Java Edition 1.4.6

1.4.6 is an update to Minecraft that was released on December 20, 2012. It introduced fireworks, enchanted books and the Thorns enchantment. It also added a warning for users playing on soon-to-be unsupported systems (PowerPC and Java 5). While it was not the last update to 1.4, it was the last one before the snapshots of 1.5 started.

A pre-release version of 1.4.6 was released on December 17, 2012; this pre-release version was later re-uploaded to fix an issue with mobs spinning. The release version of 1.4.6 differs from the reuploaded pre-release by fixing a crash issue.

Blocks

 * Nether Brick Slab JE1 BE1.png Nether brick slabs
 * Crafted using nether bricks.

Items

 * Enchanted Book.gif Enchanted books
 * Enchant books to receive a single enchantment on them.
 * Can be applied to items using anvils, consuming the book.
 * Enchants can be applied to any item in Creative mode.
 * Sold by villagers and found in dungeon and village chests.
 * Can now be found in loot chests and by trading with villagers.
 * Unbreaking can be applied to anything with durability.
 * Efficiency and Silk Touch can be applied to shears, allowing the harvesting of cobwebs.
 * Sharpness, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods can be applied to axes.


 * Gunpowder JE1 BE1.png Firework Star JE1 BE1.png Firework star
 * Used to create firework rockets.
 * Combine gunpowder with dyes to get a firework star with those colors used for the sparkles.
 * Add Glowstone Dust JE1 BE1.png Glowstone Dust, a Fire Charge JE1 BE1.png fire charge, a Diamond JE2 BE2.png diamond, a Gold Nugget JE2 BE1.png gold nugget, Feather JE2 BE1.png feather, or a mob head to make the firework twinkling, big, trailing, star-shaped, bursting, or creeper-shaped, respectively.
 * Craft a firework star with dye to change the color that the sparkles fade to.


 * Firework Rocket JE1 BE1.png Firework rocket
 * Non-destructive, rise up in the air, and create colorful patterns when shot by dispensers or placed by players.
 * Combine Paper JE1 BE1.png paper with Gunpowder JE1 BE1.png gunpowder to craft a firework rocket.
 * Add a firework star to add effects, or gunpowder to increase the flight duration.

Gameplay

 * Enchanted Book.gif Thorns
 * A new armor enchantment.
 * Deals damage depending on tier to attackers.
 * Wears armor out faster.

Blocks

 * Spawner JE2.png Monster spawners
 * Can now spawn differently configured mobs with different spawn chances

Items

 * Bow JE2 BE1.png Bows
 * A high pitched sound is now played when a player hits another player from far away with a bow.

Mobs

 * Ghast JE1 BE1.png Ghasts
 * Fireballs' blast radius can now be customized


 * Skeleton JE4 BE2.png Skeletons, Zombie JE2 BE1.png zombies, and Zombified Piglin JE3 BE2.png zombie pigmen
 * The armor and enchants they spawn with now are even harder on harder difficulties.

Non-mob entities

 * Arrow (item) JE1 BE1.png Arrows
 * Now render from farther away.


 * Items and Item Frame JE1 BE1.png item frame entities
 * Now render in 3D when using fancy graphics.

World generation

 * s and s
 * Now have a random chance to have enchanted books in their chests.

Gameplay

 * Inventory
 * Items can now be dragged and dropped.
 * Long pressing will halve the stack before dragging.


 * Hotbar
 * Items now show their name when switching in the hotbar.
 * Can be disabled by changing  to false in options.txt.
 * Dropping items while holding now drops the whole stack.


 * Enchanting Table JE1 BE1.png Enchantments
 * Fire Protection now extinguishes fire more quickly.
 * Blast Protection now reduces explosion recoil.
 * Protection is not as protective as it used to be in order to make specific enchantments more worthwhile.


 * Sneaking
 * Pressing while sneaking now uses the held item instead of the currently selected block.


 * Death messages
 * Now appear in server log files.

General

 * Display
 * Added a default resolution setting to options.txt :  and.


 * Options
 * Added an option to toggle touchscreen mode.

General

 * Distance effects
 * Falling block behavior has changed - they are no longer capable of infinitely producing dropped items at high coordinate values.

Release fixes
These fixes occurred between the last snapshot for 1.4.6, 12w50b, and the full release of 1.4.6.


 * Other fixes
 * Fixed mouse wrongly positioned in fullscreen.

Trivia

 * 1.4.6 is the first minor update to have snapshots.