Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 finally tests brand-new Caves and Cliffs Update features
A different way of building the world in today's beta
What you need to know
- Mojang Studios is currently working on 1.18 'Caves and Cliffs Update' Part Two for Minecraft, which will be a massive release.
- Today, the studio is finally bringing long-awaited features from the update to the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta for testers.
- Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 includes the new Stony Peaks mountain biome, world generation tweaks, and more.
- As the year continues, we should steadily see more and more features from the future update be tested in betas and snapshots.
The Caves and Cliffs Update is the present and future of Minecraft, with 1.18 Part Two expected to bring massive world generation changes and new features to the long-running survival sandbox game. Today, Mojang Studios is finally bringing some of the major features they've been testing to the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta with the release of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20, which includes new features like the Stony Peaks mountain biome and many other tweaks.
More recent Minecraft: Bedrock Edition betas, like the previous 1.17.30.25 release, have been considerably more minor, as Mojang continued to test more significant changes through Minecraft: Java Edition Experimental Snapshots. Now that the experiment is ending, these features can begin to roll out to more people to test and provide feedback on.
If you're interested in trying out a slice of Minecraft's future right now, you can. Mojang Studios is also hosting their Minecraft Live 2021 even in October, which will likely feature a ton of new announcements and reveals for Minecraft in the months and years to come, including inspiration for the next wave of best Minecraft toys and gifts.
The full changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 includes:
Caves and Cliffs Update Experimental Features
General
- Added a new mountain biome: Stony Peaks!
- This is just a variant of lofty / snow-capped peaks that uses stone and gravel instead of snow and ice, and is used to avoid temperature clashes such as a snow-capped peak sticking up from a jungle
- Corrected vegetation in Mountain Meadows
- Dripstone Clusters can now only be found in the Dripstone biome
- Dripstone features now only generate in Dripstone biome
- Mountain biomes now have correct feature places to match the Java Edition side-snapshot
- Infested Stone can be found under new mountains
- Tweaked ore distribution to match the Java Edition side-snapshot
- Clouds are now at Y level 192
- Tweaked biome placement, river size, and terrain shapes for a better overworld experience
- Tweaked mob spawning in mountain and cave biomes to match the Java Edition side-snapshot
- Trees in swamps can now generate slightly deeper when in water
- Deepslate now generates at lower depths
- Dripstone features now generate at Deepslate depths
- The placement logic of Small Dripstone feature has been refactored, frequency is similar but exact positions will differ
- Maps now correctly show the colors of blocks below a Y level of zero
Lush Caves
- Vines now generate in Lush Caves instead of generating above the surface
- Vines can now grow down below zero height
Villages
- Villages now generate in the style of the biome they are located in
Features and bug fixes
Blocks
- Falling stalactites are now offset properly to avoid interacting with entities outside their intended hitbox
- Beehives now generate in the world facing south
Candle cakes
- Pressing the 'use' button on a Candle Cake now consumes the correct amount of cake slices
Character Creator
- Fixed a crash that could occur when using Character Creator
- Tweaked color tint for default Steve skin to match default Steve
- Altered message for when friends change skins
Commands
- Education Edition items are no longer shown as an option when using
@e[type=]
Gameplay
- Fixed a bug that caused players to be set on fire upon changing dimensions if there was Lava underneath the Nether Portal
- Players can no longer eat food at full hunger in Survival mode
- Sea Grass no longer spawns under Lily Pads during world generation to avoid breaking them
- Villagers can no longer spam doors open and closed
- Cartographers now more consistently give new maps on all platforms
World generation
- Amethyst geodes are now much less likely to generate in Strongholds, and if they do they will not destroy End Portals
Graphical
- Improved world visibility culling for underground situations to eliminate seeing sky at the end of tunnels / stairs
Mobs
- Improved mob pathing around partial blocks
- Armor no longer renders on Pillagers and Vindicators, but are still granted armor effects
- Fixed an issue with mob rendering that caused Vindicator Axes to be visible even when they're not attacking on older Resource Packs
- More mobs will spawn underground in the Overworld
Powder snow
- Powder Snow no longer disappears when looking at it from a distance
Structure block
- Trapdoors now rotate correctly when loaded from a Structure block
User interface
- Fixed an issue where the d-pad and directional keys could not be used to navigate in certain parts of the UI
- Fixed an issue where an error message could be shown after suspending the game on the achievements screens with screen animations disabled
- Fixed an issue where an obscure gamerule was added to settings
- Fix keyboard / d-pad navigation from custom server to edit server button
- New achievements screens are available on Windows 10 ARM-based PCs
- The sign in text on the start screen will no longer overlap the Marketplace button
- Add space between tab title and the word 'Tab' for text-to-speech on Settings screen
- Added "More Info" button to failed sign-in modal
Known issues
- Bee Nests generate too frequently in the world
Technical updates
Data driven items
- Updated documentation for Block Rotation Component
- Added required toggles to documentation and to content error for block components
Animation editor
- Nodes within the animation editor are now color coordinated depending on what type they are, which includes the animation component, skeletal animations, animation controllers, and controller states
Commands
- Command blocks with
Needs Redstone
and a non-zeroDelay in Ticks
will now execute only if they remain powered for the delay duration - Fix alignment of the sidebar display from the
/scoreboard
command when text length changes
Data driven blocks
- Updated documentation for
BlockExplosionResistance
Graphics
- Fixed failure to render leash when attached to a mob outside of viewport
- Added a content error for using a material but not providing the required number of textures to the render controller
- Testing RenderDragon engine across subset of Android devices (ARMv7)
Mobs
- Fixed ability to summon experience orbs via
/summon
command - Fixed display only entity destruction in chunk discard scenarios
Molang
- Fixed
query.item_remaining_use_duration
having improperly scaled or inverted results - Add new compile errors for expressions like
text
+ 3`, which were previously ignored
User interface
- Added an ImGUI window for easier viewing of content errors
GameTest Framework
- Renamed method
succeedWhenBlockTypePresent
tosucceedWhenBlockPresent
- Fixed a bug where property
id
would return "Unknown" for custom entities - Identifier strings returned from property
id
now include the item's namespace
GameTest Sequence
- Removed method
thenWaitWithDelay
- Added method
thenWaitAfter(delayTicks: number, callback: () => undefined)
— After a delay, executes the given callback every tick until it succeeds. Exceptions thrown within the callback will end sequence execution
Player
- Fixed a bug where the location property would return an incorrect height for players
- Added property
id
Block
- Replaced method
getLocation
with propertylocation
- Replaced method
getPermutation
with propertypermutation
- Replaced method
getType
with propertytype
- Replaced methods
isWaterlogged
andsetWaterlogged
with propertyisWaterlogged
- Replaced method
getBlockData
with propertypermutation
- Replaced method
isEmpty
with propertyisEmpty
- Removed property
canBeWaterlogged
BlockType
- Replaced method
getName
with propertyid
- Replaced method
canBeWaterlogged
with propertycanBeWaterlogged
BlockPermutation
- Replaced method
getType
with propertytype
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Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.