Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update Part 1: Patch notes, new features, fixes, and more

(Image via OMGcraft on YouTube)
(Image via OMGcraft on YouTube)

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?

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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.

Here is a full list of all the features added to the game:

  • Added Dripstone Block and Pointed Dripstone
  • Added Block of Amethyst, Budding Amethyst, Amethyst Cluster, and Amethyst Bud
  • Added Block of Raw Iron, Copper, and Gold
  • Added Candles
  • Added Copper
  • Added Deepslate
  • Added Glow Lichen
  • Added Lava Cauldron
  • Added Lightning Rod
  • Added Lush Caves Block
  • Added Powder Snow
  • Added Raw Copper, Raw Iron, and Raw Gold items
  • Added the Axolotl
  • Added the Glow Squid
  • Added the Goat
  • Added Spyglass
  • Added Tinted Glass
  • A Shulker hitting a Shulker with a Shulker Bullet can make a new Shulker
  • Additions to Wandering Trader and Mason trades
  • Bundles and Shulker Box items will drop their contents when destroyed
  • Changed Infested Block destroy times
  • Changes to Shipwreck and Mineshaft loot
  • Dirt 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 Ingots
  • Experience 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 credits
  • Minecarts and Rails work in water
  • Particles now appear when Pistons break blocks
  • Reordered some blocks in the Building Blocks Tab in the Creative Menu
  • Reordered the Redstone Tab in the Creative Menu
  • Simple Firework Rockets with one Gunpowder can now be crafted using the recipe book

Alongside 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 Goat
  • Added “Wax on” for applying Honeycomb to a Copper block
  • Added “Wax off” for scraping wax off a Copper block
  • Added “The Cutest Predator” for catching an Axolotl in a Bucket
  • Added “The Healing Power of Friendship!” for teaming up with an Axolotl and winning a fight
  • Added “Glow and Behold” for making a Sign glow
  • Added “Light as a Rabbit” for walking on Powder Snow with Leather Boots
  • Added “Surge Protector!” for having a lightning strike a Lightning Rod near a Villager without setting the area on fire
  • Added “Is It a Bird?” for looking at a Parrot through a Spyglass
  • Added “Is It a Balloon?” for looking at a Ghast through a Spyglass
  • Added “Is It a Plane?” for looking at the Ender Dragon through a Spyglass

The 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)
(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 function
  • Added /item command
  • Added lightning_bolt sub-predicate
  • Added looking_at condition to player sub-predicate
  • Added passenger, stepping_on and lightning_bolt properties to entity predicate
  • Added source condition to effects_changed trigger
  • Added started_riding, lightning_strike and using_item advancement triggers
  • Added a metric cube of light
  • Added 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 fire
  • Added F3+L shortcut to generate and persist performance metrics from in-game
  • F3+L on single-player worlds will also include reports for the integrated server
  • Added 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 command
  • Added loot table function set_banner_pattern
  • Added the Marker entity
  • Buttons that change value (like Difficulty) can now be controlled with the mouse wheel
  • Clicking on a button that changes the value while holding the shift key changes to the previous value
  • Data 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 chunks
  • Expanded block field on block predicate to blocks
  • Expanded item field on item predicate to items
  • GUI narration now includes position and usage of hovered or focused elements
  • Loot tables can now access scoreboard values by UUID
  • OpenGL 3.2 core profile
  • Perf start/stop command on dedicated servers will now generate and persist server performance metrics
  • Removed /replaceitem
  • Removed debug report command (use perf start/stop for server performance measurement)
  • selector and nbt chat components can now configure separators between elements
  • Servers can also display a custom message on resource pack prompt
  • Servers can now require custom resource packs to be accepted
  • The ‘/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 50
  • The maximum size that Slimes can be summoned with is now 128
  • The pack format in version.json has been split into data and resource versions
  • The Resource pack version is now 7
  • Upgraded to Java 16
  • Values inside random number generators can now be nested

Much 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)
(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.