Java Edition 1.21.6/Development versions

This is a list of Java Edition 1.21.6 development versions.

25w15a

25w15a is the first snapshot for Java Edition 1.21.6, released on April 8, 2025.

Additions

Blocks

Dried Ghast

• Found in Nether fossils in soul sand valleys.
• Can be crafted with 1 bone block and 8 ghast tears.

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Ghast Tear + Bone Block

• Can be mined instantly without using a tool.
• When waterlogged, it undergoes 3 states over about 20 minutes until it spawns a ghastling mob.
• Makes sounds and shows particles depending on state.
• If mined during the waterlogging, it will revert to its "dry" state regardless of what state it has reached during waterlogging.
  • Will revert states back to its initial "dry" state when it is taken away from being waterlogged, using the same time scale.
• Can be moved by pistons.

Items

Happy Ghast Spawn Egg

• Used to spawn a happy ghast.

Harness

• Crafted out of 3 leather, 2 glass and 1 wool, the harness will have the same color as the wool used when crafting.

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Leather + Glass + Matching Wool

• Used to fly on happy ghasts.
  • Can only be equipped on a happy ghast.
  • Allows up to 4 players to mount the happy ghast.
• Have 16 variants, matching the color of wool used to craft the harness.
  • Can be re-dyed.

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Any Harness + Matching Dye

• Can be removed from the happy ghast using shears, but only when no players are mounted.

Mobs

Ghastling

• Spawned after a dried ghast gets hydrated in water.
  • Can also be summoned using the command: /summon happy_ghast ~ ~ ~ {Age:-24000}.
• Has 20HP × 10 health points.
• Will grow up into a Happy Ghast after about 20 minutes (or faster if fed Snowballs).
  • Can be tempted and fed using snowballs to speed up their growth.
• After spawning, a ghastling will try and follow:
  • Players within a 16-block radius.
  • Or an adult, non-aquatic passive mob (and some neutral mobs) within a 16-block radius.
• If no player or suitable mob is close around the ghastling will idle around within 32 blocks from its home position (where it spawned or last was interacted with).
  • It will reset its home position if it is moved more than 16 blocks away from the border of its home area.

Happy Ghast

• Spawned after a ghastling gets fed enough snowballs.
• Has 20HP × 10 health points.
• A rideable entity, which can be equipped with a harness and ridden by up to four players.
  • When a player mounts, the goggles on the happy ghast go down to cover its eyes, indicating that it now can be controlled.
  • Players mounted after the first player piloting the happy ghast are placed in slots on each side of it, starting clockwise from the first player.
  • Pressing crouch button dismounts the player on top.
  • 3rd person camera is moved back when player is mounted.
  • If players dismount midair, the happy ghast will descend towards the ground before it resumes roaming.
• The first player that mounts the Happy Ghast will control it, sitting in front of the Happy Ghast, just above its face.
  • Pressing the forward key will make the Happy Ghast fly in the direction the player is looking.
  • Pressing the back key will make the Happy Ghast fly in the opposite direction the player is looking.
  • Pressing the left and right keys will strafe the Happy Ghast in the respective direction.
  • Pressing the jump key will make the Happy Ghast fly directly up.
• Can be stood on, similar to a shulker.
  • If the happy ghast detects players on top of it, it then ceases all movement and aligns to the closest cardinal horizontal direction.
    • This happens regardless of it having a harness equipped or not.
• When not being ridden, can be tempted by players holding snowballs and harness.
  • However, they can not be bred.
  • Harness tempting only works if the Happy Ghast is unharnessed.
• Has no panic behavior when taking damage.
• Slowly regenerates health, with regeneration speeding up during rain, snow or when flying at the same height as clouds are rendered.
• Can be burned by fire and lava, as opposed to regular ghasts.
• Cannot enter boats, but can enter minecarts.
• When there are no players mounted or walking on the happy ghast, the goggles go up and the happy ghast starts to roam around the home position.
• Idles around within 64 blocks from its home position in the similar way as the ghastling.
  • If wearing a harness, the happy ghast idles closer to the home position (within 32 blocks).
  • The Happy Ghast will try to stay close to blocks when roaming on its own.
• Does not drop anything other than experience.

