What is the sniffer? This fascinating creature
looks vastly different than any other creature we've ever seen on this earth Once thought an extinct creature the sniffer's
eggs were excavated from a warm ocean ruin Allowing us to enjoy these
ancient creatures today. Wait, did you say ancient? Oh buddy.
You know what that means Hello Internet, welcome to game theory the show That's always sniffing for clues and digging up law and you guys have no idea how
happy I am to be doing this episode I've written a number of minecraft theories in my
time. But this one is my minecraft Ian white whale I was so excited when the trails and
tails update came out almost a year ago Finally an update that was going to focus on the ancient law of Minecraft and what did
Mojang give us some lines on our armor? And pieces of broken pots. Yeah,
it wasn't the most exciting update It was certainly no warden that's for sure But we made the most of it and
we managed to use those broken pots and armor trims to figure
out the ancient builders weren't One collective group but a number of tribes
each with their own specific resources However, there is one part of this update
that we've purposefully ignored one I'm sure the keen miners and crafters among
you have already noticed the winner of the mob vote of 2022 the sniffer Winner This is a mob that apparently went extinct But if you find an egg you can hatch it and from that point on it will spend its time
walking around sniffing for special Seeds that it'll then dig up It's a pretty unique mechanic
plus the idea of finding an egg rather than taming a wild mob
is a fun idea and in the past Whenever a new mob has been added we've made sure
to do a video covering it as soon as possible So why after almost a year is there
no video on this adorable thick boy? Well, because despite me trying
over and over and over again I couldn't figure out where it fits into the law
that we've been building for the past four years I knew it had to fit in somewhere because Mojang were really keen on using one
specific word during its reveal This can hatch this ancient mob and
help it thrive. We also believe it has ancient knowledge to show look at them They're practically mocking me
but no more because after almost a year of driving myself insane much
like a snifflet hatching from an egg I finally cracked it. I figured out what the ancient mysteries this dump
truck of a mob is hiding So grab your excavation brushes friends. It's time to uncover the lost history
of the Minecraft sniffer Let's start with finding these dang things The only way to get your hands on a sniffer is to
find one of their eggs buried in suspicious sands specifically suspicious sand that you find
in warm ocean ruins these ruins belong to the Fisherman tribe of ancient builders
as shown by the angular pottery show that you can also find in the
suspicious sand of these ruins We've discussed these guys many
times before on this channel They would go on to cause the sea levels
to rise eventually flooding their tribe and leaving nothing behind but
ocean monuments and these small Ruins, but there are actually two
other sherds that you can find from this tribe of fishermen
and one of them is especially Interesting for our purposes today.
It's called the snort sherd and on it We find a familiar creature
the sniffer this proves that Mojang calling this thing an ancient mob was Absolutely on purpose because the
existence of this shirt tells us that the sniffer was alive at the
same time as the ancient builder Fisherman tribe as they were the ones
who carved these images into the pots But of course this episode isn't
just about proving they coexisted. We need to figure out why they coexisted sniffers Aren't exactly known for catching fish. So what
use would they have been to a tribe of fishermen? Well, it turns out there are a couple of reasons The first one is simple as I mentioned earlier The sniffers main mechanic is
to well sniff by sniffing they find things buried in the ground
and they can dig them up kind of Like truffle pigs, but instead
of a tasty topping for your chips Sorry fries Sniffer instead digs up special seeds torch
flower seeds and pitcher plant seeds these flowers Honestly don't serve much purpose. They can be
used to make dyes and they make nice decoration But they aren't particularly useful,
especially given how hard they are to get However, there is one more use for the
torch flower specifically something that would be useful for the fisherman
