Posted: December 5, 2023

The latest Minecraft update brings a brand new look for bats, smashable pots, and some new experimental features like the crafter block. Let’s take a look at the highlights!

• The Bat has a brand new look
• Improvements to Decorated Pots, like the ability to place items inside and smash them with projectiles
• New experimental features from the upcoming 1.21 update, including the Crafter and new Copper blocks
• The ‘How to Play’ screen has been completely revamped into the ‘Encyclopedia’ screen
• A wealth of fixes, improvements, and technical changes

Your thoughts on the game continue to shape new updates so please upvote and report any new bugs at bugs.mojang.com and leave us your feedback at feedback.minecraft.net.

New Features

Improvements to Decorated Pots

• Decorated Pots now store up to a single stack of items
• Hoppers, Hopper Minecarts, and Droppers can now insert and/or extract items from Decorated Pots
• Comparators can now read the number of items in Decorated Pots
• Players can interact with Decorated Pots to insert items into them
• Decorated Pots have no user interface and need to be broken to retrieve or discover their content
• Player interactions with Decorated Pots cause Decorated Pots to wobble and emit a vibration of frequency 11
• Decorated Pots can be smashed by projectiles, which cause them to shatter and drop their content
• Increased the maximum stack size of identical Decorated Pots to 64

Bat

• The Bat now has a new look, thanks to an updated model, animations, and texture

Encyclopedia

• Completely remodeled the “How to Play” screen and created a new “Encyclopedia” screen
• Fixed various spelling mistakes
• Removed obsolete references to “Old world”
• Added missing references to Netherite related items (MCPE-90770, MCPE-165370)

Vanilla Parity

• Vindicators and Evokers can no longer be spawned in a Peaceful world (MCPE-124736)

Experimental Features

Crafter

• Added the Crafter block to the game
• Crafter can be crafted with Redstone Dust, Iron Ingots, Crafting Table, and Dropper
• Crafter uses distinct particles when crafting
• Crafter has distinct sounds for crafting and failing
• Crafter has a blast resistance of 3.5
• A Comparator connected to a Crafter now outputs a signal that is equal to the amount of non-empty slots plus disabled slots
• Moving items into crafter from Hopper or Dropper distributes them evenly instead of first filling the first stack
• Powering Crafter with Redstone signal makes it craft and output the item

Copper Family

• The Copper family of blocks has been expanded, including:
  • Chiseled Copper
  • Copper Grate
  • Copper Bulb
  • Copper Door
  • Copper Trapdoor
  • Oxidized and waxed variants of all the above

Chiseled Copper

• Crafted with 2 Cut Copper Slabs of a shared oxidation level
• Can be crafted in the Stonecutter

Copper Grate

• A new type of decorative block unique to the Copper family
• Crafted with 4 Copper Blocks of a shared oxidation level
  • Can be crafted in the Stonecutter
• Properties:
  • Transparent and allows light to pass through
  • Mobs cannot suffocate inside them
  • Cannot conduct Redstone
  • Hostile mobs cannot naturally spawn on them

Copper Bulb

• A light-emitting block that can toggle its light emission through Redstone pulses
• Oxidizes like other Copper blocks, and emits less light the more oxidized they are
  • Copper Bulb: Light level 15
  • Exposed Copper Bulb: Light level 12
  • Weathered Copper Bulb: Light level 8
  • Oxidized Copper Bulb: Light level 4
• When placed, its light is off by default
  • While the Copper Bulb is unpowered, it will toggle its light on or off when it receives a Redstone pulse
  • Copper Bulb light will stay on even when the Redstone source is removed until it receives another Redstone pulse to toggle it off
• A Redstone crystal will glow in the center of Copper Bulbs while it is powered by a Redstone signal
• Comparators will read a signal strength of 15 if the Copper Bulb’s light is on
• Does not conduct Redstone power
• Can craft 4 Copper Bulbs with:
  • 3 Copper Blocks of a shared oxidation level
  • 1 Blaze Rod
  • 1 Redstone Dust

Copper Doors and Trapdoors

• Copper variants of Doors and Trapdoors that can oxidize over time and be waxed
• Works like wooden Doors in that they can be opened and closed with interaction as well as Redstone
• Crafted with Copper Blocks of a shared oxidation level

Tuff Family

• Tuff has been expanded to have its own family of blocks, including:
  • Stair, Slab, Wall, and Chiseled variants
  • Tuff Bricks with Stair, Slab, Wall, and Chiseled variants
  • Polished Tuff with Stair, Slab, and Wall variants
• All Tuff variants can be crafted in the Stonecutter and Crafting Table

Villager Trade Rebalancing

• Fixed an issue where experimental Librarians never sold the highest level of their common enchantments (MCPE-174861)

Fixes and Changes

Performance / Stability

• A Sticky Piston pulling a retracting Sticky Piston that is pulling a player and another block no longer crashes the game (MCPE-175790)
• Fixed a bug where the screen would freeze when uploading a world template to a Realm

