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15w31a[1] is the first snapshot released for 1.9.

At 345 days since 14w34d, it is the longest time between snapshots for major updates.

Additions

Gameplay

Dominant hand option
  • An option for players to change their dominant hand on their player model.
  • Also changes the orientation of the offhand slot in the hotbar.
Dual wielding
  • Players can now use both hands at the same time to do different actions, with the left and right buttons.
    • For example, if a player has a pickaxe in his/her main hand and a torch in their other hand, right clicking will place the torch.
      • This happens because because a pickaxe lacks a right click use, and therefore the game tries to then treat the other item as if it's being left clicked.
      • The player cannot click both buttons at the same time.
    • This is achieved through an extra inventory slot called the "offhand" slot.
      • Pressing F (by default) will switch whatever item is selected in the hotbar with the item in the offhand (including no item).
      • The off-hand slot is displayed next to the hotbar when it's not empty (left for right-hand players and vice versa) and it's also available in the inventory screen.
  • Only the main hand can be used for attacking.
    • That means even bows can't be used on the other hand.
  • Bows can be used even when something is in the other hand.
    • That is also an optional way of prioritizing arrows used for shooting.
  • The other hand is invisible in first person view while it's empty.
  • Some attributes and enchantments will apply to the off-hand item, while others will not.
Status effects
  • Levitation status effect:
    • Received when the player is hit by shulker projectiles.
    • Makes player involuntarily float high into the air.
      • Can be used to get to higher places.
    • Listed as a negative effect due to the potential to kill from fall damage
    • Higher levels of levitation result in faster floating except for the last two:
      • Effect level 255 results in neither floating up nor down.
      • Effect level 254 results in slow fall (similar to lunar gravity).
  • Glowing status effect:
    • Received when players or mobs are hit by spectral arrows.
    • Makes player's outline glow, seen even through non-transparent blocks.
    • Listed as a negative effect because it prevents you from hiding from players once you are hit.
    • It becomes colored differently, if the player is part of a team to match the team color.
      • This makes it useful in a variety of multiplayer maps.

World generation

End City
  • Generates on separate end islands, arranged around the main island in a toroidal configuration (donut-like).
  • Dungeon-type structure fashioned like a branching tower made of endstone and many of the new blocks.
    • Resemble a tree house.
End ships
  • Spawns right next to the end city dungeon.
    • Composed of the same materials.
  • Spawns with shulkers in it.
  • Has a speed beacon, a brewing stand with potions of healing and other various loot.
Chorus trees
  • Tree-like arrangements of the new chorus plant and chorus flower blocks.
  • The whole structure is destroyed when the bottom-most block is destroyed, like cacti.
  • Can be farmed by planting the chorus fruit flowers that come from the top of the plants.
    • Unlike cacti, chorus plants do not require the supporting block to be below it, but rather adjacent.
      • This allows the structure to grow around obstacles, like other plants.
End Gateway Portal
  • A small structure consisting of an end gateway block and two little bulbs of bedrock, at both the bottom and the top.
    • It is an alternative way of traveling to the outer end islands, without having to build or fly all the way over there.
    • Since the bulbs of bedrock only leave a one block slit on the horizontal plane, it is only accessible by using ender pearls, or by riding pigs, boats or minecarts.
      • The player will get teleported to somewhere on the outer end islands
      • The final location of the player depends on what angle he/she entered or at what angle the enderpearl was thrown at.
  • One of them is created for each dragon kill and up to 20 are possible.
    • Placed in a radius around the end portal.
    • Another one is also created everytime the player teleports to a new location, so both gateways are linked, and the player has a way back.

Blocks

Chorus flower
  • Spawn on the top of the chorus trees.
  • Breaks if the supporting block below is broken.
    • It only drops when mined directly.
  • Can only be planted on end stone in any dimension.
  • It will show a different texture when it stops growing.
Chorus plant
Dragon head
  • While a player wears the head and moves, the head's mouth opens and closes repeatedly.
  • When powered with redstone while it's placed on solid block, the jaw starts to open and close.
    • It will keep the mouth position of the exact moment it was unpowered.
End Gateway
  • A portal block used to transport the player to the new outer regions of the end.
    • The texture is identical to the end portal block, but the model is that of a full block rather than plane.
  • The player cannot use pick block or /give to obtain it.
  • Naturally generates after killing the dragon and traveling someplace new in the End with it.
  • Shows yellow beacon beam when created and used.
End rod
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Placeable horizontally and vertically.
    • The model has a little base that is oriented against the block it was placed on.
      • If it's placed on top of another rod, then it will have the opposite orientation.
  • Produces white particles.
  • Used as a lighting source with the same efficacy as torches.
  • Unlike torches, they are tangible.
    • Horizontal end rods can be stepped up onto like slabs.
End stone brick
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with 4 blocks of end stone.
Grass path
  • Are visually 15/16 block high
  • Obtainable by right-clicking grass with a shovel.
    • Drains the shovel's durability.
  • Drops dirt, even when using silk touch.
  • Cannot be obtained in the creative inventory.
    • But unlike farmland, it can be obtained by using the pick block key in creative.
Purpur block
Purpur pillar
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur slabs.
Purpur stairs
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur blocks.
Purpur slab
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur blocks.
Structure block
  • Only placable via /setblock.
  • Can be used with NBT tag parameters (/setblock or /blockdata)
    • GUI is only used by Mojang employees
  • Has a letter on the texture based on it's mode.

