What is the Sniffer in Minecraft? Mob Vote 2022 Winner Explained

If there’s one definitive advantage that most animals have over humans, it’s the nose. Animals have a refined sense of smell, able to pinpoint and track all kinds of scents that we can’t even perceive. Up til now, Minecraft hasn’t played on this element that much, but with the introduction of its newest Mob, that’ll change. Here’s what you need to know about Minecraft‘s Sniffer, the winner of the 2022 Mob Vote.

The Sniffer is the newest Mob NPC to come to Minecraft, having won the majority vote of the 2022 community Mob Vote and beating out both the Rascal and the Tuff Golem. It’ll be a little while before it’s actually implemented into the game, likely sometime in 2023, but in the meantime, we’ve got an idea of what its role will be in the Minecraft world.

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First and foremost, the Sniffer is a large, shaggy creature, reminiscent of something like a buffalo. They have large, well-defined faces and noses, floppy ears, and most distinctively, a shaggy coat of fur with a layer of green moss on top. According to their companion lore, the Sniffers roamed the Earth in primordial times, but have long since gone extinct.

How will they be implemented in Minecraft if they’re extinct, you ask? Simple: Eggs! Sniffers will be exclusively hatched from Eggs recovered from Underwater Ruins, guarded by large hordes of Drowned. If you want a pet buffalo thing, you’re gonna have to work for it.

Sniffing Out a Brighter Tomorrow

If the giant nose and mossy coat didn’t tip you off, the Sniffer’s primary shtick revolves around plants and smells. The Sniffer is able to lock onto the scent of particular plants and hunt down their buried seeds, exhuming them for your benefit. Also, when a Sniffer successfully tracks down a seed, it’ll shove its whole head into the ground and dig it up, which is just the cutest thing ever.

Alongside the Sniffer’s addition to Minecraft, several new varieties of plants and seeds will be added as well. This will give you plenty of new items for your Sniffer-to-be to hunt down. Outside of its main function, the Sniffer appears to be a fairly docile creature, likely with a similar temperament to a cow. As long as you don’t start smacking it around, it won’t do you any harm. And really, how could you harm that precious face?

The Sniffer is an adorable new critter that’ll both brighten up your Minecraft home and give you the latest dirt on local plants and seeds. And by “dirt” I, of course, mean literal dirt. Because it digs up seeds.