Java Edition 1.3.1

1.3.1 is an update which added trading, adventure mode, new generated structures (jungle and desert temples) and new blocks/items including emeralds, book and quills, written books, tripwire and ender chests. It also improved enchanting and made fighting Creepers harder.

General

 * Demo mode
 * Lasts 5 game days per world.
 * Singleplayer only.
 * Options
 * Chat Settings
 * Change which parts of chat are shown and how opaque it is.
 * Toggle chat colors, links being clickable and warning prompts for links.
 * Option to rebind the command key, which opens the chat with / in the textfield.
 * Snooper Settings
 * Allows users to toggle anonymous data being sent to Mojang.
 * Shows which data will be sent.
 * Video options
 * Have to be toggled manually in options.txt for now.
 * Vertical Synchronization.
 * Fullscreen mode can now be enabled at startup.
 * Added setting to disable servers offering you texture packs
 * Large biomes world type
 * Generated as default worlds, but 16x bigger
 * Beaches look closely to what they looked like in Beta 1.7.3 and prior.

Gameplay

 * Adventure mode
 * Only playable using commands.
 * Building, setting things on fire and using buckets is disabled.
 * Players can only interact with mobs and the environment.
 * Players can place and take stuff from a chest, a furnace or a dispenser.
 * Trading
 * Using emerald as currency, villagers will, depending on profession, offer different trades to players.
 * There are three kinds of trades: Selling, buying and enchanting.
 * As displayed in the top-most part of the trading GUI, villagers take one or more items or item stacks and give back something.
 * After trading, villagers will sometimes emit purple particles for a few seconds to indicate that their trades changed.
 * Otherwise unobtainable bottles o' enchanting and chainmail armor can be obtained by trading.
 * Commands
 * Shows the map seed.
 * Chooses the gamemode new players start in.
 * Enables and disable profiling.
 * Changes the player's gamemode.
 * Toggles rain and snow
 * Changes the world time
 * Gives an item to a player
 * Adds experience to a player
 * Kills a player
 * Provides help for commands.
 * Changes the world time
 * Gives an item to a player
 * Adds experience to a player
 * Kills a player
 * Provides help for commands.
 * Adds experience to a player
 * Kills a player
 * Provides help for commands.
 * Provides help for commands.
 * Provides help for commands.

World Generation

 * Bonus chest
 * Optional starting chest on non-hardcore worlds
 * Contents: wooden & stone tools, bread, apples, logs, planks and sticks
 * Desert villages
 * Added desert-specific villages
 * Desert temples
 * Built out of various kinds of sandstone and wool.
 * Include hidden chest room and TNT trap, with loot including rotten flesh, bones, iron ingots and gold ingots, diamonds and emeralds.
 * Jungle temples
 * Built out of various kinds of cobblestone.
 * Contain multiple tripwire traps triggering dispensers filled with arrows.
 * Loot chests include bones, rotten flesh, gold ingots, iron ingots, diamonds and emeralds.

Blocks & Items

 * Emerald Ore
 * Drops Emerald.
 * Emerald
 * Is used to trade with villagers
 * Block of Emerald
 * Crafted by putting 9 emeralds on a crafting table.
 * Ender Chest
 * Crafted by surrounding an eye of ender with 8 pieces of obsidian.
 * Stores each player's contents across dimensions and all Ender Chests.
 * Contents are preserved even if all Ender Chests are destroyed.
 * Explosion-resistant.
 * Emits light and purple particles.
 * Unless mined using a Silk Touch-enchanted pickaxe, they drop 8 obsidian.
 * Tripwire Hook
 * String in between needs to be placed manually.
 * Breaking the string triggers a redstone signal, cutting it using shears doesn't.
 * Entities like boats, mobs, arrows or players touching the string trigger a redstone signal.
 * String can be up to 40 blocks long.
 * Crafting recipe: iron ingot on top of a stick on top of a wooden plank.
 * Wooden Slabs
 * Added all wood types.
 * Wooden slabs crafted after the update act like wood.
 * Sandstone Stairs
 * Crafted in the same pattern as other stairs using sandstone
 * Wooden Stairs
 * Added wooden stairs for all kinds of wood.
 * Adjusted hitbox.
 * Book and Quill
 * Right-click to write on & edit up to 50 pages or read.
 * Click 'Done' to save the book, 'Sign' to choose a title and finalize the book.
 * Crafting recipe: 1 ink sac, 1 feather and 1 book in any possible shape.
 * Written Book
 * Can only be obtained by signing a Book and Quill.
 * Can be sold to villagers.
 * Golden Apple
 * Has two crafting recipes now, the new one replacing gold nuggets with gold blocks.
 * Second tier gives Regeneration IV, Resistance and Fire resistance effects.
 * Only second tier glows like enchanted tools.
 * Has attributes the Golden Apple had before.

