Java Edition 1.8

1.8, known as the Bountiful Update, added and changed many aspects of Minecraft which made it easier for map makers to create adventure maps, and added many blocks and mobs for survival play.

General

 * Splashes
 * "That's Numberwang!"
 * "pls rt"
 * "Do you want to join my server?"
 * "Put a little fence around it!"
 * "Throw a blanket over it!"
 * "One day, somewhere in the future, my work will be quoted!"
 * "Now with additional stuff!"
 * "Extra things!"
 * "Yay, puppies for everyone!"
 * "So sweet, like a nice bon bon!"
 * "Popping tags!"
 * "Now With Multiplayer!"
 * "Very influential in its circle!"
 * "Rise from your grave!"
 * "Warning! A huge battleship "STEVE" is approaching fast!"
 * "Blue warrior shot the food!"
 * "Run, coward! I hunger!"
 * "Flavor with no seasoning!"
 * "Strange, but not a stranger!"
 * "Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream!"
 * "Getting ready to show!"
 * "Getting ready to know!"
 * "Getting ready to drop!"
 * "Getting ready to shock!"
 * "Getting ready to freak!"
 * "Getting ready to speak!"
 * "It swings, it jives!"
 * "Cruising streets for gold!"
 * "Take an eggbeater and beat it against a skillet!"
 * "Make me a table, a funky table!"
 * "Take the elevator to the mezzanine!"
 * "Stop being reasonable, this is the Internet!"
 * "/give @a hugs 64"
 * "This is good for Realms."
 * "Any computer is a laptop if you're brave enough!"
 * Difficulty
 * Difficulty is stored per world.
 * No more global difficulty option.
 * Prevents accidentally changing the difficulty when joining a different world.
 * Can be locked for each world.
 * Prevents the temptation to change to an easier difficulty, in difficult situations.
 * Locking cannot be undone without using external editors.
 * The difficulty can still be changed using the command.
 * Hunger now refills on Peaceful.
 * Options
 * New 'Skin Customization' settings.
 * Can toggle cape and skin layers from here.
 * Multiplayer settings
 * 'Reduced debug info' toggle to enable/disable reduced information on the F3 debug screen.
 * Video settings
 * Alternative Block toggle.
 * Can disable/enable (weighted) alternative block models.
 * When turned off, the least complex highest priority model, will always be used for each block.
 * Use VBOs toggle
 * Can enable/disable vertex buffer objects.
 * May offer a ~10% performance increase when set to ON.
 * Render distance slider can go up to 32, when using 64-bit Java and at least 2 GB of allocated RAM.
 * Removed the Advanced OpenGL and anisotropic filtering toggles.
 * Anisotropic filtering has been removed by default.
 * Shaders
 * New "creeper" shader (creeper.json), applies a green tint.
 * Is applied when spectating from the perspective of a creeper.
 * Can also be applied using Super Secret Settings.
 * New "spider" shader (spider.json), applies octuple vision.
 * Is applied when spectating from the perspective of a spider.
 * The newly added shaders can also be applied using the "Super Secret Settings" button.
 * The previously existing "invert.json" shader is now applied when spectating through an enderman.
 * It inverts the colors of the environment.
 * Particles
 * Shows up at the location of barrier blocks, for players holding a barrier item in their hand.
 * Are created when a sponge soaks up water.
 * Shows up on one's screen when near an elder guardian.
 * Are created when a sponge soaks up water.
 * Shows up on one's screen when near an elder guardian.
 * Shows up on one's screen when near an elder guardian.

Gameplay

 * Statistics
 * Detects how many cm the player has moved while crouching.
 * Detects how many cm the player has moved while sprinting.
 * Detects how much time has passed in ticks, since the player's last death.
 * Detects how many times the player has opened the GUI of villagers.
 * Detects how many times the player has traded with villagers.
 * Achievements
 * New achievement Overpowered
 * Obtained by crafting an enchanted golden apple.
 * Requires first obtaining Getting an Upgrade.
 * Spectator game mode
 * Flying mode
 * It can only be accessed and reversed via, either using ,  , or.
 * It is the default gamemode on the debug world type.
 * Only the Void and can damage/kill a spectator.
 * The player can fly through solid blocks (noclip).
 * The mouse scroll wheel, the sprint key, the slowness and swiftness effects all affect the flying speed.
 * Night vision potions still have an effect in spectator.
 * Cannot catch on fire, so their view isn't obstructed.
 * Their player model in the inventory is completely invisible.
 * First-person view through another player or mob’s eyes.
 * Creepers, spiders and endermen apply a shader while spectating through them.
 * Spectating through a player shows the respective HUD.
 * Pressing the dismount key (shift by default), returns the player to flying mode.
 * Viewing privileges
 * Spectators can see other spectators as disembodied translucent heads, with the corresponding player skin.
 * All invisible players/mobs appear visible, but translucent.
 * An optional held hotkey shows bright outlines on all players.
 * Can be color-coded to teams.
 * Spectators can look at the inventories of blocks like chests and entities like minecarts with chest.
 * This includes their own inventory.
 * Spectators have a UI to teleport to other players.
 * The UI can only be brought up and interacted with, by the number keys or middle mouse click.
 * The scroll wheel can still scroll through the different options.
 * It is similar to the regular hotbar in creative, but contains special icons that appear to be different items, like barrier blocks or old player heads.
 * If there is at least 1 team set up, the UI distinguishes between teleporting to an individual or teleporting to a member of a specific team.
 * Otherwise it defaults to an all-inclusive, alphabetical list of players (except for fake players).
 * Both the player and the team icons are color-coded with respect to the team color.
 * The player icons that teleport are rendered with the skin of the head of the player, and resemble the way the player heads were displayed before 1.8.
 * If there are more than 8 players/teams available to teleport, slots 1 and 8 will display right and left arrows respectively, to scroll through.
 * The arrows look very similar, as the ones used in the resource pack menu and the server list.
 * The right and left arrow will not show, if there are no more players to the right or left of the list respectively.
 * There is always an option in slot nine to close the menu.
 * Looks like a barrier block item.
 * Teleportation works across dimensions.
 * Limitations to spectators
 * Spectators cannot
 * Load terrain.
 * Interact with blocks or entities, apart from spectating through the latter.
 * Interact with any inventory (including their own).
 * Look at the inventory of other players/mobs, apart from the hotbar items.
 * Control the behavior of any entity they spectate through.
 * Enchantments
 * "Depth Strider"
 * Allows the player to move faster in water.
 * Can only be applied to boots in survival up to level III.
 * Control the behavior of any entity they spectate through.
 * Enchantments
 * "Depth Strider"
 * Allows the player to move faster in water.
 * Can only be applied to boots in survival up to level III.

