Java Edition 20w06a

20w06a is the first snapshot for Java Edition 1.16, released on February 5, 2020, which adds most of the announced content for the Nether Update.

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.
 * A diamond pickaxe or better is required to mine it.


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


 * Crimson and warped fungi
 * Generate in crimson and warped forests, respectively.
 * Can be placed on dirt, coarse dirt, farmland, podzol, nylium, soul soil, and grass blocks.
 * Can be bonemealed to be grown into the respective huge fungi when placed on 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, buttons, doors, trapdoors.


 * Crimson and warped signs
 * Works like normal wooden signs.
 * Currently cannot be crafted.


 * Crimson roots, warped roots, and nether sprouts
 * Decorative foliage that generates in both crimson and warped forest biomes, as well as soul sand valleys.


 * 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.


 * Netherite block
 * Can be crafted with 9 netherite ingots.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.
 * Cannot be used as a beacon building block.


 * 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 is blue fire regardless of dimension.
 * Burns forever, similar to regular fire on netherrack.
 * 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.


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


 * 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.


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


 * 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.

Items

 * Netherite armor
 * Crafted with a piece of diamond armor and a netherite ingot.
 * Doesn't burn, floats in lava.
 * Grants one additional point of knockback resistance per item.
 * Tougher than diamond armor.
 * Has higher durability and enchantability than diamond.


 * Netherite axe, hoe, pickaxe, shovel, and sword
 * Crafted with a diamond tool and a netherite ingot.
 * Doesn't burn, floats in lava.
 * Have 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.


 * Netherite scrap
 * Created by smelting ancient debris in a furnace.
 * Used to create netherite ingots.


 * Spawn eggs
 * Added hoglin spawn egg.

Mobs

 * Hoglins
 * Spawn in crimson forests.
 * Drop rotten flesh.

Command format

 * Commands
 * Added.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Soul sand valley
 * A vast grotto composed of uncovered nether fossils, large basalt pillars, soul sand, soul soil, gravel and netherracks. Surrounded by blue ambient fog and scattered with blue soul fire.
 * Skeletons, ghasts, and endermen may spawn here.
 * Crimson forest
 * A dense forest with huge crimson fungi. Various plants and fungi are found in patches on the ground and weeping vines are found under the huge fungi and ceilings.
 * Zombie pigmen and hoglins may spawn here.
 * Warped forest
 * A color variation of the crimson forest, but with somewhat different vegetation and particle, fog effects.
 * Only enderman may spawn here.


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


 * Huge crimson 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. Usually grow shroomlight in them.
 * Can be grown from their respective fungi.
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 * Nether fossils
 * New fossil structures have been added for the soul sand valley.
 * These fossils are different from the overworld fossils and do not generate with coal ore.

General

 * Tags
 * Added block tags.
 * Added item tags.


 * Particles
 * Added.

Blocks

 * Bamboo
 * Renamed to "Bamboo Shoot".


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


 * Fire
 * Can no longer burn out items.


 * Flower pots
 * Has a bottom texture when empty.


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


 * Netherrack
 * Using bone meal on netherrack adjacent to nylium will convert it into nylium.
 * If two nylium blocks of different types are present, it will choose 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 crimson forest biome.
 * Texture changed.


 * Pistons and sticky pistons
 * Hardness was increased to 1.5.
 * Pickaxes are now more efficient on pistons.


 * Redstone dust
 * Has a bottom texture.


 * Smooth quartz
 * Renamed to "Smooth Quartz Block".


 * Walls
 * Walls do not have gaps anymore when stacked vertically.
 * Blockdata now uses "none" "low" and "tall" for east/west/north/south directional values.

Items

 * Clay
 * Renamed to "Clay Ball".

Mobs

 * Endermen
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys and warped forests.


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

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 * Skeletons
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys.
 * Zombie pigmen
 * Now spawn in crimson forests.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * The old nether biome has been renamed to nether wastes.


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


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

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 village.


 * Recipe book
 * The cartography table recipe now unlocks with paper instead of string.

General

 * 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.


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


 * Rendering
 * Improved entity shadows to the ground.


 * Sounds
 * Updated block sounds for bone blocks, netherrack, soul sand, nether wart blocks, nether bricks (and variants), and nether quartz ore.


 * Tags
 * Added crimson and warped wooden items to the block tags.
 * Added crimson and warped wooden items to the item tags.
 * The block and item tags now use the respective  tag.

Video
Video made by slicedlime:

Trivia

 * 20w06a is the first snapshot of 2020 and of the 2020s decade, and the first snapshot not to start with a "1".
 * 20w06a is the first snapshot in almost a decade to add a new set of armor to the game.
 * 20w06a is also the first snapshot where the second digit is a "0".