Minecraft summer update 2025: All features explained

Mojang is about to release Minecraft's new game drop soon. The developers announced the game drop back in March, where they announced its first major features. Ever since then, the community has been eagerly waiting for its release as it brings some game-changing features.

Since Mojang tests every new feature and change in snapshots and beta preview versions available for download, we know exactly what the game drop packs. Here are all the major features and changes coming with Minecraft's summer game drop 2025.

Explained: Every new feature and change in the Minecraft summer game drop

Dried Ghast

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The next summer game drop for Minecraft will include a new block called dried ghast. This block will be located in the Nether's Soul Sand Valley biome, adjacent to the fossils. Apart from finding a natural one, it can also be crafted using eight ghast tears and one soul sand block.

This block will essentially look like a little ghast with four tentacles on either side and a grumpy face. It will be slightly smaller than the other blocks.

By waterlogging this block for 20 minutes, players can grow the new baby ghast variation known as ghastling. The new block is basically an egg that needs to be submerged in water for a while in order to create the new ghast variation.

Ghastling

The dried ghast block can be waterlogged for a few days to spawn the new ghastling mob. Instead of the depressed appearance of the Nether ghast, this new infant ghast variant will have a cute smile and uplifted eyebrows.

The ghastling will also have three gills on each side. Its sound will also be more peaceful and adorable than that of an original Nether ghast.

The ghastling will fly around the player and can be fed snowballs to help them grow into another new ghast variant called the happy ghast.

Happy Ghast

When a ghastling grows by eating snowballs, it turns into a happy ghast. This unique ghast variant is entirely different from the normal ghast from the Nether.

This mob will have a calm smile on its face and will be completely passive to every entity, including players. The main function of this new ghast is to assist players in flying the Overworld when equipped with a harness. A snowball, leash, or harness can be used to lure a happy ghast.

Harness

Harness is a new saddle-like item in the Minecraft summer game drop that is exclusive to happy ghasts. The item can be used on happy ghasts and allows players to control the mob's flying mechanics.

Three pieces of leather, two blocks of glass, and one piece of wool of any color can be used to craft a harness. After crafting it, players can hold it to lure a happy ghast without a harness, and then apply it to the mob.

The goggles of the harness will stay up on the head of the mob when it is not ridden, and will come down on the mob's eyes when being ridden.

Player Locator Bar

In a multiplayer world, players previously had no way of knowing where their friends were. The username box above their heads, which could be seen from a distance, was the only visual clue to locate others. Installing a minimap or map mod for Minecraft was another alternative.

Hence, Mojang is introducing a brand-new player locator bar that will display dots for every player in the world. The shape and size of each player's dots will determine how far or close they are to each player.

The XP bar will be replaced by this new player locator bar whenever players are not actively earning XP in the game.

Vibrant Visuals

Vibrant Visuals might just be Mojang's biggest feature for Minecraft in a long time. With the summer game drop, this graphic update will only be available for the Bedrock Edition; the Java Edition will also receive it later in the future.

Essentially, Vibrant Visuals is Mojang's first official shader pack for their main sandbox title. It adds directional lighting, shadows, reflections, and much more to make the game look stunning in some scenarios.

Saddle changes

Saddle's crafting recipe (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Since Minecraft first released, saddles have been a rare loot item found only in chests in certain structures. In the summer game drop, Mojang is finally making them craftable after so many years.

Now, three leather items and one iron ingot can be used to craft saddles. Saddles will become easier to obtain as a result, particularly at the beginning of the game. Mojang also chose to replace saddles with ordinary leather and remove them from some structures as chest loot because they made saddles craftable.

Lead changes

In the summer game drop, lead will also get several changes. First off, a lead can be used to tie two entities without attaching the player to either one.

The lead also received better physics and mechanics, especially when linked entities are in the air. The lead's decreased stretch means that entities won't be hit by falls as often when they are in the air. However, lead can be stretched more until it breaks off from an entity when players are pulling it on land.

Since a lead can now be connected to two entities, it can create a special four-lead configuration between the new happy ghast and any other larger entity, such as sniffers, boats, camels, horses, etc.

Lastly, the lead received a new crafting recipe. Mojang simplified the procedure by replacing the slime ball with another string. Lead now only needs five strings from now on.

Shears changes

Shear changes (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Along with saddle and lead changes, Mojang also added some additional features to the shears. The tool will now be able to remove carpets, leads, saddles, and harnesses from any passive rideable mob in Minecraft.

Shears, for instance, can be used to remove a pig's saddle. However, because ravagers are hostile, their saddles cannot be removed by shears.

Cloud changes

Cloud change (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Clouds are also receiving major changes in the Minecraft summer game drop. Firstly, they will now render till the horizon, making them more realistic and beautiful to witness. Secondly, there is a new video setting called "Cloud Render Distance", through which players can alter the number of chunks in which clouds render. The maximum is set to 128 chunks, which renders them to the horizon.

Lastly, clouds will receive a brand new texture update. They will look slightly different from the previous version and will also have a unique creeper face design in certain areas.

Music frequency and toast setting

New music settings (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

In the summer game update for Minecraft, Mojang also included a couple of new music-related settings.

Players can adjust the frequency at which in-game background music is played by adjusting the "Music Frequency" setting in the sound settings. The old vanilla music frequency is the "default". In the default setting, the music will occasionally pause and not resume for a few minutes or even hours. Then there are settings called "frequent" and "constant," which will gradually raise the frequency of the music.

The second music setting is to display a music toast dialog box whenever a new music track starts playing. The song and the artist's names will be displayed in the dialog box in the game. Players can always pause the game, where the dialog box is always visible, in case they miss the names.

Tears music disc

Minecraft's summer game drop will include a new music disc called Tears. This new track begins with the eerie reverbed vocals of a ghast singing in a certain rhythm. Later on, a medium-paced set of beats appears in the track, balancing the ghast's vocal rhythm.

Killing a Nether ghast with its own fireball will yield the Tears music disc. When players reach the "Return to Sender" milestone, they will receive this music disc as a mob drop. The disc can then be played on a jukebox.

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About the author

Akshat has been a Minecraft writer at Sportskeeda for almost three years. He has loved gaming since childhood, and the fact that Need For Speed Most Wanted is still installed on his PC is proof that the flame burns strong even today. This love for the racing franchise spilled over to F1 fandom, leading him to cover the sport as well for the company.

Akshat's articles have accrued over 19 million views so far at Sportskeeda. He prefers both solo and multiplayer titles and is a huge admirer of popular gamers Shroud and Philza. Akshat places huge emphasis on accurate, relevant, and ethical content, and does thorough research using social media, videos, and a multitude of websites before writing an article.

Akshat's other hobbies include cars, mechanical keyboards, psychology, and philosophy. He would recommend indie and Slice of Life games to a gaming skeptic because of their ease of play, compelling storyline, and message.

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Edited by Akshat Kabra