Command format

/version

• No arguments.
• Prints current version information on server side.
• Available in singleplayer or for server operators.

Gameplay

Advancements

• Added 2 new advancements:
  • Stay Hydrated!
    • Place a Dried Ghast block into water
  • Heart Transplanter
    • Place a Creaking Heart with the correct alignment between two Pale Oak Log blocks

General

Attributes

• Added camera_distance
  • Default value: 4.0
  • Modifies the distance at which the camera is placed away from the player or spectated entity when in a third-person view.
  • If the entity being ridden has a larger camera_distance attribute, that distance will be used.
  • This distance is multiplied by the scale attribute to get a final target camera distance.

Controls

• Added F3 + V.
  • Prints client-side version information.

Statistics

• Added minecraft:happy_ghast_one_cm: Distance by Happy Ghast.

Tags

• Added the #triggers_ambient_desert_sand_block_sounds block tag.
  • Contains blocks that can trigger ambient desert sand sounds to play from blocks above.
• Added the #happy_ghast_food item tag.
  • Contains items that can be used to feed happy ghasts.
• Added the #happy_ghast_tempt_items item tag.
  • Contains items that can be used to tempt happy ghasts.
• Added the #harnesses item tag.
  • Contains all types of harnesses.
• Added the #can_equip_harness entity tag.
  • Contains entities that can equip the harness items
• Added #followable_friendly_mobs entity tag.
  • Contains non-baby entities that will be followed by ghastlings.

Changes

Blocks

Firefly bushes

• Now produce larger, and more constant, amounts of particles.

Items

Spawn Eggs

• Blaze and breeze egg size changed from "large" to "medium".

Mobs

Ghast

• Updated its texture to be higher resolution, matching the new happy ghast.

Wolves, Sheeps and Pigs

• Now have their legs mirrored.

Command format

/datapack

• Added /datapack create
  • Creates new empty directory data pack for current world.
  • Supported pack version is always equal to one supported by game.
  • Available only to server owners.
  • Syntax: /datapack create <id> <name>
    • id - new pack name, must be a valid directory name.
    • name - text component to be placed in description in pack.mcmeta.

Gameplay

Sounds

• Rules for when ambient desert blocks sounds play have been tweaked.
  • Ambient sand sounds no longer require sky access to play.
  • Ambient sand sounds now have a slightly decreased chance to play.
  • Terracotta blocks no longer trigger ambient sand sounds.
  • Sand blocks no longer trigger ambient wind sounds.
  • Terracotta blocks no longer trigger ambient wind sounds.
  • Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry Grass can now trigger ambient wind sounds when above 2 Sand, Red Sand or Terracotta blocks.
  • Dead Bush ambient sounds now have a slightly increased chance of playing.

Spectator mode

• Spectators will now teleport together with, but stop spectating, entities that move to other dimensions.

General

Data component format

• attribute_modifiers
  • Added optional display field to attributes_modifiers entries.
    • There are 3 display types:
      • default - Current behavior of showing the calculated attribute modifier values on the tooltip.
      • hidden - Does not show the attribute modifier entry.
      • override - Replaces the shown attribute modifier text.
        • Contains a single field value for the text contents to show for this attribute modifer entry.

Data pack

• The pack format version is now 72.
• Dimension Type definitions have a new optional field, cloud_height that indicates what Y-level the clouds start in the dimension.

Entity data

• area_effect_cloud
  • The Particle field has been renamed to custom_particle, and now always functions as an exact override for the default colored entity_effect particle.
    • The field will not be written if no override is specified.
    • The color will no longer be inherited from the potion contents when specifying the entity_effect or tinted_leaves particle types.

Equipment Assets

• Added new happy_ghast_body layer type, rendering in the body slot of the happy ghast.

Resource pack

• The pack format version is now 56.
• The game will now consistently respect blur texture parameter in .png.mcmeta files.

Sounds

• Changed location on the sounds for glow squid, squid, guardian, horse, rabbit and pufferfish from the entity folder to the mob folder.

