Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Update

So the latest snapshot released and what better time to talk about the Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs update.

Finally, all those memes about getting bees and not caves in the update is working, Thank you Reddit warriors, but jokes aside this is a pretty big update.

I mean they made rabbit from just an animal on the ground to “kill one whenever you see one” in a single update. so let’s talk about it.

Indside caves

Lets talk about everything changed inside the caves in Minecraft.

So the 1.17 update brings some beautiful looking caves designs. You will love the new massive and open caves with some caves flooded with water to make a waterfall.

This was so pleasing to look at, the mountains look so good and the way he dived into one of the caves, you can see the effort they are putting in caves and cliffs update.

Design of the caves are still in prototype so the cave might look a bit different in the final version but I wish they keep it just the way it is.

Just imagine finding one and carefully going down the narrow tunnel in the dark. Huge, empty caves like this one in this screenshot.

Another thing to notice in the video is that the caves are well lit up, that’s because the ores are glowing and that’s only for better visibility.

The one we will get will obviously be darker like the ones we have now, but even scarier with the cave sounds we already have.

The caves will be random and they are doing that by randomly generating small caves connected with big caves and one thing they added was a system “Local Water Levels”.

This will add water in the caves and sometimes will connect two caves together. Some caves might not have any water and some might have waterfalls in it.

In this screenshot, the player is swimming inside the and this passage will lead him to a different cave. This is a very nice idea, now you can travel through huge caves in boats and thanks to the new cave generating system we will be surfing through random waterfalls like this.

Now the caves do looks good with all those pillars, huge caves connected to each other and waterfall but it’s not enough to keep it interactive so they added even more in these caves.

Dripstone Caves

They added a new biome in the game and this one according to me is the perfect thing to add in a Cave Update. You can never imagine a cave without Stalactites and Stalagmites, they are the part of cave pop culture.

This is a biome and it’s not clear how rare they are but be careful if you do end up finding one because according to Henrik Kneberg these things will one tap us.

He added one more video of him exploding TNT between stalactites above zombies and killing them in one hit.

This confirms two things that they will one tap you and that it will divide into individual blocks after breaking one.

Another thing to know is that just like real stalactites, there will be dripping water and you can collect water in the cauldrons.

Lush Caves

Another Cave biome in this update and this one brings a lot to the table. They wanted to add a cave filled with vegetation and life so they did and added Lush Caves in the Caves and Cliffs Update.

Trust me when I say that they did everything to make it flora and fauna rich because to find the lush cave you need to find a specific kind of tree.

Azalea Tree

You need to find the Azalea tree on the surface to get inside lush caves which makes cave exploration so different.

You need to find one these plants with blossom on it.

And dig down these trees to enter the lush caves.

Keep in mind that they have few variants, one with Pink blossoms, one with Purple blossoms and one with no blossom at all. We don’t know how rare these caves are but it’s the first time that you have to walk or fly to find a cave.

But when you go down the roots of Azalea trees you will enter a big cave with tall vines hanging to the cave ceiling above you, moss below your feet and green particles everywhere.

It feels like any Disney movie but in the live stream, they stated that they were inspired by the artwork of John Bauer. Most of his art is based on a small character in a big garden or surrounded by huge trees.

So there’s a lot to talk about plants and the first thing in the list is Glow Berries. As in the name they are berries that can emit light and they grow on the vines we were talking about earlier.

They are like little sources of lighting in the cave which makes it even more beautiful, just wait for the creative players to design the houses with these berries.

Another thing you can see in that image is the walls and the floors are covered with green moss. Now they are like a new type of carpet and moss blocks. Right now we don’t know much about them but you can see them in the image

They also introduced two other type of plants.

First is Dripleaf Plant, which grows in water and can grow very tall. The idea behind the mechanic of this plant is that it has a flat leaf at the top which will act as a platform and you can stand over the leaf.

But the leaf will start to tilt down in 2 levels when you stand on it for too long. The first one acts as a warning and the second one just rejects you and drops you off and will reset after a few minutes

It is more like the falling platforms in other games like Mario, they flash red when you stand on them and then they vanish.

The second plant in the list is Spore Blossom Plant, this one is a big pink flower that emits particles. They will grow on the ceiling of the lush cave and the good news is that they are portable.

Spore Blossom does seem to have a very wide area of effect, that one flower-filled the whole lush cave with the particles in the live stream. They have 2 states – Open and Close and they will drip particles in the open state.

Axolotl

Axolotl – The cute little water type mobs, they are cute but can fight guardian with you. You can catch one in a bucket similar to the way we used to catch the fish.

They are currently known to be in 3 colours – Pink, Brown and Green and somehow they managed to keep the cuteness intact from the real-life Axolotls.

Fun fact the real Axolotl can regenerate even the vital parts like eyes, the one in the Minecraft can also regenerate its health.

They will act as dead when hit and then other mobs will ignore the fake dead Axolotl. During that fake dead act they will regen their HP and jump back in the fight.

They also stated that if you have a better friendship with them they can also regen your HP which can mean you have to pet them by giving them some sort of food. The player in the video had rotten potato in his inventory, might be a hint to what could be the food.