General

• The maximum render distance in Realms can be adjusted via backend updates. Expect an increase to the maximum render distance on Realms in the next week
• Players can now download worlds larger than 1GB from Realms on Xbox
• Improved handling of unexpected errors during world export and better error messaging is now provided (MCPE-41898)
• You can now launch Minecraft directly into a Realm using a link, even when the game isn’t running
  • Example link: minecraft://connectToRealm?realmId=<ID number>

Gameplay

• Phantoms will no longer miss players who are gliding
• Decreased the likelihood of players spawning above Leaves
• Suspicious Sand no longer generates in Cold Ocean Ruins (MCPE-173492)
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t block with a Shield after releasing to use an item that had left their inventory (MCPE-171346)

Mobs

• Witches spawned via spawn eggs now join raids and throw potions at raiders
• Raid mobs can now join existing raids
• Mobs that grow up to be adults and are too large to fit inside Boats will now jump out (MCPE-171870)
• Leads will no longer break if a leashed mob is not in the same chunk as the leash holder upon reloading a world (MCPE-157182)
• Mobs on fire no longer spread fire to their target when holding something in their main hand
• The calculations to determine whether a mob can attack a player or other mobs have been changed. Previously a mob’s horizontal width was used to determine their attack reach and their height had no effect. The area where a mob can attack is now their bounding box extended in horizontal directions
  • The mobs affected by this change are Axolotl, Bee, Blaze, Cave Spider, Dolphin, Drowned, Enderman, Endermite, Fox, Hoglin, Husk, Iron Golem, Panda, Piglin, Piglin Brute, Pillager, Silverfish, Skeleton, Spider, Stray, Vindicator, Warden, Wither Skeleton, Wolf, Zoglin, Zombie, Zombie Pigman, and Zombie Villager
  • The new reach calculation is the attacking mob’s bounding box extended by 0.8 blocks horizontally. If this extended box overlaps the target’s bounding box, then the attack can reach
  • This change does not affect the reach of players

Blocks

• Horizontal End Rod hitboxes are now rotated correctly (MCPE-171597)
• Chorus Flowers can now be destroyed by any projectile, which will no longer disappear after impact (MCPE-176184)

Touch Controls

• Sneaking in water is now possible with touch controls (MCPE-167218)
• Touch input used for the Leave Boat button no longer continues to register input (MCPE-168574)
• Fixed an issue where the player could enter touch control customization without having touch controls (MCPE-175530)

User Interface

• Inventory option states such as the all/craftable toggle and selected inventory tab are now saved between sessions (MCPE-175159)
• The loading screen now displays 3 categories of tips based on player progression
• Added a game rule to turn off recipe unlocking messages
• Recipe unlocking notifications no longer speed up when unlocking a lot of items
• The search bar inside of the inventory is now aligned with the rest of the UI (MCPE-174298)
• Added Menu Cancel as a remappable action and set Mouse Back button as its default
• Fixed tips display for custom vehicles from Marketplace packs when using touch controls with a joystick
• The Xbox On-Screen Keyboard now moves to a different position if it’s in front of the text user is inputting (MCPE-170831)
• Fixed grammatical error in Magma death message (MCPE-64168)
• Updated death message when killed by a Bed explosion in the Nether (MCPE-123604)
• Made the hotbar less transparent (MCPE-31014)
• Added background dimming on screens that didn’t have it (MCPE-168598)
• Fixed an issue where the border around the ‘Creator’ tab in Settings would not be highlighted (MCPE-169617)
• The classic skins info popup now sends you to the correct settings page (MCPE-175854)

Technical Updates

Updated Add-On Template Packs

• Updated Add-On templates for 1.20.50 with new resources, behaviors, and documentation are available to download at aka.ms/MCAddonPacks

Performance / Stability

• Removed CraftingEventPacket

Add-Ons and Script Engine

• Improved some of the common scripting error messages to provide better context and information
• Added a Clear button to the content log screen

Animations

• Fixed unreliability around is_alive on Server

Blocks

• Blocks with the “minecraft:cardinal_direction”, “minecraft:facing_direction”, or “minecraft:block_face” states as part of the “minecraft:placement_direction” or “minecraft:placement_position” BlockTraits are rotated/mirrored properly by Structure Blocks
• Structure Void blocks once again prevents interaction with blocks and entities placed behind them (MCPE-175237)
• “planks” block is now split into unique instances “oak_planks”, “spruce_planks”, “birch_planks”, “jungle_planks”, “acacia_planks”, “dark_oak_planks”
• Commands will still work with “planks”, however, “planks” block will not be suggested
• “stone” block is now split into unique instances: “stone”, “granite”, “polished_granite”, “diorite”, “polished_diorite”, “andesite” and “polished_andesite”

Graphical

• When a particle emitter is added to an entity but particles simulate in world, particles now correctly collide with the world

