Waychest 26.2

Time flies! I’m excited to announce Waychest’s latest content update: Minecraft 26.2 and the outer islands!

Outer Islands

That a fifteen-year-old game still receives major content updates is one of my favorite parts of Minecraft. However, keeping a long-term world up to date is a challenge for many server owners. What happens when Minecraft adds new biomes? There’s no easy way to integrate them into the existing world.

My vision was to introduce islands containing the new biomes that weren’t present when the server launched back in 2024. After weeks of customizing the world generator, building a discovery system, and polishing, I’m delighted with how these islands turned out. There are 25 islands in this first drop covering 2 new biomes. The framework is complete for even more new biomes in the upcoming Minecraft 26.3 and beyond.

Of course, to keep the world connected, 25 new islands means 25 new Rifts and 25 new Region Maps to find. This is the first time since the server started that new Rifts have joined the world. These new rifts do not count towards the “All the Way” advancement.

Finding the Islands

Island discovery starts with a chase. Within the Overworld’s mainland, some of the Rifts that have been in the world since the server’s inception now spawn “Wisps”, creatures made of particles. When you find a Wisp, chase it down by interacting with it, and it will reward you with a portal to an outer island.

Wisps are elusive, but there will always be exactly one Wisp at each unique Rift name: one at a “Pig” Rift, one at a “Diamond” Rift, and so on. Wisps only move between mainland Rifts when the server restarts daily. If a Wisp gets away from you, warp away and warp back, and the Wisp will respawn near the same Rift (as long as you don’t wait until the next day).

Be careful not to fall off!

When you’re near someone, they “join the game”. Other players are effectively invisible until you’re near them.

You can now use the /lock command on a player to keep the crossover active, even if you move far apart from each other. The crossover will still end if either player disconnects from the server. Either player may use the /unlock command to undo this effect.

Locking is reciprocal — your new friend will see a “locked” notification too.

To complement this change, the crossover “linger” time has been reduced from 30 seconds to 5 seconds. This is the duration after which a crossover will end if players move away from each other and have not locked each other.

Quality of Life Improvements

Here are some minor changes to enhance your experience.

Warp to Flight Shortcuts

Waychest Flights already offer “shortcuts” in the pre-flight menu, any time using a warp would save you time on the flight. Now, you can click the shortcut to warp there. Note that this only works when you’re near any warp point.

Phantom Toggle

After you defeat the ender dragon, you will unlock a Journey setting to disable phantoms from spawning near you, no matter how little you sleep.

Free Waychest Shard Captures

After you defeat the ender dragon, Waychest Shards will no longer require or consume an ender pearl to capture creatures.

Pinned Online Warp Indicators

When someone is online and close to a warp point you’ve unlocked, that warp point will now show up at the top of your warp menu (below favorite warps).