Commands & NBT Tags

 * Target selectors
 * Targets all entities.
 * Can specify the type of entity by entity ID, to either include or exclude with, to only apply it to chickens or  , to apply it to every entity that isn't a skeleton.
 * Example: – kills all chickens within a radius of 50 blocks.
 * Example: – any entity within a radius of 5 blocks will be teleported five blocks in the air.
 * Example:
 * Commands
 * Allows commands to be run from the position of specified entities.
 * A  argument allows the  command, to run only if a block is detected at a specific location relative to the target.
 * Syntax:
 * {{cmd|execute    detect     criteria (referred to as "triggers"), and can only modify the score of the player running the command.
 * Allows non-op players to use s as well as to prevent its abuse.
 * Can be used by non-operator players.
 * For a player to run this command, the trigger must be enabled for that player.
 * {{cmd|scoreboard players enable }} will enable the specified player to use the specified trigger objective.
 * Trigger availability is stored per player, on a per trigger basis.
 * One trigger may be disabled for a player, but that player can use a different trigger.
 * One player may be unable to use a trigger, but another player can use the same trigger.
 * Disabled after the trigger has been used (must be re-enabled to use the trigger again).
 * Mostly for use with {{cmd|tellraw}}.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|trigger  }}.
 * {{cmd|replaceitem| ...}}
 * Can replace items in any inventory, including the inventories of mobs such as villagers.
 * Syntax:
 * {{cmd|replaceitem entity  [amount] [data value]}}
 * {{cmd|replaceitem block    [amount] [data value]}}
 * Example:
 * {{cmd|1=replaceitem entity @e[type=Zombie] slot.weapon minecraft:iron_sword 1 0}} will give all the zombies iron swords.
 * {{cmd|replaceitem entity @p slot.hotbar.0 minecraft:fish 4 2}} will put 4 clownfish in the players first hotbar slot.
 * {{cmd|replaceitem block ~ ~1 ~ slot.container.5 minecraft:redstone_block 1 0}} will put a redstone block in the 6th slot of a container, 1 block above the player.
 * {{cmd|blockdata}}
 * Modifies NBT data at a specific coordinate, the ,   or.
 * will copy every block (default).
 * will copy only non-air blocks.
 * will remove specified blocks.
 * It can additionally be,   or.
 * will move the selection from the first location to the second location, which may overlap.
 * will force the cloning operation, even if the areas overlap.
 * only needs to be specified if using.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|clone      <z2> <x> <y> <z> [mode]}}.
 * Example: {{cmd|clone 1001 3 1002 1011 3 992 1001 5 992 masked}}.
 * {{cmd|fill}}
 * Fills a given volume with a specified block.
 * It cannot replace or fill block entities with specific data tags.
 * Up to 32768 blocks can be filled.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|fill <x1> <y1> <z1> <x2> <y2> <z2> <TileName> [dataValue] [oldBlockHandling] [dataTag]}}.
 * The  parameter determines the fate of the blocks, occupying the volume about to be filled,
 * It takes the same values here as it does in {{cmd|setblock}}:,   and   – as well as two additional values:
 * to only fill the outer layer of blocks, and fill the inner part with air,
 * to fill the outer layer of blocks, and keep the inner part the same.
 * Example: {{cmd|fill 1001 3 1002 1011 5 992 wool 6 replace}} will fill the given area with pink wool.
 * It can be made to filter specified blocks.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|fill [x] [y] [z] [x] [y] [z] [BlockName] [Data] replace [filterBlockName] [filterData]}}.
 * {{cmd|testforblocks}}
 * Compares two areas of a world, to check if they share the same blocks on the same configuration.
 * The mode can be set to  or
 * is the default, while  will ignore air blocks.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|testforblocks <x1> <y1> <z1> <x2> <y2> <z2> [mode]}}.
 * Example: {{cmd|testforblocks 100 64 100 107 69 107 0 64 0 masked}}.
 * {{cmd|stats <entity{{!}}block> ...}}
 * Will update a scoreboard objective for an entity, based on the number of entities/blocks which have been affected or detected by the command.
 * Syntax:
 * {{cmd|stats entity }}
 * {{cmd|stats block [x] [y] [z] }}
 * Alternative and more useful way of interacting with the  tag.
 * After the  there are currently 5 possible stats that can be updated: ,  ,  ,   and.
 * Example: {{cmd|stats entity @a set AffectedBlocks @a Test}} will update a scoreboard objective named 'Test' for all players whenever a command is performed relative to them. The objective will update by the number of blocks affected by the command. Since the stat was set to , this means that if the command is {{cmd|fill}}, it will update the objective for whoever is running the command (@a) by the number of blocks filled.
 * {{cmd|worldborder}}
 * {{cmd|worldborder <set,add,center,damage,warning,get>}}
 * {{cmd|worldborder set <sizeInBlocks> <timeInSeconds>}}
 * The first argument sets the size of the border (both the width and depth) in blocks, and the second sets the speed of the border when it expands or shrinks.
 * The shape of the border can only be a square.
 * {{cmd|worldborder add <sizeInBlocks> <timeInSeconds>}}
 * Adds blocks to the current size of the world border. It can use negative numbers to subtract to the size of the border.
 * {{cmd|worldborder center <x> <z>}}
 * Sets the center of where the border will be placed.
 * {{cmd|worldborder damage <buffer{{!}}amount>}}
 * The amount parameter customizes the damage rate, while outside the border.
 * The buffer parameter customizes the amount of blocks the player can go outside of the border, before starting to take damage.
 * {{cmd|worldborder warning <time{{!}}distance>}}
 * Allows the player to customize how far the player has to be from the border, and/or the amount of time a shrinking border would take to reach the player, before it starts showing the warning.
 * {{cmd|worldborder get}}
 * Tells the player running the command, the current width of the world border in the chat.
 * {{cmd|title}}
 * Can make text display on the player screen, in the form of a title and/or subtitle using JSON.
 * {{cmd|title @a title }}
 * Sets the text of the title, and starts showing both the title and the subtitle (when it has been set).
 * {{cmd|title @a subtitle }}
 * Sets the text of the subtitle (optional).
 * {{cmd|title @a times <fadeIn> <fadeOut>}}
 * Sets the fade in, fade out and stay in time for the title and subtitle. This is in game ticks (1/20th of a second).
 * {{cmd|title @a clear}}
 * Removes the titles and subtitles off the screen immediately.
 * {{cmd|title @a reset}}
 * Resets all time parameters to defaults.
 * {{cmd|particle}}
 * Spawns a certain number of specific particles in a given area with a specified force.
 * Syntax: {{cmd|particle <x> <y> <z> <xd> <yd> <zd> [count] [force]}}.
 * Example: {{cmd|1=particle lava ~ ~1 ~ 1 1 1 0.5 50 normal @e[type=Chicken]}} will create 50 lava popping particles, centered one block above the block/entity running the command, spreading around a radius of 1 block, with a speed of 0.5, relative to all chickens in that world.
 * The  argument can be set to   to display particles, even if a player has his 'Particles' toggle set to Minimal or Decreased.
 * List of particles:,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,.
 * Gamerules
 * Prevents command block output from being stored in chat logs. In multiplayer it also prevents player-initiated commands from being stored. Unrelated to commandBlockOutput, which is output into the visible chat.
 * If set to false, player-run commands will not show a message.
 * Prevents death messages like "[player] fell out the world" from appearing in the chat.
 * This enable/disable reduced information on the F3 debug screen, like in video settings.
 * Set to 1, overrides the 'reduced debug info' setting in clients.
 * Controls how often a random tick occurs
