Pre-alpha 0.1.1: a portal, four biomes and four bosses

Pre-alpha 0.1.1 is the second playable build of The Astral Sea for Minecraft 1.21.1 (Fabric). Like the first, it is a pre-release on GitHub; the Windows installer, the modpack and the mod file are on the Downloads page.

The biggest change is the way in. Build an upright frame of gold blocks, the way you would build a Nether portal, and use an End Crystal on it: the frame fills with the moving surface of the Astral Sea, and stepping in takes you to one of the islands. The way back has not changed: fall into the sea.

Four biomes join the nine from 0.1.0: the Astral Dunes, the Cursed Forest with its spiders, carnivorous plants and the Leshen, the Azure Meadows with their Glow Jellies, and the Ethereal Fields with Unicorns, Pegasi and Rainbow Water.

Four bosses are new. The Penitent waits in the crypt beneath a tree fortress in the Astral Forest, behind sealed library doors that only Flying Keys open. The Crucible Warden guards the Crucible Depths beneath the Shattered Furnace, The Fiend lives in the Hollow Grove beneath the Cursed Forest, and the Brood Mother is a world boss: there is one nest per world, and the Astral Compass leads you to it.

Why it is still a pre-alpha: much of this was built in the last few days and has only been played a little. Balance, models and structures will still change, so back up your worlds before you try it.

In this version

• A portal to the Astral Sea: a frame of gold blocks, lit with an End Crystal
• Four new biomes: Astral Dunes, Cursed Forest, Azure Meadows and Ethereal Fields (13 in total)
• Four new bosses: The Penitent in a tree fortress of the Astral Forest, The Crucible Warden in the Crucible Depths beneath the Shattered Furnace, The Fiend in the Hollow Grove beneath the Cursed Forest, and the Brood Mother, a world boss you track down with the Astral Compass
• More than 120 creatures, among them the Leshen, Unicorns, Pegasi and Glow Jellies; Starwhales now swim above every biome
• Rainbow Water in the Ethereal Fields
• New music: boss themes for The Penitent and the Brood Mother, dungeon ambience, Cursed Forest tracks and a record of The Penitent
• Many creatures, blocks and structures reworked after playtesting

Before you start

• Easiest way on Windows: run the installer, pick what you want and choose your Minecraft folder. Sodium, Iris and the shaders are optional; the installer downloads them from Modrinth while it installs. Then start the official Minecraft Launcher and select the profile "The Astral Sea". Windows may warn about an unknown publisher because the installer is not signed; click "More info" and "Run anyway".
• Using the Modrinth App or Prism Launcher instead: download the modpack and open the .mrpack file. It sets up Minecraft 1.21.1 with Fabric, Fabric API, Sodium, Iris, The Astral Sea and the Complementary Reimagined shader in its own instance.
• Pre-alpha: unfinished, unbalanced and not ready for survival worlds. Back up your world before trying it.
• Requires Fabric Loader 0.19.5 or newer and Fabric API (0.116.17+1.21.1). Iris and Sodium are optional; shaders such as Complementary Reimagined and Rethinking Voxels are supported.
• To get in, build an upright frame of gold blocks like a Nether portal and light it with an End Crystal. With cheats enabled, /astralsea tp works too. Falling into the Astral Sea takes you back to the Overworld, the Nether or the End.