This page documents a major update currently being worked on.
Therefore, not all official feature names or items are mentioned.
For a guide about all content currently released in this update, see Java Edition guides/Caves & Cliffs.
1.18,[1][2] the second release of Caves & Cliffs, also called The Wild Update, is an upcoming major update to Java Edition set to release in late 2021.[3] It was first announced alongside the release of 1.17 snapshot 21w15a when Mojang stated that the Caves & Cliffs update would be split in two.[4] Some features for 1.18 were initially implemented during 1.17's development cycle, before getting postponed and relegated to official data packs used with a corresponding 1.17 snapshot.[5]
Additions
World generation
- Completely overhauled.
- Now stretch down to Y=-59.
- The caves now generate in 2 layers of different stone bases depending on the depth.
- Biomes such as the dripstone caves and lush caves now generate in the underground.
- Contain aquifers, bodies of water with different heights, independent of sea level (Y=63).
- Aquifers below Y=0 sometimes generate with lava instead of water.
- Improved old caves to blend in with the new generations of caves better
- New noise caves, coming in 3 forms, "cheese", "spaghetti", and "noodle".
- Cheese caves have large stone towers stretching from the bottom of the cave to the top, and are often large enough to allow safe elytra flight.
- Spaghetti caves are long, thin caves that have small aquifers and are more similar to original caves.
- Noodle caves are thinner, squigglier, and more claustrophobic variants of spaghetti caves.
- Come in 6 sub-biomes:
- Meadow
- A flat but elevated biome that looks like a flowery and colder plains, with an aqua grass color and dark blue water color.
- Generates in plateaus and the lowest layers of some mountains, usually near plains and other temperate biomes.
- Contains grass, tall grass, dandelions, azure bluets, cornflowers, poppies, daisies and alliums
- Birch and oak trees can rarely appear in this biome, and always have bee nests.
- Only rabbits, donkeys, and sheep spawn in this biome.
- Plains villages and pillager outposts can generate in this biome
- Grove
- Reminiscent of a snowy taiga with a surface of snow blocks and powder snow, instead of grass blocks.
- Generates in the slopes of a snowy mountain when next to forested biomes.
- Rabbits, wolves, foxes, sheep, pigs, chickens and cows spawn in this biome.
- Pillager outposts can generate in this biome
- Snowy Slopes
- Generates in the slopes of a mountain when next to plains and snowy tundras
- Covered in snow, snow block and powder snow.
- Only rabbits and goats spawn in this biome.
- Igloos and pillager outposts can generate in this biome
- Jagged Peaks
- One of three biomes that generate in the mountain peaks.
- Covered in snow, snow blocks and stone.
- Tends to generate in sharp and jagged peaks in areas with snowy, cold, and temperate biomes.
- Only goats spawn in this biome.
- Pillager outposts can generate in this biome
- Frozen Peaks
- Covered in snow, snow blocks, ice, and packed ice.
- Tends to generate in smoother and smaller peaks in areas with snowy, cold, and temperate biomes.
- Only goats spawn in this biome.
- Stony Peaks
- Meadow
- Long and rare ore formations.
- Copper ore veins mixed with granite and blocks of raw copper generate above Y=0.
- Iron ore veins mixed with tuff and blocks of raw iron generate below Y=0.
Gameplay
- “Caves & Cliffs” for falling from the top to the bottom of the Overworld.
- “Feels like home” for riding a strider on lava for 50 blocks in the Overworld.
- “Star Trader” for trading with a villager at the build height limit.
- “Sound of Music” for playing music with a jukebox in a meadow biome.
General
/jfr- When enabled, begins profiling with Java FlightRecorder, as well as the following custom events:
- minecraft.ServerTickTime: Sampling event exposing average server tick times in intervals of a second
- minecraft.ChunkGeneration: Time taken to generate individual chunk stages
- minecraft.PacketRead / minecraft.PacketSent: Network traffic
- minecraft.WorldLoadFinishedEvent: Initial world loading duration
- The profiling can be stopped in-game by using
/jfr stop.
- When enabled, begins profiling with Java FlightRecorder, as well as the following custom events:
- Added three new lines: Multinoise, biome builder, and terrain.
- Only appear if the dimension where the player is uses the multi-noise biome source type.
- Multinoise lists the parameters used at the player's position in order to place a biome. C is continentalness, E is erosion, T is temperature, H is humidity, and W is weirdness.
- Continentalness goes up as you go more inland. In areas with low continentalness values, oceans may generate.
- Erosion determines how flat or mountainous terrain is. Higher values result in flatter areas, lower values result in mountainous areas.