Sound events

• block.sand.wind has been renamed to block.dry_grass.ambient.

Tags

• Added happy_ghast to #dismounts_underwater, and #fall_damage_immune entity tags.
• The #plays_ambient_desert_block_sounds block tag has been renamed to #triggers_ambient_desert_dry_vegetation_block_sounds.

Third-person view

• Increased the third-person camera distance when spectating or riding Ghasts, Ender Dragons, and Giants.

Experimental

Additions

Command format

/waypoint

• A new command for querying and modifying waypoints.
• Syntax:
  • /waypoint list
  • /waypoint modify <entity-selector> color <color>
  • /waypoint modify <entity-selector> color hex <hex-color>
  • /waypoint modify <entity-selector> color reset
  • /waypoint modify <entity-selector> fade <fade_start> <alpha_start> <fade_end> <alpha_end>
  • /waypoint modify <entity-selector> fade reset
• Parameters:
  • entity-selector: For selecting entities that are transmitting as waypoints (see waypoint_transmit_range attribute).
  • color: Overrides the locator bar icon color for this waypoint.
  • hex <hex-color> arguments are in web format (RRGGBB).
    • Red is either hex F00 or hex FF0000.
    • Cornflower blue is hex 6495ED.
  • fade: Set the fade out effect for waypoints.
    • The arguments <fade_start> <alpha_start> <fade_end> <alpha_end> handle the starting/ending fade distance & alpha opacity.
      • *_start is the nearby values (closest to the player).
      • *_end is the far values (furthest from the player).
    • reset will restore the default behavior of distant locator bar icons fading out to 0.2 alpha.

Gameplay

Locator bar

• A UI element on the player HUD that displays the direction of other players in the world.
• By default, all players transmit a waypoint from themselves, and all players receive all waypoints; allowing players to locate other players in multiplayer.
• The locator bar will display colored indicators when the camera is facing within 120 degrees towards a waypoint. If a waypoint is above/below the camera's viewport (the screen) an up/down arrow will display.
• Any waypoint that is determined to be a player or mob that belongs to a Team then the color indicator will match the team color.
• Can be toggled with gamerule useLocatorBar.
• Crouching will hide the player, preventing them from appearing on the Locator Bar of other players.
• Spectators are only visible to other spectators on the Locator Bar.

General

Attribute

• Added waypoint_transmit_range and waypoint_receive_range.
  • Default: 0.0, Minimum: 0.0, Maximum: 60000000.0.
  • Players have a default transmission and receive range of 60,000,000.
  • Mobs with a transmission range above zero will send waypoint packets to nearby receivers.
  • Similarly, receivers only receive with a range above zero, and cannot receive waypoints outside of this range.

Game rule

• Added the useLocatorBar game rule.
  • Is enabled by default for servers running the Locator Bar experiment.
  • Disabling the game rule will remove all existing waypoints from all players.

Changes

Blocks

Carved Pumpkin and Heads

• Will hide players from the locator bar when worn in the head slot.

Items

Potion of Invisibility

• Will hide players from the locator bar.

Fixes

20 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.21

• MC-147260 – Map icons are not displayed in the cartography table.
• MC-191306 – Sounds played using /playsound are played in all dimensions.
• MC-266318 – Trapdoors and doors have inconsistent subtitles for being opened and closed.

From 1.21.1

• MC-276264 – Advancement screen shadow renders below item icons.

From 1.21.2

• MC-275374 – Drowneds with CanBreakDoors:1b don't break doors.
• MC-277992 – 1 color in the pale chest boat item is incorrect.
• MC-278466 – Bundle experiment data pack related strings are not in deprecated.json.

From 1.21.4

• MC-278873 – The data fixer regenerates chunks containing items obtained from flower pots using Ctrl + Pick Block before version 1.13, or it crashes the game if the item is in the player's inventory.