 * Random ticks influence the next things: pigmen spawning from portals, all plant growth, leaf decay, fire spread, ice melting, grass/mycelium spread and farmland hydration.
 * If set to 0, random ticks never occur.
 * The ability to create custom gamerule variables.
 * These are fake gamerules which don't affect gameplay by themselves, but can be used with {{cmd|stats}} with the new  argument, to update a scoreboard objective based on the value of that gamerule.
 * Declare using: {{cmd|gamerule <newRuleName> }}.
 * Access using: {{cmd|gamerule <newRuleName>}}.
 * Scoreboard
 * New objective criteria for team-specific kills, e.g.:.
 * New objective criteria '.
 * Acts like the  criteria.
 * Can be interacted with using the {{cmd|trigger}} command.
 * Mostly for use with {{cmd|tellraw}}.
 * The ability to iterate over every scoreboard player with.
 * This will also affect players who are offline.
 * Fake players can be created when run in a command block.
 * They only exist through the distinct scoreboard operations and functions, and are merely virtual within the context of the gameplay.
 * They do not bring the player count up on servers and do not appear on any player listing. Both in the server list and in the tab list while online.
 * Fake players with a name starting with {{cmd|#}}, will never show up on the scoreboard sidebar.
 * New {{cmd|scoreboard}} subcommands: {{cmd|scoreboard reset}}, {{cmd|scoreboard operation}}, {{cmd|scoreboard test}} and {{cmd|scoreboard enable}}.
 * The  subcommand can reset all objectives for a player or reset a player's objectives one by one.
 * Example: {{cmd|scoreboard players reset @a anObjective}} will reset the scores of an objective named anObjective for all players in the world.
 * The  subcommand can apply arithmetic operation to and between scores (+ – * / % < > =) and therefore accumulate player scores.
 * Example: {{cmd|1=scoreboard players operation #teamscores redScore += @a[team=red] blueKills}} adds every red player's count of kills on blue to the red team's score of kills.
 * Can be tested with a comparator to see if two scores are greater than, smaller than or equal to each other.
 * The  subcommand can be used to test, if a scoreboard value is between a min and a max value.
 * Example: {{cmd|scoreboard players test #global anObjective 12 19}} checks whether the global score of the given objective is between 12 and 19, inclusive.
 * The  subcommand can be used to enable a   objective.
 * Example: {{cmd|scoreboard players enable aTrigger}} enables a  named aTrigger.
 * Different teams can have multiple objectives displayed in the sidebar.
 * Example: {{cmd|scoreboard|objectives setdisplay sidebar.team.yellow anotherObjective}}. This refers to the team color, not the team name.
 * Testing for scores also works in  entity selector.
 * Added scoreboard team property to disable name tag visibility: {{cmd|scoreboard teams option nametagVisibility}} with options,  ,   and   (default).
 * Added scoreboard team property to disable death messages: {{cmd|scoreboard|teams option deathMessageVisibility}} with the options:,  ,   and   (default).
 * Command {{cmd|scoreboard|players}} can now filter by NBT data.
 * NBT Tags
 * Block entities item form can hold custom NBT tags that are merged to the specified block entity when they're placed.
 * Example: {{cmd|give @p command_block 1 0 {BlockEntityTag:{Command:"{{cmd|setblock ~ ~ ~ minecraft:diamond_block}}" }} }} will give a command block that, when placed, will automatically have the command {{cmd|setblock ~ ~ ~ minecraft:diamond_block}} set.
 * A way to lock containers from being opened using NBT tags.
 * Mostly useful for adventure maps in adventure mode.
 * Containers can be unlocked by clearing their string for the tag.
 * Locked containers can only be opened while holding anything renamed to the given string.
 * The item is not removed on use.
 * Mostly for use in adventure mode.
 * Items with this tag display the names of the blocks that they can destroy in the item tooltip.
 * Example: {{cmd|give @p minecraft:diamond_shovel 1 0 {CanDestroy:["minecraft:sand","minecraft:grass"]} }} to give a diamond shovel that can break grass and sand.
 * If an invalid item name is put in, it will display as "missingno" under the "Can Break" list.
 * Allows placing of certain blocks against other blocks in adventure mode.
 * Example: {{cmd|give @p minecraft:stone 16 0 {CanPlaceOn:["minecraft:diamond_block"]} }} to give a block of stone that can only be placed on diamond blocks.
 * If an invalid item name is put in, it will display as "missingno" under the "Can Be Placed On" list.
 * The number of ticks before an item entity can be picked up.
 * Set to 32767 for items that can't be picked up.
 * Defines whether a written book is an "Original" a "Copy of Original" or a "Copy of a copy".
 * Allows hiding of certain parts of the tooltip.
 * Bit field determining which parts of the tooltip to hide on an item. 1 for, 2 for  , 4 for  , 8 for  , 16 for   and 32 for various other information (including potion effects,  , written book   and  ,   and  ).
 * Examples: Setting bit field to 3 would hide both  and   tags, and setting to 63 would hide everything.
 * Contains the item data of the item currently held in the player's hand.
 * Added to compact the process of testing if a player is holding a specific item.
 * Previous method required nine commands (one per slot in the hotbar); now requires only one command.
 * Entities without AI will not attack players, move or rotate on their own, and do not despawn.
 * They also do not respond to gravity or collision with other mobs, but can still take damage, die, be caught on fire, and ride other entities.
 * Setting to 1 disables an entity's AI.
 * Controls villagers giving xp for trading.
 * Set to 1 for xp or 0 for no xp.
 * Option to show or hide all particles for a potion effect, as opposed to the  tag, which only show fewer particles.
 * Set to 1 to show, 0 to hide.
 * Determines whether sound is produced by an entity, such as idle and hurt sounds.
 * Setting to 1 disables sound effects.
 * Allows a command block or sign to increase a certain score in the scoreboard when it runs successfully.
 * The command will increase the score based on the number of items/blocks/entities/successes.
 * For example, a command block with this tag running a command which affects items (e.g. ) will cause it to update the score based on the number of items given.
 * Syntax:.
 * Contains the item data of the item currently held in the player's hand.
 * Added to compact the process of testing if a player is holding a specific item.
 * Previous method required nine commands (one per slot in the hotbar); now requires only one command.
 * Entities without AI will not attack players, move or rotate on their own, and do not despawn.
 * They also do not respond to gravity or collision with other mobs, but can still take damage, die, be caught on fire, and ride other entities.
 * Setting to 1 disables an entity's AI.
 * Controls villagers giving xp for trading.
 * Set to 1 for xp or 0 for no xp.
 * Option to show or hide all particles for a potion effect, as opposed to the  tag, which only show fewer particles.
 * Set to 1 to show, 0 to hide.
 * Determines whether sound is produced by an entity, such as idle and hurt sounds.
 * Setting to 1 disables sound effects.
 * Allows a command block or sign to increase a certain score in the scoreboard when it runs successfully.
 * The command will increase the score based on the number of items/blocks/entities/successes.
 * For example, a command block with this tag running a command which affects items (e.g. ) will cause it to update the score based on the number of items given.
 * Syntax:.
 * Allows a command block or sign to increase a certain score in the scoreboard when it runs successfully.
 * The command will increase the score based on the number of items/blocks/entities/successes.
 * For example, a command block with this tag running a command which affects items (e.g. ) will cause it to update the score based on the number of items given.
 * Syntax:.
 * Syntax:.