General

 * Launcher
 * Includes demo mode. Note: Clicking on demo mode without the game installed will not work, and instead freeze at game updating and not download.
 * The "Loading update news" message which appears when the launcher attempts to load the release feed is now styled, rather than the plain html it was prior.
 * Performance
 * Reduced CPU, RAM & bandwidth usage.
 * Accelerated chunk loading.
 * Decreased lag spike frequency.
 * Made the Nether less laggy.
 * Decreased unnecessary world updates.
 * Made the chat work smoothly even when the server is laggy.
 * Decreased packets sent between client and server.
 * Servers
 * Made singleplayer internally use a multiplayer server.
 * Decreased world saving intervals.
 * F3 debug screen
 * Truncated coordinates to 5 fractional digits.
 * The y-coordinate now shows both the feet level and the eye level.
 * Removed frame rendering time history graph (bottom-left).
 * 3 new values:
 * : Walking speed (constant)
 * : Flying speed (constant)
 * : Boolean value, true when you touch the ground
 * Language files
 * Added tooltips for all types of Monster Egg blocks and the End Portal Frame.
 * Added more descriptive tooltips for different types of tree-related blocks, sandstone and stone bricks.
 * Localized server command responses.
 * Added missing commands-related strings.
 * Added missing double chest GUI caption.
 * Superflat world type
 * Respawning in superflat is no longer random.

Gameplay

 * Creative mode inventory
 * There are categorized tabs for various groups of items and blocks.
 * Added a search tab which will automatically be switched to when the chat key is hit.
 * Added survival inventory tab, which shows the full inventory, a 'Destroy item' slot, armor slots including a preview of your character and a 2x2 crafting field.
 * Items can now be deleted from the inventory by shift-clicking them.
 * Added layered snow block, Monster Egg Blocks (Silverfish spawning blocks), Ender Portal frame and all potions.
 * Now shows potion effects' timers like in Survival.
 * You now spawn with an empty inventory in Creative mode.
 * Experience collection
 * Depending on ore type, experience now drops from ores that drop items.
 * Taking smelted items out of furnaces gives experience now.
 * Destroying mob spawners gives experience now.
 * Adjusted experience level progression:
 * Levels 1-15 cost 17 XP points each
 * Levels 16-30 cost 3 more XP points than the previous (cost = 17 + (level - 15) * 3)
 * Levels 31-8 cost 7 more XP points than the previous (cost = 62 + (level - 30) * 7)
 * Enchanting
 * The new maximum level with bookshelves is 30, without 8.
 * 15 bookshelves are enough to reach level 30.
 * The 3rd slot shows the most expensive possible enchantment more often.
 * Increased chances for multiple enchantments at once.
 * Adjusted enchantments' to go with the new maximum level.
 * Commands
 * Made server commands more descriptive.
 * Added reason parameter
 * Can now contain "\n" to force a new line.
 * Can now be used to teleport to specific coordinates.
 * Multiplayer
 * Added option to let LAN friends join SP games
 * You can choose which gamemode players join in and whether they are allowed to use cheats.
 * Made entities less likely to glitch through blocks.
 * Added automagical downloading of standard sized texture packs when joining servers.
 * Blocks other players are mining now show cracks.
 * Made server list re-orderable: shift+click or shift+arrow keys move selected servers.
 * Server list now scans for LAN servers.
 * Added hardcore difficulty: Players are banned upon death.
 * Connections are now encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
 * Added SRV Record Lookup support
 * Different subdomains of one domain can handle different servers via different port numbers.
 * Service name should be "minecraft"; i.e. "_minecraft._tcp.example.com".
 * Added & changed many minor things
 * Individual, stackable items near each other on the ground now become one item stack.
 * Added shift clicking support to armor slots, brewing stands & enchantment tables.
 * Made the stars smaller and brighter.
 * Removed the downwards knockback while drowning.
 * The "Mojang" splash screen when opening the game appears for 1 instead of 3 seconds now.
 * The sky color in the End changed.
 * Blocks now show cracks when destroying them while the GUI is hidden.
 * You can now fall 4 blocks without getting hurt (might be a bug as there exist other, higher distances that don't cause damage either).
 * Pick Block key
 * You now get the actual block.
 * You can now pick paintings, boats, minecarts and mobs, which will give you their spawn eggs.
 * Picking huge mushroom blocks now gives mushrooms.
 * You can no longer pick portal blocks.
 * When riding a minecart which is currently on a rail, using directional keys will allow the player to slowly move the minecart in that direction.
 * Picking huge mushroom blocks now gives mushrooms.
 * You can no longer pick portal blocks.
 * When riding a minecart which is currently on a rail, using directional keys will allow the player to slowly move the minecart in that direction.

