Java Edition 21w18a

21w18a is the twentieth snapshot for Java Edition 1.17, released on May 5, 2021, which makes changes to goats and experimental ore generation, as well as fixes some bugs.

Blocks

 * Infested Blocks
 * Instead of breaking instantly, infested blocks now take half of the time to break compared to their regular counterparts. They still have no assigned tool.


 * Light
 * Changed the textures of the light block displayed in the inventory or when holding a light block.

Mobs

 * Goats
 * Screaming goats will use their ram attack more often than other goats will.
 * The pitch for the sound of baby goats ramming into stuff has been increased.

General

 * Tags
 * Added raw gold blocks to the block tag.
 * Added raw gold blocks to the block tag.


 * Textures
 * Removed the unused mouth textures from the axolotl textures.
 * The goat's two ear textures have been changed to mirror properly.

Experimental
Changes have been made to the official Caves & Cliffs world generation preview datapack, which gives early access to the world generation coming in Java Edition 1.18.


 * Caves
 * Cave carvers generate below y=0 in ocean biomes.
 * Increased the minimum size of noodle caves and carvers, to make them easier to traverse and less likely to break up into fragments.
 * Noodle caves no longer generate above y=30.


 * Ore distribution
 * Reduced copper spawning a bit, to compensate for large ore veins.
 * Large ore veins are slightly more rare and slightly smaller on average. They now vary significantly, meaning players can still find huge ore veins like the ones in previous versions.
 * Increased chance of finding raw ore blocks in ore veins.
 * Removed deepslate blobs above y=0.
 * Extended the vertical range of the smaller blobs of iron ore, to make it possible to find iron in caves near the surface.
 * Slightly reduced the amount of normal-sized iron blobs, to compensate for large ore veins and the increased range of smaller blobs.

Video
Videos made by slicedlime:

Trivia

 * This snapshot lacked an image when the changelog was released on Minecraft.net. The alt text that appeared said "A goat standing on a hill. Very regal.". Image still can be accessed via the link on the page.
 * Ore distribution image contained hidden messages.
 * The ore distribution chart has upside down black text in the deepslate area that said: "Yes the first message is still here, But [sic] upside down".
 * A vertical line of text can be found in the coal area, saying "Someday I'm gonna run out of space to hide these messages".
 * "We must stop messing like this!" can be found in the border of the new ore distributions image.
 * This is the last snapshot which can be launched with Java 8 - Java 15.