Items

Arrows
  • New spectral arrow:
    • The tip is gold colored in both the item and the entity model.
    • Shows mob and player outlines in their respective team color when hit – even when invisible.
    • NBT tag for entities to disable outlines.
    • NBT tag to force outline: {Glowing:1b}.
    • The glowing is a status effect.
    • Crafted by surrounding an arrow with 4 glowstone dust.
      • Yields 2 spectral arrows.
  • Arrows can be tipped with potions.
    • 14 new arrow types in total.
    • Each differently tipped arrow is available in the creative menu, just like enchanted books.
    • Corresponding effect is applied on hit.
Beetroot
  • Restores 1 (🍗).
  • Spawns naturally in villages.
  • Can be used to craft beetroot soup.
  • Can also be used to craft rose red dye.
Beetroot soup
Beetroot seeds
  • Used to grow beetroots.
Chorus fruit
  • Obtained from chorus plants.
  • Can be eaten even if the player is not hungry, similar to Golden Apples.
    • Teleports the player to a random nearby location when eaten.
    • Does not heal hunger points if hunger bar is full.
      • Otherwise it will heal 4 (🍗🍗)
  • Can be cooked in Furnaces to obtain Popped Chorus Fruits.
Popped chorus fruit
Shulker spawn egg
  • Used to spawn a shulker.

Mobs

  • Mobs have a 5% chance to spawn left-handed, through the LeftHanded boolean tag.
    • Mobs able to hold items, will hold them according to their dominant hand.
Shulker
  • Short for "Shell Lurker".
  • A hostile mob with the appearance of a purple block.
    • Only spawns on the ground or at the walls of end cities when they first generate.
  • When attacking, it opens its shell on a spinning animation, revealing the creature inhabiting.
    • The creature looks a like a little white cube with big eyes
    • Its attack consists in shooting projectiles
      • The projectiles chase the player until it's out of range, but they can only move along one of the three grid axes at a time.
      • Projectiles can be knocked away by attacking them.
      • Getting hit by a projectile causes 2 hearts of damage and inflicts the levitation status effect.
      • They take more damage while their shell is open.
  • It can be pushed by pistons, and resists being placed on any position that isn't 3 integers (except if they are on minecarts).
  • It can teleport like an Enderman.
    • It sometimes does this while being attacked or placed in unusual circumstances:
      • Removing its support block.
      • Pushing it into a non-air block (except piston heads).
      • Pushing a non-air block into its position (except piston heads).
  • It's one of the few entities (apart form boats and minecarts) that can be stood upon.
    • It even displaces the player properly during its attacking animation.

Changes

General

Options
  • Removed Super Secret Settings and the Broadcast Settings section.
  • Removed Alternate Blocks from video settings.
Attributes
  • CustomNameVisible:true will make the name tag on mobs show in the same way as on players.
  • Entities can now be summoned straight to teams: {team="TeamName"}.
  • DropChances and Equipment tags are no longer used.
    • ArmorItems, HandItems, ArmorDropChances and HandDropChances are used instead.
Bosses
  • Proper support for multiple bosses’ health bars, so they show at the same time without obstructing each other.
Damage tooltips
  • Items can damage differently based on where they are placed to (main hand, other hand, armor slots)
Death messages
  • Death messages will now be displayed on the player's death screen as well as in the chat.
Models
  • Different models/textures can be used for each different damage values, item states, and whether the player is left handed.
    • This works on compasses, clocks, and anything that can have a durability bar.
    • It also contains additional tags for bows and fishing rods.
  • Models can be put together based on block state attributes, such as fences.
    • As a result, the vanilla set of block models was reduced by almost 300 models.
  • Block model JSON is now strict: comments and quote-less identifiers are not allowed.
  • "display" tag defaults have changed, and the "thirdperson" and "firstperson" tags were replaced with "thirdperson_righthand", "thirdperson_lefthand", "firstperson_righthand", and "firstperson_lefthand".
  • "parent" and "elements" tags can coexist now, though the top level elements tag overwrites all former ones.
Resource packs
  • The required pack version number was changed to "2" in pack.mcmeta.
  • Old resource packs require user acknowledgement to use.
Structure data
  • Now comes from /assets/structures.

