Minecraft “Spring to Life” update out now, patch notes and trailer

Minecraft just released its latest major update, “Spring to Life”. This is also known as version 1.21.70.

The new update brings along a ton of new stuff. It features warm and cold variants for various passive animal mobs, new foliage blocks to biomes, and ambience features.

The full rundown is as follows:

Minecraft Spring to Life version 1.21.70 patch notes

New Game Drop Features

Blocks

Bush

• The Bush is a new type of decorative block that can be found in small patches in the following biomes:
  • Plains
  • Windswept Hills
  • Windswept Gravelly Hills
  • Windswept Forest
  • River
  • Forest
  • Birch Forest
  • Old Growth Birch Forest
• The Bush can be used in the Composter
• Using Bone Meal on a Bush places a new Bush next to the Bush if possible

Firefly Bush

• Added the Firefly Bush block
  • Spawns Firefly particles that fly around it when in darkness
  • Illuminates the area around it
• Using Bone Meal on a Firefly Bush places a new Firefly Bush next to it if possible
• Firefly Bushes are found naturally in clumps next to water in the Overworld
• In Swamp biomes they can be found anywhere and are twice as likely to be found next to water
• Added ambient sounds to the Firefly Bush that will play at night when the sky is visible

Cactus Flower

• Added the Cactus Flower, a new type of flower which has a chance of generating on Cactuses in Deserts and Badlands
• Cactus Flower can be placed on Cactus blocks or any block which has center support at the top of the block
• Cactus Flowers have a chance of growing on Cactus blocks
  • If a Cactus is 1-2 blocks high the Cactus Flower has a 10% chance to grow instead of the Cactus getting higher
  • If a Cactus is 3 blocks high the Cactus Flower has a 25% chance to grow instead of the Cactus getting higher
  • Cactus Flowers can only grow if they have empty space on all four sides
• Cactus Flowers can be used in the Composter
• A Cactus Flower can be used to craft 1 Pink Dye

Leaf Litter

• Leaf Litter is a new type of decorative block which can be found in the Forests, Dark Forests and Wooded Badlands
• Leaf Litter can have different amounts of leaves in one block space
  • Up to four Leaf Litter pieces can be placed in the same block space
  • Placing a Leaf Litter into an already placed Leaf Litter block increases the amount of leaves
• Leaf Litter can be placed in four orientations
• Leaf Litter can be created by smelting any type of Leaves block
• Leaf Litter can be used as fuel for smelting
• Leaf Litter has unique block sounds

Short and Tall Dry Grass

• Added two new types of grass: Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry Grass
• Both are 1 block high, which makes Tall Dry Grass differ from Tall Grass which is 2 blocks high
• Both generate in the Desert and Badlands
• Both can be placed on types of Sand, Terracotta and Dirt blocks like the Dead Bush
• Both can be bone mealed
  • Using Bone Meal on Short Dry Grass grows it into a Tall Dry Grass
  • Using Bone Meal on Tall Dry Grass places a neighbouring Short Dry Grass next to the block if possible
• Both can be used in the Composter
• Sheep can eat both to regrow its wool
• Both can be used as fuel for smelting

Wildflowers

• Wildflowers are a new type of flower which grow in Birch Forests, Old Growth Birch Forests and Meadows
  • Using Bone Meal on Grass Blocks in these biomes can grow Wildflowers
• Wildflowers can have different amounts of flowers in one block space
  • Up to four Wildflowers can be placed in the same block space
  • Placing Wildflowers into an already placed Wildflowers block increases the amount of flowers
  • Using Bone Meal on Wildflowers will produce more Wildflowers
• Wildflowers can be placed in four orientations
• Wildflowers can be crafted into Yellow Dye

New Ambient Sounds for Desert and Badlands

Ambient sounds do not come from the biome settings but are generated by blocks found in the biome, building on the system that we introduced with the Garden Awakens drop.

• Sand, Red Sand and Terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by any one of them on at least 3 sides 8 blocks away
  • block.sand.ambient can be played in any biome
  • block.sand.ambient.attached only plays when in Desert or Badlands biomes
• Dead Bush blocks have a chance of playing ambient sounds when placed on top of two blocks that are any color of Terracotta, Sand or Red Sand blocks in any biome

