Minecraft 1.20 snapshot 23w12a patch notes: New structure trail ruins, Sniffer eggs, pottery shards, and more

Minecraft snapshots are pre-release versions of updates. They allow players to try out features, gameplay mechanics, and changes that are being considered for a new update.

Right after releasing the new Bedrock beta, Mojang made public the first-ever Minecraft 1.20 snapshot for Java Edition players. This snapshot is packed with exciting content, including a plethora of pottery shards, highly anticipated Sniffer eggs, a new structure, as well as compatibility features for the sculk sensor and amethyst block.

Minecraft Java Edition snapshot 23w12a official patch notes

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New features

Players no longer have to enable the "Update 1.20" experimental features as they are now part of the game.
Vibration resonance functionality has been added.
Calibrated sculk sensors have been added.
New pottery shards, suspicious gravel, and more archaeology sites have been added.
Five new armor trims have made their way to the game.
Sign has improved customization options.
Sniffer egg has been added.
Pitcher plant has been added.

Vibration resonance

When amethyst blocks are placed adjacent to sculk sensors, they will now exhibit new behavior. When the sculk sensor receives a vibration, the adjacent block of amethyst will re-emit its frequency as a separate vibration at its location.

This feature is called vibration resonance. It will allow players to move vibration frequencies across long distances without having to recreate the vibration naturally.

Calibrated sculk sensors

A new variant of sculk sensor that allows players to filter vibrations.
Unfortunately, this new block does not generate anywhere naturally and can only be crafted. Players will need three amethyst shards, and one sculk sensor to craft one.
One side of this block can receive a redstone signal as input.

Archaeology

Added suspicious gravel block. Players can find it in cold ocean ruins.
Suspicious sand blocks can be found in warm ocean ruins. Sniffer eggs can be found here as well.
Sixteen new pottery shards have been added, and players will find them in these archaeology sites: desert wells, desert temples, cold ocean ruins, warm ocean ruins, and trail ruins.

Armor trims

Five new armor trims have been added to the game:

Trail ruins: Wayfinder Armor Trim, Raiser Armor Trim, Shaper Armor Trim, and Host Armor Trim
Ancient cities: Silence Armor Trim

Signs

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Minecraft Sign text can be edited.
Players can write separate text on both sides.
A new feature that allows players to prevent further edits to a sign by waxing it using honeycomb has been added.

Sniffer eggs and pitcher plant

The much-awaited Sniffer eggs, which can be used to spawn the Sniffer, have been added to the game. They can be found in the suspicious sand blocks of the warm ocean ruins.

Snifflets no longer spawn upon breeding two Sniffers. Instead, a Sniffer egg is dropped. Players can hatch this egg by placing it on a block and waiting for approximately 20 minutes. However, placing it on moss takes half the time to hatch.

Occasionally, Sniffers can sniff and dig up pitcher pod items, which players can grow and harvest on farmland blocks.

Other changes made in Minecraft Java snapshot 23w12a

The vibration frequencies of many actions in the game have been tweaked
To make it more distinctive, the color of the potion of slow falling has been adjusted
Wither effect particle color has been adjusted to make it more distinguishable
Step sounds can now combine for blocks walked through and stepped on

Vibration frequencies

To prevent unwanted interference, the vibration frequencies have been simplified. Listed below are the category descriptions for each frequency and the expected events that they correspond to:

Movement in any medium (land, water, and air)
Landing on any surface (land or water)
Item interactions
Gliding with an elytra or unique mob actions (Ravager roar, Wolf shaking, etc.)
Dismounting a mob or equipping gear
Mounting a mob or interacting with a mob
Mobs and players getting damaged
Consuming items (drinking and eating)
Blocks 'deactivating' (door close, chest close, button unpress, etc.)
Blocks 'activating' (door open, chest open, button press, etc.)
Blocks changing (cauldron water level rising, adding food to a campfire, etc.)
Blocks being destroyed
Blocks being placed
Mobs and players teleporting or spawning
Mobs and players dying or an explosion

Combination step sounds

This new feature combines two different step sounds
It occurs for carpets, snow, nether sprouts, warped, and crimson roots.

Armor Trims

With the addition of new armor trims, these changes have made their way to the first-ever Minecraft 1.20 snapshot:

The Dune Armor Trim has a new pattern and template icon. The Sentry Armor Trim uses its old pattern.
The new Shaper Armor trim uses Sentry Armor Trim's old pattern.

Readers can check out the complete patch notes of the Minecraft 1.20 snapshot 23w12a on the official game website.