cave, entering the Red Copper Cave will trigger a title card, as the player is tasked with collecting at least three copper. This cave has another mineshaft, now filled with lava, with the player having to platform across a linear path and avoid zombies. The player will eventually end up at a large copper vein in the dark, with a large stairway leading out of it, and several blast furnaces for smelting any obtained raw copper. Once three ingots are claimed, the player can return to the Scared Villager. From there, the villager will tell the player to craft a lightning rod inside of their house.

Once the rod is crafted, it can be placed on top of a block of gold near the Scared Villager. This will solve the lightning problem, ending the quest.

Spyglass Quest

This quest begins west of the Hall, above the Red Copper Cave and near a surface dripstone cave, identifiable by dripstone pillar. A Guard will explain that their spyglass shattered when the village collapsed, asking the player for help replacing it. The materials will be found in the Blue Copper & Amethyst Caves, found by following signs right on the hill down to a building with a granite chimney. The Blue Copper Cave and Amethyst Copper Caves can be found adjacent to each other, the player getting the choice to pick which they go in first.

The Blue Copper Cave begins with the player following a trail of glow lichens into a mineshaft with chandeliers. The player will platform across several supports, ending at a stone brick stair before several copper ore, which then leads to a staircase back to another platforming sequence, now upwards into the fork.

The Amethyst Cave is marked by doorway made of oak logs, forking itself in a section full of clay and water. Both paths lead to an expansive maze of clay pillars above lava, leading to a bridge with a sign, simply labeled "jump." This clues the player into the fact they have to jump off the bridge into a lake, similar to the opening of the map, with an amethyst geode nearby. Once amethyst shards are obtained, the player can leave through a tunnel, marked by deepslate gold ores. At the end of the tunnel is a waterfall with soul sand, enabling the player to return to the entrance of the cave, exiting through a hole with a sea lantern.

Back at the Guard's outpost, the player can smelt the copper into ingots using two coal and craft the spyglass. Once it is crafted, the Guard requests the player join them up in the nearby tower, circling up spruce stairs and a ladder. Upon reaching the top, the Guard will ask to hold the spyglass, and discovers a nearby patrol. Sending out an iron golem to deal with it, they ask the player to use the spyglass themselves, allowing them to watch pillagers die. This will conclude the mission.

Goat Horn Quest

The quest occurs west of the Hall, below the Guard's outpost and reached by walking behind a waterfall. Standing outside a forge, a Ranger will comment how useful a goat horn would be to warn of pillager attacks. The mission is to climb up into the mountain, and claim a horn from a goat, specifically requested to not be killed. The mountains can be reached by following a cobblestone path marked by a sign of a goat's head, traveling through a cave up into the frozen peaks.

Upon reaching the top, the player will be warned to avoid powder snow, calling back to the opening. Players will need to watch their step over snow and powder snow. If the player falls prey to the snow, they will enter into a floor of ice and can be led out by following magenta glazed terracotta. At the end of the challenge is a series of ice spikes, at the top a screaming goat in a loop of running into a spruce tree. Crossing over several fallen spruces will put the player face to face with a goat, with several trees surrounding them to retrieve the horn from.

Upon claiming the horn, a path under a bridge will be cleared of snow, leading the player to a minecart system that can return them to the village. Upon returning to the Ranger, they will alert the player to the presence of pillagers, asking that the goat horn be used to scare them off and warn the village. Doing so will conclude the quest.

Axolotl Quest

The Axolotl quest can be found on the initial path to the Town Hall, potentially being noticed before reaching any of the others. It formally begins by approaching a Child, who sympathizes with an axolotl in a pool and offers to bring it home to a lush cave. The Child hands over a bucket for carrying the axolotl, which they've nicknamed Olli, and instructs the player to leap off a bridge into a flooding pit nearby.

Dropping into the lush cave, the player is trapped inside an aquifer, with a wall of vines blocking progress. In order to advance, the player must use the bucket of Olli, which will summon two drowneds. After defeating the drowned, the player can advance beyond the vine wall, and swim into an underwater cave. In order to traverse the ensuing maze, the player must closely follow Olli, with magma blocks positioned throughout to help refill oxygen. After swimming through a deepslate cave, the player can find the Child peeking through a hole in a wall, telling you that Olli's friends can be found nearby.

The map transitions into a platforming challenge, with the player having to jump over several clay blocks and big dripleaves, before arriving in a cave made predominately of moss blocks. The difficulty ramps up, as the player must leap almost exclusively across dripleaves upwards, downwards, and then spiraling across the cave. Making things more difficult is that the dripleaves can potentially break. Upon reaching the end, the player can deposit Olli with several other axolotls, and then leave using a minecart, concluding the mission.

Ending

Spoiler warning!

This article contains detailed information about Minecraft that may spoil your enjoyment of discovering the game's secrets for yourself.
Read at your own risk!

With each mission completed, the village will gradually repair itself, visible through the emergence of grass blocks. Once all five are concluded, the player will be told to speak with the Mayor, who will congratulate them for saving the town. As they do, the town will be completely refurbished, and all the YouTuber guest stars will appear outside the Town Hall. Once the map is concluded, the player is free to replay any mission by approaching the respective NPC.

Quotes

External

“	Minecraft Marketplace creators Spark Universe bring you the Caves & Cliffs Explorers map. Learn about the update, by rebuilding and upgrading a collapsed village through fun quests and relaxing gameplay!	„
	— Minecraft Marketplace description

“	We created the "Caves & Cliffs Explorers" world with @Microsoft , teaching players about the new features from @Minecraft 's latest update. Check it out, it's free!	„
	— Spark Universe^[1]

Internal

“	Oh no! Something terrible has happened at the village and we need your help. Quickly, follow me!	„
	— Shepherd's sole dialogue

“	The village has collapsed into this cave. You should head to the town hall to see if you can help!	„
	— Logdotzip

“	Oh no! Looks like with the update, the village collapsed. You should go see if the mayor and villagers need help.	„
	— LDShadowlady

“	According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyways. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.	„
	— Beekeeper

Videos

Credits

Producers

Florian Funke
Luke Hernandez
Rafael Fritsche
Roel Bisshops
Vilim Muršić

Level & Environment

Albin Ullerstam
Christian Zaharie
Daniel Dalton
Gabersid
John Hofmann
Kevin Phung
Samuel Till

Behaviours & Mechanics

Colin D'Souza
Lesley Dom
Lukas Scheuerle
Markus Ploier

Tech Artist

Jannis Petersen

Modeling & Texturing

Alexey Gorbachevsky
Vladyslav Lychanyi

Animation

Sultan Taha

Lead Sound Design

Thomas Pichler

Sound Design

Thomas Ecklbauer

Design

Liam Bevin

Quality Assurance

Hasancan Üstün

History

Bedrock Edition
December 9, 2021							Caves & Cliffs Explorers is released on the Marketplace.

Trivia

Before formally meeting them the Beekeeper NPC will give a speech about flight is a popular meme and copypasta, quoting the opening of the 2007 Dreamworks animated film Bee Movie.
Cut copper blocks during the Copper Ageing quest will be converted into stairs and slabs using the same texture as the block of copper, which do not exist elsewhere.
The Scared Villager bears a noticeable resemblance to an unused blue villager, who appeared in promotional art for the Horse Update.
Hitting a goat will trigger the message "Harming the goats won't give you their horns" instead of damaging them.