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15w31a[1] is the first snapshot released for Java Edition 1.9, and the first snapshot released in 2015.[note 1]

Additions[]

Blocks[]

Chorus flowers
  • Spawn on the top of the chorus trees.
  • Break if the supporting block below is broken.
    • It only drops when mined directly.
  • Can only be planted on end stone in any dimension.
  • Has a different texture when it can no longer grow.
Chorus plants
  • Generate in the End.
  • Can be grown using chorus flowers.
  • Breaks in quick succession if the supporting chorus plant below is broken.
  • Drop chorus fruit.
Dragon heads
  • While worn, the head's mouth opens and closes repeatedly when moving around.
  • When powered with redstone while placed on solid block, the jaw starts to open and close.
    • Will keep the mouth position of the exact moment it was unpowered.
End gateways
  • 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 generate after killing the dragon and traveling someplace new in the End with it.
  • Show yellow beacon beam when created and used.
End rods
  • Generate 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 placed on top of another rod, then it will have the opposite orientation.
  • Produce 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 bricks
  • Generates in the End city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with 4 blocks of end stone.
Grass paths
  • Are visually 15/16 block high
  • Obtainable by right-clicking grass with a shovel.
    • This reduces the shovel's durability by one.
  • Drop dirt, even when using silk touch.
  • Cannot be obtained from the creative inventory.
    • But unlike farmland, it can be obtained by using the pick block key in creative.
Purpur blocks
Purpur pillars
  • Generate in the end city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur slabs.
Purpur slabs
  • Generate in the end city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur blocks.
Purpur stairs
  • Generate in the end city dungeons.
  • Can be crafted with purpur blocks.
Structure blocks
  • Only placable via /setblock.
  • Can be used with NBT tag parameters (/setblock or /blockdata).
    • GUI is only used by Mojang employees.
  • Have a letter on the texture based on its mode.

Items[]

Arrows
  • New spectral arrows:
    • The tip is gold colored, but just in the item model.
    • Show mob and player outlines in their respective team color when hit – even when invisible.
    • NBT tag for entities to disable outlines. [Tag?] (please add corresponding tag here)
    • 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
  • Restore 1 (🍗).
  • Spawn naturally in villages.
  • Can be used to craft beetroot soup.
  • Can also be used to craft rose red dye.
Beetroot seeds
  • Used to grow beetroot.
Beetroot soup
Chorus fruits
  • 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 (like an enderman or shulker).
    • Does not heal hunger points if the hunger bar is full.
      • Otherwise it will heal 4 (🍗🍗).
  • Can be cooked in the furnace to obtain popped chorus fruits.
Popped chorus fruits
Shulker spawn eggs
  • Used to spawn a shulker.
  • Purple with darker purple spots.

Mobs[]

General
  • Mobs have a 5% chance to spawn left-handed, through the new LeftHanded boolean tag.
    • Mobs able to hold items, will hold them according to their dominant hand.
Shulkers
  • Short for "Shell Lurker".
  • Hostile mobs with the appearance of a purple block.
    • Only spawn on the ground or at the walls of end cities when they first generate.
  • When attacking, they open their shell with a spinning animation, revealing the creature inhabiting.
    • The creature looks like a little white cube with big eyes.
    • Its attack consists of shooting projectiles.
      • The projectiles chase the player until the projectile is out of range.
        • They can only move along one of the three grid axes at a time and on integer steps.
      • 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.
        • Their shells are considered armor, and bounce arrows off.
    • It has an idle animation, where it opens its shells a little to peak through.
  • Can be pushed by pistons, and resists being placed on any position that isn't 3 integers (except if they are on minecarts).
  • Can teleport like an enderman.
    • 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).
  • Is one of the few entities (apart from boats and minecarts) that can be stood upon.
    • It even displaces the player properly during its attacking and idle animations.

World generation[]

End cities
  • Generate on the new outer end islands.
  • Dungeon-type structure fashioned like a branching tower made of end stone and many of the new blocks.
    • Resemble a tree house.
  • Generate with shulkers in it.
End ships
  • Can generate up in the air, right next to an end city.
    • Always generate sailing away from what appears to be a pier.
    • Composed of many of the same materials as the end city.
  • Generate with shulkers in it.
  • Have 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.
  • Generate on the outer end islands
  • 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 portals
  • Small structures consisting of an end gateway block and two little bulbs of bedrock, at both the bottom and the top.
    • Are 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 throwing ender pearls at it, or by riding pigs, boats or minecarts.
      • The player will be teleported to somewhere on the outer end islands.
      • The final location of the player depends on what angle they entered or at what angle the ender pearl was thrown at.
  • One gateway is created for each dragon kill.
    • Up to 20 are possible this way.
    • Gateways spawn in a radius around the end portal.
    • Another gateway is created every time the player teleports to a new location.
      • The created gateway is linked to the original so the player has a way back.

Command format[]

NBT tags
  • Added tags HandItems, ArmorItems, HandDropChances, and ArmorDropChances to Living.
  • Added tags HandItems and ArmorItems to ArmorStand.
  • Added tag Glowing to Entity.
  • Added tag Team to LivingBase.
  • Added tag DragonPhase to EnderDragon
  • Added entity Shulker, child of SnowMan.
  • Added entity ShulkerBullet, child of Entity.
  • Added entity DragonFireball, which extends FireballBase and has no unique tags.
  • Added entities TippedArrow and SpectralArrow, children of Arrow.
  • Added block EndGateway, child of TileEntity.
  • Added block Structure, child of TileEntity.
  • Added item tag Potion, child of tag.