World Generation

 * Extreme Hills biomes
 * Now generate with emerald ore.
 * Occurs up to 8 times per chunk in veins of 1.
 * Generates between layers 4 and 31, inclusive.
 * Mountains
 * Made sub-biome type mountains like Desert Hills or Ice Mountains taller
 * Jungle trees
 * Made cocoa beans appear on some small jungle trees

Blocks & Items

 * String
 * Can now be placed as tripwire
 * Wood
 * Can now be placed in 3 different directions.
 * Placement works like similar to piston placement.
 * Furnaces
 * Can be fueled by wooden tools now.
 * Return an empty bucket when using lava buckets as fuel now.
 * Ice
 * Instead of melting in the nether, it now disappears.
 * Can be obtained using Silk Touch-enchanted gear now.
 * Glass Panes
 * Can be obtained using Silk Touch-enchanted gear now.
 * Nether Portal
 * Leaks into the Overworld now: Depending on difficulty, zombie pigmen rarely spawn in them.
 * Slabs & Stairs
 * Will now be placed upside-down when placed on the upper half of a block's side.
 * When placed upside down, rails, pressure plates, levers, doors, torches, redstone torches, repeaters, redstone dust and beds can be placed on them - Redstone dust behaves like on glowstone - It transmits power horizontally and upwards, but not downwards. Redstone torches don't power redstone placed on slabs/stairs above them.
 * Leaves
 * Water slowly drips through them when it's raining.
 * Cauldrons
 * Slowly fill up when it's raining.
 * Dispensers
 * Minecarts & boats will now be placed if there's rails/water in place.
 * Instead of dispensing buckets, dispensers will now suck in or place water or lava in front of them.
 * Gravel
 * Changed texture
 * Levers
 * Can be placed on the underside of blocks.
 * Wooden Pressure Plates
 * Can be triggered by arrows.
 * Pistons
 * Now take 2 redstone ticks (4 game ticks) seconds to expand.
 * TNT
 * Depending on difficulty, does different amounts of damage now:
 * Peaceful: no damage
 * Easy: ½ less damage
 * Normal: same damage as before
 * Hard: ⅓ more damage.
 * Cocoa Beans
 * Retextured item.
 * Can be planted & grown on jungle wood now.
 * Can be grown instantly using bone meal.
 * Cookies
 * Give a full hunger point now.
 * Nether Warts
 * Can now be grown in the Overworld and in the End.
 * Book
 * Changed crafting recipe: 3 pieces of paper and one piece of leather in any shape.
 * Empty buckets
 * Stack up to 16 now.
 * Signs
 * Stack up to 16 now.
 * Crafting now gives 3 signs instead of 1.
 * Monster Spawners
 * Added NBT tags to further customize spawned mobs.
 * Only changeable using map editors or mods.
 * Boats
 * Are not broken by lilypads anymore, instead they run straight through the lilypad now, breaking and sometimes dropping it.
 * When they crash they can sometimes drop themselves.
 * Are less glitchy and more responsive now.
 * Increased maximum speed.
 * When exiting, players will be moved from the boat.
 * When broken by a player, they drop a boat now.
 * Minecarts
 * When on rails, they can be accelerated a bit while sitting in them.
 * When exiting, players will be moved from the minecart.
 * Door
 * Doors being broken by zombies now show their damage.

