Combat Update

The Combat Update is the name for Minecraft version 1.9, an upcoming major update with no set release date.

Development began the next day after 1.8.8 was released. Snapshot released starting from 15w31a.

Jeb and Dinnerbone have stated that 1.9 will mostly add new features within the game rather than doing internal code rewrites like in 1.8. This is to make it easier for modders to update from 1.8 to 1.9, as updating to 1.8 from 1.7 was difficult due to many code rewrites.

The official name for the update, the Combat Update, was discovered on April 1, 2015 by Reddit user 3dDeters who found a QR code hidden in the snow falling pattern of the April Fools 15w14a snapshot.