World Generation

 * Underground
 * Granite, andesite and diorite generate in pockets within stone terrain.
 * Slightly larger in size and abundance than gravel.
 * Pockets don't reduce ore frequency, since ores can generate inside these pockets.
 * Ocean monuments
 * New underwater generated structure made out of prismarine, prismarine bricks, dark prismarine and sea lanterns.
 * 8 gold blocks can be found at the center of the monument, surrounded by dark prismarine.
 * A flashing boss guardian will appear on screen when close to an elder guardian, and Mining Fatigue III will be inflicted on the player for 5 minutes.
 * Will also generate in old worlds.
 * Customized world type
 * Highly customizable terrain generation.
 * To use, press create new world then ‘world type: customized’ and then press the 'customize' button.
 * There are 4 pages to customize the world.
 * Page 1: customizes generation of structures, chance of lake generation, size of certain structures, biome type and size, and sea level.
 * There are 18 customization options which affect whether generated structures will spawn in, as well as other environmental factors such as sea level. Some of these presets are Yes/No inputs or sliders.
 * Sea level height, toggles for cave, village, temple, ocean monument, dungeon, water lake, lava lake, stronghold, mineshaft and ravine generation, sliders to control water lake, lava lake and dungeon rarity, toggle to turn oceans into lava oceans, biome selection, biome and river size sliders.
 * Page 2: customizes the ore distribution for dirt, gravel, granite, diorite, andesite, coal, iron, gold, redstone, diamond and lapis.
 * Rarity, height range and vein size.
 * Page 3 & 4: Expert customization of the terrain generation.
 * There are 16 customization options which can be used to affect various aspects of Minecraft's terrain generator. These can be changed by moving sliders or by typing in values directly.
 * Main Noise Scale X/Y/Z to smooth out terrain, larger values for smoother terrain; Biome scale/depth weight and Biome scale/depth offset to stretch/squash terrain vertically based on the biomes default height settings; Upper/lower limit scale to make terrain more solid/riddled with holes, depending on how close the values are to each other; Height Stretch to pull terrain upward, with smaller values causing more extreme stretching; Height scale, Coordinate scale, Depth base size, Depth noise exponent and Depth noise scale.
 * There are seven presets.
 * Water World, Isle Land, Caver's Delight, Mountain Madness, Drought, Caves of Chaos and Good Luck.
 * Each page has a button to randomize the various values and a button to reset to default values.
 * Uses the 'generator-settings' string known from superflat presets for server.properties and world data.
 * Generate structures button disappears when selected.
 * Debug mode world type
 * Useful for resource pack makers.
 * Hold and cycle through "World Type" to select it.
 * Other world options are not available.
 * Only Spectator mode can be enabled.
 * All possible blocks with all possible data values (not IDs), are generated thought a single plane.
 * They are arranged in a grid across height y=70, with a barrier block flooring at y=60.
 * This includes all possible states of redstone wire, fire, tripwire, stairs, etc.
 * Every block state generates only once.
 * Blocks may not be placed or destroyed.

Blocks

 * Diorite
 * Crafting recipe: 2 cobblestone and 2 Nether quartz in a checker board pattern.
 * Andesite
 * Crafting recipe: 1 cobblestone and 1 diorite.
 * Granite
 * Crafting recipe: 1 Nether quartz and 1 diorite.
 * Polished diorite, andesite & granite
 * Crafting recipe: 4 pieces of one of the materials, in a 2×2 configuration.
 * Coarse dirt
 * Replaces the grassless dirt variant found in mega taiga, mesa and savanna biomes.
 * All worlds with grassless dirt blocks will seamlessly change over to coarse dirt, as it uses the same block ID and data value as the original grassless dirt block.
 * Slightly darker texture than regular dirt.
 * Can be picked up with bare hands (silk touch is not required).
 * Tilling coarse dirt with a hoe will turn it to regular dirt.
 * Crafting recipe: dirt and gravel in a 2×2 checkered pattern yields four coarse dirt.
 * Red sandstone
 * Can be crafted with 4 red sand in a square.
 * Can be crafted into chiseled, smooth, stair and slab forms.
 * Chiseled variant has a wither pattern to complement the creeper pattern found in chiseled sandstone.
 * Slabs have a smooth variant, similar to stone and sandstone.
 * Comes as a smooth double slab –.
 * Generated only in Mesa biomes at cave entrances.
 * Prismarine
 * Generates in ocean monuments.
 * Can be crafted with prismarine shards.
 * The cracks in prismarine appear to slowly change color between brown, blue, gray and purple.
 * Prismarine bricks
 * Generate in ocean monuments.
 * Can be crafted with prismarine shards.
 * Dark prismarine
 * Generate in ocean monuments.
 * Can be crafted with prismarine shards and an ink sac.
 * Sea lanterns
 * Generate in ocean monuments.
 * Can be crafted with prismarine shards and prismarine crystals.
 * Emit light at a light level of 15 and have a subtle animated texture.
 * Wet sponge
 * Obtained when a sponge soaks up water.
 * Smelting a wet sponge yields a dry sponge.
 * When smelted, they will fill empty buckets in the 'fuel' slot with water if possible.
 * Emits water dripping particles.
 * Dropped by elder guardians on player kills.
 * Slime blocks
 * Crafting recipe: 9 slime balls.
 * Can be crafted back into 9 slime balls.
 * Players and mobs that land on their top side will bounce, like on a trampoline.
 * This negates all fall damage.
 * Bounce rebound velocity is scaled by impact velocity.
 * Height can reach up to 60% of initial height, which implies a great restitution coefficient.
 * Does not affect item entities.
 * Walking on it is slower than walking on soul sand, close to one's speed while sneaking.
 * The placing/breaking sounds use the hurt sounds of slimes.
 * Can be mined with only one click, without any tools in survival.
 * Slime blocks will push and pull each other, along with adjacent blocks, when at least one of them is moved by a sticky piston.
 * Normal pistons will have the same effect, except that they fail to pull even a single slime block.
 * Coded by KaboPC and Panda4994.
 * Follow all the existing rules that pistons followed:
 * A chain of slime blocks and its adjacent blocks connected to a piston, in any arrangement, can be moved as long as the following conditions are met:
 * The piston is not moving more than twelve blocks at a time.
 * Non-movable blocks are not obstructing the path.
 * Not a single slime block in the chain is attached to the piston itself.
 * Allows for moveable contraptions.
 * Extending a piston with a slime block attached will propel entities (mobs, players, items, launched arrows, etc.) in the appropriate direction.
 * Iron trapdoors
 * Can only be opened and closed using redstone, similar to an iron door.
 * Crafting recipe: iron ingots in a 2×2 pattern yields one iron trapdoor.
 * Banners
 * Crafted like signs, but with one color of wool instead of planks.
 * Can be stacked to 16.
 * Most patterns are created by arranging dyes in certain ways around a banner on a crafting table (see the page on banners for a full list).
 * Other patterns are achieved with specific items.
 * Item – pattern: "creeper skull – creeper face", "wither skeleton skull – skull and crossbones", "brick block – brick texture background", "oxeye daisy – flower icon", "vines – curly border" and "enchanted golden apple – Mojang logo.
 * Making these patterns without dyes will result in a black color by default
 * Banners can have up to six layers (in survival).
 * Over a quadrillion possible combinations, counting rotations and visually identical patterns due to occlusion.
 * The layers show in the order they were created.
 * Custom banners with more than six layers are possible using commands.
 * Top-most layer can be removed using cauldrons.
 * This removes a third of the water of a full cauldron.
 * All layers can be removed.
 * Can be placed on walls or on the ground.
 * They are visually like an entity that is one block wide and two blocks tall, but in reality they are a block occupying the lower portion, but having a bigger model.
 * The hitbox is smaller than a full block, and it lacks any collision properties.
 * On the ground they have 16 different possible rotations (like an armor stand).
 * Has an animation when placed on the ground, that simulates swaying with the wind.
 * Can be worn as head gear, but only using the command.
 * Can be cloned by crafting them together, with a blank banner of the corresponding base color.
 * Can be used as fuel in furnaces.
 * Barrier blocks
 * Acts like bedrock, but is completely transparent.
 * Can transfer redstone signals and allows blocks to be placed on it.
 * Can only be destroyed and obtained in Creative mode.
 * It gives the same particles as lava does when destroyed.
 * Becomes visible to players who are holding a barrier in their hand, while in creative.
 * Appears to be rendered as specially big particles, in the form of a red and square cross-out symbol.
 * There is exactly one particle inside of every block.
 * The face always follows the player.
 * That texture is also used for its item form.
 * The particles are only rendered for the blocks in the vicinity of the player.
 * Fences, fence gates & doors
 * New types of fences, fence gates and doors, for all the different types of wood.
 * Different types of fences and fence gates can connect to each other.
 * Every recipe requires all wood planks to be of the same type.
 * New crafting recipe for fences: 2 sticks and 4 planks to make 3 fences.
 * Different types of doors have different models, with some types having no windows.

