Minecraft news » Day 2 Minecon: 1.9 Update Info!

The Future of Minecraft panel starts shortly, and we will be giving you all the info on the 1.9 update right here! Features, links, and more await. Prepare yourselves!

1.9 Info:

The End:

• Ender Dragon fight to be massively overhauled, changed to be the same as console edition fight; some obsidian pillars have cages, preventing players from just shooting the caged beacons. Dragon will come down and fight the player on the ground once a certain damage threshold is reached
• "Dragon's Breath" drop?
• Dragon will be (optionally) respawnable
• More islands in The End to explore (will require defeating the dragon to reach) via ender gateways
• Ender City; will only use The End materials in construction, no materials from the normal world. New end-specific blocks added - both in buildings and naturally-occurring "plants" in The End
• "Plants" can be cut down like sugar cane, collapsing all pieces above the one cut down
• To plant these new plants, a flower on the main stalk must be harvested, cannot just place a base plant piece in the soil
• New hostile mob, "Shulker": camouflaged as a type of block, hiding inside; can shoot projectiles
• Shulker projectiles deal damage, but also cause player to levitate uncontrollably for a time. Projectiles can be attacked with a sword like Ghast projectiles, though they are destroyed, not reflected
• "Levitation" is a new potion effect (demonstrated in the Shulker projectile), can be mixed in potions
• Levitation only takes the player up; the only way to move downward is to drink milk, negating the potion's effect

Combat:

• Dual-wielding, and right-hand/left-hand main, at player's choice
• Can only have one "right-clickable" item in hand at any time, since right-click attempts to use the off-hand item
• Items in off-hand (ex. torches) can be placed normally with right-click
• Hotkey to swap main/off-hand items (F key by default); outside of combat, this is useful for lighting while mining, drinking potions while fighting/running, etc.
• Maps in the player's hand will provide a mini-map on screen
• Shields; roughly banner-sized (tower shield), can be customized like a banner with colors, logos, etc. Shields can be dual-wielded

New arrow types:

• Spectral Arrow (applies glow/outline effect (10-15 seconds) to whatever it hits); for team-based events, will outline the player in the team's color. Players with the invisible effect will still get the outline, but will otherwise be un-revealed, essentially being a walking outline of a character
• Arrows can have some potion effects applied to them, though balance is still a concern at the moment

Potions:

• Potion effects will have an on-screen icon, instead of requiring players to open their inventory to see what affects are applied
• Left-most icons are effects that are ending sooner. The further right the icon is, the longer the effect, relative to other icons displayed

Misc.

• Possibility to add more expensive, but more durable, boats in the future
• Snapshot coming soon, no date specified

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Pocket Edition:

• Many PC-version features coming (XP bars, hunger, anvils)
• Controller support
• The Nether added; includes all PC-standard Nether features (mobs, items, etc)
• Many controls brought in line with console/PC, to accommodate controller support. Many new movement/jumping controls will be optional
• Redstone planned for the future
• The End planned, though not for the current update
• Realms coming to Pocket Edition in the future