Wither Assault

Main article: Games

Wither Assault is an Arcade minigame on Mineplex that was released on December 23rd, 2014. It was released as a Beta minigame on November 15th, 2014. Similar to Block Hunt, Wither Assault has the Withers attempting to kill all of the hiding Humans within the time limit, using widely destructive capabilities.

Wither Assault as of now is the only permanent minigame to not have any achievements.

Gameplay

Teams

Players are divided into two teams: the Wither Team (represented by red) and the Human Team (represented by green). The goal of the Humans is to survive for 5 minutes. Withers have to kill all humans before the time limit runs out. Neither Withers or Humans are able to melee anyone in the game, however, Withers can make use of their abilities to harm the survivors.

There is a required Wither-Human ratio of 1:2.5. Should the Humans team be 2.5 times larger than the Withers team, a random Human is chosen to become a Wither to balance the game. This, however, is compensated with a reward bonus.

Every team is given full leather armour, displaying the respective team colour.

Timer

When the game starts, Withers will be floating above the edge of the map and Humans will be on the outskirts of the map. Withers receive the Blindness debuff for 15 seconds, giving Humans 15 seconds to hide; however, blindness does not restrict a Wither's movement, as they can still move and attack freely in that 15 seconds. The game will ends after 5 minutes, or if all Humans have been killed.

Revival Potions

When a Wither completely depletes a Human's health, the Human becomes stunned like in Super Paintball, as in they turn into a Skeleton with their arms outstretched, unable to move. It is important to note that they are not dead; instead, they can be "revived," or unstunned, by having another Human throw a Revival Potion at them. However, upon falling into the void, a player can no longer be revived.

Withers cannot die, but can be affected by status ailments from Humans, like Blindness.

Block Placing & Breaking

Only Human Editors are able to place and break blocks. To prevent game trolling, blocks below other players can not be destroyed. Block breaking is only allowed until a maximum of 4 blocks below the spawn height is reached, to restrict map exploiting. After a block was placed, all humans are able to remove it by right-clicking the block^{[Notes 1]}. Similarly to Castle Siege, it will disappear for 2 seconds, allowing anyone to walk through.

Wither Movement

While Withers can better see where Humans are hiding when they are close to the ground, they dramatically slow down when doing so, meaning they cannot chase Humans easily. Just like the Wither Morph hub gadget, they will also be bumped away should they hit a block.

Scoreboard & GUI

All players (Withers and Humans alike) can see the nearest Wither's username, represented by a bar at the top of the screen. Next to that, the number of alive Humans, Withers, and the remaining time can be seen on the scoreboard.

Chat Statistics

The following information is listed when hovering over a player's username, regardless of their team:

Deaths
Damage taken
Damage dealt
Kit

Since Deaths are not permanent in this game, they are not counted correctly. Also, unless a player is a Wither, no damage can be dealt.

Kits

Humans

Human Archer

NPC	Abilities	Items	Armour	Requirements	Special features
	Smoke Arrow Fletcher Double Jump	Iron Sword Bow 2 Revival Potions Mushroom Stew Mushroom Stew	Refer to Teams section	Free kit	Regular statistics
Kit Description: Skilled in the art of long range combat

Human Medic

NPC	Abilities	Items	Armour	Requirements	Special features
	Repair Master Healing Hands Double Jump	Stone Axe 2 Revival Potions Mushroom Stew Mushroom Stew	Refer to Teams section	2000 Gems	Regular statistics
Kit Description: Be the hero! Heal other players.

Human Editor

NPC	Abilities	Items	Armour	Requirements	Special features
	Fletcher Double Jump Smoke Arrow	Stone Axe Stone Pickaxe Stone Shovel 2 Revival Potions Mushroom Stew Mushroom Stew	Refer to Teams section	5000 Gems	Can break, pick up and place blocks
Kit Description: Can Edit[sic] the terrain to their benefit

Withers

Wither

NPC	Abilities	Items	Armour	Requirements	Special features
	Fire Storm Wither Skull Wither Minions Smell Humans	Gold Sword Diamond Sword Compass	Refer to Teams section	Free kit	Wither Disguise Immune to Damage Unable to melee Permanent flight
Kit Description: None

Removed Kits

Wither Trapper

NPC	Abilities	Items	Armour	Requirements	Special features
	Fire Storm Wither Skull Web Blast	Gold Sword Iron Sword	Refer to Teams section	Free kit	Wither Disguise Immune to Damage Unable to melee Permanent flight
Kit Description: None

Note: This kit may have never been released on the official network, however, a code fragment has been found.