- Temperature and humidity have no impact on the terrain itself, and only determine biome placement.
- Weirdness indirectly drives the PV (peaks and valleys) noise and determines which biome variant gets placed.
- Terrain lists values related to terrain generation.[more information needed]
- Font
- Added
illageralt, the rune-like font from Minecraft Dungeons.- Currently only usable via commands
- Added the
typefield, which is mandatory.- Written into
BlockEntityTag.idto ensure that the tag can be migrated correctly between versions
- Written into
- Added new loot table function
set_potion, to setPotiontag on any item.- Has following parameters:
id: Potion ID
- Has following parameters:
- Can now disable lightning flashes, which prevents lightning from making the sky flash. Lightning bolts themselves will still appear.
- The device the game outputs audio to can now be chosen in-game.
- Added "Priority updates" to video settings.
- Determines as to which chunk sections are updated synchronously in a single frame.
- Three options:
- nearby, which corresponds to how chunk sections were updated before 21w37a, and by player and none, which reduce stuttering when placing or removing blocks.
- However, the latter two options may cause rare visual delays in world updates. These options also appear to be improperly capitalized.[6]
- Determines as to which chunk sections are updated synchronously in a single frame.
- Added "Simulation Distance" video setting, a new slider.
- Entities will not be updated outside of simulation distance.
- Allows higher render distance with less CPU load.
- Added
simulation-distance.
- Spawners now have a new CustomeSpawnRules tag, which lets players override the spawn rules of the spawned mob.
- In the tag, players can specify BlockLightLimit, which indicates the highest block-light the spawners will spawn mobs at.
- Telemetry
- Readded, previously a part of game known as "snooper" until 18w20c.
- Only implemented in world load event now.
- Sent data when loading singleplayer world or connecting to multiplayer server.
- Contains following information:
- Launcher identifier
- User identitifer (XUID)
- Client session ID (changes on restart)
- World session ID (changes per world load, to be reused for later events)
- Game version
- Operating system name and version
- Java runtime version
- If client or server is modded (same information as on crash logs)
- Server type (single player, Realms or other)
- Game mode
- Cannot be disabled,[7]
Changes
Blocks
- Now stop growing if shears are used on the tip.
- This action changes the
ageblock state of the tip to 25.
- This action changes the
- Now drop 2-5 Raw Copper when mining instead of 2-3.
- Now emits a light level of 7.
- Have been re-added to the Creative mode inventory.
- Block of Copper can be converted to 4 Cut Copper using stonecutter.
Items
- Have been re-added to the Creative mode inventory.
- Can once again be crafted.
Mobs
This section would benefit from the addition of isometric renders.
Please remove this notice once you've added suitable isometric renders to the article.
The specific instructions are: Render of Dinnerbone animals being fed from MC-231721, as all animals except the sheep seem to have been fixed.
The specific instructions are: Render of Dinnerbone animals being fed from MC-231721, as all animals except the sheep seem to have been fixed.
- Now only spawn in water above clay blocks in lush caves.
- Now has its own mob cap.
- Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, Tropical Fish, Squid, and Dolphins
- Now only spawn in water from Y=50 to Y=64.
- Additionally, tropical fishes now also spawn in lush caves at any height.
- Evoker, Pillager, Vindicator, and Ravager
- Will no longer attack baby villagers.
- Now only spawn in water blocks under Y=30.
- Now only spawn in snowy slopes, jagged peaks, and frozen peaks biomes.
- General
- Hostile mobs will only spawn in areas where the light level is equal 0.
- This change only affects block-light and not sky-light.
- Zombie, skeleton, spider, and cave spider spawners now spawn mobs up to block-light level 11.[more information needed]
World generation
- Now can generate in mountain peaks.
- Red sand generates a bit higher.
- Beaches are generally wider.
- In some places there is a chance where no beaches generate at all, to provide some variation.
- Now generates naturally.
- Now generate naturally underground and inside hills or mountains.
- Drowned can spawn in aquifers inside dripstone caves.
- Now generate naturally underground and inside hills or mountains.
- Azalea trees now generate above lush caves.
- Now uses the multi-noise biome source type.
- Now generate with strips of gravel
- Can generate alongside any biome instead of just windswept hills.
- General
- Terrain generation is now independent from biomes, with biomes adapting to whatever terrain they happen to generate throughout.
- Terrain is now smoother and more extreme.