Items

 * Prismarine crystals
 * Drop from guardians.
 * Used to craft sea lanterns.
 * Prismarine shards
 * Drop from guardians.
 * Can be crafted into all three kinds of prismarine blocks and used for crafting sea lanterns.
 * Raw mutton
 * Restores and 1.2 saturation.
 * Drops from sheep.
 * Can be cooked into cooked mutton.
 * Cooked mutton
 * Restores and 9.6 saturation.
 * Raw rabbit
 * Restores and 1.8 saturation.
 * Drops from rabbits.
 * Can be cooked into cooked rabbit.
 * Cooked rabbit
 * Restores and 6 saturation.
 * Rabbit stew
 * Restores and 12 saturation.
 * This makes it the best food in the game other than golden carrots.
 * Recipe: 1 cooked rabbit, 1 mushroom, 1 carrot, 1 baked potato and 1 bowl.
 * Rabbit hide
 * Drops from rabbits.
 * Can be crafted in a 2×2 arrangement to produce leather.
 * Rabbit's foot
 * Brewed to make a Potion of Leaping.
 * Drops from rabbits.
 * Potion of leaping
 * Adds effect Jump Boost, for "I" and "II" levels.
 * Brewed with a rabbit's foot and Awkward potion.
 * The potion and particle effects are bright green colored.
 * Guardian Spawn Egg
 * Spawns the guardian mob.
 * Cyan colored with orange spots.
 * Endermite Spawn Egg
 * Spawns the endermite mob.
 * Purple colored with gray spots.
 * Rabbit Spawn Egg
 * Spawns rabbits.
 * Brown colored with brown spots.

Non-mob entities

 * Armor stands
 * Can be used to decoratively display armor (including pumpkins, mob heads and player heads).
 * Armor can be right-clicked to equip the armor stand.
 * Armor can be equipped by dispensers aimed at any part of the Stand.
 * Armor can be removed by right-clicking, by pointing on the piece of armor the player wants to remove.
 * Can render enchanted and dyed armor.
 * Can use pick-block on armor stands – this stand does not include any armor previously equipped.
 * Crafted using a stone slab and 6 sticks.
 * Stacks up to 16.
 * Can be placed on minecarts
 * NBT tags can be used to summon armor stands which are small, invisible , have arms , have disabled slots , have no base plate , have no gravity and are in pre-configured positions  – This can only be done through commands.

Mobs

 * Endermites
 * Sometimes spawns when a player teleports using an ender pearl.
 * Despawns after 2 minutes (unless it is named using a name tag).
 * Has the same sounds as the silverfish.
 * Guardians
 * Spawns in ocean monuments.
 * Attacks squid and players with a beam.
 * The beam itself only warns of an imminent attack.
 * It has a few seconds of cooldown between each shot.
 * When on land, it flops around unlike squids.
 * Drops prismarine shards, prismarine crystals and raw fish.
 * Makes wet noises when hurt and squeaky wet noises when flopping around on land.
 * The player will also get damaged with a thorns like effect if it damages the guardian while their spikes are deployed (as if it's being prickled).
 * Elder Guardians
 * A boss-like variant of Guardians, with greater health, greater size and different appearance.
 * There are 3 elders in each ocean monument.
 * A flashing boss guardian will appear on screen when close to the boss guardian, and Mining Fatigue III will be inflicted on the player for 5 minutes.
 * Drops wet sponge.
 * Rabbits
 * Drops rabbit hide, raw rabbit, cooked rabbit and rabbit's foot.
 * They have 8 different skins, similar to horses and ocelots: Black, White, Brown, Gold, Black & White, Salt & Pepper, Toast and the Killer Bunny.
 * Naming a rabbit spawn egg or name tag "Toast" will give rabbits a special skin as a memorial to user xyZenTV's girlfriend's rabbit Toast.
 * "The Killer Bunny" is a special type of rabbit, that is hostile towards players within 4 blocks
 * It is a very rare spawn.
 * A reference to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 * It is white with bloodshot eyes, and blood on its legs and mouth.
 * Automatically spawns with a name tag titled 'The Killer Rabbit'.
 * It can be directly spawned in with the command.
 * Rabbits can be bred using carrots, golden carrots or dandelions.
 * Rabbits have the same AI as the most other passive mobs, and jump around randomly.
 * Makes little squeaky sounds when hurt or killed.

General

 * Splashes
 * "OpenGL 1.2!" changed to "OpenGL 2.1 (if supported)!"
 * "Now java 6!" changed to "Now Java 6!"
 * The Void
 * Removed fog and particles.
 * Superflat world type
 * Block ID/number of layers format changed from  to.
 * Superflat presets can also use the new named id format.
 * Preset code version number changed to "3".
 * Resource packs
 * Custom block models can be loaded through resource packs.
 * The default resource pack made changes to some block models.
 * The cauldron's feet now have volume, instead of being just planes.
 * Grass blocks, dirt, sand, red sand, stone, Netherrack, bedrock and TNT all have their top texture randomly rotated
 * Support for custom item models.
 * Many items' models are rotated 90 degrees in the inventory and in hand.
 * + and + reloads all models.
 * Default resource packs can now be bundled with a world.
 * It is done by putting it in the map save directory, and naming it "resources.zip".
 * Skin customization
 * Added a new default skin: Alex.
 * Alex's model is that of Steve, but with 3-pixel wide arms instead of 4.
 * A choice to select between the Alex and Steve player models on minecraft.net/profile was added shortly after the update.
 * If the player doesn't have a custom skin yet, they are randomly assigned a Steve or Alex skin/model based on the random user ID.
 * Right and left arms and legs are editable independently.
 * Uses a modified steve.png file, with new layout and new dimensions.
 * Dimensions for the file are now 64×64.
 * Overlays now include the whole body.
 * The player can toggle the visibility of each overlay separately in the options menu.
 * Overlays are called hat, jacket, sleeves and pants legs.
 * Old skins still work, but won't have the new features, and may need some elements of it to be mirrored.
 * Options
 * Video settings
 * fullscreen toggle now affects the fullscreen option.
 * Multiplayer settings
 * Removed the toggle for the visibility of the cape.
 * It was moved to the new "skin customization settings".
 * Chat
 * Improved chat communication.
 * Messages are now either chat, system or action bar messages.
 * Action bar messages are always shown, chat and system messages are only shown if chat settings are configured that way.
 * Entities now have tooltips in certain chat instances when hovered over.
 * These appear when hovered over an entity's name in chat (e.g. the success message for ).
 * Shows the name of the entity (e.g. Bob), the Id of the entity (e.g. Creeper (50)) and the entity UUID.
 * + while hovering over the entity's name inserts its UUID into the chat bar. They also work in commands.
 * + clears the chat history (including previously typed commands).
 * UUID
 * All player lists will be converted to the UUID-based system automatically.
 * Other features such as pet ownership now follow the same system.
 * This is part of the requirements for the Plugin API.
 * Debug screen
 * Text now has a gray and translucent background.
 * Restructured layout.
 * Now displays render distance, sections being rendered currently, sections being updated currently, an aB value for unknown reasons, version id, whether the client is modded, keywords for when clouds/VBOs/VSync are enabled, Java version, the display resolution and vendor, the graphics card model and vendor and OpenGL version.
 * Player coordinates displays which block the feet are in.
 * Before it was at the head level.
 * When looking at a block, its coordinates, block id and properties will be displayed.
 * Block states of the block being looked at will now be displayed on the F3 menu. Examples: redstone, door.
 * The "Facing:" line now indicates in which axis-based direction the player is looking at. For example: "Towards positive Z".
 * The crosshair turns into 3 short, colored lines indicating the positive direction of the 3 axis: x/red, y/green, z/blue.
 * "Light" is now the light levels at the feet.
 * Before it was the at the eye level.
 * Player rotation is now displayed for the vertical angle, as well as the horizontal one.
 * Day counter added.
 * Increases by 1 every dawn.
 * Now displays difficulty.
 * Peaceful – 0.00, Easy – 0.75, Normal – 1.50, Hard – 2.25.
 * F3 hotkeys
 * Debug tooltips now show how many NBT tags an item has.
 * When debug tooltips are enabled, items will show their name id.
 * When debug tooltips are enabled, some instances of usernames and entities in the chat will now show the entity's UUID when hovered on.
 * + can now be used to clear the chat log.
 * + or  +  reloads block models.
 * + entity hitboxes now also display entity eye level in red, and which direction entities are looking at in blue.
 * + tooltips now show how many NBT tags an item has.
 * Block IDs
 * Instances of blocks/items references in commands, can now be named ids
 * Example:.
 * In scoreboards, the format is.
 * Old numerical ids are still supported, but will eventually be phased out.
 * This is part of the requirements´ for the Plugin API.
 * Block handling
 * Now uses block states internally instead of metadata.
 * Metadata will still be used for a while.
 * Metadata no longer needs to be calculated out of the 4-bit data value; instead, the values of specified properties can now be easily gotten and set.
 * Example:.
 * Servers
 * Servers now can:
 * Set the default resource pack handling: Prompt, Enabled or Disable.
 * Customize network compression in  using  :  to compress everything, or   to compress nothing.
 * Optionally send a hash for clients to verify resource packs, using  in  : Should be a 40 character hexadecimal string; it will otherwise only be used as a unique id.
 * Configure how long a tick may take before shutting down using  in.
 * Configure the maximum world size (which overrides ) using  in.
 * Send messages to be displayed on the action bar.
 * Rendering, performance & multi-threading
 * Significant increase in FPS and performance.
 * Each dimension (Overworld, Nether, End) run on separate threads.
 * This makes it so that the performance in one dimension, is independent of the performance in all others.
 * Chunk rendering and chunk rebuilds are now multi-threaded to speed them up.
 * Rewrote chunk sorting.
 * Mob pathfinding is now multi-threaded, to alleviate previous slow-downs associated with it.
 * Ore generation is now more than twice as fast.
 * Only transparent blocks are able to render as transparent (this makes all x-ray texture packs useless).
 * Rewrote how blocks are rendered.
 * Better visibility culling code
 * Inherited from the Pocket Edition.
 * Now it only renders blocks in view of the player.

