Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.30.21 beta and preview patch notes: Item rarity changes, banner improvements, bug fixes, and more

On August 1, 2024, Mojang released the Minecraft 1.21.30.21 beta and preview for Bedrock Edition. While this new patch might disappoint players waiting for bundles, there are some exciting changes to look forward to. With Minecraft 1.21.30.21, Mojang has revamped the rarity system by adding rarities to all items available in the game. Before this update, only a handful of items were classified as Epic rarity, such as the mace and trident.

Now, many items have been assigned rarities like Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Currently, this feature is only available in the latest Bedrock beta and preview, but it has been confirmed to be coming to the Java Edition soon.

In addition to the rarity changes, Minecraft 1.21.30.21 includes numerous other changes and bug fixes, such as banners now displaying their pattern names, a fix for the ghost water block glitch, and more.

---

Minecraft 1.21.30.21 beta and preview patch notes

Features and Bug Fixes

Blocks

• Vertically retracting waterlogged blocks with a Piston no longer creates "ghost water" on the client (MCPE-144222)
• "purpur_block" block is now split into unique instances "purpur_block", and "purpur_pillar"; the previously unused chiseled and smooth purpur blocks were renamed to "deprecated_purpur_block_1" and "deprecated_purpur_block_2" for backwards compatibility, but are hidden from creative inventory and commands
• "structure_void" has had its block state removed and "air" variants will be converted to the base block
• Added new vanilla block and item tags to support vanilla item tier level destruction speeds for data driven blocks
• All Logs, Stripped Logs, Woods, and Stripped Woods are now treated consistently across various scenarios:
• Flying mobs that can land on trees will now recognize these blocks as suitable landing positions
• Parrots will now prefer these blocks as landing spots
• Previously, these behaviors applied to only a subset of these blocks
• Kelp can no longer be placed on any type of Fence, instead of just a subset of them
• Seagrass can no longer be placed on any type of Fence, instead of just a subset of them
• Turtle Eggs can no longer be placed on any type of Fence, instead of just a subset of them
• "cobblestone_wall" block is now split into unique instances "cobblestone_wall", "mossy_cobblestone_wall", "granite_wall", "diorite_wall", "andesite_wall", "sandstone_wall", "brick_wall", "stone_brick_wall", "mossy_stone_brick_wall", "nether_brick_wall", "end_stone_brick_wall", "prismarine_wall", "red_sandstone_wall" and "red_nether_brick_wall" ()
• "granite_wall", "diorite_wall", "andesite_wall", "stone_brick_wall", "mossy_stone_brick_wall" and "prismarine_wall" now have a destruction time of 1.5
• "sandstone_wall" and "red_sandstone_wall" now have a destruction time of 0.8
• "end_stone_brick_wall" now has a destruction time of 3.0

Crafting

• When crafting a Firework, adding or removing items from the grid will update the output item appropriately (MCPE-183455)

Full Keyboard Gameplay

• Added Q and E as left and right click equivalents in JSON UI menus (including inventory menus) when playing in Full Keyboard Gameplay mode

Gameplay

• The Bad Omen effect can now be reset by drinking an Ominous Bottle of any level
• Boats will no longer disappear while sliding on Ice (MCPE-180432)
• Fixed a crash that could occur when opening a Lectern while a Sticky Piston was moving it. The Lectern now closes the book screen when moved (MCPE-183508)
• Dismounting a vehicle no longer puts the player inside the ground on some platforms (MCPE-184363, MCPE-182448)

General

• Fixed a bug that caused placeholder textures to appear after minimizing and then restoring the game window

Graphical

• Fixed an issue where Banners were rendered before other transparent objects regardless of their positions (MCPE-130262)

How to Play

• Added line break ability for How to Play topic labels instead of having it add "..." when the line got too long

Items

Changes to banner names and icon (Image via Mojang)

• Each Banner Pattern item now includes their pattern type in their name instead of as a subtitle (MCPE-182508)
• Smithing Template items are now named after their template type instead of the generic "Smithing Template" name
• They instead specify that they are a Smithing Template through a subtitle in the hover text
• Unique item textures have been given to each Banner Pattern item to better distinguish between each other
• Illager Banner has been renamed to Ominous Banner to match Java Edition

Mobs

• Fixed custom entity's name not appearing correctly in death messages (MCPE-158447)

Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue where the invite screen in-game would not show the correct substatus

Rarity

• Various items and blocks have had their assigned rarities changed (MCPE-182414)
• Once these rarity changes come to Java Edition in a future snapshot, all item and block rarities will be in parity across both platforms
• Rarity is a set of categories which determine the color used to display the name of an item or block
• It has no gameplay impact, but is used to signal how difficult something is to obtain
• By default, unless specified otherwise, all items and blocks have a rarity of Common which displays their name in the color white
• We have re-evaluated the rarity of all items and blocks in the game to more accurately reflect the current challenge of obtaining them, given the following guidelines:
• Items and blocks become rarer depending on the following factors:
• The chance of finding it in a loot table, including mob drops
• The amount of travelling required to obtain it
• The difficulty of any obstacle which must be overcome to obtain it
• The possible amount of that item or block which exists in the world
• Any item or block which can be crafted must inherit the highest rarity of its crafting ingredients
• For example, a Mace has an Epic rarity because one of its ingredients (the Heavy Core) has an Epic rarity
• Likewise, any crafted item which has only Common crafting ingredients must also be Common
• The lists below detail the items and blocks which have changed to that rarity category

