Minecraft Update 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Patch Notes

The Minecraft Caves and Cliffs update, also known as version 1.17, has arrived, and here is the full list of changes and fixes added with this patch. This is only the first half of the update, focusing on new blocks, mobs, and ores. The second part of the update will arrive later this year and will bring sweeping changes to the world generation. It's the one most people are excited for, but that doesn't mean there isn't a ton of hype surrounding Caves and Cliffs Part 1. Here's everything that's new with Minecraft version 1.17.

Minecraft Caves and Cliffs 1.17 Patch Notes

New features:

Axolotls

• Axolotls are amphibious creatures that breed in groundwater
• Holding a bucket of tropical fish will cause nearby Axolotls to follow the player on land and in water. Axolotls cannot be tamed but can be bred by feeding them buckets of tropical fish
• Axolotl will attack fish, squid, drowned and guardians!
• Axolotls come in a variety of colors, all with an equal chance of reproducing except blue. Blue axolotls have a small chance to breed as a mutation when breeding two axolotls
• Axolotls can survive on dry land for a few minutes. After that, they will begin to dry out and take continuous damage until they are rehydrated.
• When taking damage, there is a chance that the Axolotl will play dead. When playing dead, the Axolotl will regenerate health and mobs will not be able to target the Axolotl
• When a player kills a mob the Axolotl was attacking, they are rewarded with the regeneration effect and their mining fatigue is removed, if they had it.
• Axolotls can be picked up with buckets, just like fish!

Goat

• The winning crowd from the MINECON Live 2022 crowd vote!
• For now, goats spawn in Extreme Hills. This will change with Caves & Cliffs: Part II
• Goats will occasionally ram into players and other mobs
• Goats can jump high and take less fall damage than other mobs
• Goats will avoid walking on powder
• Goats can be bred and tempted using Wheat
• Use empty bucket to get milk
• Keep an ear out for the elusive Screamer Goat!

shiny squid

• The winning crowd of the Minecraft Live 2022 crowd vote!
• Luminous squids are aquatic creatures that breed in groundwater
• When killed, the luminescent squid drops the luminescent ink bags

Luminescent Ink Bag and Luminescent Object Frame

• Craft a glowing item frame by combining a bag of glowing ink with an item frame in a crafting table
• Any element in a Glow object frame is perfectly illuminated, even at night!

Luminescent ink bag and glowing sign text

• If a sign is interacted with a Glow ink bag, then the text will get a glow effect

Powder

• Mobs inside a loose snow block begin to freeze and eventually take damage
• Players can protect themselves from the powder by equipping leather armor
• Cauldrons fill up in snowy weather, creating a renewable source of powder snow. It will also naturally generate in certain snowy biomes when Caves & Cliffs: Part II is released.
• Buckets can be used to scoop and place powder snow
• Most mobs can't walk on powder snow and instead fall into block
• Skeletons turn into strays after standing in powder for a while
• Wearing leather boots allows a player or a crowd to walk on powder without falling into it

shiny lichen

• A source of dim light that appears on the walls of caves and in underground lakes
• Use bone meal to spread it along the surfaces of the blocks and harvest it using shears

amethyst geodes

• These huge geodes can be found anywhere underground from newly generated chunks in the Overworld
• Amethyst geodes have an outer layer of smooth basalt blocks and a second layer of calcite blocks
• Inside the geodes there is an inner layer of various amethyst blocks
• All types of amethyst blocks (including clusters) create beautiful sounds when you walk on them, break them, place them, or hit them with a projectile – go make some music!
• Amethyst occurs as a block inside geodes in two ways: amethyst block and budding amethyst

clusters of amethyst

• Amethyst clusters grow from budding amethyst, which can be found inside geodes
• Clusters have four growth stages: Small Amethyst Bud, Medium Amethyst Bud, Large Amethyst Bud, and Amethyst Cluster
• Fully grown Amethyst Clusters drop four Amethyst Shards (or more with the Fortune enchantment) when a pickaxe is used, and drop two Amethyst Shards when broken by hand, plunger, or other ways
• Clusters can be mined with the Silk Touch enchantment at any growth stage

budding amethyst

• On any side of a budding amethyst block where there is air or a water source block, a small amethyst bud will eventually grow
• Amethyst buds can only grow when attached to budding amethyst, and will grow until they become a full amethyst cluster