Gameplay

 * Enchanting
 * There is now a material cost – enchanting costs from 1 to 3 pieces of lapis lazuli.
 * Enchanting will cost 1–3 levels – the same number as the lapis lazuli the player spend.
 * The player still needs the same minimum total levels.
 * For example, an enchantment may only become available for enchanting after reaching 13 levels of experience, but will only cost 2 xp levels and 2 pieces of lapis lazuli.
 * The actual enchantment calculation is the same.
 * One and only one of the possible enchantments will be displayed in the tooltip.
 * The enchantments the player would get on a specific tool will not change until the enchantment happens
 * This enchantment seed is stored per player.
 * Leveling up takes longer.
 * Level V enchantments can now appear on an item, without the use of an anvil.
 * Looting now gives an extra 1% chance of getting rare loot per level.
 * Anvil repairing
 * Costs reduced to balance out with the new enchanting system.
 * Renaming items costs only 1 level.
 * Repairing cost now increases exponentially (1, 2, 4, 8...).
 * Repairing costs can no longer be kept down by renaming items.
 * Villager trading
 * Villagers of specific professions (colored clothes), can have distinct careers.
 * Farmer (Brown robe): Farmer, Fisherman, Shepherd and Fletcher / Librarian (White robe): Librarian / Priest (Purple robe): Cleric / Blacksmith (Black apron): Armorer, Weapon Smith and Tool Smith / Butcher (White apron): Butcher, Leather worker.
 * The corresponding career is displayed in the trading GUI.
 * Existing villagers keep already unlocked trades.
 * Villagers start out with 2–4 trades unlocked.
 * Trading gives experience to the player.
 * The disabled trade arrow has a descriptive tooltip.
 * Villagers of the same career will have the same trades, but they will differ in price/item amount.
 * Villagers can level up, offering more trades per level.
 * Notable changes in trades:
 * Villagers no longer buy cooked fish and no longer sell melons, steak or flint and steel.
 * The only pieces of armor that are still sold are chainmail armor, iron helmets and chestplates, enchanted diamond chestplates, leather pants and enchanted leather chestplates.
 * The only tools still obtainable from villagers are iron axes, iron shovels, iron pickaxes, enchanted iron swords, diamond pickaxes, diamond swords and diamond axes.
 * Notable new trades:
 * Buy potatoes, carrots, melon blocks, pumpkins, string, leather and rotten flesh.
 * Sell pumpkin pies, cakes, cooked fish, enchanted fishing rods, all colors of wool, bows, name tags and lapis lazuli.
 * Village mechanics
 * Doors are added to the closest village, rather than the oldest available one.
 * This will not break iron farms, but change them enough to make them "practically pointless".
 * Life Bar
 * Has a new animation for damage, that shows how many hearts the player just lost.
 * Sprinting
 * Sprinting while flying now affects movement speed.
 * Adventure mode
 * Block mining and placement is impossible by default.
 * Block hitboxes no longer appear in Adventure mode if interaction with the block is impossible.
 * The  NBT tag can be used to determine which blocks can be allowed to be broken with what tool (see above for usage).
 * The  NBT tag determines which blocks can be placed on top what blocks (see above for usage).
 * Creative mode
 * Players can create a copy of a block-entity in their hotbar, including all NBT data, with ctrl+Pick Block key (+ by default).
 * Players can damage entities, even if they are flagged as.
 * Teleporting
 * Is now smoother and seamless.
 * Conserves the player's velocity and rotation by default.
 * It's much more accurate than a single block.
 * Item tooltips
 * Show the internal name for use in commands (+ mode).
 * Particles
 * Can be summoned using the command.
 * Changed the particle effect when landing on a block.
 * It looks a lot more scattered, but it's still radial.
 * Before, the particles were arranged in a circumference.
 * Player list
 * Improved the health objective display on the player list.
 * Will fall back to textual display if space is scarce, with colors (green/yellow/red) to show different health levels.
 * Additional health will squash the display together to fit.
 * Groups together teams.
 * Sorts players alphabetically by name.
 * Player list shows the faces of the skin of players.