From 1.21.5

• MC-280047 – Temperate cows use their 1.14 texture with the Programmer Art resource pack enabled.
• MC-280266 – Firefly bushes don't produce as many, or as constant, amounts of particles as on Bedrock Edition.
• MC-280268 – Blazes and breezes use "large" spawn eggs despite mobs of a similar size using "medium".
• MC-280471 – The Particle.color field in area effect clouds is read-only.
• MC-293619 – The chicken spawn egg texture in Programmer Art is missing pixels that match the inventory slot background color.
• MC-295681 – Leaf litter can generate inside of woodland mansions.
• MC-295850 – Done and Cancel buttons on the world creation Edit Game Rules screen do the same thing.
• MC-295866 – The /setblock and /fill commands no longer update redstone power in some situations.
• MC-295867 – Structures from previous versions fail with DataFixerUpper.
• MC-296035 – Two pixels from "mooshroom_spawn_egg" are the same as "cow_spawn_egg".
• MC-296624 – Old Brown Mooshroom texture is missing from Programmer Art.
• MC-297537 – Extra "entity.wolf_whine.whine" sound event exists in sounds.json.

25w16a

25w16a is the second snapshot for Java Edition 1.21.6, released on April 15, 2025.

Addition

POI

• Add the test_instance POI.

Changes

Items

Firework Rocket

• While gliding, using a firework will only be used as a boost even if placed on a block.

Lead

• Leashes are now rendered twice as thick, to match Bedrock Edition.
• Leashes can now be used to leash two mobs together.
  • Sneak-interact on any mob while holding a bunch of leashed mobs will leash these mobs to the interacted entity.
  • It's not possible to leash anything to itself.
• If the re-leashing an entity would result in immediate leash snapping due to distance, the re-leashing would not happen.
• Leashes can be snipped from an entity when interacting them with shears, which consumes their durability.
  • This applies to its own leash connection as well as all entities attached to it.
  • Dispensers can now snip leashes from entities in front of them when they are equipped with shears; this also consumes their durability.
• The leash mechanics were improved, with reworked leash physics, allowing for more stable leash connection, especially when leashed entities are not on ground.
  • When dragged on the leash, leashed objects will now orient themselves towards the leasher.
  • Using a firework rocket when flying with leashed entities will now break the leash connections.
• When leashing an already leashed mob, the current leash will now snap and a player will re-leash the object to the player.
  • It's not possible to steal leashed entities from other players.
• The interactions with a leash knot and fence blocks have changed:
  • When interacting with a leash knot or a fence, if there are any player-leashed entities in range of the leash knot, they will be re-leashed to the leash knot or a fence.
  • In case of attaching of mobs fails due to distance or there is nothing to attach, the player will now transfer all fence leashed entities to itself.
  • If there is nothing left attached to the leash knot, it disappears.
  • Sneak-interact can only result in attaching of the player mobs to the fence.
  • Interacting with shears or punching the leash knot will result in all current connections broken.
• Boats and large mobs that can be leashed, but cannot fit in the boat (horses, donkeys, mules, camels and sniffers) can now be leashed in a special 4-leash configuration to the happy ghast.
  • Happy ghast will also present a custom layer when its leashing something using a quad connection.
  • Leashed in quad connection are now rendered without slack.
• Leash snapping distance has been changed from 10 to 12 blocks.
  • The distance between centers of entities bounding boxes, rather than their feet is used to determine the distance between two leashed entities.
  • Happy ghast leash is now longer - with free roaming distance of 10 blocks and leash snapping at 16 blocks.

General

Block models

• elements[].rotation.angle value in block models is no longer limited to multiplies of 22.5 degrees and can now be any angle from -45 to +45.

Clouds

• Clouds now exist all the way to the horizon.

Data component format

• painting/variant
  • No longer accepts inline variants.

Data pack

• The pack format version is now 73.

Resource pack

• The pack format version is now 57.
• All core shader uniforms are now uniform blocks.
• The cloud texture (clouds.png) can no longer be colored.
• Block Model rotations are no longer limited to multiplies of 22.5.