Maps

Available

Industrial West by Mineplex Build Team
Labyrinth by Saxumos
Sky Ruins by Mineplex

"Industrial West"
"Labyrinth"
"Sky Ruins"

Removed

Beta Test Map by Mineplex

"Beta Test Map"

Rewards

This list shows the maximum sum of Gems a player may receive at a time.

+10 Gems for Participation
+10 Gems for Winning Team
+10 Gems for Forced Wither (Team Balancing only)
+2x Gems for x Humans Stunned (for Withers)
+3x Gems for x Allies Revived (for Humans)

Achievements

Even though countless suggestions have been submitted on the forums, Wither Assault is currently the only permanent game on the network to not have any achievements.

Tips

The following tips are broadcasted in the pre-game lobby:

Blocks placed by an Editor can be passed by other humans by Right-clicking the block
Withers are too powerful to be killed. Hiding is the only option!
Medics are a valuable asset. Stick with them and keep them safe!

Next to that, you may also want to take these general tips into consideration:

As Human, it is a good idea to sprint for some cover before the first 15 seconds are up. When under cover, they should sneak so that their username is invisible, rendering them much harder to find.
As Wither, you will be blinded for the start of the game, but you can at least destroy some terrain even before you can find players.

Trivia

The representation for the Wither Kit was an actual Wither frozen in place. As such, it attempted to shoot Wither Skulls when players get too close that push them back; as well as destroying the kit pedestal below itself.
- This has been removed with the May 2018 Update.
Currently, the Wither kit description shows the details of the Human Medic kit. This bug is known.
As of July 19, 2019, Wither Assault does not have any achievements or stats available in the statistics menu.

History

Main article: Updates

May 11th, 2018 – Major Arcade Update

[Added] Players are now invulnerable for 5 seconds after being revived.
[Added] Protected areas of 4x4 blocks now spawn below dead humans to prevent Withers from letting them fall into the void.
[Changed] Wither NPC is now a Wither Skeleton in the pre-game lobby.
[Changed] Archer's double jump now has a cooldown of 6 seconds instead of 4.
[Fixed] Skeletal Minion kills are now accredited to the players.
[Fixed] 1.9+ players are no longer able to shoot arrows before the game starts.

April 6th, 2017 – April Map Update

[Added] Industrial West (map)

November 17th, 2016 – Everything

[Removed] Wither Assault game lobbies closed

April 4th, 2016 – Clans Beta!

[Added] Wither Assault game lobbies opened (/server WA-#)

October 16th, 2015 – Monster Maze Update

[Fixed] Prevented opening chests^{[Notes 2]}
[Fixed] Prevented rearranging inventory

August 2nd, 2015 – Team Games and MPS

[Changed] Wither Assault has been updated and improved.

February 15th, 2015 – Anti-Cheat & Chests

[Added] Labyrinth (map)

December 23rd, 2014 – Christmas Update

[Added] Wither Assault released to Mixed Arcade.

December 5th, 2014 – Little Update

[Added] Sky Ruins (map)
[Removed] Beta Test Map (map)

November 21st, 2014 – Champions and Updates

[Added] Humans now receive Leather Armor and Double Jump.
[Changed] Humans don't have three lives anymore. When killed, they will be stunned, and can be revived with a Revival Potion. Humans start with two Revival Potions.
[Changed] Withers move slower and their Wither Skull attack damage decreases when close to the ground.

November 15th, 2014 – Wither Assault and Maps

[Added] Wither Assault is now in public Beta.
[Added] Beta Test Map (map)

Notes

↑ You must not have a block in hand for this to work.
↑ Forum thread with the entire changelog can be found here.

[1] You must not have a block in hand for this to work.

[2] Forum thread with the entire changelog can be found here.

[Notes 1]

[Notes 2]