Commands & NBT Tags

 * Commands
 * completing coordinate arguments will fill in the coordinates of the block that the player is looking at.
 * Can now be used to clear only a specific number of items, and can be restricted to certain NBT data.
 * Example: will remove up to 34 villager spawn eggs named Michael from yourself.
 * Can test for partial NBT matches.
 * Can specify whether particle effects are to be shown:
 * Usage:.
 * Use 'true' to hide particles and 'false' to show; defaults to false.
 * command can now summon lightning using.
 * Can be followed by a target selector.
 * Example:.
 * Now lists all entities using.
 * Example: will list all the entities in the world within a 500 block radius.
 * A new tag called  allows text to be inserted into the chat, that when shift-clicked, will insert more text into the players' chat input.
 * Example:.
 * Can insert values from scoreboards into messages.
 * Example:.
 * Now has a  argument.
 * Allows to print player's names.
 * Example: will print the name of everyone who is on TeamRed.
 * Can display entity tooltips, when the  for   is set to.
 * Example: . Will print a message when hovered over the tooltip of a zombie named "dummy".
 * Can also check for dataTags.
 * Example:.
 * No longer is exclusively usable in command blocks.
 * Can check for specific items in the inventory.
 * Example:.
 * Can test for partial matches of NBT lists.
 * Now supports rotation arguments.
 * Example: teleports the player so that he faces 20 degrees to the right and 40 degrees downwards.
 * argument to check the time.
 * Has an another argument after that which can be  or   to check either the number of ticks since the start of the day or the number of ticks since the world was created, respectively.
 * Can now be run in single player.
 * New arguments for debug.
 * x/y/z are required and valid only for chunk mode.
 * Enchantments & effects commands
 * Can support named IDs as well as numerical IDs.
 * Example:.
 * Example:.
 * Target selectors
 * Now support cubic areas.
 * Example:  gets all entities between 0,0,0 and 10,10,10.
 * New radius value usable in target selectors, based on the block center.
 * A radius of 0 works for exact block positions.
 * The command will apply at exactly the center of the respective block, rather than at a corner as previously.
 * New selector parameters to detect entity rotations, with rxm = x-rotation minimum, rx = x-rotation maximum, rym = y-rotation minimum and ry = y-rotation maximum.
 * Example:.
 * NBT Tags
 * Can be set to -32768 for items that never despawn.
 * and
 * Now work on all entities.
 * Uses the JSON text component instead of plain text for books.
 * Capable of using the  and   tags.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * ,,   and
 * Uses the JSON text component instead of plain text for signs.
 * Can be used to show scores of players by using the  and   tags.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * Character limit is based on character width.
 * Can be set to -32768 for items that never despawn.
 * and
 * Now work on all entities.
 * Uses the JSON text component instead of plain text for books.
 * Capable of using the  and   tags.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * ,,   and
 * Uses the JSON text component instead of plain text for signs.
 * Can be used to show scores of players by using the  and   tags.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * Character limit is based on character width.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * Character limit is based on character width.

World Generation

 * Villages
 * Gravel roads in villages have cobblestone underneath, to prevent them from collapsing into caves.
 * Wells in desert villages are now made of cobblestone, instead of sandstone.
 * Desert temples
 * Now spawn with stained clay instead of dyed wool.
 * Caverns
 * Generate on the surface of desert, mesa, mega taiga and mushroom biomes.
 * Swampland
 * Changed generation of the marsh-like areas.
 * Mesas
 * Red sandstone generates at cavern entrances in Mesa biomes.
 * World border
 * The default world border is an animated texture, rather than an invisible bedrock barrier.
 * There is now nothing beyond the world border.
 * It's set at a diameter of 60 million blocks by default, for both the Overworld and the Nether.
 * Players can't pass through the world border from the inside.
 * Players on the outside of the world border that are not in creative will take damage.
 * Aside from that, it is possible to freely fly/walk around.
 * When the player gets within a certain distance of the border, a red-aura-like warning will activate.
 * Only visible on Fancy graphics.
 * Outside the border, the warning is at full strength.
 * Inside the border, the warning gradually gets stronger as the player approaches the border.
 * If the border is stationary, the warning is first seen as the player passes the warning distance – the default is 5 blocks from the player's location.
 * If the border is shrinking quickly enough, the warning will be first visible at the warning time – the default is 15 seconds from the player's location.
 * The command allows one to customize various aspects of the world border, like its size, center, damage and warning.
 * The border extends infinitely in the vertical axis; below bedrock and beyond the build limit.
 * It does not render beyond certain heights, like below bedrock.
 * The width and length of the border are always the same with respect to each other.

Blocks

 * Sponge
 * Reintroduced sponge to survival mode, with new behavior and texture.
 * Sponge turns into wet sponge when it soaks up water.
 * Water particles appear around the sponge when this happens.
 * Sponge destroys water blocks from 5 blocks away in a kind of sphere.
 * Sponge soaks up water, only when some water is touching it.
 * Chiseled stone bricks
 * Now craftable from two stone brick slabs on top of each other.
 * Cracked stone bricks
 * Can now be obtained by smelting stone bricks, making them renewable.
 * Moss stone
 * Now craftable from one cobblestone and one vine.
 * Mossy stone bricks
 * Now craftable from one stone brick and one vine.
 * Beacons
 * Beacon light beams change color when going through stained glass and stained glass panes.
 * Making it feed into multiple stained glass blocks/panes will combine the colors.
 * Beam now goes through all blocks that don't completely block light: Ice, water and leaves.
 * Doors
 * Stack to 64.
 * The crafting recipe for doors gives 3 doors instead of one.
 * Door item textures were given more detail, to be consistent with the item textures of the new doors.
 * The above changes apply to both doors and iron doors.
 * "Wooden Doors" have been renamed to "Oak Doors".
 * This was made in order to accommodate for the new door variants.
 * Furnace
 * When a furnace runs out of fuel, the smelting progress will rewind at 2× speed.
 * Empty furnaces will only accept fuel and empty buckets in the fuel slot.
 * Hay bales
 * Rebalanced how they heal and accelerate the growth of horses.
 * Now do it nine times as fast.
 * Packed ice
 * Mined faster with a pickaxe.
 * Huge mushrooms blocks
 * When harvested with silk touch enchantment, they drop blocks with corresponding mushroom texture (red or brown) on all sides, rather than the one with spores.
 * Mob heads
 * Made creeper, skeleton and zombie heads available in survival.
 * Creepers, skeletons, wither skeletons and zombies drop their heads when killed by charged creepers. Wither skeletons continue to have heads as rare drops.
 * Charged creeper explosions will not yield more than one mob head, regardless of how many mobs were killed by it.
 * Skulls worn on heads are bigger, so the 2nd skin layer no longer peaks through.
 * Player heads now have a 3D item model.
 * Player and mob heads, both in inventories and held by mobs/players, now display the actual head skin/texture.
 * Placed player heads show the 2nd skin layer.
 * Dispensers
 * Can place pumpkins or wither skeleton skulls to spawn golems and withers respectively.
 * Will only place them if the body of the golem or wither is already built, in a valid configuration.
 * Can place command blocks with pre-configured commands.
 * Buttons
 * Can be placed on the ceiling and on the ground.
 * Redstone comparators
 * Can now detect what way an item frame is rotated.
 * Daylight sensors
 * Can be inverted with a right click.
 * Reaches full strength at the opposite time than it would when set to normal.
 * This can allow for a light that turns on at night rather than day, without the need of a NOT gate.
 * Activator rails
 * Powered activator rails will shake minecarts, causing riders (players or mobs) to dismount.
 * Cobblestone stairs
 * "Stone Stairs" were renamed to "Cobblestone Stairs".
 * Redstone repeaters
 * No longer emit light.
 * Signs
 * Use the JSON text components,  ,   and   instead of plain text.
 * Can be used to show scores towards players by using the  and   tags.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * Character limit is based on character width.
 * Slabs
 * Removed double stone slab's item form.
 * Removed double wooden slab's item form.
 * Monster spawners
 * Can be right-clicked with a spawn egg in hand to change what the spawner produces.
 * Command blocks
 * Survival players cannot longer look inside the command block to see the command.
 * Show the  target selector description, along with the rest in the UI.
 * Added an X/O button next to "last output" in the command block UI, to toggle the visibility of the last output string.
 * Melons & ladders
 * Mined faster with an axe.
 * Pumpkins & jack o'lanterns
 * Top texture now rotates together with the face.
 * Torches & redstone torches
 * Have a properly angled top side, while they are placed on a wall.
 * The texture of both no longer gets deformed in such circumstances.
 * Fences, fence gates & trapdoors
 * "Fences" and "Fence Gates" have been renamed to "Oak Fences" and "Oak Fence Gates" respectively.
 * "Trapdoors" were renamed to "Wooden Trapdoors"
 * The above changes were made to facilitate the distinction, with the new variants for each block.
 * Dead bushes, saplings & trapdoors
 * Are now flammable.
 * Signs, chests, beacons, beds and heads
 * Display the cracking animation.
 * Beds did display the cracking animation, but not on their top and bottom faces.