Animal Variants

• Applied the warm and cold animal variant tags to all appropriate biomes, so that animals spawned in these biomes by spawn eggs or commands are an appropriate variant even if they still do not spawn in the biome naturally
• Cold Farm Animal Biomes:
  • Deep Frozen Ocean
  • Frozen Ocean
  • Frozen Peaks
  • Frozen River
  • Grove
  • Ice Spikes
  • Jagged Peaks
  • Snowy Beach
  • Snowy Plains
  • Snowy Slopes
  • Snowy Taiga
  • The End
  • Cold Ocean
  • Deep Cold Ocean
  • Deep Dark
  • Stony Peaks
  • Old Growth Pine Taiga
  • Old Growth Spruce Taiga
  • Taiga
  • Windswept Forest
  • Windswept Gravelly Hills
  • Windswept Hills
• Warm Farm Animal Biomes
  • Mangrove Swamp
  • Badlands
  • Bamboo Jungle
  • Basalt Deltas
  • Crimson Forest
  • Desert
  • Eroded Badlands
  • Jungle
  • Nether Wastes
  • Savanna Plateau
  • Savanna
  • Soul Sand Valley
  • Sparse Jungle
  • Warm Ocean
  • Warped Forest
  • Windswept Savanna
  • Wooded Badlands
  • Deep Lukewarm Ocean
  • Lukewarm Ocean
• Temperate Farm Animal Biomes
  • Swamp
  • Beach
  • Birch Forest
  • Cherry Grove
  • Dark Forest
  • Dripstone Caves
  • Flower Forest
  • Forest
  • Lush Caves
  • Meadow
  • Mushroom Fields
  • Ocean
  • Old Growth Birch Forest
  • Plains
  • River
  • Stony Shore
  • Sunflower Plains
  • Lukewarm Ocean
  • Pale Garden

Chicken Variants

• Added two new Chicken variants – Warm Chicken and Cold Chicken!
• These have their own unique texture and geometry, but not a separate spawn egg
• Chickens spawn in the same biomes as before, but will be a warm or cool variant if the biome is marked as warm or cool in the list above
• Two new Egg items have been added for the Warm and Cold Chicken variants
  • Blue Egg – The Egg that is laid by and can hatch Cold Chicken variants
  • Brown Egg – The Egg that is laid by and can hatch Warm Chicken variants

Cow Variants

• Added two new Cow variants – Warm Cow and Cold Cow!
• These have their own unique texture and geometry, but not a separate spawn egg
• Cows spawn in the same biomes as before, but will be a warm or cool variant if the biome is marked as warm or cool in the list above

Pig Variants

• Added two new Pig variants – Warm Pig and Cold Pig!
• These have their own unique texture and geometry, but not a separate spawn egg
• Pigs spawn in the same biomes as before, but will be a warm or cool variant if the biome is marked as warm or cool in the list above

Sheep wool color in warm and cold biomes

• Sheep have updated rules for which color of wool they have based on which biome they spawn in:
  • Temperate Biomes: (these colors are unchanged from current behavior)
    • Common sheep color is white
    • Uncommon sheep colors are black, gray, light gray and brown
    • There is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawn
  • Cold biomes:
    • Common Sheep color is black
    • Uncommon Sheep colors are white, gray, light gray, and brown
    • There is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawn
  • Warm Biomes:
    • Common Sheep color is brown
    • Uncommon Sheep colors are black, white, gray, and light gray
    • There is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawn

Spawn Eggs

• Overhauled the visuals of each Spawn Egg to improve readability and accessibility
  • Each Spawn Egg now has their own unique visual which captures the personality and character of the mob it spawns
  • Each egg visual varies in shape to reflect the in-world size of the mob it spawns
    • For example, smaller mobs tend to have a smaller Spawn Egg

Updated Trades

Cartographer Trades

• Cartographers now sell 7 new maps which each point to a different village or other structures in a different biome. These maps can help players who want to quickly find a specific location.
• Cartographers from different village types will sell a different range of maps and colored banners.

Wandering Trader Trades

• The Wandering Trader now has better prices, more trades and sells larger amounts of many items.
• They will also now buy basic supplies from players, so it’s possible to get some emeralds by helping them prepare for their next journey even if you don’t feel like buying anything.
• The Wandering Trader will offer to buy two items from this list:
  • Water Bottle
  • Water Bucket
  • Milk Bucket
  • Fermented Spider Eye
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Hay Bale
• Wandering Traders now have a chance of selling these items (in addition to their previous trades):
  • Logs (Acacia, Birch, Dark Oak, Jungle, Oak, Spruce, Pale Oak, Mangrove or Cherry)
  • Enchanted Iron Pickaxe
  • Potion of Invisibility

Wolf Variant Sounds

• Added 6 new Wolf audio variants with unique ambient, hurt, death, growl, whine, and pant sounds
  • Every Wolf will have a random audio variant assigned to it from the 6 new variants and the original one
  • The audio variant is not related to the texture variant

Experimental Features

Trade Rebalancing Experiment

• Moved the Cartographer and Wandering Trader changes out of the experiment

Features and Bug Fixes

Achievements with Add-Ons

• Enabled earning Achievements while playing in a world with Add-Ons applied.