- Some biomes have been renamed:
Old name New name Tall Birch Forest Old Growth Birch Forest Giant Tree Taiga Old Growth Pine Taiga Giant Spruce Taiga Old Growth Spruce Taiga Snowy Tundra Snowy Plains Jungle Edge Sparse Jungle Stone Shore Stony Shore Extreme Hills Windswept Hills Wooded Mountains Windswept Forest Gravelly Hills Windswept Gravelly Hills Shattered Savanna Windswept Savanna Wooded Badlands Plateau Wooded Badlands
- Since the terrain height is no longer controlled by biomes, the following sub-biomes have been removed from the game and had their code merged into the main biome:
- As a result of this change:
- All deserts are now eligible for village and desert pyramid generation.
- All taigas are now eligible for village and outpost generation.
- All swamps are now eligible for swamp hut generation.
- All snowy taigas are now eligible for igloo generation.
- Worlds made in previous versions that generated these biomes will convert them into their default variants.
Gameplay
- "Light as a Rabbit" now has "Sweet Dreams" as its parent instead of "Adventure".
- Reduced the number of biomes required to visit for the "Adventuring Time" advancement from 42 to 31, due to the removal of sub-biomes.
General
- Buried treasure chests can now contain water breathing potions.
- Chunk’s
Level.Sections[].BlockStates&Level.Sections[].Palettehave moved to a container structure inLevel.Sections[].block_states. - Chunk’s
Level.Biomesare now paletted and live in a similar container structure inLevel.Sections[].biomes. - Chunk’s
Level.CarvingMasks[]is nowlong[]instead ofbyte[].
- Raised cloud level from 128 to 192.
- Data pack version number has been increased to 8.
- Redesigned how effects look in the inventory screen.
- Can display while recipe book is showing.
- The list of effects are now shown to the right of the player's inventory, instead of the left side.
- When the inventory effects list is visible, it will be hidden from the game view to reduce screen clutter.
- There’s now two modes of seeing the effect list: compact and classic:
- Classic is the pre-existing list of effects, one after another.
- Compact is a single icon for each effect, suitable for small screen estate.
- The game will automatically switch between the two looks to suit the available screen estate.
- Has been increased to 384 blocks, expanding 64 blocks up and 64 blocks down, with 320 being the limit upward and -64 being the limit downward.
- The Sneak and Sprint, and Auto-jump options have been moved to the Controls tab.
- Render distance now causes chunks to load in a cylinder shape around the player instead of a square.
- Changed default brightness to 50.
- Performance
- Now, various background tasks including world generation are executed on a background thread pool.
- The size of the thread pool equals
Amount of available CPU threads - 1.- Maximum amount of threads is 255, instead of 7. This limit can be overridden by Java system property
max.bg.threads.
- Maximum amount of threads is 255, instead of 7. This limit can be overridden by Java system property
- The size of the thread pool equals
- Resource pack version number is now 8, as the following has been changed:
- inventory.png now contains an extra sprite for a thin-layout version of the effect list in the inventory.
- Removed length limits for scoreboards, score holders and team names.
server.jarnow bundles individual libraries instead of merging all the files into single archive.- This change is meant to solve certain problems related to Java modules.
- On startup,
server.jarwill unpack libraries into a directory configured bybundlerRepoDir(default: working directory).- To run different main class than server, use
bundlerMainClassproperty.
- To run different main class than server, use
- The splash "[this splash text has been delayed until part 2]" has been changed to "[this splash text is now available]".
- No longer reduced to walking when touching the wall at low angles.
- Renamed the
lava_pool_replaceablesblock tag tolava_pool_stone_cannot_replace.
- Removed the Large Biomes and Amplified world types.
Fixes
- 107 issues fixed
- From released versions before 1.18
- MC-7200 – Cave/tunnel generation may cut tunnels a bit too soon.
- MC-29274 – Withers will not pursue players in survival mode unless attacked.
- MC-30560 – River through eroded badlands biome generates floating rock formations at water surface.
- MC-44055 – Game fails to switch the audio output from one device to another after the game has started (from title screen).
- MC-54545 – Client render distance doesn't adjust to server render distance if they are different, causing faulty chunk loading.
- MC-65628 – Desert pyramids generate underground when using amplified or custom terrain.
- MC-72831 – Water lakes can generate in deserts.
- MC-85975 – Slimes don't spawn in the swamp hills biome.
- MC-101917 – Andesite, diorite and granite won't generate above a height of about 80.
- MC-116359 – Status effects aren't displayed in inventory when recipe book is open.
- MC-118134 – Item frame texture as an item uses texture of oak planks.
- MC-123277 – Too long scoreboard objectives and team names are not detected when commands are parsed.