tribe by mixing torch flower into A suspicious stew recipe you create a stew that gives you the night vision effect
night vision is especially useful If you're wanting to explore ocean
monuments and as the water levels begin to rise for the warm ocean and
the neighboring cold ocean tribes this would become a must-have
ability that cold ocean tribe a tribe of pirates would eventually be
sent out to find the ingredients for a Conduit an item that would also give the tribes
night vision as well as underwater breathing But in the meantime the suspicious stew would
take care of at least one of those issues What do we find on the sunken ships that belong to that tribe of pirates? That's
right suspicious stew though That isn't the only thing we can
learn from these special plants I mean it'd be a bit weird for Mojang to introduce two new plants and for only one
of them to be actually useful I felt kind of bad for the pitcher
plant. So in classic Minecraft fashion I kept digging and in doing so I struck
gold or diamonds or is it netherite? But just like the mobs in the game a
lot of the plants from the overworld tend to be related to real-world plants like roses Sunflowers tulips you get the idea So I took a look at what the real-world Counterparts are for the torch
flower and the pitcher plant the pitcher plant is easy enough because
it's just a plant that exists though There are many varieties torch flowers on the
other hand don't exist at least not by that name They resemble the Nephothia genus commonly known as the red hot poker or torch plant. I
mean, come on. It's not rocket science I think we can pretty much call that one confirmed Both plants are native to the tropical and
southern parts of the African continent with torch plants mostly being in
the mountainous south and varieties Of pitcher plants being found in both Madagascar and the Seychelles and this actually
lines up with what we see in Minecraft There's one more warm ocean pottery shirt that we are yet to talk about and
this one is called shelter It depicts an acacia tree a type of tree that
grows in the savannah biomes of the overworld But they also grow in tropical regions like
Africa meaning that before they eventually Flooded the fisherman tribe lived in a savannah
style bio near an ocean to allow for fishing but also tropical enough in climate to allow the torch flower pitcher plants and acacia
trees to grow and opening the door to the African inspirations also revealed
another important detail about these plants while they may not actually
give you night vision in real life in Indigenous cultures they were used as medicine The pitcher plant was used to help with things
like constipation urinary tract infections even diabetes while the torch flower has been used to treat malaria hepatitis B eczema female
infertility and a bunch more these types of Medicinal plants were used
specifically by traditional healers known as in younger
and people would travel four Miles just for a chance to
receive medical care from them, which means the warm ocean tribe
wasn't just a tribe of fishermen They were also a tribe of in younger and so would use the sniffer to find the
seeds for these medicinal plants They then use them as a source of
night vision in their suspicious stews for their explorers or to
heal any ancient build that needed Help with their recent zombie bites. This is why the sniffers are depicted on their
pottery shirts much like fishing They were a cornerstone of their society
and that's why all these years later We can find their eggs buried in the
ruins of the cities. They used to help However, while this is where the sniffers ended up It isn't actually where they started and
if you think these guys are big now, well Buddy, do I have a surprise for you? If you go underground in the overworld you have a chance of finding generated
structures known as fossils They've been in the game since version 1.10 Which was released all the way back
in 2016 and yet we've never been able to figure out what kind of creatures they relate To the game files label these fossils as either
fossil skull number 1 to 4 or fossil spine Also number 1 to 4 these fossils
are skeletons of dead creatures from a long forgotten time an
ancient time if you will and at This point you can probably see where I'm going
with this by using spine 4 and skull 3 together It looks like the skeleton of a massive sniffer
with big nostrils and a large barrel body now I know what you're thinking.
The sniffer is pretty big, but it's not that big. Whatever.