Common

• End Crystal
• Golden Apple

Epic

• Elytra
• Dragon Head
• Silence Armor Trim

Rare

• Enchanted Golden Apple
• Enchanted Golden Apples have become more common in recent years due to being accessible in both Ancient Cities and Trial Chambers, warranting a demotion to Rare instead of Epic
• Trident
• Moajng recently increased Trident's rarity up to Epic from Common, but after re-evaluating they felt that it was easier to obtain than other items in the Epic category such as Heavy Cores or Elytra
• Nether Star
• Ward Armor Trim
• Eye Armor Trim
• Vex Armor Trim
• Spire Armor Trim
• Wither Skeleton Skull
• Skull Charge Banner Pattern
• Now that Wither Skeleton Skulls are Rare, these banner patterns should be Rare as well
• Thing Banner Pattern
• Now that Enchanted Golden Apples are Rare, these banner patterns should be Rare as well
• The following Music Discs:
• Pigstep
• otherside
• Creator

Uncommon

• Sniffer Egg
• Chainmail Helmet
• Chainmail Chestplate
• Chainmail Leggings
• Chainmail Boots
• Recovery Compass
• Disc Fragment 5
• Nautilus Shell
• Echo Shard
• Goat Horns
• Pottery Sherds
• Ominous Bottles
• Ominous Banner
• Netherite Upgrade
• Sentry Armor Trim
• Dune Armor Trim
• Coast Armor Trim
• Wild Armor Trim
• Tide Armor Trim
• Snout Armor Trim
• Rib Armor Trim
• Wayfinder Armor Trim
• Shaper Armor Trim
• Raiser Armor Trim
• Host Armor Trim
• Flow Armor Trim
• Bolt Armor Trim

The following Music Discs:

• 13
• Cat
• Blocks
• Chirp
• Creator (Music Box)
• Far
• Mall
• Mellohi
• Stal
• Strad
• Ward
• 11
• Wait
• Relic
• 5
• Precipice

Realms

• Fixed an issue that was preventing RealismCraft and some other packs from working on Realms. This was a service-side fix that is live in both Preview and the latest full release (REALMS-11913, REALMS-11916)
• Realms Stories content is no longer cropped when scrolling
• Text no longer overlaps screenshots in Realms Stories on Galaxy Z Flip devices on any UI size
• Gamepad legend no longer overlaps with UI elements when choosing a Preview Realm to create a world on
• In split screen mode, only show the subscriptions tab for the primary player
• Realm ID is now displayed in the debug text for preview/beta builds while connected to a Realm or while on associated screens.

Touch Controls

• Improved new d-pad for touch controls. It is now more compact, includes back strafing buttons, and a slightly extended zone outside where camera input is not received in order to prevent unexpected camera movement. When customizing controls, the diagonal buttons are visible as well
• Fixed a bug where the hide hud command would not hide the d-pad touch control (MCPE-184157)

Trial Chambers

Interesting changes to Minecraft trial chambers:

• Added new variations to the hallways, including "Encounters": Short challenges leading to a larger chamber.
• Beds in intersections now have their colors randomized. (MCPE-180424)
• Replaced the empty chests at the entrance of chamber with a Hopper and Barrel to better show the players that these are meant for disposal and inventory managment!
• Fixed multiple trial chamber templates have missing or incorrect block (MCPE-176952)
• Fixed inaccessible traps can generate behind walls in Trial Chamber (MCPE-180912)
• Some slime trial spawners in trial chambers won't spawn slimes without player intervention
• Fixed Ominous Vault may fail to generate in Pedestal and chamber_1/2

User Interface

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when purchasing subscriptions
• Fixed a bug where the 'Drink' interaction prompt was not displayed when the player was holding an Ominous Bottle
• Fixed a bug where player health would be rounded down instead of rounded up, causing the HUD to sometimes only show empty health icons (MCPE-183157)
• The chat output's scroll position keeps its position after the game screen re-gains focus
• Shortened the URL for signing in on another device to microsoft.com/link

Vanilla Parity

• Entities falling into water now make the same splashing sound as in Java Edition (MCPE-44120)
• Fixed a bug where a standalone Scaffolding block could not be placed on top of a Structure Block (MCPE-169818)
• Snow Golems with Fire Resistance no longer take damage in warm biomes (MCPE-94448)
• Uncarved Pumpkin blocks can no longer be used to create Snow Golems and Iron Golems (MCPE-33801)
• When an item is enchanted, their rarity status is now increased depending on their base rarity
• If the base rarity of an item is Common or Uncommon, it will become Rare when enchanted
• If the base rarity of an item is Rare, it will become Epic when enchanted
• If the base rarity of an item is Epic, it will stay Epic when enchanted

---

There are also several technical changes and fixes in Minecraft 1.21.30.21 beta and preview. Interested players can check the complete patch notes here.