Shaders

• All built-in uniforms are now uniform blocks instead of opaque loose uniforms.
• Custom uniforms provided to post-process shaders are now uniform blocks.
• Uniform definitions inside json files are now per-block.
• Post-process Effect Definitions
  • Entries in the targets map have been expanded to support new properties.
    • New optional boolean field: persistent
      • Default: false
      • If true, this render target will be persistent across frames.
      • The contents of the target will be cleared when the screen is resized.
    • New optional field: clear_color
      • Default: [0, 0, 0, 0]
      • Format: integer ARGB value, or float array in order [R, G, B, A]
      • When this target is created or cleared, it will be filled with this color.
  • The uniforms values is now a list-per-block, instead of a global list.
    • e.g. uniforms: { "UniformBlockName": [ { "type": "vec2", "value": [...] } ] }
      • The order of uniforms in a block must match the order in the shader.
  • name as part of a uniform definition is no longer used.
  • value as part of a uniform definition replaces the old values, and the type depends on the type field.
    • This field is required.
    • "type": "int" needs "value": 123 (a single int).
    • "type": "float" needs "value": 123.4 (a single float).
    • "type": "vec2" needs "value": [1.2, 3.4] (two floats).
    • "type": "vec3" needs "value": [1.2, 3.4, 5.6] (three floats).
    • "type": "ivec3" needs "value": [1, 2, 3] (three ints).
    • "type": "vec4" needs "value": [1.2, 3.4, 5.6, 7.8] (four floats).
    • "type": "matrix4x4" needs "value": [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, 14.0, 15.0, 16.0] (four rows of four columns of floats).
• Post-process Effect Shaders
  • Instead of every uniform being an individual opaque type, they are now grouped in uniform blocks.
    • They will be set according to the pass definition in the json file, and may be shared across both vertex and fragment shaders.
  • The list of sizes (all vec2 *Size uniforms) are now replaced with a single SamplerInfo uniform block.
    • This contains, in order, the size of the output texture followed by the size every input texture.
    • The order of textures in the definition file will dictate the order of samplers in this uniform.
    • For most post chains this is just OutSize and InSize as before.
    • All sizes are vec2
• post/bits.fsh
  • Expects a BitsConfig of float Resolution and float MosaicSize.
• post/blit.fsh
  • Expects a BlitConfig of vec4 ColorModulate.
• post/blur.vsh and post/box_blur.fsh
  • Expects a BlurConfig of vec2 BlurDir and float Radius.
• post/color_convolve.fsh
  • Expects a ColorConfig of vec3 RedMatrix, vec3 GreenMatrix and vec3 BlueMatrix.
• post/invert.fsh
  • Expects a InvertConfig of float InverseAmount.
• post/rotscale.vsh
  • Expects a RotScaleConfig of vec2 InScale, vec2 InOffset and float InRotation.
• post/spiderclip.fsh
  • Expects a SpiderConfig of vec4 Scissor and vec4 Vignette.
• Globals Uniform Block
  • Available through #moj_import <minecraft:globals.glsl>
  • Most shaders are able to receive this uniform block, even if they don't normally use it.
  • Contains ScreenSize, GlintAlpha, GameTime and MenuBlurRadius.
    • MenuBlurRadius is the blur radius of the background when a menu is open.
• Fog Uniform Block
  • Available through #moj_import <minecraft:fog.glsl>
  • Most shaders are able to receive this uniform block, even if they don't normally use it.
  • Contains FogColor, FogShape, FogStart, FogEnd, FogSkyEnd and FogCloudsEnd.
    • FogSkyEnd is new and represents where the fog should end when drawing for the sky.
    • FogCloudsEnd is new and represents where the fog should end when drawing the clouds.
    • FogEnd is the "normal" fog cutoff as before.
  • FOG_IS_SKY is now available to the position.vsh/position.fsh shaders when they are rendering for the sky.
• Projection Uniform Block
  • Available through #moj_import <minecraft:projection.glsl>
  • Most shaders are able to receive this uniform block, even if they don't normally use it.
  • Contains ProjMat with no changes.
• DynamicTransforms Uniform Block
  • Available through #moj_import <minecraft:dynamictransforms.glsl>
  • Is no longer available to shaders that do not normally use it.
  • Contains ModelViewMat, ColorModulator, ModelOffset, TextureMat, LineWidth.
• Lighting Uniform Block
  • Available through #moj_import <minecraft:light.glsl>
  • Most shaders are able to receive this uniform block, even if they don't normally use it.
    • The values may not make sense if the shader wouldn't normally expect it, however.
  • Contains Light0_Direction and Light1_Direction.
• CloudInfo Uniform Block
  • Only available to the clouds shaders (rendertype_clouds.vsh/rendertype_clouds.fsh).
    • Contains CloudColor, CloudOffset and CellSize (new).
      • CellSize contains the size of an individual cloud cell.
• LightmapInfo Uniform Block
  • Only available to the lightmap shader (lightmap.fsh).
  • Contains AmbientLightFactor, SkyFactor, BlockFactor, UseBrightLightmap, NightVisionFactor, DarknessScale, DarkenWorldFactor, BrightnessFactor, SkyLightColor with no change in behavior.

