Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.90 update: Everything you need to know

Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.90 is the upcoming game version arriving with the summer game drop. Mojang announced the game drop in their first live event of 2025. They then gradually announced and released all the upcoming features and changes in beta and preview versions of Bedrock Edition. This game drop will soon be released in the coming weeks or months.

Here is everything to know about Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.90, including some of its major new features and changes.

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Every major addition and change in Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.90

New dried ghast block, ghastling, and happy ghast

Dried ghast grows into ghastling, which grows into happy ghast (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Dried ghast is a new block that will be found in Soul Sand Valley biomes, near Nether Fossils. Apart from that, it can also be crafted using eight ghast tears and one soul sand block.

When it is submerged in water, it will grow into a new baby ghast variant called ghastling. This ghastling will take another 20 minutes to grow into a happy ghast, but its growth can be sped up by feeding it snowballs.

Happy ghast is a friendly variant of the regular ghast that allows players to approach. A new saddle-like item called a harness must be placed on a happy ghast to control its flight.

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Lead changes

Lead received loads of changes in the summer game drop (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Lead will also receive various changes in the 1.21.90 game drop. Firstly, two entities can be joined by a lead without the player being affixed to it. By doing this, players can construct a chain of links between creatures and can pull everyone from either end.

Improved rope physics was also added to the lead, particularly when connected entities are airborne. Because of the reduced stretch in the lead, creatures won't sustain fall damage as frequently.

They created a unique link between the happy ghast and any other larger entities, such as sniffers, boats, camels, horses, etc., because a lead can now be linked to two creatures.

Finally, a new crafting recipe was given to the lead. Mojang made the process simpler by substituting a different string for the slime ball.

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Saddles become craftable

Saddles will finally become craftable (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Mojang finally decided to make saddles craftable in the summer game drop. Saddles will now require three leather items and one iron ingot to be crafted. This will allow players to easily make saddles and explore Minecraft much easily early in the game.

After making saddles craftable, Mojang also decided to remove the item from some structures' chests and replace them with regular leather.

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Player locator bar

Minecraft will receive a new player locator bar (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

In large Minecraft multiplayer worlds, players usually have a tough time finding their friends. The username box above a player's head, which could be seen from a distance, was the only visual clue to locate others. Installing a minimap or map mod for Minecraft was the only alternative.

Hence, in the 1.21.90 update, Mojang will introduce a brand-new player locator bar that will display dots for every player in the world. To indicate how far or close they are, these dots will change in size and shape.

The old XP bar will be replaced by this new one. Only when players are actively earning XP in the game will the bar change to an XP bar.

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Vibrant Visuals

Vibrant Visuals is a complete visual overhaul coming to Bedrock Edition (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Vibrant Visuals is arguably Mojang's biggest feature in a long time. Only the Bedrock Edition will receive this graphic update with the summer game drop; Java Edition will follow later.

In essence, Vibrant Visuals is Mojang's first official shader pack for their game. In certain situations, it makes the game appear breathtaking by adding directional lighting, shadows, reflections, and much more.

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Tears music disc

Tears music disc can be looted by killing a ghast with its fireball (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Tears is a new music disc coming with the Minecraft 1.21.90 summer game drop. The strange reverbed vocals of a ghast singing in a certain rhythm open this new music track. The melody is later accompanied by a moderately paced set of beats that complement the vocal rhythm of the ghast.

The Tears music disc can be obtained by killing a Nether ghast with its own fireball. Players will receive this music disc as a mob drop when they get the "Return to Sender" achievement. A jukebox can then be used to play the disc.

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Music frequency and toast

In-game music frequency can now be changed, and the music and artist name can now be displayed (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Mojang also added several new music-related settings in the Minecraft summer game drop.

The first setting is called music frequency, which will allow players to change the frequency at which in-game background music is played. The default is the old vanilla frequency, which means the music will stop at times and not come back for several minutes or hours. While the "frequent" and "constant" settings will progressively increase the music's frequency.

The second setting shows a music toast dialog box whenever new music is played. The dialog box will show the music and the artist's name. If players miss the dialog box, they can always pause the game, where the dialog box is consistently visible.

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