Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.0.54 includes lots of technical changes for 'Caves and Cliffs Update'

What you need to know

• Minecraft: Bedrock Edition tests future updates and changes through betas on Xbox, PC, and Android devices.
• Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.0.54 is now rolling out to testers with a handful of new features and changes.
• All of the changes are focused on the upcoming 'Caves and Cliffs Update,' with some experimental features planned for the update's second half.
• Alongside some bug fixes and tweaks, there's also a ton of technical updates in the 1.17.0.54 Beta.

Minecraft is continuing to march down the long road to the Caves and Cliffs Update, which is now slated to release in two separate parts later this year, with the release of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.0.54. The latest Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta includes new tweaks and changes from the upcoming Caves and Cliffs Update but with a special focus on technical updates.

The 1.17.0.54 Beta includes changes and features that are coming in both halves of the Caves and Cliffs Update, so make sure to enable the "Experimental Features" toggle if you want to be on the frontlines of Minecraft testing. There's also plenty to pay attention to if you're a Minecraft creator.

Minecraft continues to grow at an exponential rate, and recently announced Minecraft has nearly 140 million monthly active users. If you're one of those 140 million, you might consider purchasing something from our list of best merch, toys, and gifts for Minecraft. In case you missed it, I also recently discussed why Minecraft on Xbox Series X|S is disappointing for some users.

The full changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.0.54 includes:

Experimental features

• Minecarts with Chests can also appear in Mineshafts at -y
• Strongholds will be more hidden in larger caves
• Fixed a bug where Shulkers would not teleport below y=0

Non-experimental

Axolotl

• Axolotl can no longer move on its own while playing dead
• Axolotls no longer play dead on land

Powder snow

• Dispensers can now dispense a Powder Snow Block using a Powder Snow Bucket
• Skeletons no longer freeze when standing inside of Powder Snow, and will transform into strays after 45 seconds
• Mobs can now pathfind properly on top of Powder Snow
• Vanilla Parity: Powder Snow can no longer support Scaffolding
• Vanilla Parity: Mining time of Powder Snow Block now matches mining time in Java Edition
• Players can no longer Jump on top of Powder Snow to avoid sinking

Azalea leaf

• Azalea and Flowering Azalea leaves now drop themself when mined with Silk Touch tools

Caves & cliffs

• Infested variants of Deepslate can be found in Extreme Hills biome
• Block of Copper is now crafted with 9 Copper Ingots
• Block of Copper can be crafted down into 9 Copper Ingots
• Copper Ore and Deepslate Copper now drop 2-3 Raw Copper
• Raw Iron, Copper, and Gold item textures have been updated
• Block of Raw Iron, Copper, and Gold textures have been updated
• Compass and Clock textures have been updated

Spore blossom

• Spore Blossom no longer survives in water

Copper

• Copper now has correct graphical and sound effects when waxing / dewaxing
• Underside of leaves now render correctly when placed on top of Copper Slabs

Glow squid

• Squid and Glow Squid now make a specific sound when they let ink out
• Old signs no longer glow when being dyed

Goat

• Increased chances of getting screamer goat by breeding screamer goat with non-screamer goat

Items

• Fixed an issue where first person offhand items were rendered when zooming in with the Spyglass

Pointed dripstone

• Stalactites now drip water a bit more often when filling Cauldrons

Raw gold

• Piglins now admire Block of Raw Gold
• Piglins now admire Raw Gold

Rooted dirt

• Tiling Rooted Dirt turns does no longer instantly turn it into Farmland block

Spyglass

• Spyglass is now part of the "Equipment" category in the Creative inventory

Vanilla parity

• Falling blocks now break when landing on Shulkers

User interface

• Fixed controller cursor sensitivity scaling
• Fixed a bug preventing users from reassigning key 'E' in "Keyboard & Mouse" settings

Commands

• Fixed issue where Minecart with Command Block was not affected by the CommandBlocksEnabled gamerule

Multiplayer

• The /kick command works properly if cheats and command blocks are disabled, and it no longer uses target selectors

Technical updates

Volumes

• Experimental feature
• Create volumes in your world: simply create a "volumes" folder in a saved world, and put json files in there - 1 json file per volume
• Currently, you can attach a fog - minecraft or your own custom fog - to a volume. When the player enters the volume, the fog will take effect

General

• Added AddVolumeEntityPacket that contains information of a volume entity including its net ID and NBT containing information about the volume's definition and components, which will be added to the client's registry
• Added RemoveVolumeEntityPacket that contains a volume entity's net ID to remove it from the client's registry

Mobs

• Added a new optional flag use_simplified_breeding to minecraft:genetics component. When this flag is set to true, the offspring never inherits hidden alleles of parents as main alleles and main as hidden. This allows to implement simple breeding logic easier

GameTest framework

• Components
  • Removed function setColor(color : Number)
  • property value : Number - Gets or sets the color of the entity
  • Added additional component interfaces. movement, navigation, healable, breathable, ageable, and tameable components can be referenced via entity.getComponent(componentName : string).
  • minecraft:color
• Container - New interface for interacting with entity containers. Can be referenced via entity.getComponent("inventory").container
  • function setItem(slot : Number, itemStack : ItemStack) - Adds itemStack to the container at the given slot
  • function getItem(slot : Number) : ItemStack - Gets the itemStack at the given slot
  • function addItem(itemStack : ItemStack) - Adds the given itemStack to the first available slot of the container
  • function transferItem(fromSlot : Number, toSlot : Number, toContainer : Container) - Transfers an ItemStack from fromSlot of the container to toSlot of toContainer
  • function swapItems(slot : Number, otherSlot : Number, otherContainer : Container) - Swaps ItemStacks between slot of the container and otherSlot of otherContainer
  • function worldLocation(relativeLocation : BlockLocation) - Transforms the coordinates of given GameTest location to its corresponding world location
  • function relativeLocation(worldLocation : BlockLocation) - Transforms the coordinates of given world location to its corresponding GameTest location