15w31a[1] is the first snapshot released for Java Edition 1.9, and the first snapshot released in 2015.[note 1]
Additions[]
Blocks[]
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.- It can only be set by using
/setblock
.
- It can only be set by using
- Naturally generate after killing the dragon and traveling someplace new in the End with it.
- Show yellow beacon beam when created and used.
- 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.
- The model has a little base that is oriented against the block it was placed on.
- 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.
- Generates in the End city dungeons.
- Can be crafted with 4 blocks of end stone.
- 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.
- Generate in the end city dungeons.
- Can be crafted with popped chorus fruit.
- Generate in the end city dungeons.
- Can be crafted with purpur slabs.
- Generate in the end city dungeons.
- Can be crafted with purpur blocks.
- Generate in the end city dungeons.
- Can be crafted with purpur 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[]
- 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.
- Restore 1 ().
- Spawn naturally in villages.
- Can be used to craft beetroot soup.
- Can also be used to craft rose red dye.
- Used to grow beetroot.
- Obtained from chorus plants.
- Can be eaten even if the player is not hungry, similar to golden apples.
- Can be cooked in the furnace to obtain popped chorus fruits.
- Obtained from cooking chorus fruit.
- Used to craft purpur blocks.
- Cannot be eaten.
- 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.
- 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.
- This means they can move only via taxicab geometry.
- 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.
- The projectiles chase the player until the projectile is out of range.
- 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).
- Sometimes does this while being attacked or placed in unusual circumstances:
- 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[]
- 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.
- 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.
- Unlike cacti, chorus plants do not require the supporting block to be below it, but rather adjacent.
- 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[]
- Added tags
HandItems
,ArmorItems
,HandDropChances
, andArmorDropChances
toLiving
. - Added tags
HandItems
andArmorItems
toArmorStand
. - Added tag
Glowing
toEntity
. - Added tag
Team
toLivingBase
. - Added tag
DragonPhase
toEnderDragon
- Added entity
Shulker
, child ofSnowMan
. - Added entity
ShulkerBullet
, child ofEntity
. - Added entity
DragonFireball
, which extendsFireballBase
and has no unique tags. - Added entities
TippedArrow
andSpectralArrow
, children ofArrow
. - Added block
EndGateway
, child ofTileEntity
. - Added block
Structure
, child ofTileEntity
. - Added item tag
Potion
, child oftag
.
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).
- 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).
- It's also available in the inventory screen.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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[]
- Changed the shading on acacia, birch, dark oak and jungle doors.
- 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.
- Now have a slightly thinner item model.
- Are now rotated 90° in the inventory.
- 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[]
- 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.
- 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.
- Can now be thrown in creative mode.
- Casting fishing rods now has an animation in the hotbar/inventory.
- 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.
- 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"}
- e.g.
- 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; only brewing from a water bottle remains.
- Potion of Slowness can no longer be brewed from a potion of Fire Resistance.
- Potion of Harming can no longer be brewed from a potion of Water Breathing.
Mobs[]
- Can be led and bred with melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds.
- 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.
- Remain aggravated towards the player despite being in contact with water.
- Drop the block they were holding when killed.
- Have an animation for lifting up and drawing back their bow.
- Farmer villagers now harvest beetroot.
Non-mob entities[]
- Can now be summoned to dual wield with commands in creative.
- Projectiles
- Slightly altered the path of projectiles.[2]
World generation[]
- A set amount of differently-sized obsidian pillars are arranged in a circular fashion.
- The tallest pillars have iron bars around their ender crystal to deflect projectiles.
- 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.
- Removed the Nether fog.
- Farms now include beetroot crops.
Command format[]
- NBT tags
- Tag
Equipment
(underLiving
) has become deprecated. - Tag
DropChances
(underLiving
) has become deprecated.
Gameplay[]
- Crosshair
- No longer shows the crosshair in 3rd person view.
- 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 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
andEquipment
tags are no longer used.ArmorItems
,HandItems
,ArmorDropChances
andHandDropChances
are used instead.
- 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 will now be displayed on the player's death screen as well as in the chat.
- 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 thethirdperson
andfirstperson
tags were replaced withthirdperson_righthand
,thirdperson_lefthand
,firstperson_righthand
, andfirstperson_lefthand
.parent
andelements
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.
- Removed the Broadcast Settings section, as well as Twitch integration as a whole.
- Removed Super Secret Settings and Alternate Blocks from video settings.
- Updated resource pack
pack_format
to2
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.
- The previous record was held by 13w36a for Java Edition 1.7.2.
- 15w31a was previously removed from the launcher for some time, but was added back in September 2018.