This article is about the 2012 Halloween update. For the 2010 Halloween update, see Halloween Update.
The Pretty Scary Update is a planned major update labeled as 1.4 with an aimed release near October 24[1]. It is planned to have a number of different mobs and variants, wearable and placeable heads, a new boss (Wither), the Command Block and the Beacon.
Development on Minecraft 1.4 started after the 1.3.2 update, which was released on August 16, 2012. So far, 15 snapshots from 12w32a to 12w42b have been released. It is expected that more snapshots and a pre-release will be available before the launch on October 24.
The name of the update: "The Pretty Scary Update" was revealed with Snapshot 12w36a.[2] He first revealed the 1.4 release date with Snapshot 12w40a, where he stated that he was fully into the "Prepare for release" mode.[3]
The Pretty Scary Update was supposed to include the Mojang API, however this, as well as lighting, rendering and redstone changes will arrive in a later version of Minecraft (most likely 1.5).
Note : Very few references are provided here since most of this content has been directly released in weekly snapshots 12w32a–.
General
Improved server list
Server IPs can now be hidden individually when editing or adding a server
Server version is now displayed left of the connection bars
Server ping tooltip now shows if the server and client have mismatching protocol versions
Mismatching servers can't be joined
Improved settings menu
Renamed Chat Settings to Multiplayer Settings
Added an option for cape-owners to hide their capes in-game
Added Fullscreen and VSync toggles
Improved F3 mode
The piechart is now shown when using shift+F3 instead of vice versa
Added the cardinal direction and the degree value to the ‘’f’’ value indicating the direction the player is facing
Now shows which chunk and where in that chunk the player is in on X and Z values
Pressing P while holding F3 will toggle the auto-pause when the Minecraft window loses focus
Pressing H while holding F3 will toggle detailed item descriptions, which additionally show item id, damage value, color code, tool/armor/weapon damage and map zoom level and scale on the tooltip
Pressing T while holding F3 will reload the texture pack
Preset format with example: 95;35:2;2x20;1;stronghold – 95 is the format version, followed by a semicolon and the layer information. Every new layer is separated by a comma and must consist of the block id (35) and can additionally have :2 appended to specify 2 as the data value. Before that, you can put 2x to specify that this layer should be put 2 times. After a semicolon follows the biome id. After another semicolon follow all structures to be generated, including their options.
Continuously glows and gives a selected status effect to players within 16 blocks while beaming a beacon of light directly upwards (as bright as glowstone)
Activated by building a pyramid of iron/gold/emerald/diamond blocks underneath and selecting an effect
The cheapest configuration requires 9 blocks, while the best configuration requires 164 blocks
Has to be directly exposed to skylight to work
Building square platforms of increasing size and the same material per layer will activate it and increase range and status effect selection
Viable materials are iron, gold, diamond and emerald blocks
Changing selected status effects costs 1 emerald, diamond, gold ingot or iron ingot
Unlockable effects, with increasing amount of required layers of blocks required:
Speed and Haste
Resistance and Jump Boost
Strength
When all 4 layers of blocks underneath are built correctly, a second status effect can be chosen -*** Regeneration or tier II of the previously chosen effect
Effects given by the Beacon will have less intrusive particles than others on the screen, such as those of potions
Used for repairing and combining enchanted items as well as for renaming any item/block for experience levels
Tools can also be repaired using one piece of their material
Enchantments that are the same are upgraded by one level as long as they are both the same level and the higher level exists
Conflicting enchantments will be removed and only the first one will be kept
Becomes damaged from using and dropping it - Damage persists in inventory and splits up into 3 categories: Anvil, Slightly Damaged Anvil & Very Damaged Anvil
Can be placed in 4 orientations, but can't be moved by pistons
Experience level cost depends on enchantment levels & rarities, whether the item will be renamed and wether the item has been used with an anvil before - Maximum experience level cost is 39 levels[27]
Is affected by gravity and does 1 heart of damage to mobs and players it falls on per block it fell, excluding the first one - Players killed by a falling anvil cause the death message "Player was squashed by a falling anvil" to appear in chat
After spawning, it flashes blue, builds up health, grows slightly and is invincible for a few seconds - Then it explodes and starts attacking players and mobs
Each head can fire projectiles, so called Wither Skulls, at different targets - Projectiles explode on impact
Shoots two kinds of projectile - a blue one from the little heads, targeting mobs and a dark one from the big head targeting players
When hit by projectiles, players get the ‘’Wither II’’ effect, which acts like a slower poison effect that can kill and turns affected players' health bars' hearts black
Constantly regenerates health
Gains Wither armor when taken down to half health, making it immune to arrows
When killed, they drop what they are holding [65][66]
All equipped gear is functional - Swords and tools do more damage on attacks, armor protects the mob
Rare tool drops now are damaged when it drops
More advanced gear is more likely to spawn with mobs when playing on harder difficulties and rarely drops when the mob is killed by players
When wearing helmets, they will not burn up - Instead all damage will is applied to the helmet [67]
Using modified mob spawners they can have a custom drop rate of items and hold and wear all kinds of items and blocks
Now have a chance, depending on difficulty, to infect villagers after killing them - The villager then gets replaced with a villager zombie on death [68][69]
On Normal difficulty, there is a 50% chance of infection and on Hard difficulty there is a 100% chance of infection[70]
Infected baby villagers turn into baby villager zombies [71][72]
Baby zombies are 50% faster, don't age, don't burn up in the sun and can wear armor[73][74][75][76][77]
Right-clicking a villager zombie under the influence of a Weakness potion with a golden apple will invert their potion effect, make them wiggle slightly and eventually turn back into a villager [78]
Now rarely spawn holding iron swords or iron shovels
When holding something in their hands, their arms move upwards when attacking
Added baby zombie, which is only spawnable using mods or third-party tools
Will now rarely drop carrots and potatoes when killed by players
Will like players less for hurting them or their golems
When players are really disliked, iron golems of that village can become aggressive towards those players
After a villager dies to natural causes, excluding mobs, while a player is within 16 blocks or if a mob kills a villager, no baby villagers will be produced in the next few minutes
Changed and added some trades to counteract emerald farming and improve gameplay
Will show particle effects indicating a change of liking towards a player