Fixes

41 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.21

• MC-104231 – Loading a custom structure doesn't load rails correctly.

From 1.21.4

• MC-277369 – The draft report icon isn't initially visible when saving a report as a draft.
• MC-277370 – The draft report icon doesn't initially disappear when a report is discarded.

From 1.21.5

• MC-279515 – The game stalls when running the /test clearall command with large radiuses.
• MC-280297 – The volume level between grass and dirt is inconsistent.
• MC-293754 – Minecraft causes OpenGL errors occasionally.
• MC-295395 – Entities interact differently with nether portals.
• MC-295677 – Title screen fades in from black after closing the "Welcome to Minecraft" screen.
• MC-295895 – 1.21.5 breaks minecart behavior when travelling through nether portals.
• MC-295944 – Reloading a professionless zombie villager causes it to gain random profession clothing.
• MC-296099 – Nether portal collision is or isn't working depending on the cardinal direction.
• MC-296121 – ClientboundLevelChunkPacketData buffer size is too big.

From the previous development version

• MC-296348 – NoAI:1b mobs cannot be ridden in 1.21.5+.
• MC-296353 – Potions, tipped arrows, and dyed leather armor render with missing or incorrect colors in the inventory.
• MC-296355 – Characters in front of the cursor render one pixel too far to the left.
• MC-296356 – Hitbox rendering in GUIs is broken.
• MC-296357 – Happy ghasts produce footstep sounds when flying close above blocks.
• MC-296358 – A player in Spectator mode on top of a happy ghast makes it stop moving.
• MC-296363 – Scrolling in the experiments screen does not move the positions where the buttons can be selected.
• MC-296365 – Block placing sounds are played when the block states of completely unhydrated dried ghasts are changed.
• MC-296366 – Kicked for flying while flying happy ghast.
• MC-296367 – The enchantment glint in the inventory appears on all items of the same type.
• MC-296373 – The side faces of dried ghast tentacles aren’t culled when covered by blocks.
• MC-296376 – Sounds produced by ghastlings can be heard from too far away.
• MC-296381 – Dried Ghasts always face north in world generation.
• MC-296382 – Filled maps are blurry.
• MC-296401 – Harnesses are not sorted correctly in the Creative Inventory.
• MC-296419 – Spectators' names in multiplayer tab list render improperly compared to 1.21.5.
• MC-296426 – Text background lacks opacity over hotbar icons.
• MC-296427 – Happy ghasts move/spin erratically when leashed to a fence.
• MC-296434 – Unable to see items when hovering over them inside of a bundle.
• MC-296437 – Items render behind effect icons and recipe book inside of the inventory.
• MC-296444 – Blur is applied to resource pack icons.
• MC-296465 – Highlighting text on a sign causes it to override the sign background.
• MC-296467 – Item tooltips cause items behind it to not render.
• MC-296470 – Items render behind text in anvils.
• MC-296471 – Hud is now hidden while in bed resulting in delayed hud rendering.
• MC-296517 – The menu panorama turns gray when the switching realm worlds interface is open.
• MC-296518 – Text inside the middle of the java realms information box completely disappears when selected.
• MC-296524 – Server and singleplayer world icons are blurry.
• MC-296638 – Clocks, compasses, and lodestone compasses do not render enchantment glint in certain display contexts when using Fabulous! graphics.