Taming a wolf in Minecraft is one of the game's simplest joys, and no matter how many times I start a new world, I always hoard bones in case I encounter one. But once you've adopted a canine companion, you probably hide them away in a house for safe-keeping, shielding them from the horrors of the game's hostile mobs. Today, Minecraft is adding a way to make them a little stronger – wolf armor.

Like leather armor, wolf armor can be colored using dyes in-game, so if you've got multiple adopted animals, it'll still be easy to tell them apart. This variation is separate from the collar colors as well, creating plenty of possibilities. Even better, the game is also adding wolf fur variants for the first time, bringing eight new patterns for a total of nine. Each variant (Pale, Woods, Ashen, Black, chestnut, Rusty, Spotted, Striped, and Snowy) spawns in a specific biome. You can take a look at all the new breeds in the gallery below.

Of course, players will need to be able to craft this wolf armor as well, which is where the new mob, the armadillo, comes in. These armored relatives of anteaters can be found in savannah or badland biomes, where they can be seen strolling around and curling into a defensive ball when certain enemies come near. Armadillos drop armadillo scutes, which are used to make the wolf armor, but the developers have reassured players that they can be brushed rather than defeated, so you won't have to go on an armadillo massacre to protect your pets. Armadillos can also be used to scare away spiders since they eat insects and arachnids in real life, and spider eyes can be used to breed them if you want to make your own armadillo farm.

You can read the rest of the notes for the 1.20.5 update right here.