Java Edition 1.16

1.16 is an upcoming major update to Java Edition that overhauls the Nether, set to release in 2020. This update was announced at MINECON Live 2019. The update does not include the announced features for the mountains biome.

Blocks

 * Ancient debris
 * Can be found throughout the Nether at any altitude, though it is much more common at lower levels.
 * Can be refined into a netherite scrap by smelting in a furnace or blast furnace.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.
 * Inventory item floats on lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.
 * A diamond pickaxe or better is required to mine it.
 * Always spawns covered by lava and/or blocks on all sides


 * Basalt
 * Make up basalt pillars.
 * Generates in soul sand valleys.
 * Can be placed directionally, similarly to logs.


 * Block of netherite
 * Can be crafted with 9 netherite ingots.
 * Decorative.
 * Inventory item floats on lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.


 * Crimson and warped fungus
 * Generate in crimson and warped forests.
 * Can be placed on flower pots, dirt, coarse dirt, farmland, podzol, nylium, soul soil, and grass blocks.
 * Bone meal can be used on fungi to grow it into the respective huge fungi when placed on the same type of nylium.
 * Unlike mushrooms, fungi cannot spread.


 * Crimson and warped nylium
 * Resemble grass blocks.
 * Can be spread to netherrack by using bonemeal on a netherrack block next to a nylium block.


 * Crimson and warped planks
 * Does not burn.
 * Crafted from the respective stem.
 * Can be used to craft respective slabs, stairs, fences, fence gates, pressure plates, signs, buttons, doors and trapdoors.


 * Crimson and warped roots
 * Foliage that generates in both crimson and warped forest biomes, as well as soul sand valleys.
 * Can be placed into flower pots.


 * Crimson and warped stems
 * Blocks that comprise the trunks of huge fungi.
 * Have animated textures.
 * Has a top texture similar to regular log blocks.
 * Can be placed directionally, similarly to logs.
 * Does not burn.
 * Have respective stripped variants.


 * Crying obsidian
 * Currently used for decoration only.
 * Can be obtained by bartering with piglins.
 * Has a light level of 10.
 * Emits purple particles.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.
 * Programmer Art texture is the old 2011 texture.


 * Hyphae
 * A variant of stems with the bark on all 6 sides.
 * Also has a stripped variant.


 * Nether sprouts
 * Foliage that generates in warped forests.


 * Shroomlight
 * Emits a light level of 15, similarly to glowstone.
 * Can be mined with any tool, but axes are the most efficient.
 * Generate as a part of huge fungi.


 * Soul fire
 * Blue variant of fire.
 * Fire lit on soul soil turns into soul fire regardless of dimension.
 * Burns forever, similar to regular fire on netherrack and magma blocks.
 * Generates naturally in the soul sand valley biome in the Nether.
 * Deals damage at a rate of per second as opposed to the  per second of regular fire.
 * Does not extinguish when in the rain.


 * Soul fire lantern
 * Gives off a light level of 10.
 * Crafted similarly to a normal lantern, using a soul fire torch instead of a normal torch.
 * Have an animated texture.


 * Soul fire torch
 * Gives off a light level of 10.
 * Crafted similarly to a normal torch, with soul soil being placed under the stick.


 * Soul soil
 * Generates in the soul sand valley, alongside conventional soul sand.
 * Fire lit on soul soil is soul fire.
 * The player does not sink and is not slowed when walking in soul soil.


 * Target
 * Redstone component that can be activated by shooting projectiles into it.
 * Signal is stronger depending on how close the projectile is to the center of the block. The signal strength goes up to 15.
 * Can be crafted using a hay block and 4 redstone dust pieces.


 * Warped wart block
 * A variation of the nether wart block.
 * Generates as a part of huge warped fungi. Sometimes generates in the ground replacing the warped nylium in warped forest biome.


 * Weeping vines
 * Generates in the crimson forest.
 * Is placed on the bottom of a block and grows downward.
 * Can be climbed, like normal vines.

Items

 * Netherite armor
 * Crafted with a netherite ingot and the respective diamond item.
 * Does not burn in lava, as a dropped item or when worn (players equipping netherite armor, however, can still take burning damage).
 * Floats in lava.
 * Tougher than diamond armor.
 * Has higher durability and enchantability than diamond.


 * Netherite axe, hoe, pickaxe, shovel, and sword
 * Crafted with a netherite ingot and the respective diamond item.
 * Does not burn in lava.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Has higher durability, mining level, breaking multiplier, and enchantability than diamond.
 * All items, except the hoe, deal 1 more damage than their diamond counterparts.