- MC-128770 – Woodland mansions still generate in dark forest hills.
- MC-129266 – Jagged ocean transitions and slower biome generation.
- MC-132175 – Beaches generate along swamp hills when bordering an ocean.
- MC-132306 – Snowy grass without snow near lakes in snowy biome.
- MC-133582 – Dolphins try to catch up with boat on land.
- MC-137140 – Llamas cannot spawn in shattered savanna plateau.
- MC-137950 – Signs textures do not correspond to the actual texture of their handle.
- MC-137956 – Lakes still generate in superflat preset "Overworld" after removing its tag.
- MC-138734 – Spawn point for seed 0, world type Buffet with badlands plateau biome is under surface, ⇒ player dies.
- MC-138782 – Stranded dolphin tries to catch the boat on the water and stops beating.
- MC-138801 – The interactions between a biome and another biome and its variants are inconsistent.
- MC-140151 – Modified jungle edge biomes only generate when a jungle borders a swamp hills biome.
- MC-140690 – Giant spruce taiga hills have no difference with giant spruce taiga.
- MC-142385 – Campfire texture has one pixel extending into hotbar outline.
- MC-145376 – Bamboo can generate underground when generating in non-bamboo jungles.
- MC-148182 – The zombie villager "profession" texture uses villager-skin-colored pixels.
- MC-149822 – Bottom border on status effect displays in the inventory is missing.
- MC-152506 – Wither skull projectile has faces with old texture.
- MC-152966 – Increase in villages generating in versions after 1.10.
- MC-159025 – Drowned do not spawn in warm ocean biomes.
- MC-160256 – Texture of door items does not match the blocks.
- MC-160710 – Chat messages written while sleeping are deleted after waking up.
- MC-166423 – Splash water bottles don't damage endermen.
- MC-166508 – Glitchy chunk rendering since 1.15 pre-release 2.
- MC-167277 – Swamp hills don't naturally generate seagrass.
- MC-169523 – As of 18w06a, the sand, clay and gravel blocks no longer generate around small lakes.
- MC-173339 – Comparators lit base texture is incorrect.
- MC-175929 – Ice spikes get cut off below height limit on AMPLIFIED worlds.
- MC-177016 – Some lakes in frozen biomes generate unfrozen.
- MC-182362 – Score callbacks with a too long name break callback chain.
- MC-183184 – Sprinting stops as soon as you touch another block.
- MC-186042 – Plains biome is always generated when a swamp borders a desert, snowy tundra or snowy taiga.
- MC-188096 – Gravelly mountains+ is no different than gravelly mountains.
- MC-190363 – Some biomes generate as "Single biome" worlds in "Floating islands" world type.
- MC-190724 – Spawning in solid blocks in single biome "Badlands Plateau" world.
- MC-193348 – Status effect bars shift the player's inventory in Creative mode.
- MC-196723 – If the player gets an effect in Creative mode while their inventory is open and not having an effect before, they won’t see the effect in their inventory until they close and open their inventory.
- MC-197688 – Mountain edge never generates.
- MC-200640 – Despite being a coastal biome, mushroom field shores don't have a warm/unique water color.
- MC-200803 – Gravelly mountains+/modified gravelly mountains placed incorrectly in the biome selection.
- MC-202036 – Adding a biome to a datapack shifts biome IDs in existing chunks.
- MC-202376 – Rabbits, instead of spawning on snow blocks, spawn on snow layers.
- MC-203155 – Enchanting table GUI uses old lapis texture.
- MC-204117 – 1 block water pond.
- MC-208352 – Dark forest hills don't generate small patches of plains or sunflower plains, but dark forest does.
- MC-208353 – Several hills biomes do not generate sporadically replacing patches of their regular biome counterparts.
- MC-208601 – Axolotls do not avoid danger when pathfinding.
- MC-212113 – Glow lichen can spawn underwater whilst not in a cave.
- MC-213779 – FPS dramatically decreases when looking up in world with large height.
- MC-214335 – Flower forest is much steeper than regular forest.
- MC-214783 – Oceans generate with stone floors.
- MC-214797 – Pointed dripstone can generate floating at transitions between local water levels.
- MC-214799 – Aquifers sometimes create air pockets.
- MC-214864 – Hard edges when new caves generate near surface.
- MC-214894 – Bamboo generates in caves under jungles.
- MC-214959 – Sugar cane generates in caves.
- MC-215296 – Mineshafts often don't generate in floating island worlds.
- MC-215876 – Dirt can generate below Y=0 from mineshafts.
