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, the first of the year and decade. It adds several new Nether Update features.

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.
 * Inventory item floats on lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.
 * A diamond pickaxe or better is required to mine it.
 * Always spawns covered by lava or blocks on all sides.


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


 * Block of netherite
 * Can be crafted with 9 netherite ingots.
 * A decorative block.
 * Inventory item floats on lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.
 * Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.


 * 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, and trapdoors.


 * Crimson and warped roots
 * Foliage that generates in both crimson and warped forest biomes, as well as soul sand valleys.


 * Crimson and warped signs
 * Work like normal wooden signs.
 * Cannot be crafted in this snapshot.


 * 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.


 * 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 and magma blocks.
 * 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.
 * Does not extinguish when in the rain.


 * 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 netherite ingot and the respective diamond item.
 * Does not burn in lava or fire, as a dropped item or when worn (players equipping netherite armor, however, can still take burning damage).
 * 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 netherite ingot and the respective diamond item.
 * Does not burn in lava or fire.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Has 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
 * Crafted with 4 gold ingots and 4 netherite scraps.
 * Can be used to upgrade diamond tools and armor.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.


 * Netherite scrap
 * Created by smelting ancient debris in a furnace.
 * Used to create netherite ingots.
 * Floats in lava.
 * Cannot burn in lava or fire.


 * Spawn eggs
 * Added hoglin spawn eggs.

Mobs

 * Hoglins
 * Spawn in crimson forests.
 * Drop rotten flesh.
 * Currently have the same hitbox as pigs.
 * Legs and ears flail wildly when moved or attacked.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Crimson forest
 * A dense forest with huge crimson fungi. These blocks and fungi are found in patches on the ground and weeping vines are found under the trees.
 * Zombie pigmen and hoglins may spawn here.
 * Soul sand valley
 * A vast grotto composed of uncovered nether fossils, soul sand, soul soil, large pillars made of basalt, blue fog, and soul fire.
 * Skeletons, ghasts, and endermen 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 pillar
 * Floor to ceiling pillars of basalt that generate in soul sand valleys.


 * Huge crimson and 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.
 * 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 generate random pieces of basalt instead of coal ore.

Command format

 * Used to locate specific biomes.
 * Used to locate specific biomes.

Gameplay

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

General

 * Particles
 * Added.


 * Tags
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains fire and soul fire.
 * Controls what blocks can burn entities.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains crimson nylium and warped nylium.
 * Added block and item tags.
 * Contains crimson stem and stripped crimson stem.
 * Added block and item tags.
 * Contains warped stem and stripped warped stem.
 * Added block tag.
 * Contains nether wart block and warped wart block.

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 an adjacent container behind, it detects the signal from the container. If not, it detects the signal from redstone components.
 * Then, if it is not less than 15, the detected signal becomes the input signal. Otherwise, it also gets a 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 converts it into nylium.
 * If two nylium blocks of different types are present, it chooses 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 BE2.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.


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


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


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

Command format

 * General
 * The message shown when running an unknown/incomplete command has changed.

Gameplay

 * Advancements
 * The description of the "Sky's the Limit" advancement has changed from "Find Elytra" to "Find elytra."


 * 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 intact village.


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


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


 * Spawn
 * Players can reset their spawn point using a bed when mobs are near, although players still cannot sleep when mobs are near.

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.

Options

 * Renamed Scale to Chat Text Size in Chat Settings.


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


 * Rendering
 * Improved entity shadows to the ground.


 * 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 also the first snapshot where the second digit is a "0".
 * 20w06a is the first version in over a decade to add a new set of tools to the game.
 * The last time this happened was in Indev 0.31 on January 30, 2010 (which added golden tools).
 * 20w06a is the only snapshot to include the word "Snapshot" in its name.