Items

 * Blaze rods
 * Are held similarly to tools in third person.
 * Carrots
 * Restore hunger points instead of.
 * Baked potatoes
 * Restore hunger points instead of.
 * Maps
 * Zoomed out maps align to a grid.
 * Are now much faster to load.
 * Written books
 * Books are now marked with an "original" tag upon signing, by default.
 * Copying the original makes it a "copy of original".
 * Copying a copy of original makes it a "copy of a copy".
 * Copies of copies cannot be further copied.
 * The copying status of a book – the  – is denoted in a separate line in the tooltip, beneath the author's name.
 * Technical blocks
 * Removed the item forms of flowing and stationary water and lava blocks (8, 9, 10 & 11), double stone and wooden slabs (43 & 125), fire blocks (51), Nether portal and End portal blocks (90 & 119), cocoa pods (127), and potato and carrot crops (141 & 142).
 * They are no longer available through the or  commands, but are still placeable through commands such as.
 * Book and quill & written books
 * Use JSON text components instead of plain text with the new  tag.
 * Previously, text formatting could only be accomplished using the section symbol via Formatting codes.
 * Capable of using the  and   tags.

Non-mob entities

 * All items
 * The dropped item entities now face the player in all three axis on fast graphics.
 * Item frames
 * Can be seen from further away.
 * Items in item frames can now face eight different directions, instead of just four.
 * As long as the frame remains placed, it remembers the orientation of the last item it held and uses that orientation for the next item it holds.
 * Item frames can give off a signal detected by comparators, based on the direction the present item is facing.
 * Signal strength is as follows: 0: empty; 1: item; 2: item rotated once; 3: item rotated twice; ...; 8: item rotated 7 times.
 * The signal is independent of the specific item inside.
 * Minecarts with TNT
 * Can be ignited with a flame enchanted bow.
 * Explosions no longer stack linearly.
 * Now they stack like a square root function (asymptotically).
 * This puts a hard limit on the possible explosion strength.
 * Arrows
 * Behave differently underwater.
 * They will lose all velocity after a few blocks and slowly fall.
 * Fire arrows will be immediately extinguished.
 * Paintings & item frames
 * Improved position handling of both.
 * Can no longer intersect with each other or one another on the same block face.

Mobs

 * All mobs
 * Updated to the new AI.
 * Now show a glow of a slightly different color when hurt.
 * Armor
 * Worn armor no longer gets colored when the respective mobs/players are hurt.
 * Villagers
 * Now have a system for distinguishing professions (colored clothes) and careers.
 * The career now shows in the trading GUI, instead of just "villager".
 * Farmer (Brown robe): Farmer, Fisherman, Shepherd and Fletcher / Librarian (White robe): Librarian / Priest (Purple robe): Cleric / Blacksmith (Black apron): Armorer, Weapon Smith and Tool Smith / Butcher (White apron): Butcher, Leather worker.
 * When struck by lightning, they turn into witches.
 * Have a head slot where helmets and other items can be applied.
 * Only breed when willing.
 * The first time a specific trade is done, the villager will become willing; any other time there's a 1 in 5 chance it will become willing again.
 * When a baby villager is born, both parents lose their willingness.
 * Villagers become willing to breed by consuming food: 3 bread or 12 potatoes or 12 carrots.
 * Finding out a villager's willingness in survival is achieved by counting the amount of xp given when trading:
 * Normal trading yields 3–6 experience points.
 * Trading that makes the villager willing yields 8–11 experience points.
 * Changes to the farmer (profession) villager AI:
 * Harvest, collect and replant grown potato, carrot & wheat crops.
 * Craft wheat into bread.
 * Share food with fellow villagers.
 * Wither skeletons
 * Hitbox has been changed from 2.5 to 3 blocks.
 * Zombie pigmen
 * Adult zombie pigmen will forgive after a short time (and lose the aggro speed boost), but will continue to attack until the player escapes their aggro distance.
 * Endermen
 * Walk slightly faster.
 * Blazes
 * Blazes will shoot the player even if there are solid blocks between them.
 * Silverfish
 * Silverfish will stop occasionally before moving again (similarly to most mobs).
 * Sheeps
 * Drop mutton when killed.
 * Giants
 * Armor on giants is now rendered.
 * Iron golems
 * No longer attack the player while in creative.
 * Attack and are by the next mobs without provocation: Zombies, skeletons, creepers, spiders, cave spiders, slimes, magma cubes and blazes.
 * Snow golems
 * Snow golems below layer 64 no longer leave a trail of snow.
 * Wolves
 * Tamed and untamed wolves attack skeletons without provocation, similar to how untamed wolves attack sheep in the wild.
 * Tamed Ocelots & Tamed Wolves
 * Display a death message if named with a name tag.
 * Skeletons & wither skeletons
 * Run away from wolves instead of fighting back.
 * Spiders & cave spiders
 * Can no longer draw line of sight through opaque blocks.
 * Slimes & magma cubes
 * Swim as a result of the update to the new AI.
 * Randomly change direction every so often, reducing the chance of them getting stuck at walls or corners.
 * Randomly despawn over time if no player is within a 32 meter range.
 * Appear to jump a bit more randomly.
 * When named and attacked, each new slime will keep its given name.
 * Creepers, spiders & enderman
 * Apply a specific shader while spectating through them.
 * Aggroed zombie pigmen & endermen
 * Now pathfind, as a result of the update to the new AI.
 * Zombies, skeletons & creepers,
 * Drop their respective mob head, when killed by a charged creeper.
 * Iron golems, snow golems & withers
 * Can be spawned by arranging the blocks, in equivalent rotations of the default.
 * This does not affect the orientation of the spawned mob.
 * Can be spawned using dispensers, which place the final block in the appropriate place.
 * This does not affect the orientation, either.
 * Zombies, zombie pigmen, skeletons, wither skeletons, other creepers & witches
 * Run away from creepers that are about to explode.
 * Baby animals (sheep, pig, cow, chicken, cat, dog, horse & rabbit)
 * Growth can slowly be accelerated using the animal's breeding item: Each use takes 10% from the remaining time to grow up.

Trivia

 * This was the longest wait for a major update to Minecraft, with 312 days having elapsed since the release of 1.7.2 on October 25, 2013.
 * That's over a month longer than the development of Infdev and Alpha combined (279 days), and slightly over 2 weeks shorter than the development of Beta (328 days).
 * 1.3.1 had the previous longest wait between major releases, with a release on August 1, 2012, 153 days after the release of 1.2.1 — less than a half of 1.8's.
 * This was also the longest development to a major update in the history of Minecraft, with the first snapshot coming out on January 9, 2014, 236 days before the full release.
 * The previous longest was also 1.3.1, with 111 days from the first snapshot to the final release, also less than a half.
 * This update had the most development snapshots of any major update so far, at 52 snapshots.
 * The update with the most snapshots previous to this was 1.3.1, with 19 snapshots, slightly more than one-third of 1.8's snapshot count.