Village & Pillage

Village and Pillage is an upcoming major update with a possible release date in early 2019. The official name for the update, Village and Pillage, was revealed on September 29, 2018, during the MINECON Earth 2018 livestream. This update will be released for Java Edition as version 1.14, while Bedrock Edition will receive this update in versions 1.8 and 1.9.

Notable features

 * New blocks:
 * 14 new stairs, including, stone, smooth stone, diorite, andesite, granite (and their polished variants), mossy cobblestone and smooth sandstone stairs.
 * 14 new slabs, including stone, diorite, andesite, granite (and their polished variants), mossy cobblestone and smooth sandstone slabs.
 * 12 new walls, including diorite, andesite, granite, bricks, sandstone, prismarine, prismarine bricks and dark prismarine.
 * Campfires
 * Bamboo
 * Generate in bamboo forests in jungles
 * Can be found in shipwrecks and jungle temples loot chests.
 * Scaffolding
 * Can be climbed quickly.
 * The player can build a pillar of scaffolding by just pressing use on the top face of a scaffolding block.
 * The whole structure breaks when the bottom block is broken.
 * The bottom and sides have no collision detection.
 * Flowers
 * Cornflower
 * Can be crafted into blue dye
 * Can be found in plains
 * Lily of the Valley
 * Can be crafted into white dye
 * Can be found in forests
 * Wither Rose
 * Can be crafted into black dye
 * Inflicts 1 second of wither status effect to mobs and players around it, in any difficulty besides peaceful
 * Barrels
 * Acts as a storage block similar to chest
 * Generates in village fisher cottages.
 * Bells
 * Decoration block which produces sound
 * Play a shaking animation and a sound when right-clicked
 * Generates in village meeting points.
 * Blast Furnaces
 * Block used for smelting ores twice as fast as a traditional furnace
 * Generates in village armorer houses.
 * Smokers
 * Block used for cooking of foodstuff faster than the traditional furnace.
 * Cartography Table
 * Block that generates naturally in villages. Currently no functionality to the user
 * Fletching Table
 * Block that generates naturally in villages, specifically in the fletcher's house. Has no current functionality
 * Smithing Tables
 * Block that generates naturally in villages. Has no current functionality
 * Stonecutters
 * Stonecutters can be found inside mason houses in villages. No functionality at current time
 * Grindstone
 * A new block that can be used to remove any non-curse enchantment(s) from an item.
 * Can repair items by combining them together
 * Generates in village weaponsmiths
 * Lantern
 * Acts as a new light source.
 * Generates in snowy villages as lamp posts.
 * Loom
 * Can now be used to make banner patterns as an easier way.
 * Generate in village shepherd houses.
 * Jigsaw Block
 * A technical block.
 * Is a 'junction' block that will allow the player to construct structures out of smaller templates.
 * New items:
 * Crossbows
 * Stronger than bows, but slower to reload.
 * Will be able to be enchanted with new enchantments:
 * Multi-Shot
 * Fires three arrows at once in different directions.
 * Fast Reload
 * Increases the reload speed.
 * Piercing
 * Projectile pierce through enemies.
 * Can shoot firework rockets holding the crossbow in one hand and the fireworks in the other.
 * Can be crafted.
 * Dyes
 * Added white dye, blue dye, brown dye and black dye.
 * Items previously used as dyes (bone meal, lapis lazuli, cocoa beans and ink sacs) can still be used.
 * Berries
 * A food item.
 * Found on berry bushes
 * New mobs:
 * Foxes
 * Spawn in taiga biomes.
 * Pillagers
 * Another subset of villagers.
 * Wield crossbows.
 * Will raid, or take over, villages, killing villagers.
 * Illager beasts
 * Large, hostile bull-like creatures with armor and equipped with saddles.
 * Very tough.
 * Destroy crops and leaves.
 * Pandas
 * Can be passive or neutral, depending on their variant.
 * Spawn in bamboo forests inside jungles.
 * Eat bamboo items.
 * Have varying personalities and traits.
 * Can be lazy, playful, worried or aggressive.
 * Their emotions can be read on their faces.
 * Baby pandas can sneeze, startling the parent.
 * Have a rare brown variant

Trivia

 * This is the first update to not have "Update" in its official name.
 * The pillagers were previously mentioned by Jeb in response to a suggestion posted on Reddit.