Blocks

• Placing a block in liquid, and then placing another block next to your first block in liquid will no longer replace your second placed block for a moment, causing you to fall into the liquid
• Structure Blocks no longer briefly change textures when placed (MCPE-185531)
• Sea Pickles can now be placed on any block with center support (MCPE-116152)
• Barrier blocks will no longer prevent chunks rendering behind them (MCPE-153515)
• Fixed a crash that would sometimes happen when entities with an excessively large hitbox entered liquid
• Fixed blocks using the minecraft:destructible_by_mining component with item_specific_speeds defined flickering during their block breaking animation (MCPE-188401)
• Fixed trigger rate of Redstone powered Droppers and Dispensers (MCPE-189895)
• Warped and Crimson Fungi no longer z-fight (MCPE-190389)

Gameplay

• Fixed a mismatch between server and client when continuously building that caused orientation sensitive blocks to sometimes change to the wrong block
• Using Riptide while standing in shallow water will once again launch the player as if they weren’t standing in water. (MCPE-188795)
• Players fall momentum is no longer reset after exiting and re-entering the world (MCPE-188490)
• Fixed an issue where destroying and picking up a Shulker box would make it appear invisible in the inventory until world reload
• Fixed a bug where using items with a use duration (fishing rods, food, potions, etc…) and changing slots would force your slot back to the original slot
• Fixed an issue where attacking a mob while sprint jumping would remove all player momentum (MCPE-189501)
• Fixed an issue where laggy players fighting would occasionally not be able to hit each other (MCPE-190552)
• Fixed an issue where Player’s collision box would sometimes be incorrect after using a bed (MCPE-190604)
• Bundles no longer become empty after being held by an Armor Stand (MCPE-190093)

General

• Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox if you pressed “Cancel” in the Xbox UI when converting a world or importing a world from Retail to Preview
• In Server Authoritative movement, when Players receive a movement correction it will use the current Player speed instead of a generic one, this should give a better experience.
• In Server Authoritative movement, when Players receive a downward movement correction it will now use gravity acceleration, this should give a better experience.
• In Server Authoritative movement, the Player will not constantly bop up and down if flying state change during small loss of connection with the server.
• Removing experimental files cold_taiga, cold_taiga_hills, and cold_taiga_mutated from behavior packs. These files were only loaded with the custom biomes experiment enabled, and this change does not remove the biomes themselves.
• In Server Authoritative movement, when Player is corrected, the movement will not have easing anymore. This is a better feel, as can be seen with upward, repeating, Pistons
• Fixed typos in music definitions and sound definitions that were causing the wrong music to play for soulsand valley, desert mutated, and jungle mutated biomes.
• Fixed an issue where chunks weren’t saving properly on older worlds
• Enabled Filter Profanity toggle on mobile platforms.

Graphics

• Fire overlay will no longer animate while the game is paused (MCPE-188464)
• Blocks will no longer play their animations while the game is paused (MCPE-188459)
• Held items are no longer displayed incorrectly when the game is paused (MCPE-190218)
• Hand position should remain the same while the game is paused (MCPE-190290)

Mobs

• Foxes now take damage from lava, and not only fire (MCPE-56926)
• In the 1.21.80.21 Preview changelog we mentioned that mobs related to MCPE-188731 will be unaffected in this release. We have made every effort to make sure of this, but there’s a possibility that these mobs may become invisible after the update. If this happens we believe the change will be reversible and the mobs will just be invisible and not lost completely – please keep us updated at bugs.mojang.com.

Realms

• In Realms Stories, changed online indicator (green dot in corner of player image) to represent general online status rather than whether the user is playing in that specific Realm. In Members tab, added “Playing on Realm” status for users currently playing in that specific Realm. Added “Online members” filter that shows users playing on Realm.
• Fixed Random Tick Speed and Respawn Radius settings resetting to default values (REALMS-11759)
• Fixed “Reset Random Tick Speed” button not working when editing an existing world on Realms
• Fixed ability to remove Realm members that are not friends of the Realm owner
• Fixed ability to rejoin Realm with Hardcore world via invite link

Pause Feature

We are thrilled to include a highly requested feature: the ability to pause the game in single player. The feature will be rolled slowly to ensure stability. After two weeks, it will be available to everyone.

• Pause when alone: you can pause when you are alone in a local world owned by yourself.
• Un-pause when joined: your game will un-pause if someone joins you.
• Join notification: a notification will inform you that someone else has joined and that your game has resumed. The notification includes the option to takes you right back to the game, perfect if you are deep in a menu.
  • Note: The game will NOT pause if you are playing on a Realm, server or when playing with a friend on your local server.