These skeletons are they were Massive beasts larger than the biggest
mob in the game the ender dragon. However, I do have an explanation for this domestication and natural selection Domestication is the process of
taming an animal to keep as a pet or to use for work tasks like farming dogs were Domesticated from a species of wolf known as
the gray wolf from around a hundred and thirty Thousand years ago with time the wolves became
more obedient more docile and yes smaller This is because the smaller the creature easier it is to control and the less likely it
is to overpower you and so humans would Specifically breed the smaller ones
in order to pass down that trait This is likely what happened to
the sniffer smaller ones were tamed and chosen to breed because let's be honest It's gonna be pretty hard to keep
control of a beast whose body alone is five meters tall for reference That's the total height of a giraffe you make one of these things angry and it's
gonna stomp you out of existence Now natural selection and
domestication takes a long time to get the size difference between the
sniffer fossil and the sniffer we have today It would have taken thousands upon
thousands of years and that's something we haven't actually talked about
when covering the ancient builders Normally for the sake of keeping these Minecraft theories clear and concise. We tend to
put all the events in quick succession We go from the ancient builders going back
in time to saving the world to dooming the world to dying out all within 25 minutes But what we've never talked about is how
long each of those eras took for this example The fisherman tribe created a
bunch of greenhouse gases that caused the water levels to rise
and eventually they all drowned It sounds like it happened very quickly But giant monuments aren't suddenly
submerged overnight from 1880 to 2022 sea levels have only risen 8 to 9 inches or about 20 to 23 centimeters in a hundred and forty years
the water hasn't risen enough to drown a city However, given enough time it very well could current predictions are that in the next 2,000
years sea levels are likely to rise between 2 To 3 meters or 6 and a half to
10 feet if temperatures go up by the expected 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit that is definitely going
to put some of our cities underwater But an ocean monument is 28 meters
tall for those to be underwater It would mean temperatures rising
by about 5 degrees Celsius or 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And
even then it would still take 10,000 years based on most predictions
and that would be the perfect amount of time for the ancient builders
to breed the sniffers to be Smaller and more manageable like
we see today. There's just one teeny tiny flaw in this otherwise perfect solution You can't find these particular fossils in the warm ocean biomes. You find
them in the deserts so far Everything has been connecting
them to the warm ocean tribe So why would their giant skeletons
be found in a different biome? Well as it usually does it comes back
to the troublemakers of the ancient builder world the desert tribe
the scientists who dared to push The boundaries of the world they lived
in warm oceans are typically found next to deserts due to them sharing
the same climate making these Tribes neighbors likely sharing
resources and technology which would come in handy when the desert tribe began experimenting with potions that could
help them breathe underwater the desert tribe were also the ones who eventually
crossed over into the nether trying to Find a solution for the rising
oceans that their neighbors had caused and this is where I believe
the final piece of the sniffer puzzle Falls into place take a look
at the sniffer again notice its colors animals typically
adapt to their environment And one way this happens is by changing the color of their skin or fur to better
blend in with their surroundings This again happens through natural selection the animals that blend in are
much more likely to survive Allowing them to mate and
pass on those colorful genes But the sniffer's colors don't blend in with any overworld biome the red and
teal stick out like a sore thumb Against the various greens blues and yellows, but you know what they do blend
in with the colors of the nether Specifically the red netherrack and teal warped nileum of the warped forest biome and
this is where I believe the sniffer Originally came from nileum is
the nether's version of mycelium and mycelium is a mass of branched
wires that connect fungi together So nileum is a fungus or at
least part of one which would explain why the sniffer's back is
a different color from its body We see this kind of thing happen with animals like sloths whose fur changes color
due to the algae growing in it Which just so happens to work as the perfect? Camouflage the sniffer evolved its red
fur to blend in with the netherrack of the nether and then while living
in the warped forests the warped Nileum fungus spread and attached itself
to the sniffer's fur helping it blend in even more the nether might
also explain the whole six legs Thing most overworld passive mobs
are based on real-world animals, but there are no mammals with six legs It's just not how they're built. However mobs
in the never like to break this rule of realism We've got walking pigs giant ghosts and passive
mobs like the strider and just look at them They are far from normal a creature with