- MC-216784 – Ruined portals don't generate below Y=0.
- MC-216952 – Some chunks interrupting with cave systems filled with blocks.
- MC-216967 – Kelp and seagrass can generate in aquifers.
- MC-217136 – Random noise pillars generating mid air.
- MC-217465 – Unnatural shape looking like a chunk border but appears to be completely unrelated to chunk borders.
- MC-217509 – Inefficient generation of aquifers, noise caves and ore veins.
- MC-217906 – Large amounts of axolotls cause performance issues.
- MC-218167 – Chatting causes lag to occur.
- MC-219774 – Magma blocks spawn everywhere underwater in 21w10a.
- MC-219946 – Weird flat sections of terrain.
- MC-221777 – Horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, and trader llamas do not follow players holding food.
- MC-221815 – Flat roofs in underwater caves.
- MC-221917 – Dripstone, pointed dripstone, and cave magma generate in oceans.
- MC-222051 – Iron ore generation was not increased in 21w13a.
- MC-222379 – Magma can spawn under air in underwater caves.
- MC-223044 – Floating water can generate in ravines.
- MC-223051 – Dripstone can generate in surface lakes.
- MC-223148 – Extended height message goes behind the scrolling bar.
- MC-224494 – Regular dirt can generate naturally on the surface near pools.
- MC-225030 – Dungeons are extremely rare compared to in the past.
- MC-225506 – Grass blocks can generate naturally in underground pools.
- MC-225781 – The noise cave lava level and the cave carver lava level generate 1 block apart.
- MC-225842 – Flowers can generate on large plants near lakes.
- MC-225858 – Seeds and flowers appear in ponds.
- MC-225949 – Parity issue: Different Bedrock and Java sign items textures.
- MC-226437 – Water lakes generating in snowy tundra's can sometimes contain dark spots.
- MC-227064 – Floating grass can still generate above water lakes.
- MC-227244 – Ore blocks from ore veins float in underwater magma ravines.
- MC-227398 – Misplaced pixel on cave vines texture.
- MC-229365 – Large amounts of goats cause performance issues.
- MC-230302 – Glow item frame item texture is missing two pixels.
- MC-230343 – Parity issue: Enchanting tables do not emit a light level of 7.
- MC-231400 – Modified badlands plateau and mountain edge don't generate and gives out invalid biome data in single biome worlds.
- MC-231863 – Game crashes when trying to access the Realms settings.
- MC-233050 –
#lava_pool_stone_replaceablestag name is misleading. - MC-233661 – In some cases, sand blocks generating over lakes do not cause light updates, resulting in large dark spots.
- MC-238006 – Emerald ore and infested blocks do not generate in snowy mountain biomes.
Planned additions
- An option for existing chunks to have new terrain generate below the bedrock layer, with the old bedrock layer replaced with deepslate[8]
Items
- Dropped by a goat if it rams into a block.
- When used for a short period of time, it makes a sound identical to the horn heard during raids.
Planned changes
World generation
- Copper ore will generate in a different fashion - the blob generation was a temporary solution.
- The fossils in the deepest part of the underground generate with Deepslate Diamond Ore instead of Coal Ore.
Unconfirmed features
Spore Blossom
Concept art showing how the spore blossom may open and close
- Can close.
- Between Java Edition snapshots 21w05a and 21w10a, many blocks (flowers, leaves, grass, ferns, sweet berry bushes, small dripleaves) had a block tag called "azalea_log_replaceable", possibly implying the existence of azalea logs.
Trivia
- This is the first major update for Java Edition that is split into two updates since Adventure Update in 2011.
- This is also the first update that starts with experimental snapshots, instead of regular snapshots.
Notes
References
- ↑ "Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs Update FAQ" – Minecraft Help Center, April 17, 2021. "the first (1.17) this summer, and the second (1.18) around the holiday season"
- ↑ "I've seen some confusion around 1.17 and 1.18, thinking that it's weird that Part 2 is considered 1.18. As a general note, remember that versions are just a way to keep track of changes in a game, and Part 2 will be considered 1.18 because it is a major version change from 1.17." – @kingbdogz on X, April 25, 2021
- ↑ "A Caves & Cliffs announcement" – Minecraft.net, April 14, 2021
- ↑ "Minecraft Snapshot 21w15a" – Minecraft.net, April 14, 2021
- ↑ Caves & Cliffs Prototype Data Pack for Minecraft Java Edition
- ↑ MC-236615
- ↑ MC-237493
- ↑ https://youtu.be/tJ6lV_ob23Q?t=12m15s