 * Netherite ingot
 * Created with 4 gold ingots and 4 netherite scraps.
 * Can be used to upgrade diamond tools and armor.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava.


 * Netherite scrap
 * Created by smelting ancient debris in a furnace or blast furnace.
 * Used to create netherite ingots.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava.


 * Spawn eggs
 * Added hoglin and piglin spawn eggs.

Mobs

 * Hoglins
 * Spawn in crimson forests.
 * Attack players on sight.
 * Drop raw porkchop and occasionally leather.
 * Have an adult and baby variant.
 * Can be bred with crimson fungi.
 * Are sometimes hunted by adult piglins.
 * Baby piglins are not hunted and do not hunt hoglins
 * Avoid placed warped fungi.


 * Piglins
 * Spawn in crimson forests and nether wastes biomes.
 * Randomly spawns with golden sword or crossbow.
 * Adults are hostile; babies are passive.
 * Will not attack players wearing at least one piece of golden armor.
 * Adult piglins turn aggressive when a player is mining blocks of gold or opening chests, even if they are wearing gold armor.
 * The player can barter with them by right-clicking with golden ingots or drop them on the ground, which makes them drop at least one item or block.
 * Common barters ($20/226$ chance or about 8.85%): 4-16 soul sand, 1-5 fire charge, 8–16 gravel, 4–10 leather, 4–16 nether brick, 1 obsidian, or 1–3 crying obsidian.
 * Uncommon barters ($10/226$ chance or about 4.42%): 8–16 nether quartz, 5–12 glowstone dust, 2–6 magma cream, 4–8 ender pearl, or 8–24 string.
 * Rare barters ($5/226$ chance or about 2.21%): 9-36 iron nugget, 1 potion or 1  splash potion.
 * Very rare barter ($1/411$ chance or about 0.24%): 1 netherite hoe.
 * Sometimes attack adult hoglins.
 * Baby piglins do not attack and adult piglins will not attack baby hoglins.
 * Baby piglins ride on the back of baby hoglins.
 * Attack wither skeletons.
 * Avoid soul fire, soul fire torches, soul fire lanterns, and zombie pigmen.
 * Can spawn with golden armor.
 * Will convert to a zombified piglin when in the Overworld.
 * Have an  data value that prevents them from zombifying in the Overworld.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Crimson forest
 * A dense forest with huge crimson fungi. Nether wart blocks and fungi are found in patches on the ground and weeping vines are found under the trees and nether wart stalactites.
 * Zombified Piglins, piglins and hoglins may spawn here.
 * Soul sand valley
 * A vast grotto composed of uncovered nether fossils, soul sand, soul soil, large pillars made of basalt, blue fog, and soul fire.
 * Skeletons, ghasts, and endermen may spawn here.
 * Warped forest
 * A color variation of the crimson forest, but with somewhat different vegetation and blue particles and fog effects.
 * Only endermen may spawn here.


 * Structures
 * Basalt pillar
 * Floor to ceiling pillars of basalt that generate in soul sand valley.


 * Huge crimson fungi and huge warped fungi
 * New structure resembling trees found in crimson and warped forests, respectively.
 * Made of crimson and warped stem blocks as well as red nether wart blocks and warped wart blocks.
 * Can be grown from their respective fungi.


 * Nether fossils
 * New fossil structures have been added for the soul sand valley.
 * These fossils are different from the overworld fossils and generate with random pieces of basalt instead of coal ore.

Command format

 * Used to locate specific biomes.
 * Used to locate specific biomes.

Gameplay

 * Sounds
 * New unique block sounds for most of the newly added blocks have been added.

General

 * Advancements
 * Added new "Bullseye" advancement.
 * To complete this advancement, the player has to shoot a projectile into the center of one face of a target block.


 * Ambience
 * Added 95 ambient sounds to the Nether.
 * Different sounds play in each Nether biome.


 * Particles
 * Added particles.
 * Added three particles for crying obsidian:.