Mobs

 * All mobs
 * Mobs can now spawn on top of all upside down slabs and stairs
 * Pigs
 * Drop 1-3 porkchops instead of 0-2.
 * Slimes
 * Reduced spawn rate in superflat maps.
 * Silverfish
 * When suffering from poison potions, they will now spawn more silverfish from nearby silverfish blocks more often.
 * Creepers
 * Increased knockback effect.
 * Depending on difficulty, they do more damage now:
 * Easy: ~50% less damage
 * Normal: same damage as before
 * Hard: 33.3…% more damage.
 * Creepers & spiders
 * Become aggressive towards the last mob or player that hit them now
 * Skeletons, Creepers & zombies
 * Become neutral against players again a few seconds after being hit in Creative.
 * Endermen
 * Endermen now stop in front of the player. When the player swings his/her sword, it teleports behind the player.
 * Villagers
 * Villagers spawned from spawn eggs will get a random profession now.

Trivia

 * 1.3.1 was a version that held several development-related records, until the development of 1.8.
 * The most snapshots for a major release: 19.
 * The longest development period, from first snapshot to final release: 111 days.
 * The longest wait between major releases, with a release 153 days after the release of 1.2.1.

Fixes
41 bugs fixed
 * Fixed texture packs in folders not showing their icon and description
 * Fixed Man-in-the-middle attack allowing hackers to log in as you when you visit their server
 * Fixed the Open texturepack folder button not working on OS X
 * Fixed liquids slowing down flying players.
 * Fixed blocks with the same id but different data/damage values stacking in Creative inventory.
 * Fixed boats & minecarts not being one-hit breakable in Creative.
 * Fixed raw fish, dyes, saddles, potions, milk buckets and tools depleting in Creative.
 * Fixed water destroying non-solid blocks when breaking them from above.
 * Fixed Silk touch giving you only one slab from double slabs.
 * Fixed redstone updates not propagating through unloaded chunks.
 * Fixed repeaters getting stuck when loading their chunk.
 * Fixed tools taking damage when breaking insta-breakable blocks.
 * Fixed a few misalignments in the item sprite sheet.
 * Fixed the arrow representing players on held maps being offset.
 * Fixed being able to duplicate sand, gravel and powered rail.
 * Fixed placing a piston in front of another powered, but not extended one resulting in a glitched piston with the head's texture on all sides.
 * Fixed TNT dropping as a resource on creative mode.
 * Fixed powering specifically glitched pistons crashing the game.
 * Fixed the End Portal Frame block not showing as a block in the inventory.
 * Fixed weather not working correctly in certain biomes.
 * Fixed Overworld portals above Y=127 not being recognized when leaving the Nether.
 * Fixed various hacked mob spawners crashing the game.
 * Fixed thrown splash potions not preserving their type when reloading the world.

Multiplayer only
 * Fixed arrows scooting up to the top of the block they were shot on.
 * Fixed Endermen not opening their jaws.
 * Fixed fully charged arrows not showing their particle effect.
 * Fixed many sounds not playing.
 * Fixed magma cubes' and slimes' jumping animations not showing.
 * Fixed thunderstorms not darkening the sky.
 * Fixed weather not fading in or out.
 * Fixed enchanted armor and tools not glowing to other players.
 * Fixed explosions not pushing players back.
 * Fixed TNT not knocking back players.
 * Fixed pistons not pushing back players.
 * Fixed players on minecarts, boats or pigs and spider jockeys not being displayed in the correct location.
 * Fixed glitchy mob prediction.
 * Fixed fishing lines not showing.
 * Fixed sneaking players' nameplates not staying hidden when loading the chunks they are in.
 * Fixed Unbreaking-enchanted tools sometimes breaking and then re-appearing a few times.
 * Fixed potion effects losing their graphical effects when traveling between dimensions.
 * Fixed blocks disappearing when placing them under yourself and jumping.