Cluster Amethyst Blocks

• Clusters can only grow when placed on budding amethyst blocks

Amethyst Shards

• Amethyst Shards are items used in a variety of crafting recipes

Tinted glass

• Although visually transparent, light does not pass through tinted glass
• Can be crafted by placing a glass block in the middle of four amethyst shards on a crafting table
• Tinted Glass can be obtained without the Silk Touch enchantment and does not shatter when broken like normal Glass

Copper

• Copper ore can now be found underground in newly spawned chunks and can be smelted into copper ingots
• Blocks of copper and cut copper can be crafted, as well as stairs and slabs
• After being placed in the world, Copper Blocks will slowly oxidize over time, turning into Exposed Copper, Weathered Copper, and Oxidized Copper.
• Copper blocks that are not fully oxidized can be waxed to prevent further oxidation, either by using a honeycomb object on them, using the crafting grid, or using a dispenser loaded with honeycombs
• Axes can scrape wax and oxidation from copper blocks

Lightning rod

• All lightning that occurs within 64 blocks of a lightning rod will strike the lightning rod
• Lightning rods can be crafted using copper ingots at a crafting table
• A lightning rod struck by lightning will emit a full redstone signal for 8 game ticks

Telescope

• Spyglass is used to see distant places and can be crafted with Copper Ingots and Amethyst Shard
• Camera movement when looking through a Spyglass is slowed down to make it more comfortable to use. This is adjustable using the Spyglass Damping slider in Settings on Bedrock Edition

Raw Ore Items

• Added Raw Copper, Raw Iron, and Raw Gold items
• Smeltable ores now drop raw forms of the ore instead of the ore block, and these can be smelted as before
• This is to avoid cluttering the inventory and to have consistency with Fortune on all ores
• Ore blocks are still smeltable, which means you can still smelt ore blocks you obtained previously or with the Silk Touch enchantment

raw ore blocks

• Added block of raw copper, raw iron and raw gold
• Just like other ore materials, you can craft a compact block with raw ore items to save inventory space or use as decoration
• Raw Ore blocks can be placed on a crafting grid to break down into original Raw Ore items

deep slate

• Deepslate is generated in blobs below y=16
• Mining it with a pickaxe will drop Cobbled Deep Slate, which can be remelted into Deep Slate
• When ore spawns in the same location as Deepslate, Deepslate variants of that ore now spawn instead
• Deep Slate Blocks can be crafted into Polished Deep Slate Blocks, Deep Slate Tile, and Deep Slate Bricks, including Slabs, Stairs, and Walls
• Deepslate Blocks also come in Cracked Tile, Cracked Brick, Chiseled, and Infested variants
• Stone Tools can be crafted using Cobbled Deep Slate

Tuff

• A new decorative block
• Blobs of Tuff Blocks spawn in world below y=16

smooth basalt

• Basalt blocks can now be smelted into smooth basalt blocks as a new decorative block

New cave blocks

• While Lush Caves and other new cave biomes won't spawn until the Caves & Cliffs: Part II update, many new blocks are now available through the Creative Mode inventory or certain aspects of Survival Mode.

Additions to the Exchange and Loot Table

• Added the following professions to the Mason:
  • Will sell 4 drop blocks for 1 emerald
• Added the following trades to the Traveling Merchant:
  • Will sell 2 sharp drops for 1 emerald
  • Will sell 2 rooted dirt for 1 emerald
  • Will sell 2 moss blocks for 1 emerald
• Foam blocks can be found in shipwreck chests
• Glow Berries can be found in Minecarts in the Mine Chest

Dripstone block and pointed Dripstone

• Pointed Dripstone can be placed on the ceiling (stalactites) or on the ground (stalagmites)
• Warning! If a icicle is broken, it will fall and cause damage to players and mobs
• Players and mobs will take damage if they land on a stalagmite
• If a stalactite is under a water or lava source, it will slowly fill the Cauldrons
• If a stalactite and a stalagmite touch each other, they will connect into a complete column
• A Dripstone Block can be crafted with four Pointed Dripstones

drip

• Small Dripleaf will become Big Dripleaf when fertilized with bone meal
• Big Dripleaf is a platform block. Players and mobs above the block will cause the block to tip over and fall

Foam block and foam mat

• When moss blocks are fertilized with bone meal, the moss has a chance to spread to other blocks. Moss carpets, azaleas and flowering azaleas also have a chance to grow
• The hoe is the most efficient tool for harvesting moss blocks and moss mats

Azalea

• Azalea and flowering azaleas are new decorative plants
• Azaleas have a chance to grow after using Bone Meal on Moss Blocks
• Fertilizing an azalea with bone meal will turn it into a tree with azalea leaves and flowering azalea leaves, which can be harvested using shears
• Azalea and blooming azalea can also be used as furnace fuel

Rooted dirt and hanging roots

• Plowing rooted dirt with a hoe turns the block into normal dirt and drops hanging roots
• Fertilizing the rooted earth with bone meal causes the hanging roots to grow below

Bright bays

• Glow Berries can be planted at the bottom of most solid blocks to grow cave vines
• They can be eaten and are as nutritious as sweet berries
• Use them to attract and raise foxes

The cave vines

• When cave vines grow or are fertilized with bone meal, they have a chance to grow glow berries
• A cave vine that has glowing berries emits light. So beautiful!
• Cave vines are climbing

spore flower

• Currently, Spore Flowers are only available in Creative mode inventory
• Spore Blossoms is a new decorative block that can be placed under any block

New achievements and trophies

• Wax On Wax Off – Apply and remove wax from all copper blocks
• Float Your Goat – Hop in a boat and float with a goat
• The Healing Power of Friendship – Team up with an Axolotl and win a fight

Changes:

• Improved visibility when swimming in underwater caves
• A new and beautiful main menu panorama for Caves & Cliffs: Part I
• Updated the appearance of the initial loading screen
• Textures of compass and clock elements have been updated
• Ore textures have been updated to better differentiate from more than just color
• Added separate damage sounds for burning, freezing and drowning (MCPE-111645)
• Bone Meal now makes a sound when used
• Drowned now drop copper ingots instead of gold ingots

Known issues:

• The update size on iOS is over 200MB, which exceeds the download limit on cellular data. The update can be downloaded via a Wi-Fi connection
• Sometimes players do not receive game invites on Android devices (MCPE-58759)
• Featured servers cannot be joined by players on Nintendo Switch – hopefully this will be fixed soon
• Players on Windows 10 updating to 1.17.0 with certain graphics hardware may experience a black screen on launch – this only affects players who have changed the default antialiasing setting and can be rectified by resetting this setting. Please see MCPE-129319 for more info

Important news regarding Minecraft on Android and Fire TV:

To continue to ensure that we can dedicate our resources to the platforms that most of our miners and artisans play on, we have ended support for certain older devices and platforms that Minecraft is available on. Starting with this update, Minecraft is no longer updated or supported on Fire TV Gen1, Fire TV Gen2, and Android KitKat OS v20 and earlier.

For more information, please visit aka.ms/MinecraftSunsetting.

Corrections:

Performance / Stability

• Fixed a crash that occurred when healing a zombie villager in an alternate dimension if the player had not traveled to the Overworld since entering the world (MCPE-121559)
• Fixed a crash that could occur when switching between owned and unowned Character Creator items
• Fixed a crash on Windows 10 that could occur in ray tracing mode

General

• Fixed an issue where taking dyed wool from a chest would not trigger the Rainbow Collection trophy, assuming all colors of wool were collected
• Android players should see achievement notifications again (MCPE-54902)

Gameplay

• Players taking negative damage no longer generate absorb cores (MCPE-94178)
• When a player using the touch interface presses and holds the crafting output window, they can now quickly craft items up to a stack (MCPE-28689)
• Picking up part of a stack no longer picks up the entire stack and drops the excess (MCPE-105330)
• Fixed player spawning in dangerous locations when entering a random world for the first time (MCPE-42310)
• Fixed player hand still moving even when Show Movement setting is disabled (MCPE-79380)
• First person eating animation is now centered in frame (MCPE-116678)
• Main hand blocking animation in first person now plays correctly (MCPE-115536)
• Main hand and off hand shields in first person are now symmetrical (MCPE-116736)
• Tridents in player and mob hands are now correctly positioned in all perspective modes (MCPE-116681)
• Modified trident lifting animation so that first person more closely matches the previous version
• Fixed players showing bow hold animation after respawning when killed by another player (MCPE-58861)

monstre

• Rabbits can loot carrot crops again (MCPE-113321)
• Animals can no longer be infinitely fed until they are bred (MCPE-19309)
• Charged creeper aura renders correctly in most cases now (MCPE-65798)
• Zombie villagers now shake correctly while healed
• Bees no longer forage on sweet berry bushes
• Bees can enter hives and honeycombs again (MCPE-122705)
• Blazes and Endermen take damage from Splash Water Bottles again (MCPE-97483)
• Strayed no longer drop Wither Heads when killed by charged Creepers (MCPE-35876)

Blocks

• Using an ax on wooden blocks turns them back into stripped wooden blocks (MCPE-105998)
• Renamed structure blocks no longer have the wrong data mode when created (MCPE-41625)
• Fixed an issue that could cause some blocks to grow too quickly when checked

Articles

• Water buckets can once again be used to pick up fish (MCPE-94520)
• Switching between certain items (bow, trident, crossbow, shield) in your main hand will no longer skip animations (MCPE-116680)
• Boats now break when colliding with a Cactus from the side (MCPE-106044)
• Changed arc position to match previous versions (MCPE-116741)
• Crossbows in player and mob hands now render correctly in all perspective modes (MCPE-116737)
• Fixed an animation issue that caused a freehand shield to appear to re-equip each time the player edits their main hand item (MCPE-116773)
• Cauldrons that have been emptied after containing a potion are now correctly filled with water when it rains
• Fixed an issue where fireworks of all colors could be crafted from any other color of firework charges (MCPE-90715)

Reduced mobility

• Fixed a bug where the screen reader would not read the focused button on some screens
• Fixed a bug where the English screen reader would pronounce "A button" as "a button", now saying "Button A" instead

Graphic

• Fixed water flickering on PS VR
• Colors applied to text on panels are no longer barely visible (MCPE-117516)
• Old signs no longer glow when dyed (MCPE-117835)
• Critical hit particles are now generated around a mob instead of under it (MCPE-39599)
• Fixed Strider, Hoglin, Zoglin, Piglin and Piglin Brute eggs turning red when fast moving in any inventory of RenderDragon builds (MCPE-110463)
• Fixed enchantment reflection shape of loaded bow and crossbow icons in RenderDragon builds
• Fixed items playing "attack" and "use" animations at the same time when using touch input (MCPE-117133)
• Fixed an issue that could occur on older worlds where searching in a Minecart would show the interior of the Minecart, blocking the player's view
• Fixed an issue where shrinking title disables anti-aliasing in RenderDragon builds (MCPE-120532)

Kingdoms

• Kick Player button works again
• Fixed a softlock when trying to set friend permissions on a realm during the initial invite
• Realms membership invite icon updated to be more obvious
• Realms permission error message further improved
• Added a button to access the Manage Realms Membership Invitations screen in Profile Settings
• Automatically close the Realms invite screen if all invites are processed
• Fixed PlayStation 4 players with Parental Controls and User Generated Content Restriction communication settings being able to join Realms via invites