 * Tags
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains block of iron, block of gold, block of diamond, block of emerald, and block of netherite.
 * Controls what blocks can be used to build a beacon base.
 * Added item tag.
 * Contains iron ingot, gold ingot, diamond, emerald and netherite ingot.
 * Controls what items can be used as payment in a beacon's GUI.
 * Added block tag.
 * Includes ladders, vines, scaffolding, and weeping vines.
 * Used in mob pathfinding and to determine what blocks the player can climb.
 * Added block and item tags.
 * Contains crimson stem, stripped crimson stem, crimson hyphae and stripped crimson hyphae.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains fire and soul fire.
 * Controls what blocks can burn entities.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains warped fungus.
 * Does not contain potted warped fungus.
 * Hoglins will avoid blocks in this tag.
 * Added entity tag.
 * Includes the arrows tag, snowballs, fireballs, small fireballs, eggs, tridents, dragon fireballs, and wither skulls.
 * Used to determine what entities will break chorus fruit when hit.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains crimson nylium and warped nylium.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains soul fire, soul fire torches, and soul fire lanterns.
 * Piglins will avoid blocks in this tag.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains lantern, soul fire lantern, torch, soul fire torch, redstone torch, and tripwire.
 * Controls what non-solid blocks can transform walls into their pillared block state.
 * Added block and item tags.
 * Contains warped stem, stripped warped stem, warped hyphae and stripped warped hyphae.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains nether wart block and warped wart block.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains soul sand and soul soil.
 * Controls what blocks can be used to build a wither.


 * Text
 * Added text which was missing for a death message and was displaying a raw translation string - what it says exactly is unknown.


 * Textures
 * Added the zombified piglin entity texture.
 * Added the leather, chainmail, iron, golden, diamond and netherite helmet textures used for piglins.

Blocks

 * Bamboo saplings
 * Renamed to "bamboo shoot".


 * Beacons
 * Netherite blocks can be used as the base of a beacon.
 * Netherite ingots can be used as fuel for a beacon.


 * Bone blocks
 * Generate as part of nether fossils in soul sand valleys.


 * Comparators
 * Changed the way to calculate the input signal.
 * First, if there is an adjacent container behind, it detects the signal from the container. If not, it detects the signal from redstone components.
 * Then, if it is not less than 15, the detected signal becomes the input signal. Otherwise, it also gets a signal from an item frame and container behind separated by a redstone conductor block from the comparator, and takes the maximum of the three as the input signal.


 * Fire
 * Now has a proper hitbox ($1/16$ blocks).
 * Now has a breaking animation.
 * Cannot be put out by swords or tridents in Creative mode, akin to other blocks, and can be modified via the debug stick.


 * Flower pots
 * Has a bottom texture when empty.


 * Gravel and soul sand
 * Generate in the new soul sand valley biomes.


 * Lava
 * Now pushes entities.


 * Netherrack
 * Using bone meal on netherrack adjacent to nylium converts it into nylium.
 * If two nylium blocks of different types are present, it chooses the type at random based on how many blocks of each type are around it.


 * Nether wart blocks
 * Generate as a part of huge crimson fungi. Sometimes generates in the ground replacing the crimson nylium in the crimson forest biome.
 * Texture changed from Nether Wart Block JE2.png to Nether Wart Block JE3 BE2.png.
 * Changed the texture to match the texture $$.


 * Observers and redstone blocks
 * Now allow placing of ladders and tripwire hooks.


 * Pistons and sticky pistons
 * Hardness has been increased to 1.5.
 * Pickaxes are now more efficient on pistons.
 * Pistons can now support non-solid blocks on its top face without them popping off when the piston retracts.


 * Purpur pillar
 * Changed the top texture to match the texture $$.


 * Redstone dust
 * Has a bottom texture.


 * Smithing tables
 * Added functionality: it is used to upgrade diamond items into Netherite versions.
 * Enchantments on the diamond item are preserved when upgrading into Netherite.


 * Smooth quartz
 * Renamed to "smooth quartz block".


 * Walls
 * Walls in the middle of a row have longer pillars when stacked vertically.
 * Block state now uses for  directional values.

Items

 * Clay
 * Renamed to "clay ball".


 * Diamond axe, diamond boots, diamond helmet, diamond hoe, diamond leggings, diamond pickaxe, diamond shovel, diamond sword, golden hoe, golden pickaxe, wooden hoe, and wooden pickaxe
 * Changed their textures slightly.


 * Hoes
 * Can now be enchanted with Efficiency, Fortune and Silk Touch.
 * Now mine nether wart blocks and hay bales faster than other tools.
 * Each tier has different speed at which hoes mine blocks they are effective against.


 * Spawn eggs
 * Using a spawn egg on a mob that doesn't have a baby variant now spawns an adult of that mob type.

Mobs

 * Endermen
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys and warped forests.
 * Can now pick up nylium, roots, and fungi variants.
 * No longer pick up netherrack.


