Java Edition 20w06a

Snapshot 20w06a (known as 20w06a in the launcher) 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 (especially Y=10 to Y=20).
 * 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.
 * Floats on lava.
 * Cannot burn.
 * A diamond pickaxe or better is required to mine it.


 * Basalt
 * Make 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.
 * Bone meal can be used on fungi to grow it 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
 * Work like normal wooden signs.
 * Cannot be crafted.


 * Crimson and warped roots
 * 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.
 * Have respective stripped variants.


 * Block of netherite
 * Can be crafted with 9 netherite ingots.
 * Does not burn.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.


 * 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.
 * 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 fire torch instead of a normal torch.


 * 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.


 * 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.
 * Does not burn and floats in lava.
 * Grants one additional point of knockback resistance per item.
 * Tougher than diamond armor.
 * Has higher durability and enchantability than diamond.


 * Netherite axes, hoes, pickaxes, shovels, and swords
 * Crafted with a diamond tool and a netherite ingot.
 * Does not burn and 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 ingots
 * Created with 4 gold ingots and 4 netherite scraps.
 * Can be used to upgrade diamond tools and armor.


 * Netherite scraps
 * 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.

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 endermen may spawn here.


 * Structures
 * Basalt pillars
 * 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.


 * 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.

Command format

 * Commands
 * Added.

Gameplay

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

General

 * Particles
 * Added.


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

Blocks

 * Bamboo saplings
 * Renamed to "Bamboo Shoot".


 * 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 a adjacent container behind, it will detect the signal from the container. If not, it will detect the signal from redstone components.
 * Then, if it is not less than 15, the detected signal will be the input signal. Otherwise, it will also get signal from item frame and container behind separated by a redstone conductor block from the comparator, and take the maximum of the three as the input signal.


 * Flower pots
 * Has a bottom texture when empty.


 * Gravel and soul sand
 * Generate in the new 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 from Nether Wart Block JE2.png to Nether Wart Block JE3.png.


 * 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.


 * Redstone dust
 * Has a bottom texture.


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


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


 * Skeletons
 * Now spawn in soul sand valleys.


 * Zombie pigmen
 * Now spawn in crimson forests.

World generation

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


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


 * Spawn
 * Player can reset their spawn point using a bed when mobs are near (but will not sleep in bed.)

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 version in over a decade to add a new set of armor to the game.
 * The last time this happened was in Indev 0.31 on January 29, 2010.
 * 20w06a is also the first snapshot where the second digit is a "0".
 * 20w06a is the first snapshot to include the word "Snapshot" in its name.