User interface

• Fixed controller cursor sensitivity scaling (MCPE-33868)
• Fixed an issue where patterns in the loom with high resolution assets were not displaying correctly
• Fixed an issue where unjoining a world while generating it would get players stuck on the loading screen (MCPE-114776)
• PS VR players can enable VR mode toggle from home screen using a keyboard
• PS VR players can now pass the VR Align screen with a keyboard
• Chemistry item icons no longer disappear after suspend/resume in Education Edition worlds
• On PlayStation 4, fixed keyboard bindings when using an external keyboard set to a non-US layout
• Clicking "Get help fixing this problem" when you can't access multiplayer features now redirects to the appropriate help page on Nintendo Switch.
• Adjusted background color of settings screens for better readability
• Added controller tooltips for "Collecting" and "Dumping" lava from the cauldron using the bucket
• Panoramic main menu background no longer flickers when loading the game, loading into a world, or exiting a world (MCPE-103842)
• Fixed an issue with overlapping text on some resolutions in the Realms Plus product description page

My Orders

• The '/kick' command works correctly again if cheats and command blocks are disabled and no longer uses target selectors
• Fixed an issue where Minecart with command block was not affected by "CommandBlocksEnabled" game rule (MCPE-93666)
• Fixed incorrect output message for '/stopsound' (MCPE-116772)
• Fixed an issue where the '/structure delete' command was listed in the middle of the two '/structure load' commands (MCPE-114022)
• Fixed a crash that occurred when using the '/stopsound' command to stop the elytra.loop sound (MCPE-120336)
• Fixed an issue where the clone command was modified and not versioned
• The "/setworldspawn" command is now prohibited in legacy worlds, and affected worlds will reset their modified spawn positions to the original position (MCPE-27797)
• The function position offset is no longer re-evaluated for each command inside the function when executed with the '/execute' command. It is now only rated once for the entire function (MCPE-124890)
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Agent till command from blocking blocks in Minecraft: Education Edition

Technical updates:

Updated add-on template packs

• Updated add-on templates for version 1.17 are available for download with new resources, behaviors and documentation
  • Resource Pack Template: aka.ms/ResourcePackTemplate
  • Behavior Pack Template (includes documentation): aka.ms/BehaviorPackTemplate

General

• Added two new variables to the 'biomes_client.json' file: 'remove_all_prior_fog' and 'inherit_from_prior_fog', which control fog merging and/or inheritance
• 'remove_all_prior_fog', when true, will clear all previous fog definitions stored on the stack, making the current pack the new 'starting point' for fogs
• 'inherit_from_prior_fog', when true, will merge a biome's fog definition with the corresponding biomes on the stack, then create a new merged definition for it
• The “transparentattachable” tag should only affect rendering in the first person camera perspective
• Added MoLang query to get default bone pivots (MCPE-116741)
• Updated MoLang query to return remaining normalized item usage time based on given parameters (MCPE-116737)
• Fixed various cases where ray tracing textures were not reloading (switching resolution, changing scaling mode, turning ray tracing on/off) (MCPE-124562)
• Fixed enchanted bow textures being too dark (MCPE-119701)

cast

• Catmull-Rom animations will no longer be cluttered if a keyframe's time matches its value
• All functions executed using the '/schedule' command are now executed from the origin they are supposed to, instead of the server
• Added a new "transform_to_item" field to the "minecraft:ageable" component. If the field is filled with an item name, the item will be rendered when one of the "feed_items" is used. Similar to "transform_to_item" in component "minecraft:breedable"
• Added a new optional "use_simplified_breeding" flag to the "minecraft:genetics" component. When this flag is set to true, offspring never inherit hidden alleles from parents as primary and primary as hidden alleles. This makes it easier to implement simple breeding logic