 * Fish
 * Now despawn when they are further than 64 blocks away from the closest player.
 * Does not apply to fish placed by the player or nametagged fish.


 * Ghasts
 * Sounds are now heard at a shorter range.
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys.


 * Skeletons
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys.


 * Skeleton horses and zombie horses
 * Can now be leashed.


 * Wither
 * Can be summoned using soul soil as the base.


 * Zombie pigmen
 * Now spawn in crimson forests.
 * Renamed to "Zombified Piglins", and given a new model and texture.

Non-mob entities

 * Item frames
 * Have two new data tags:
 * – makes item frame invisible (item inside frame remains visible).
 * – prevents item frame from being broken and the item inside from being removed (it does not prevent item rotation).


 * Minecart
 * Now checks dismount position height against entity height.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Biomes in the Nether may now differ based on altitude.


 * Ceiling
 * Alongside mushrooms, huge crimson and warped fungi can generate over y=128 in the Nether.


 * Nether biome
 * The old "Nether" biome is now called "Nether wastes".


 * Structures
 * Shipwrecks and ocean ruins are now less common.

Command format

 * General
 * The message shown when running an unknown/incomplete command has changed.

Gameplay

 * Knockback resistance
 * Is now a scale of the amount of knockback taken instead of a probability to take no knockback.


 * Patrols
 * Patrols no longer spawn when the player is close to any intact village.


 * Recipe book
 * The cartography table recipe now unlocks with paper instead of string.
 * Stained glass pane recipes now only unlock when the player has the same color of stained glass in their inventory.


 * Sounds
 * Updated block sounds for bone blocks, netherrack, soul sand, nether wart blocks, nether bricks (and variants), and nether quartz ore.
 * and sounds are now part of the "ambient/environment" sound category adjustable in options.
 * Shearing sound category was changed from "friendly creatures" to "players" for players using shears and "blocks" for dispensers using shears.


 * Spawn
 * Players can reset their spawn point using a bed when hostile mobs are near, although players still cannot sleep when hostile mobs are near.

General

 * Advancements
 * Piglins and hoglins are now required for "Monster Hunter" and "Monsters Hunted" advancements.


 * Client.jar
 * Removed Realms code from the client, though its assets remain.


 * Debug menu
 * When outside the world's vertical area, the debug menu no longer lists 'minecraft:the_void' as the biome.
 * Instead, it simply hides the biome information.


 * Entity UUIDs
 * UUIDs of the owners of projectiles, such as arrows or snowballs, are now stored as an array of four integers. All UUIDs will be stored in this format in the future.


 * Materials
 * Added new nether wood material.
 * Uses the wood material color.
 * Uses default properties.


 * Models
 * All "block states" files have improved spacing, and now define the namespace when referring to the model.
 * All model files now define the namespace when referring to a different model.


 * Realms
 * Removed translation strings of:


 * The Nether
 * Changed the ambient lighting in the Nether, it is now much darker.


 * Rendering
 * Improved entity shadows to the ground.


 * Tags
 * Added crimson and warped wooden items to the block tags.
 * Added crimson and warped wooden items to the item tags.
 * Added potted crimson fungus, warped fungus, crimson roots, and warped roots to the block tag.
 * Updated block tag.
 * Added fungi, roots, and nylium variants.
 * Removed netherrack variant.
 * The block and item tags now use the respective  tag.

Blocks

 * Added functionality to crying obsidian.
 * A way to obtain both crimson and warped fungi in a renewable way not involving bartering.

Mobs

 * More mobs in general will be added.

World generation

 * Bastions
 * Fortifications built by piglins that are found in the Nether.

Gameplay

 * Respawning
 * A method of setting the player's spawn point in the Nether will be added.

Unconfirmed features
These features were mentioned during the development of Java Edition 1.16 or earlier, or during MINECON Live 2019, but have not been confirmed to be added in this update.

Blocks

 * Beehives
 * An in-game mechanism to see how many bees are in a hive may be added.


 * Crying obsidian
 * May be used to set the player's spawn point in the nether.


 * Fletching tables
 * May get functionality. It was mentioned during the development of Village & Pillage that it would be added in "...the next major themed update..."
 * As smithing tables recieved functionality in 20w10a, fletching tables might also receive functionality.

Mobs

 * Pigs
 * The feature of pigs transforming to zombified piglins when struck by lightning may be removed.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Another nether biome may be added.

MINECON Live 2019
Screenshots of the Nether Update from MINECON Live 2019: