Planet Earth III

Planet Earth III is a collection of five lessons in Minecraft Education and a free Marketplace map in Bedrock Edition. The map was made in collaboration with BBC Earth's documentary series Planet Earth III and explores animals in a variety of ecosystems.

Summary

The player starts the map in a research hut in the jungle. Further forward, they can find a projector that can replay the cutscenes they encountered during gameplay. To the left are five boards with two papers attacked to each, each paper depicting the animal the player will play as. In Minecraft Education, each board is a separate lesson of the same series. Interacting with any animal image will start gameplay, starting and ending with a cutscene playable on the projector. Completing any of the ten activities will reward the player its respective trophy, adds a badge on the paper, and can be replayed.

Fur Seal-Great White Shark Showdown

After choosing any animal from the far left board, the player appears off the coast of South Africa, where the cliffs are brown-colored and the seafloor is dotted with rocky formations.

Cape fur seal

The player controls the movements of a Cape fur seal, whose goal is to eat ten fish in order to fill the bar over its head. A Boost! item appears in their hotbar, granting them speed but depleting their hotbar. After eating all ten fish, a great white shark spawns away from the seal, its distance indicated by the bar appearing above the fish bar. The farther right the shark fin is, the closer the shark is to the seal. To drive it away, the player has to gather three seals into a mob, which ends the minigame in victory.

Great white shark

The player controls the movements of a great white shark, whose goal is to hunt down Cape fur seals. They have to follow the scent represented by yellow mist and hide behind rock formations to avoid detection. They can also speed up using the Boost! button, but this depletes the hunger bar above the shark's head faster. Entirely depleting it ends the game by getting chased away by seals. After reaching a seal, the player must attack it using the Chomp! button, which ends the minigame successfully.

Lily-trotter Nest Challenge

The far right board depicts two lily-trotters in different stages of growth. Choosing either will bring the player during the annual flooding of the Okavango Delta. There, the sky is yellow and the entire landscape is savanna-like, with both verdant and dry trees scattered. The water of the wetland is dark and dotted with lily pads and water vegetation.

Lily-trotter father

The player takes the role of a lily-trotter father whose task is to teach his chicks how to walk across the wetland. The minigame consists of controlling the movement of three of them across the river by using the direction icons on the hotbar. Performing any move will skip the turn to the next chick. Occasionally, African fish eagles and Nile crocodiles, predators threatening the chicks, will spawn, indicated by orange and red area blocks respectively targeting them. Bringing all three chicks across the river wins the minigame.

Lily-trotter chick

The player takes the role of a lily-trotter in its chick stage, who goes missing as its father alerts his other three chicks. It has to cross two rivers by walking on lily pads and swimming, but must not alert the Nile crocodiles nearby. Reaching the bank of the second river and ultimately the father wins the game.

Mutualistic Vibes

Choosing any insect from the nearest right to the middle teleports them to the top of a giant tree in the Amazon rainforest in the country of Ecuador. The surface below is covered in dense green fog and is dotted with bamboo-like plants.

Stingless bee

The player controls the movement of a stingless bee. Many treehopper mothers need its help and will reward the bee honeydew after saving their young from assassin bugs. To perform the task, the player has to find distress signals from nearby treehoppers, attack the assassin bugs, and earn the honeydew rewards. If many treehopper nymphs are killed, the game is lost.

Treehopper

The player controls the movement of a treehopper mother, who must bring her young across the tree to feed on sap, which fills the circle on their heads. Feeding locations are indicated by leaf symbols and can be reached by standing on them. Ants attack the nymphs, and must be kicked out of the tree by attacking them. This fills the attack bar which, when full, grants the bees item. This summons a swarm of stingless bees that attack ants and assassin bugs. Fully feeding all the nymphs wins the game.

An Ecosystem Jigsaw

Choosing any animal from the middle board teleports the player during sunset or sunrise to the grasslands of Southern Africa, a savanna-like biome dotted with verdant sausage trees and bordered by a jungle.

Impala

The player takes the role of an impala, the main prey of leopards that hide on treetops to attack them. They have to eat flowers from under sausage trees while trying to avoid leopard threats from treetops, indicated by a threat bar filling the closer they are to one. Getting attacked by a leopard loses the game, but eating all ten flowers wins it.

Leopard

The player plays as a leopard on the hunt for an impala below the tree it is stationed on. To catch it, it has to navigate the tree and reach the green vantage point by collecting blue hints while making as little noise as possible to avoid detection. Reaching the vantage point wins the game as the leopard leaps on the impala.

Quotes

External

Internal

Videos

Minecraft Monthly

Gallery

Promotional images

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