Minecraft 1.21 snapshot 24w20a patch notes: Witch drops buffed, piston sound improved, and 40+ bugs fixed

The Minecraft 1.21 snapshot 24w20a has been officially released for this game's Java Edition worldwide. Like previous such launches, the update focuses on enhancing gameplay by fixing bugs and making minimal changes to this title's features.

Notable changes in this patch include adjustments to witch drops, which make farming these sorceress mobs more rewarding. This article will delve into the detailed release notes for the Minecraft 1.21 snapshot 24w20a update.

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Minecraft 1.21 snapshot 24w20a update: All you need to know

Below are the details regarding the changes, bug fixes, and other noteworthy aspects of the Minecraft 1.21 snapshot 24w20a update:

CHANGES

Along with a handful of changes, witches in Minecraft have received a small buff to their drops. Here are the alterations as mentioned in the patch notes:

• Witches now always drop 4-8 redstone dust when they die
• This is to improve the viability of farms that utilize Witch Huts to obtain Redstone Dust
• Improved player attribute and effect handling
• Custom set base attributes are now kept when respawning
• Active effects and modifiers are kept when changing dimension or winning the game
• Updated credits

SOUNDS

A minor adjustment has been made to the piston sounds in preparation for the release of the Minecraft 1.21 Tricky Trials update. Here's what the patch notes say regarding this change:

• Updated Piston sounds to lower volume and attenuation
• This was done to address the long-received feedback on the old sounds being too harsh and loud, creating very noisy redstone builds

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TECHNICAL CHANGES

• Data Pack version is now 44

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Bug fixes

Like the 24w19a snapshot update, major bugs have been addressed in this 24w20a version. Here's a detailed list released by the developers:

• MC-6431 - Status effects are lost when returning to the overworld from the exit end portal
• MC-83590 - Armor attributes list can be too long
• MC-137719 - The player's horizontal motion doesn't affect fired projectiles in certain situations
• MC-179940 - Player's attributes reset back to default values upon respawning
• MC-181604 - Exiting the end portal resets player attributes to their default values
• MC-267230 - Hangul fonts are rendered with missing pixels
• MC-268113 - the minecraft:generic.scale attribute is desynchronized when the player leaves the End dimension via an End portal
• MC-268370 - Japanese CJK variants use the same diacritic
• MC-268598 - The "weight" of skeletons in swamp biomes is too high causing less bogged spawns
• MC-269036 - Bogged do not drop mushrooms when sheared with doMobLoot false
• MC-269147 - Shearing a bogged spawns mushrooms at the bogged's feet
• MC-269951 - When the gamerule "doImmediateRespawn" is set to true, the Wind Charged, Oozing or Weaving effects don't function for players
• MC-270052 - Blur levels below 10% do not appear to actually work
• MC-270301 - The fire protection enchantment applied to horse armor no longer decreases the duration of time the horse remains ablaze
• MC-270539 - The blast protection enchantment, when applied to horse armor, no longer diminishes the knockback effect from explosions on horse
• MC-270637 - maxentityCramming set to 0 prevents slime spawning from oozing effect
• MC-271034 - List entries in the Social interaction menu are rendered over the background
• MC-271168 - Demo timer does not respect "Text Background" setting
• MC-271244 - Auto-save text does not respect "Text Background" setting in accessibility settings
• MC-271360 - Horse armor and wolf armor are deleted when used on an armor stand
• MC-271414 - Damage command at position applies knockback in random direction
• MC-271462 - Buttons make the deactivation sound when pressed
• MC-271468 - Game crashes with custom enchantment's "rotated_block_provider"
• MC-271532 - Mace only loses durability during smash attacks
• MC-271547 - Can't immediately sprint jump into a 2 block ceiling when standing next to it since 24w18a
• MC-271566 - Game crash on insufficient "ammo_use" amount
• MC-271574 - Inlining a painting variant causes players to disconnect when receiving entity data
• MC-271583 - Soul speed no longer works through partial blocks
• MC-271629 - Channeling doesn't work / "post_attack" effect requires enchanted item to be in the mainhand
• MC-271636 - Attempting to modify NBT of killer rabbit throws unexpected error
• MC-271678 - damage_item enchantment entity effect doesn't break items
• MC-271715 - Crash when the sum of enchantments' weights overflow
• MC-271716 - Fraction value provider allows division by zero
• MC-271803 - Custom enchantment with very large max level causes game to hang after
• MC-271853 - Random "Failed to store chunk" error
• MC-271854 - Trying to generate new chunks crashes the server
• MC-271863 - Crafter recipe gets stuck on an item with a similar recipe
• MC-271881 - Soul speed doesn't soul make particles.MC-271896 - Using Shift+F3+I on a villager crashes the game
• MC-271937 - Strike a villager with channeling trident in thunder doesn't obtain the advancement "Very Very Frightening"MC-271948 - Entering the Nether breaks the game

To access the latest Minecraft snapshot, players should enable the Snapshots option under the Installations tab in the game launcher. After enabling this option, they can create a new installation and choose the most recent snapshot available.