six legs would feel right at home here But the final nail in the sniffer's giant coffin comes back to the fossils. They
don't just generate in the overworld They also generate in the
nether's soul sand valleys These fossils are specifically of different
parts of the body rather than spines and skulls We have rib cages of varying sizes
which could relate back to our giant sniffer after all animals of the same species Often come in a variety of sizes, but there
is one fossil that is different fossil To is labeled as a horizontal sternum The sternum is a t-shaped flat bone that in
mammals sits at the front of the rib cage And it is the missing piece of our puzzle when you place this sternum into the
spine for that we found in the overworld The spine and rib cage of
the sniffer it fits perfectly These are the bones of the same creature meaning
the sniffer had to at some point be in the nether So if the nether is their rightful home
based on their color physiology and fossils Why aren't there any seeds for them to dig up? The sniffer's only function is to dig
for torch flower and pitcher plant seeds But if you take a sniffer back to the
nether, they won't dig up anything Even if you place down more grass
blocks these seeds don't exist here or maybe it's that they don't exist here anymore In another theory we proved that the
nether was not always the fiery landscape It is now the existence of
the basalt deltas showed us that there was once an ice age
as you need ice and soul soil For basalt to be created. This means
water had to exist in the nether So more traditional plants like torch flowers and
pitcher plants could definitely have grown here We've also spoken about the
biodiversity in the nether and how in the past there used to be
many more species of flora and fauna Like torch flowers and pitcher plants, but both
the ice age and the biodiversity came to an end Thanks to the piglins heating up the atmosphere by industrializing creating weapons
and armor to conquer more worlds So we have evidence that these giant
sniffers existed in the soul sand valleys And so it would make sense that at
one point in time these seeds and flowers used to exist in this part of the nether But when the valleys dried up there were no more seeds for the sniffers to eat causing
them to starve and die out with their fossils being all that remained the ones that
did survive would need to find a new biome a Biome with plant life that
they might be able to live off the forests of the nether due to their red fur They would blend in really
well with the crimson forest However, the crimson forest is
home to hoglins and piglins both hostile mobs with the latter being
specifically known for hunting Now, of course, these are giant sniffers so you might think that piglins
and hoglins aren't gonna be much of a threat but Neanderthals used to hunt
massive creatures like woolly mammoths and They would often target the much
smaller offspring as they would be much easier to hunt or kill and that could lead to Extinction which is why they ended
up inhabiting the warped forest The warped forest is home to the striders a
passive mob that was no threat to the snifflets Plus mobs like the hoglin
are afraid of warped fungus running away when within seven blocks of the stuff It was the perfect place to hide and over time the
warped Nilean began to grow on their backs further Blending them into the forest, but as
we know their journey isn't over yet Eventually the desert tribe entered the nether Discovering the magical properties that the mobs of this world could provide
them things like blaze rods Magma balls and gas tears and so they wanted to see what the sniffer was
capable of despite its size The sniffer was a docile creature. And so they
were able to lure it back to the overworld They began selectively breeding
them to make them more manageable But during that time they noticed
the sniffers were clearly looking for something and when they wandered
a little further two patches of grass They dug up seeds that no one had
seen before grass was a rare sight in the desert and the sniffers can't dig up sand Blocks, however, there was plenty of grass in
the neighboring Savannah like warm ocean biome So the desert tribe gave the
sniffers to their neighbors the fishermen to allow the sniffers to
find more seeds and maybe find a use For them they live close to
the water and have the right conditions for these plants to grow
and when they did the fishermen began To experiment with them learning of their
medicinal and night vision properties Allowing them to create stews that would aid them in their efforts to see deep into
the water as they fish or create Medicines to heal their wounds the tribe became more than just fishermen.
They were now a tribe of healers Sadly though These advances didn't stop the rising
tides and while the fishermen and healers would eventually turn into the
drowned that we know today with their Knowledge of the plants healing properties lost to time the sniffers weren't so lucky.
They didn't transform into something else They just drowned leaving just a few eggs buried
in the sand for us to find many years later So if you do find a sniffer be
kind to it because now, you know All the pain and suffering
its ancestors went through just so you could have a nice-looking house plant And with that I'm gonna call this white whale Officially conquered but hey
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a game theory. Thanks for watching
