Pretty Scary Update

The Pretty Scary Update is the name for version 1.4.2, a major update officially released on Thursday, October 25, 2012. Among the main changes were a number of new mobs and variants (witches, bats, zombie villagers, wither skeletons), wearable and placeable heads, a new boss (the wither), the command block, the anvil, the beacon, new food (potatoes, carrots and pumpkin pies), carrots on sticks for controlling pigs and new decoration items (such as item frames, flower pots and cobblestone walls).

The official name of the update was revealed at PAX Prime 2012 during the Minecraft panel, then later with snapshot. Dinnerbone first revealed the 1.4 release date with snapshot, where he stated that he was fully into the "Prepare for release" mode.

Development on the Pretty Scary Update began the week after, which was released on August 1, 2012. 15 development snapshots for 1.4 from to  were released. During the development period, 1.3.2 was released. The 1.4 Pre-release was unveiled on October 19, 2012, so that modders could start preparing their mods before the launch on October 24, 2012.

Mojang found a mob suffocation bug after this was released, and was forced to delay the launch by a day. The 1.4.1 Prerelease was unveiled on October 23, 2012, and the release was pushed back a day.

Mojang then found yet another bug, and fixed "a severe memory leak in the server". This, as well as correct rendering of fences and cobblestone stairs, came in the 1.4.2 Prerelease, released on October 24, 2012. 1.4.2 was the first official release of 1.4, available through the launcher on October 25, 2012.

A bug was introduced whereby a player could not achieve the The end? achievement.

The Pretty Scary Update was originally intended to include the Modding API, however this had been pushed to a later version.

Lighting bugs present in 1.3.2 were only partially fixed. Dinnerbone first introduced changes in snapshots. Dinnerbone tweeted to revert and push this to 1.5. Other changes postponed to 1.5 include redstone changes and a rendering overhaul.

Notable features

 * Notable additions
 * 5 new commands:, , , , and.
 * New command target selectors.
 * New sounds for mobs, walking on blocks, placing blocks, climbing ladders, and more.
 * Witch huts
 * 10 new blocks: command blocks, beacons, anvils, flower pots, cobblestone walls, item frames, mob heads, wooden buttons, potato crops, and carrot crops.
 * 9 new items: potatoes, poisonous potatoes, carrots, golden carrots, carrot on a stick, pumpkin pie, nether star, potion of Night Vision, and potion of Invisibility.
 * 5 new mobs: the wither, wither skeletons, witches, bats, and Zombie Villagers.


 * Notable changes
 * New debug features.
 * Superflat world is now customizable.
 * Changed portal mechanics.
 * New NBT tags to spawn mobs.
 * Boss mobs now show their name above their health bar.
 * New map mechanics.
 * Villagers are now more self aware.
 * Zombies and skeletons can now spawn with armor, and zombies now have a chance of turning a villager into a zombie villager, instead of the villager dying.
 * Zombie pigmen now have a chance to be able to pick up items.

Trailer
A trailer documenting some of the Pretty Scary Update's major features was released on Mojang's official YouTube channel on October 26, 2012. The trailer was made by Hat Films, who have made update trailers for Mojang in the past.

Further revisions

 * 1.4.4 and 1.4.5 addressed many further bugs.
 * 1.4.6 was released in December, and notably introduced fireworks, enchanted books, and the Thorns enchantment.
 * 1.4.7 addressed crashes and bugs introduced in 1.4.6.