Other fixes

• Changed language usage from 'Whitelist' to 'AllowList'. The Dedicated Server command "whitelist" has been replaced with "allowlist". The “whitelist.json” file on the dedicated server has been replaced by the “allowlist.json” file. The JSON format remains the same. Modified instructions can be found in bedrock_server_how_to.html
• Fixed 'query.is_in_ui' so that it is available for use when a data-based mob is rendered in UI ('query.is_in_ui' returns true when mob is rendered in UI, as in the inventory window)
• Fixed a crash that could occur when an entity with a dash value was removed from the world
• Fixed a bug with the summonable property of vanilla mobs replaced pre-JSON version 1.8.0, which prevented bees from being summonable (MCPE-58557)
• The "ImpactDamageSubcomponent" once again prevents damage from being dealt to fire-immune creatures if the "catchFire" field is true and the projectile is on fire.
• The 'has_equipment' filter now correctly evaluates custom entity spawn eggs

Volumetric fog (experimental)

• Create volumes in your world: Simply create a “volumes” folder in a saved world and place json files in it – one json file per volume. More information can be found in the behavior pack documentation
• Can be enabled using the "Upcoming Creator Features" experimental feature toggle
• Currently, you can attach a fog – Minecraft or your own custom fog – to a volume. When the player enters the volume, the fog will take effect
• Added AddVolumeEntityPacket which contains information about a volume entity, including its net id and NBT containing information about volume definition and components, which will be added to the client registry
• Added RemoveVolumeEntityPacket which contains the net ID of a volume entity to remove it from the client registry

GameTest framework (experimental)

• Reputation «/ gametest runall» and «/ gametest runset»
• Tag parameter default value is now "suite:default"
• Added Dimension class
• Start World.getDimension
• GameTest framework interface update
  • assertContainerContains – ItemIdentifier parameter changed to ItemStack
  • assertItemEntityNotPresent and assertItemEntityPresent API – ItemStack parameter changed to ItemType
  • assertEntityNotTouching(entityIdentifier: string, position: Location) – Asserts that there is no entity of the given type at the given position
  • assertEntityTouching(entityIdentifier: string, position: Location) – Asserts that there is an entity of the given type at the given position
  • assertItemEntityCountIs(itemType: ItemType, position: BlockLocation, searchDistance: number, number: number) – Asserts that the number of entity items in the given search box matches the expected number
  • pulseRedstone(position: BlockLocation, duration: number) - Creates a Redstone block at the given position and destroys it after "duration" ticks
  • function assertEntityPresentInArea(entityIdentifier : string) – Throws an error if an entity matching the given identifier does not exist in the test region
  • function print(text: string) - Prints the text given in the chat
  • function assertEntityInstancePresent(entity: Entity, position: BlockLocation) – Throws an error if the given entity is not present in the given block location
  • [Removed] function setEntityTamed(entityIdentifier: string, position: BlockLocation) – Replaced by component function setTamed(showParticles: bool)
  • function assertEntityData(position: BlockLocation, entityIdentifier: string, callback: function(entity: Entity)) – Asserts that the given condition is true for all entities of the given type at the given location
  • function spawnItem(itemType: ItemStack, position: Location) – Spawns an item at the given location
  • function assertIsWaterlogged(position: BlockLocation, isWaterlogged: bool) – Asserts that the block at the given location is waterlogged
  • function assertRedstonePower(position: BlockLocation, power: number) - Asserts the power level of the redstone at the given location
• Added Commands.run
• Entity
  • function getComponents() – Returns an array of supported components
  • function getComponent(componentIdentifier : string) – Returns the component corresponding to the given identifier
  • function hasComponent(componentIdentifier : string) – Returns true if the given component exists on the entity and is supported
  • function getName() – Returns the name of the entity (e.g. "Horse")
• Add new enums: Minecraft.Effects and Minecraft.Items
• Components
  • Added additional component interfaces. movement, navigation, healable, breathable, aging and taming components
• Container – New interface for interacting with entity containers. Can be referenced via entity.getComponent("inventory").container

Minecraft is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. For more information about this update, visit the official Minecraft site.

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