Java Edition 1.6.1

1.6.1, the first release of the Horse Update, is a major update to Minecraft released on July 1, 2013, which added many new features including horses, leads, coal blocks, carpets, new commands, resource packs and a new launcher.

A pre-release version of 1.6.1 was released on June 28, 2013. This pre-release then became the full release of 1.6.1.

Blocks

 * Hay Bale
 * Can be placed in all orientations
 * Crafted with wheat in a 3&times;3 arrangement


 * Carpets
 * Crafted with 2 colors of wool in a horizontal line, yields 3 carpets
 * Can be placed on any block (even translucent ones)


 * Hardened Clay
 * Obtained by smelting a clay block in a furnace


 * Stained Clay
 * Comes in 16 colors, one for each dye.
 * Similar to wool.
 * Made by surrounding any dye with hardened clay in a crafting table


 * Block of Coal
 * Crafted with 3&times;3 coal.
 * Crafted only with coal, not charcoal.
 * Can be used as furnace fuel and smelts 80 items, more than 9 coal (72 smelted items).

Items

 * Horse Armor
 * Exist in diamond, iron, and gold variants
 * Cannot be crafted and it can only be found in most types of generated chests, including in Dungeons, Nether Fortresses, Desert Temples, and Jungle Temples


 * Horse Spawn Egg
 * Works like any other spawn egg
 * Just like naturally spawned Horses, these Horses will have one of seven base colors and one of five variations of markings
 * Sometimes a Donkey will be spawned instead


 * Lead
 * Can be used to bind mobs to fences or lead them around
 * Right-click mob first, then right-click fence or right-click the mob again to get the leash back
 * Crafted with 4 string and 1 slimeball, yields 2 leads


 * Name Tag
 * Found in dungeon chests
 * Name it in an anvil, then right-click a mob to name it.

Mobs

 * Horses
 * Creation assisted & inspired by DrZhark's Mo' Creatures mod
 * To tame, ride them, and get thrown off a few times until hearts appear
 * Can be bred using Golden Apples & Golden Carrots
 * Drop Leather when killed
 * Health can be restored using Bread, Sugar, Hay Bales, Wheat, Apples, Golden Apples & Golden Carrots
 * Baby Horses can be grown the same way
 * Players riding saddled Horses are granted full control over the Horse's movement
 * Color, style, maximum health, jump height, and speed vary between Horses
 * Open your inventory, right-click a Horse, or press the inventory key while sneaking and looking at a Horse to access their inventory to deal with their storage, armor, and saddle
 * Rarely spawn in small groups


 * Donkeys
 * Like horses, but smaller and gray, and can carry chests with 15 slots on their saddles.


 * Mules
 * Obtained by breeding a horse with a donkey
 * Can wear chests on their saddles, just like donkeys
 * Not breedable with horses, donkeys, or other mules


 * Skeleton and Zombie Horses
 * Introduced as the code of the normal Horse, although require third-party modifications to be used in the game. There is no current use of it at this time.

Gameplay

 * Status effects
 * Gives player base health; extra health vanishes when the effect ends
 * Can be acquired ingame by the command
 * Gives player "absorption" health that cannot be replenished by natural regeneration or other effects, but would return every 30 seconds, regardless of the state of the rest of the health bar; absorption health vanishes when the effect ends
 * Can be acquired ingame by the command or by eating either tier of Golden Apple
 * Saturation
 * Causes food meter to be replenished by per tick.
 * Can be acquired ingame by the command
 * Affects the hunger bar.
 * Does nothing if hunger bar is full
 * Affects the hunger bar.
 * Does nothing if hunger bar is full

Command format

 * Spreads certain players from an origin point
 * Has a Max Spread and Minimum Distance from player to player
 * Can be used with the team's scoreboard functionality to spread team members to the same location
 * Can be used with the team's scoreboard functionality to spread team members to the same location


 * Can use to play sound to player
 * Can change the pitch and/or volume
 * Can use sound from resource pack
 * Can use sound from resource pack


 * arguments
 * Toggles natural health regeneration
 * Toggles the day-night cycle (the sun stops moving and stays where it is)
 * Toggles the day-night cycle (the sun stops moving and stays where it is)
 * Toggles the day-night cycle (the sun stops moving and stays where it is)

General

 * Resource pack system
 * Replaces the texture pack system
 * A conversion tool that converts texture packs into resource packs was released by Dinnerbone and is available here.
 * Contains:
 * Textures
 * Sounds
 * Fonts (partially)
 * Language file
 * End credits
 * End Poem
 * Splash text
 * New "missing texture" texture


 * Attribute system
 * Item attributes using NBT tags:
 * Attributes can be additive, subtractive, and multiplicative using a set value
 * Some items have default modifiers in place of previously hard-coded attributes
 * Examples of possible changes players could make: A bow that slows the holder, a helm that buffs health, etc.
 * Entity attributes:
 * These properties can now be changed as easily as any other NBT attribute
 * Entity speed, base health, base attack
 * Other properties like weapon damage/bow draw speed/sword swing speed are yet to follow


 * Splash screens
 * "HURNERJSGER?"
 * "What's up Doc?"