Gameplay

Inventory
  • Rearranged the survival inventory and the creative "survival tab" to accommodate for the new off hand slot.
  • Unified the orientation of many items in the inventory.
Status effects
  • Status effects are now displayed on the HUD on the right hand corner, instead of just in the inventory (similar to Pocket Edition).
    • They are ordered by the time of infliction from right to left.
    • Positive effects are on the top row, negative effects on the bottom row.
    • Effects that are about to run out blink.
      • They blink faster when they are closer to running out and start fading away.

World generation

The End
  • A set amount of differently-sized obsidian pillars are arranged in a circular fashion.
    • The tallest pillars have iron bars around their ender crystal.
      • This makes it so that you have to climb some of the pillars, making the fight harder.
  • The exit portal is pre-generated at the center of the island, but without the dragon egg and portal blocks.
  • New outer regions of the end with "satellite islands" spread through a radius.
    • Mini islands generate between the center and main islands.
    • End islands and mini end islands have chorus trees spread throughout them.
The Nether
  • Removed the Nether fog.
Villages

Blocks

Dead bushes
  • Will now drop anywhere between 0–2 sticks.
Fire
  • The block states flip and alt were removed, and the integer state upper was reimplemented as the byte state up.
    • This reduced the number of states representing fire from 3072 to 512.
Trapdoors
  • No longer require supporting blocks.
  • Can be moved with pistons freely.
Stairs
  • Are now rotated 90° in the inventory.
Pressure Plates
  • Have now a slightly thinner item model.
Glass panes & Iron bars
  • Glass panes/iron bars without any connecting blocks are now 2x2 pixels in footprint.
    • This is compared to the big cross configuration that was default.

Items

Bows
  • The bow in the hotbar now shows an animation for drawing back an arrow.
  • Arrows in the off hand are prioritized over arrows in the rest of the inventory slots.
Ender pearls
  • Can now be thrown in creative mode
Maps
  • Now display as a mini map when held in the off hand, or if the off-hand slot is occupied.
    • The (old) large version is visible only when held in the dominant hand with both hands free.
Fishing rods
  • Casting fishing rods now has an animation in the hotbar/inventory.
Potions
  • Mixed potions' colors now blend.
  • Numeric IDs are no longer used. Instead an NBT "Potion" tag is used.
    • e.g. /give <target> minecraft:potion 1 0 {Potion:"minecraft:swiftness"}
  • Splash potions now have a separate data value and ID name and can be created from all potions, including water bottles.
  • Added Mundane, Thick and Awkward potions to the creative inventory.
  • Glowstone dust or redstone can no longer be added to extended or tier-II potions respectively.
  • Most recipes for Potion of Weakness were removed (see: brewing for all recipes removed).

Mobs

Ender dragon
  • Similar to the one on console edition.
  • The dragon can be re-spawned indefinitely many times, by creating a creeper face configuration out of clay in the End.
    • Subsequent dragons will spawn new gateways, but won't drop XP or create new dragon eggs.
  • The dragon AI and attacks has been changed:
    • Breathes fire/purple particles on players and mobs, while on top of the portal.
    • Drops fireballs on top of the player.
    • Defends the obsidian pillars more, the further the fight progresses.
  • The dragon flies and stops over the portal sometimes, only then can the last blow be dealt.
Villagers
  • Farmer villagers now harvest beetroot.
Skeletons
  • Have an animation for lifting up and drawing back their bow.
  • Mapmakers can make skeletons shoot potion-tipped arrows.
Endermen
  • Remain aggravated towards the player despite being in contact with water.
  • Drop the block they were holding when killed.
Pigs
Chickens

Non-mob entities

Projectiles
  • Slightly altered the path of projectiles.[2][verify]
Armor stands
  • Can now be summoned to dual wield with commands in creative.

Fixes

15 issues fixed
From released versions before 1.9
  • MC-438 – Ender pearl can't be used in creative mode
  • MC-849 – Eating a food item / drinking potion / curing zombie has a chance of also consuming a second food item / potion without any animation
  • MC-1537 – Sometimes doors in strongholds are misplaced
  • MC-1663 – Dying while having a gui window open doesn't make appear the death screen
  • MC-1956 – Arms misplaced in skeletons with a bow
  • MC-2768 – Ladder Bug with Trapdoors.
  • MC-4474 – Boss health bar temporarily viewable after respawn and loading another world
  • MC-5404 – Name Tags/XP Orbs/Splash Potions are angled in third-person mode
  • MC-42841 – Incorrect Creative Instant Health Damage value
  • MC-47526 – Ender Crystal entity spawning 1 block too low
  • MC-53897 – Torches in Villages, Stronghold, & End exit portal spawned dropped
  • MC-56268 – Breaking the bedrock below an Ender Crystal (in the End) creates performance drops, rapidly flickering light
  • MC-68062 – Boss health bar only visible when looking at boss
  • MC-69320 – Data tag output by /entitydata and /blockdata contains too many commas
  • MC-75082 – End music will stop every time the ender dragon loads out of view

References

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