Items

• Renamed “minecraft:use_duration” to “minecraft:use_modifiers” and added a “movement_modifier” parameter in json format versions 1.20.50 and higher
• Deprecated “minecraft:chargeable” in json format versions 1.20.50 and higher. Use “minecraft:use_modifiers” instead for “movement_modifier” behavior
• Deprecated “on_dig” event triggers from “minecraft:digger” in format versions 1.20.50 and higher

Cameras

• Added a content warning for when the camera is placed outside of the player’s chunk radius

AI Goal Components

• Added “minecraft:behavior.melee_box_attack” behavior which functions the same as “minecraft:behavior.melee_attack” but uses bounds based attack reach calculations
  • The reach_multiplierattribute is removed and replaced with box_increase
  • Reach is calculated by increasing the bounds of the attacking mobs in the xz-plane by box_increaseblocks to create an “attack box”. If the attack box intersects with the target’s bounds the attacking mob can reach it

API

• Added BlockComponentTypeMap, EntityComponentTypeMap, and ItemComponentTypeMap aliases which map Component IDs to their TypeScript types
• Changed getComponent, Entity.getComponent, and ItemStack.getComponent to return the correct derived Component type
• Added BlockComponentTypes, EntityComponentTypes, and ItemComponentTypes enums that enumerate component ID strings
• Moved PlayerInteractWithBlockAfterEvent from beta to 1.7.0
• Moved PlayerInteractWithBlockBeforeEvent from beta to 1.7.0
• Moved PlayerInteractWithEntityAfterEvent from beta to 1.7.0
• Moved PlayerInteractWithEntityBeforeEvent from beta to 1.7.0
• Moved PlayerLeaveBeforeEvent from beta to 1.7.0
• Moved NumberRangeinterface to minecraft/common
  • Moved heightRange: NumberRange from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved matchesfrom beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function clearDynamicProperties from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicProperties from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicPropertyIds from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicPropertyTotalByteCount from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function setDynamicProperty from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function clearDynamicProperties from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicProperties from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicPropertyIds from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function getDynamicPropertyTotalByteCount from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved function setDynamicProperty from beta to 1.7.0
• TicksPerSecond
  • Moved from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved offset from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved above from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved below from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved north from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved east from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved south from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved west from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved center from beta to 1.7.0
  • Moved bottomCenter from beta to 1.7.0
• Added initial NPC support to scripting with the EntityNpcComponent
• MovedEntity.remove from beta to 1.7.0

Items

• Deprecated the “tag:” legacy item component and released the “minecraft:tags” item component out of experimental in json formats 1.20.50 and higher

Mobs

• Fixed an issue preventing mobs from spawning further than 6 chunks away from the nearest player even if the server’s simulation range is larger than 6 chunks
• Added “minecraft:can_join_raid” component to allow entities to join existing raids

Molang

• Fixed animation controller loading to use the pack’s min_engine_version rather than the file’s format_version to determine the Molang Version. This fix applies to animation controllers in packs with a min_engine_version of 1.20.50 or higher
• The following Molang queries are Deprecated and will no longer be available in packs with a min_engine_version of 1.20.50 or higher
  • is_scenting
    • Replaced with timer_flag_1, set by behavior.timer_flag_1
  • is_rising
    • Replaced with timer_flag_2, set by behavior.timer_flag_2
  • is_feeling_happy
    • Replaced with timer_flag_3, set by behavior.timer_flag_3
  • dash_cooldown_progress
    • It was only used to adjust the head animation of the camel as it came out of dash cooldown
    • Camel animation uses dash_cooldown_progress in camel.entity.json now
• query.is_moving now detects vertical motion for the player again

Experimental Technical Updates

Gametest

• SimulatedPlayer
  • stopUsingItem now returns the item that was being used
• Dynamic Properties
  • NBT change: Dynamic properties are now stored using the behavior pack manifest UUID, rather than the module UUID. Existing worlds using dynamic properties will continue to work, and will be migrated to the new format when properties are read or modified

Script API

• Fixed @minecraft/server-uiforms not correctly rendering player scoreboard information when embedded in rawtext

API

• Added effectAddBeforeEvent and removed effectState from effectAddAfterEvent
• Fixed target property to be of type Entity or undefined as the entity may not have a target
• EntityHitInformation
  • Fixed entity property to be of type Entity or undefined as the entity may be undefined
• EntityInventoryComponent
  • container member variable now correctly reflects it can be a Container or undefined
  • entity member variable now correctly reflects it can be an Entity or undefined
• ItemStartUseOnAfterEvent
  • itemStack is now optional
• ItemStopUseAfterEvent
  • itemStack is now optional
• DataDrivenEntityTriggerAfterEvent
  • Renamed property id to eventId for clarity
  • Changed getModifier to work in read-only mode
• Changed DefinitionModifier from a class to an interface with properties
• Made getproperly reflect that it can return EntityType | undefined instead of just EntityType