Blocks

 * Lapis Lazuli Block
 * Retextured subtly; it now has a border around it


 * Redstone Comparator
 * Now give out a signal for Cauldrons and End Portal frames depending on their state
 * Cauldrons give from zero signal (empty) to three signal strength (full) depending on water inside
 * End Portal frame varies between zero and fifteen signal strength, depending on if an Eye of Ender is present


 * Command Blocks
 * Can no longer be mined or destroyed in Survival mode


 * Lava
 * Now decays properly

Items

 * Charcoal
 * Retextured, with more brown shading to differentiate from coal


 * Saddle
 * The player can now put a saddle on a horse


 * Golden Apple
 * Golden apples now require gold ingots instead of gold nuggets to craft
 * Golden apples now give Regeneration II for 10 seconds and both tiers give Absorption for 1 min 30 seconds


 * Glistering Melon
 * Glistering melons now require 8 gold nuggets
 * Spawn Eggs
 * Spawn eggs work on water
 * Flint and Steel
 * Now loses durability when igniting TNT

Mobs

 * All mobs
 * Mobs named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" are now flipped upside down.
 * Now spawn in groups again.


 * Zombies
 * Now have a small chance to spawn additional zombies when damaged or not being looked at.
 * Able to lock onto the player from 40 blocks away (formerly 16 blocks).
 * Mobbing zombies can now move when further than 32 blocks from the player.


 * Villagers
 * Now have sounds for trading, getting hurt and other things.


 * Withers
 * Armor has been retextured.


 * Spiders
 * Now have a chance to spawn with potion effects.

World generation

 * Deserts
 * No longer contain water lakes.


 * The Nether
 * Added chest generation in nether fortresses.

Gameplay

 * Riding mounts
 * When riding a mob, its health is on the Heads-up display
 * When riding on an entity, dismounting has changed from right-clicking the entity to using the Sneak key ( by default)
 * New boat physics with lower inertia
 * Boat controls have been changed from the, , and keys to mouse control
 * Boats now take damage and break when colliding with many lily pads in a short time


 * Respiration enchantment
 * Now also helps seeing underwater


 * Changed the idea of mob difficulty
 * Regional difficulty: The longer you spend in one area, the harder it gets
 * Scales with difficulty - items, enchants, or AI improve with difficulty


 * Tooltips
 * Added extra tooltip info in the search tab for the creative inventory, which shows what category a block/item is in
 * Tooltips for swords, pickaxes, shovels, axes, and potions show how much damage the sword/tool does and what effect a potion will give


 * Status effect
 * Balanced to improve gameplay
 * Instant Health nerfed by 33% (heals only 4 health points/2 hearts at level I)
 * Regeneration nerfed by 50% (takes 50 ticks/2.5 seconds to restore 1 health point/.5 heart at level I)


 * Hunger
 * Natural health regeneration now costs hunger points/saturation points


 * Creative mode
 * It is no longer possible to break blocks with swords in Creative mode
 * The experience level is no longer displayed in Creative mode

General

 * Technical
 * Support for Java 5 and PowerPC users will be dropped.
 * If a player has a PowerPC-based computer and/or Java 5 installed, a warning will be shown at the main menu.


 * Internal chat system
 * Lots of messages should be translated now that were previously not
 * Messages are now better modularized
 * Server messages can be sent by their code-defined name, allowing the client to utilize the correct translation according to their language settings
 * Color can be specifically designated, preventing leakage into further messages
 * Updated language files and fixed missing strings


 * New launcher
 * Increases performance and stability
 * Minecraft game icon changed to a crafting table, presumably to differentiate between game and launcher
 * Allows LWJGL to be updated, fixing many launcher bugs
 * Supports multiple versions/installs
 * Self updatable.
 * New password storing system
 * More user-friendly.
 * A major step towards the Plugin API.
 * New authentication system - "Yggdrasil", which is more secure and has more features
 * If downloaded for free, it'll only let you play the demo world.
 * Accounts are mandatory.


 * Realms
 * Added handling of invitations
 * Added resetting realm with one of the provided realm templates
 * Added viewing backups for a realm and the ability to restore them
 * Added setting the owner of a realm as game master operator
 * Added confirmation screens for various actions such as deleting a realm
 * Ability to leave someone else's realm that previously accepted an invitation for
 * Fixed game mode and game difficulty issue
 * Minor GUI fixes for better usability


 * NBT
 * has now been re-added.