Minecraft news » 1.9 Combat Update is Now Live!

Song by YourMCAdmin

It's been a little over a year, but it is now here - version 1.9, the Combat Update, is now live! Above, we have a clever song put together by YourMCAdmin, which covers nearly every significant change in the update. If you prefer to see the finer details laid out in clear text, just scroll on down!

56 snapshots, a year of time, and a truly staggering amount of bugfixes have brought us to this moment; 1.9 was considered feature-complete in October of 2015, but the development team wanted to be absolutely sure they hammered out as many bugs as possible before going fully live. While a number of those bugs were introduced as part of the normal development process, many of them are older bugs that have finally been wiped out. No, seriously - the bugfix list is so long that it won't fit next to all the features listed here! 

Additions

• Method of restarting the ender dragon boss fight
• Infinite generation of islands in the end, populated by chorus trees, end city structures and ships, and shulker mob
• Dual wielding
• Attack strength mechanic
• Attribute system
• Shield, spectral arrow, 14 types of tipped arrow and a lingering potion for each type of potion.
• Elytra for Gliding
• Subtitles
• Off-hand slot, and dominant hand option
• Igloo structures that generate in cold biomes
• Skeleton trap horses that spawn during thunderstorms.
• 13 new blocks: grass path, frosted ice, 2 new types of command block, chorus flower and plant, end gateway block, end rod, end stone brick, purpur block, pillar, slab and stairs.
• New items: beetroot with seeds and soup, end crystal, normal and popped chorus fruit, luck potion and dragon's breath
• 5 new splashes.
• 4 new particles:
  • <code>sweepAttack</code>, <code>dragonBreath</code>, <code>endRod</code> and <code>damageIndicator</code>
• 4 new status effects:
  • Levitation, Glowing, Luck and Bad Luck.
• 2 new enchantments:
  • Frost Walker and Mending
• 5 new statistics:
  • <code>sleepInBed</code>, <code>sneakTime</code>, <code>pickup</code>, <code>drop</code> and <code>aviateOneCm</code>
• Lots of new NBT tags
• 3 new gamerules
  • <code>disableElytraMovementCheck</code>, <code>spectatorsGenerateChunks</code>, <code>spawnRadius</code>
• 150+ new sound events
• Support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and probably other IME entered languages

Changes

• Changed the layout of the end island pillars and the ender dragon boss fight.
• Skeleton AI is more difficult.
• Sword blocking removed, and several other weapon techniques added.
• Tool damage is rebalanced.
• Sharpness and protection enchantments are nerfed.
• Status effect icons are now visible on the main screen.
• Health regeneration is rebalanced.
• Fishing is rebalanced.
• Brewing stands now require blaze powder.
• Enchanted golden apples are no longer craftable.
• Maps changed.
• Loot found in chests generated in the world is rebalanced.
• Death in hardcore mode allows the player to continue in spectator mode.
• Boats are improved.
• Stronghold generation increased to a maximum of 128 strongholds.
• Large oak trees generate in forests again.
• Increased fire spread while raining.
• Glass panes and iron bars have a thin appearance when not connected, as opposed to a crosslike appearance.
• Mobs and players now push one another around.
• Death message is now displayed on the death screen.
• Mob and player heights are slightly modified.
• Resource packs can specify models depending on damage value, item state, and hand.
• Structure data now comes from /assets/structures.
• Loot from mobs, fishing and chests is now determined by loot tables.

Performance and optimizations

• Particles are no longer entities
• Block ticking
• Mob pathfinding
• Memory usage when connected to servers
• Chunk generation, loading and sending