The Buzz - October 2024 📰
What's all the buzz about? Welcome to October's issue of The Buzz! Your one-stop-shop for all things Hive.
In this newsletter, we'll cover all of the latest Hive news and updates and highlight some of your awesome community creations!
If you don't want to miss out on news, exclusive competitions, and more, be sure to subscribe to our blog by heading onto The Hive and typing /newsletter in chat. Everyone who subscribes will receive the exclusive Mail Bee costume!
News & Updates 📰
Spooktober is upon us, and Hive-o-ween is here! There have been a ton of updates for many of our minigames since our last issue, as well as news about what you can expect to see in the future. Here's a breakdown of everything you might have missed!
Hive-o-ween 🎃
It's the most spooky time of year! Hive-o-ween has returned to The Hive, bringing a giant cauldron, the return of the reaper, and of course, everybody's favorite fruit-colored ghosts!
Be sure to check out our blog post to find everything you need to know about this year's Hive-o-ween happenings!
6th Anniversary 🎉
October 16th marked 6 years of The Hive on Minecraft: Bedrock Edition! To celebrate, everyone who logged in got a special party hat and matching hub title.
We're incredibly thankful for our awesome player community; whether you're a new-bee or have been playing since the beginning—thank you!
Updates, and updates, and updates – oh my! 🆕
It's been a very busy couple of months here at The Hive, with many minigames receiving updates! Here's a rundown of everything you might have missed:
Capture the Flag 🚩
A CTF mini-update was first up, bringing quality-of-life changes, new Armor Trim unlocks, and bug fixes.
A later update also introduced a brand new map to CTF's roster: Rift!
Gravity 🪂
Gravity was next up, with an update that introduced five new maps, and lots of improvements and bug fixes, including a new menu that stores and displays your best recorded times.
Deathrun 💀
A Deathrun mini-update quickly followed, bringing a range of much-requested features, including a new menu that tracks and displays your personal best times for each map, and additional XP for finishing top three.
Additionally, to make it easier for Deaths to win, they now only need to stop a certain number of players from finishing!
Just Build 👷♀️
A mini-update for Just Build added over 50 new vanilla Minecraft blocks. New customization options were also introduced, including new block toggles, which allow you to change the appearance of blocks like chiseled bookshelves, bee nests, and candles.
Decorating features were expanded too—players can now modify the look of Decorated Pots with sherds and change Banner designs by interacting with them with dyes and patterns.
Murder Mystery 🕵️
Murder Mystery also received an update, it introduced unlockable murder weapons, directional murder sounds, and an eerie new map–Nectar Lake!
If you're planning to visit this beautiful lakeside campsite, be sure to keep your wits about you—not everything is as it seems!
Custom Servers 🔧
New Featured Presets have been added to various games, and can now be played in Custom Servers! Featured Presets are special presets that include popular Custom Server settings, and community favorites.
The Bridge 🌉
And finally, some small changes were also made to The Bridge last week. Skill-based matchmaking was disabled on the Solos mode and replaced with platform-based matchmaking to reduce queue times for the mode.
Parkour Worlds Star Merchant ⭐
Your Star Coins now have a new purpose! Head to the Parkour Worlds microhub and visit the Star Merchant, where you can trade your hard-earned coins for exclusive unlocks and cosmetics.
Discover a range of exciting rewards, from avatars and costumes to special game unlocks—only available here!
Cross-Region Matchmaking 🌍
As part of our recently announced 'Region Agnostic' update, cross-region matchmaking has been enabled on Block Drop, Ground Wars, Gravity & Just Build.
Cross-region matchmaking activates when you're queuing for a game at quieter times of the day (late at night for example), and will send you to a lobby in another, more populated region.
This means shorter queue times, and because of how cross-region matchmaking works, you'll have a better connection than if you were to join another region directly!
Cross-region matchmaking will be coming to more games in the near future. Want to learn more? Check out this handy article!
What's next? 🔜
The team recently published a development update on our blog, detailing some of the things you can expect to see coming to The Hive in the future. We're currently hard at work getting BedWars: Season 2 ready; here's just some of what you can expect:
Our minigame team is currently working on Season 2, which will be our first fully themed season. This season will bring new gameplay, items, maps, challenges, and cosmetics. Additionally, Season 2 will launch with a special limited-time game mode that will have you playing BedWars in a completely new way.
Keep your eyes peeled for more news about BedWars: Season 2 as we get closer to its release!
Competition Time: Hive-o-ween Campfire Tales ⛺
One of the best parts of Hive-o-ween is the spooky stories, and we want to hear your spookiest tales, in video form!
Whether it's a haunted adventure or a chilling ghost story, we want to see your creativity in full spooky swing. Frightening prizes await the most terrifying tales!
For all of the information about how to enter, as well as the rules and deadline, click here.
Community Spotlight 🏅
In this segment, we'll highlight some of our favorite community creations, shared by you, our amazing players!
Players who have their art or video featured each receive the exclusive Buzztastic Creator hub title!
Hub Model by Gr33nPuffin
Check out this awesome 3D model of The Hive's hub! What are your favorite areas of the hub, and can you spot them in this model?
CHARIZORDO - Post Office Lego
CHARIZORDO used Lego to create this epic replica of Mailbot's post office! We especially loved the little Lego Mailbot, and we think Mailbot would approve as well!
Hive-o-ween Drawing by Rentium
Rentium embraced the Hive-o-ween spirit and created this spooky piece of art featuring the Witch's Apprentice, Count Ghosty, and Soul Goddess costumes playing on Nectar Lake—have you managed to unlock all three of them yet?
That's it for this edition of The Buzz. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to learn about news and updates!
All players who subscribe to our newsletter in-game by typing /newsletter will receive the Mail Bee costume and an exclusive hub title in every issue!