Sounds

• Fixed Block breaking sounds not playing (MCPE-190264)

User Interface

• Bundle tooltip no longer flickers for players beyond the first when playing in split screen
• Adjusted Minecoin purchase screen UI to not show stray pixels. Fixed overlapping issue on PS4.
• Replacing items with the lock_in_inventory component with items from the creative inventory using touch input now fails gracefully and produces a warning message.
• Align rideable entity inventory transparent background with other screens (MCPE-189224)
• Fixed problem with moving items from creative inventory to player inventory on pocket ui. (MCPE-185361)
• Fixed some typos and inaccuracies in the minecraft Encyclopedia (MCPE-186358)
• Screen Safe Area Settings: Disables Horizontal and Vertical Screen Position sliders if the Safe area is set to 100%
• Stops Screen Position from displaying -0.0 due to a rounding error.
• Long splash texts on the start screen will break into two lines to be more readable.
• The invite button on the pause screen is moved up a bit and now has an icon.
• Scaled and moved the title logo to make room for the friends drawer button.
• Added new loading tips for creative mode.
• Hand bobbing no longer occurs while the game is paused (MCPE-188457)
• Minecraft logo misaligned on progress screen.
• Touch controls: Fixed a bug where a player could stay moving diagonally after opening a menu (MCPE-190308)
• Keep Inventory is back to being a cheat on all difficulties. (BDS-19921)
• The “Place” controller tooltip is no longer incorrectly hidden when being able to place additional Pink Petals, Wildflowers, or Leaf Litter. (MCPE-190225)
• Changes have been made to the Multiplayer tab in create new world and edit world! Player permission icons have been updated to better signal the roles, and on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles now shows a message informing the player that they need to sign in to access multiplayer features. Below the message there’s a button that will take the player to respective console sign in flow.
• Stacks are now correctly splitting across slots when moving cursor and holding the button to split stack
• Fixed a potential crash that could occur when splitting stacks of items in the creative inventory
• Encyclopedia now uses the correct term “Enchanting Table” rather than “Enchantment Table” (MCPE-190418)
• Trying to craft a Bundle while holding a Bundle with a Bundle inside of it now correctly crafts a Bundle instead of only consuming ingredients (MCPE-190550)
• Fixed an issue which prevented some users from accessing the Create New World screen in iOS Preview and PlayStation Preview
• Touch controls: Camera perspective can now be changed from a HUD button. Enable this in the touch settings. Peeking over your shoulder has never been easier!

Player Permissions

• The Player Permissions screen has been upgraded to the new Ore UI, bringing a fresh look and a more intuitive and user friendly experience. We’ve improved the visual design, introduced new icons for permission levels, and simplified the flow for easier navigation. Additionally, players now receive better feedback after each action, and error handling has been improved for a smoother experience. Let us know how you like it, at aka.ms/mcplayerpermissionscreenfeedback

Friends Drawer Improvements

• Players can now also find the Friends Drawer in the Main Menu and Game Menu, in addition to the Play Screen, in the top right of the screen. We hope this will make it easier to connect and play with your friends! Let us know how you like it, at aka.ms/mcfriendsdrawerfeedback
• Players can now also find the Friends Drawer in Create New World, Edit World and your profile, in addition to the Play Screen, Main Menu and Game Menu, in the top right of the screen. We hope this will make it easier to connect and play with your friends! Let us know how you like it, at aka.ms/mcfriendsdrawerfeedback

Vanilla Parity

• Beacon rendering is no longer limited by the player’s vertical distance from it (MCPE-25228)

Biomes

• Fixed an issue where Dark Forests were missing trees along their northern borders with other biomes
• Updated the tree composition in Dark Forests to match Java Edition, increasing the number of Dark Oak Trees and reducing the prevalence of other tree types

Mobs

• Donkeys now spawn in Savannas
• Donkeys now spawn in Plains in groups of 1-3 instead of 2-6 (MCPE-118688)
• Fixed Pufferfish attack and inflate logic (MCPE-149129) (MCPE-69522)
  • Pufferfish no longer only trigger inflate/deflate logic against monsters and players. Now triggers inflate/deflate logic against Axolotls, all non-aquatic mobs, and players
  • Pufferfish no longer only attack players and monsters. Now they attack Axolotls, all non-aquatic mobs, and players that aren’t in creative mode
  • Pufferfish no longer only poison players and monsters. Now they poison Axolotls, all non-aquatic mobs excluding undead monsters, and players that aren’t in creative mode
• Fixed Iron Golem cracked texture not appearing at appropriate damage levels
• Camels will naturally spawn in the Desert

Village Chest Bundles

• Added a 33% chance of finding a Bundle in various Villager chests:
  • Cartographer
  • Tannery
  • Weaponsmith
  • Desert House
  • Plains House
  • Snowy House
  • Savanna House
  • Taiga House

Wandering Trader Trades

• Wandering Traders’ buying trades can now be used twice before they lock instead of only once

Watch a trailer for the Minecraft “Spring to Life” update below.

Update Trailer

Thanks to Mojang for the patch notes. This new update is out now on Nintendo Switch. We’ve got tons of coverage about past updates here.