The release of one of the biggest updates in Minecraft history is finally here! At 4:00 PM BST (11:00 AM EST, 8:00 AM PST) the first part of the Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update hit Minecraft Launchers worldwide.This Minecraft update boasts some incredible new features to be added in two separate parts. It includes a brand new, terrifying miniboss, three new neutral and passive mobs, a complete renovation to the cave systems, new ores, blocks, items, biomes, and so much more.This update also brings new patches, fixes, and tweaks to the original Minecraft experience. What exactly is in the first part of this newly released Minecraft update? In this article, we'll walk readers through the patch notes, fixes, and new, exciting features that have been added to Minecraft.What new features will the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update Part 1 add to Minecraft?There are several new features, mobs, items, ores, blocks and more that have come with the new Minecraft update. Sadly, the first part of this update did not include The Warden, so players' mining experiences in Minecraft are safe for another few months.It is time. Minecraft Java Edition 1.17 is now rolling out to the launcher. Check out the (very long) list of changes here: https://t.co/p87svayEX5— slicedlime (@slicedlime) June 8, 2021Here is a full list of all the features added to the game:Added Dripstone Block and Pointed DripstoneAdded Block of Amethyst, Budding Amethyst, Amethyst Cluster, and Amethyst BudAdded Block of Raw Iron, Copper, and GoldAdded CandlesAdded CopperAdded DeepslateAdded Glow LichenAdded Lava CauldronAdded Lightning RodAdded Lush Caves BlockAdded Powder SnowAdded Raw Copper, Raw Iron, and Raw Gold itemsAdded the AxolotlAdded the Glow SquidAdded the GoatAdded SpyglassAdded Tinted GlassA Shulker hitting a Shulker with a Shulker Bullet can make a new ShulkerAdditions to Wandering Trader and Mason tradesBundles and Shulker Box items will drop their contents when destroyedChanged Infested Block destroy timesChanges to Shipwreck and Mineshaft lootDirt Paths (formerly Grass Path) can now be made by using a Shovel on Dirt, Podzol, Mycelium, or Coarse Dirt (as well as Grass)Drowned now has a chance of dropping a Copper Ingot, and they no longer drop Gold IngotsExperience Orbs now sometimes merge when in large quantities to improve performance. This does not change the rate at which the player can absorb them, it simply limits the amount of separate orbs floating around in the world. Orbs that merge will gain the lifetime of the most recently created one.Holding down the space bar now increases the scroll speed in the creditsMinecarts and Rails work in waterParticles now appear when Pistons break blocksReordered some blocks in the Building Blocks Tab in the Creative MenuReordered the Redstone Tab in the Creative MenuSimple Firework Rockets with one Gunpowder can now be crafted using the recipe bookAlongside these new features are new advancements and achievements to check off as players discover more and more of this Minecraft update's new features:Added “Whatever Floats Your Goat!” for floating in a boat with a GoatAdded “Wax on” for applying Honeycomb to a Copper blockAdded “Wax off” for scraping wax off a Copper blockAdded “The Cutest Predator” for catching an Axolotl in a BucketAdded “The Healing Power of Friendship!” for teaming up with an Axolotl and winning a fightAdded “Glow and Behold” for making a Sign glowAdded “Light as a Rabbit” for walking on Powder Snow with Leather BootsAdded “Surge Protector!” for having a lightning strike a Lightning Rod near a Villager without setting the area on fireAdded “Is It a Bird?” for looking at a Parrot through a SpyglassAdded “Is It a Balloon?” for looking at a Ghast through a SpyglassAdded “Is It a Plane?” for looking at the Ender Dragon through a SpyglassThe official Minecraft website has a list that goes into extreme detail on each different block, biome, item, and mob's new behaviors, effects, and features. Readers can check out the full list here.Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Technical Patch Notes(Image via Mojang)There are quite a few advancements that have been made on the technical side within Minecraft. There are several new commands and small technical changes that have been made in Minecraft.Here is the full list of these minor patch notes:Added /debug functionAdded /item commandAdded lightning_bolt sub-predicateAdded looking_at condition to player sub-predicateAdded passenger, stepping_on and lightning_bolt properties to entity predicateAdded source condition to effects_changed triggerAdded started_riding, lightning_strike and using_item advancement triggersAdded a metric cube of lightAdded a new NBT tag for entities, named “HasVisualFire”, which will cause any entity with this flag to visually appear on fire, even if they are not actually on fireAdded F3+L shortcut to generate and persist performance metrics from in-gameF3+L on single-player worlds will also include reports for the integrated serverAdded gamerule playersSleepingPercentage (100 by default), which sets what percentage of players that must sleep in order to skip the night. Setting it to 0 will mean one player is always enough to skip the night. Setting it above 100 will prevent skipping the night.Added item modifiers, which will reuse loot table functions syntax to describe item modification in /item commandAdded loot table function set_banner_patternAdded the Marker entityButtons that change value (like Difficulty) can now be controlled with the mouse wheelClicking on a button that changes the value while holding the shift key changes to the previous valueData pack version is now 7“Debug” world type can now be accessed while holding the alt key (was shift)Entities are now saved separately from terrain chunksExpanded block field on block predicate to blocksExpanded item field on item predicate to itemsGUI narration now includes position and usage of hovered or focused elementsLoot tables can now access scoreboard values by UUIDOpenGL 3.2 core profilePerf start/stop command on dedicated servers will now generate and persist server performance metricsRemoved /replaceitemRemoved debug report command (use perf start/stop for server performance measurement)selector and nbt chat components can now configure separators between elementsServers can also display a custom message on resource pack promptServers can now require custom resource packs to be acceptedThe ‘/give’ command can only give up to 100 stacks of items at a time (e.g. 6400 stone or 100 iron swords)The default mode of structure blocks is now Load. Data is now hidden (but can be accessed by clicking the mode button while holding the alt key)The maximum length of item names in the Anvil UI has been increased from 35 to 50The maximum size that Slimes can be summoned with is now 128The pack format in version.json has been split into data and resource versionsThe Resource pack version is now 7Upgraded to Java 16Values inside random number generators can now be nestedMuch like the full list of bigger features added to the game, there is much more elaboration on these minor technical patches on the official Minecraft website.Bug Fixes in 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update(Image via Mojang)As with most Minecraft updates, there are quite a few bug fixes and minor changes to make gameplay more efficient and less glitchy. The Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update is no exception.There have been a number of fixes, including dungeon spawners being replaced with a block of stone, maps turning blank after entering the Nether, or the End and vines spreading upwards to non-full blocks, just to name a few.Readers can peruse the full list of bug fixes for Minecraft 1.17, here.