Gameplay[]

Dominant hand option
  • An option for players to change their dominant hand on their player model.
    • Under "Skin Customization".
  • Changes the orientation of the offhand slot in the hotbar (left often suits right-hand players better and vice versa).
Dual wielding
  • Players can now use both hands at the same time to do different actions, with the left and right mouse buttons.
    • For example, if a player has a pickaxe in their main hand and a torch in their other hand, right clicking will place the torch.
      • This happens because a pickaxe lacks a right click use, and therefore the game tries to then treat the other item as if it's being right 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 offhand slot is displayed next to the hotbar when it's not empty (left for right-hand players and vice versa).
  • Only the main hand can be used for attacking.
    • Even bows can't be used in the offhand.
  • Bows can be used when something else is in the offhand.
    • Arrows in the offhand take priority over arrows in the rest of the inventory slots.
  • The offhand model is invisible in first person view, while it's empty.
  • Some attributes and enchantments will apply to the offhand item, while others will not.
Status effects
  • Levitation
    • 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 does nothing.
      • Effect level 254 results in slow fall (similar to lunar gravity).
  • Glowing
    • Received when players or mobs are hit by spectral arrows.
    • Makes player's outline glow, seen even through non-transparent blocks.
      • The outline includes the models of the currently held items.
    • Listed as a negative effect, because it prevents players from hiding from other players.
    • It becomes colored differently if the player is part of a team, to match its team color.

Changes[]

Blocks[]

Dead bushes
  • Will now drop anywhere between 0–2 sticks when broken without shears.
Doors
  • Changed the shading on acacia, birch, dark oak and jungle doors.
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.
Glass panes and iron bars
  • Glass panes/iron bars without any connecting blocks are now 2×2 pixels in footprint.
    • This is compared to the big cross configuration that was the default.
Pressure plates
  • Now have a slightly thinner item model.
Redstone Wire
  • Model was changed somewhat, resulting in subtle appearance differences.
  • Before:
    Inactive Redstone Wire (unconnected) JE1 Inactive Redstone Wire (NS) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (EW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NE) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (ES) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (SW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NEW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NES) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (ESW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NSW) JE3 Inactive Redstone Wire (NESW) JE3
    Active Redstone Wire (unconnected) JE1 Active Redstone Wire (NS) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (EW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NE) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (ES) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (SW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NEW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NES) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (ESW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NSW) JE3 Active Redstone Wire (NESW) JE3
  • After:
    Inactive Redstone Wire (unconnected) JE2 Inactive Redstone Wire (NS) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (EW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NE) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (ES) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (SW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NEW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NES) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (ESW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NSW) JE4 Inactive Redstone Wire (NESW) JE4
    Active Redstone Wire (unconnected) JE2Active Redstone Wire (NS) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (EW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NE) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (ES) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (SW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NEW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NES) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (ESW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NSW) JE4 Active Redstone Wire (NESW) JE4
Stairs
  • Are now rotated 90° in the inventory.
Trapdoors
  • No longer require supporting blocks.
    • Therefore they can be moved by pistons freely.
  • An open trapdoor may be climbed like a ladder if it is directly above one and on the same side of the block.

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.
Chests
  • Unlike other blocks: chests, trapped chests and ender chests have their item model rotated, to have the front face in view of the player.
    • This made it easier to distinguish between trapped and regular chests while being held, since only their front face is different.
Ender pearls
Fishing rods
  • Casting fishing rods now has an animation in the hotbar/inventory.
Maps
  • Now display as a mini map when held in the off hand, or if the offhand slot is occupied.
    • The (old) large version is visible only when held in the dominant hand with both hands-free.
Potions

Mobs[]

Chickens
Ender dragons
  • Similar to the one on Legacy Console Edition.
  • The dragon can be re-spawned indefinitely 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.
Endermen
  • Remain aggravated towards the player despite being in contact with water.
  • Drop the block they were holding when killed.
Pigs
Skeletons
  • Have an animation for lifting up and drawing back their bow.
Villagers
  • Farmer villagers now harvest beetroot.

Non-mob entities[]

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

World generation[]

The End
  • A set amount of differently-sized obsidian pillars are arranged in a circular fashion.
  • The exit portal is pre-generated at the center of the island, but without the dragon egg and portal blocks.
  • Now generates a great amount of islands in every direction from the main island, though separated from it in all directions by an empty gap of about 1,000 blocks.
    • 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

Command format[]

NBT tags
  • Tag Equipment (under Living) has become deprecated.
  • Tag DropChances (under Living) has become deprecated.

Gameplay[]

Crosshair
  • No longer shows the crosshair in 3rd person view.
Inventory
  • Rearranged the survival inventory and the creative "survival tab" to accommodate for the new offhand slot.
  • Unified the orientation of many items in the inventory.
Status effects
  • Status effects icons 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 and 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.

General[]

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, offhand, 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 item is held in a different hand.
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • UV is now optional, and if not supplied it will automatically generate based on the element's position.
Options
  • Removed the Broadcast Settings section, as well as Twitch integration as a whole.
  • Removed Super Secret Settings and Alternate Blocks from video settings.
Resource packs
  • Updated resource pack pack_formatto 2 as the following has changed:
  • Older resource packs require user acknowledgment to use.
Structure data
  • Now comes from /assets/structures.

Fixes[]

13 issues fixed
From released versions before 1.9
  • MC-438 – Ender pearl can't be used in creative mode.
  • MC-1537 – Sometimes doors in strongholds are misplaced.
  • MC-1663 – Dying while having a GUI window open doesn't make the death screen appear.
  • 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-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.

Video[]

Video made by slicedlime:

Trivia[]

  • Before 18w43a, 15w31a holds the record as having the most content in one developmental release, having nearly twice as much content as Java Edition 1.4.2 had in October 2012.
  • 15w31a was previously removed from the launcher for some time, but was added back in September 2018.

Footnotes[]

  1. Not counting 15w14a, which was an April Fools' hoax snapshot

References[]

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