Next time we will get to have a big cute army to conquer the water. Boy this caves and Cliffs update is like THE UPDATE and there is more to talk about.

Amethyst Crystals and Geodes

Another thing good about rocks is that Geodes Exist, they are the type of rocks that looks normal from outside and looks like a crystal room from inside.

They took that idea and added Amethyst Geodes in the game. They can be generated anywhere from sea level to bedrock. This is quite a range so this might change it later.

Amethyst crystals do exist in real life are covered with calcite which is also a new block in the game.

The Amethyst geode is like a small ball-shaped room and when you come across one you will see two new blocks Tuff and Calcite. I don’t know if the real one is also covered with both of them but they added this in the game.

The only thing we know about them now is that the geode will be covered by Tuff blocks and then if you break the tuff you will see calcite block. You have to break through the blocks or you can find an opening to these geodes like this one in the image

When you go inside the ambient sound changes to a pleasant crystal tinkling sound. All the blocks make a sound note when you touch, walk or break one.

The walls are filled with purple blocks known as Block Of Amethyst and Budding Amethyst. The crystals in the image are known as Amethyst cluster which emits light.

The Amethyst shard grows in 4 levels – small amethyst bud, medium amethyst bud, large amethyst bud and the fully grown harvestable one the Amethyst cluster.

If you mine the Amethyst cluster with iron pickaxe or higher it will drop amethyst shard. Currently you can build 3 things with the clusters but we will talk about that in a moment.

Don’t break the buds because they will simply break unless you use silk touch. The buds yo get from silk touch can be used as decorative blocks but they won’t unless they are placed on the Budding Amethyst Block

Budding Amethyst Block

The budding amethyst block looks similar to the block of amethyst but they have a dark purple colour crack or diamond shape in the middle.

They are unobtainable blocks like the mob spanners which means you have to build a farm around these blocks. So be careful because if gone then GG.

They also mentioned in the live stream that the Amethyst Geodes are going to be rare. Another thing that the community noticed that the clusters and the buds are water locked which means if you pour water they will stay in the place and won’t break.

Deep Dark Biome

Deep Dark biome according to the Livestream is a new biome which spans at the deepest depths of the world. They wanted to bring back the scary first-night experience so they added a new scary biome in Minecraft 1.17 update.

The deep dark biome is home of a new type of red stone sensor and a giant scary mob.

Sculk Sensors and Growths

Skulk growths are a type of blocks and carpets that grows only in deep dark caves. They look very different and inside that growth, you will see a new unique block, The Sculk Sensor. This is a new type of Redstone sensor which detects the vibrations around it.

This is a screenshot from the live stream and this is how entrance of deep dark cave looks like. The yellow circle in the middle shows the vibration from placing the torch and it is going towards the Sculk sensor.

Sculk sensors activate if you place or break or even walk near these sensors and turn those vibrations into Redstone signals. It can be activated from any direction and since it doesn’t need to be attached to anything it will act as a wireless sensor.

You can block the sensor from any direction with the help of wool, wool kind of acts like a vibration nullifier and prevents the sensor to activate from that direction.

The Warden

The scariest mob has entered the arena and I’m not overselling when I say the scariest mob. They are taller and wider than the Iron Golem and even better in the damage section. They can literally 2 shot you with your Netherite armor, in your netherite armor!

They are big and green and they don’t have eyes. They detects vibration around them like Sculk sensors and you can fool them with snow balls.

The lights will flicker, the cave music will change and you HAVE to crouch all the way to the end of the cave. Don’t let him hear you and throw stuff like snowballs to make a vibration in the distance to keep the Warden away from you.

Copper Ores

Copper ores are as rare as Iron Ore so now you will run into copper ore while mining underground. But according to YouTubers and some players, it seems to be a little rarer and this might change but right now in the snapshots, finding copper ore is harder than iron ore.

Copper ore looks exactly like a darker version of iron ore and we cannot confirm the final look of the ore but it is safe to assume that they will look like this in the final design.

You can mine the copper ores with Iron Pickaxe and Higher.

Like any other metal ore smelting, the copper ore will give you Copper Ingots. You can then use the copper Ingots to craft stuff like – Copper blocks, Copper Lightning Rod and Spyglass.

No, there are no new copper Armor, sword, pickaxe etc but they are a special kind of block, and just like real copper it changes colour over time.

It will change its colour and this will happen in 50 to 82 in-game days. Each level can be mined in survival with a normal iron pickaxe or higher.

You can stop this oxidation at any stage by waxing the blocks, Just combine the copper block of your choice with honeycomb in the crafting table and that will give you Waxed Copper Block.

You can also put the copper block in 2×2 in crafting table to make Cut copper. Cut copper is basically for crafting Stairs and Slabs. It is also worth noting that you can create different coloured stairs and slabs by using cut copper of your choice.

They can also be waxed so there is no need to worry about them changing colour over time.

On the Cliffs

Just like the caves they made the mountains generation even better and height dependent . Now the mountains will be bigger, beautiful and random like the real ones. They also added a mob and a new type of block on the cliffs.

GOATS

They are new mobs and they look like the real mountain goats. They are spanned in the mountains filled with snow. They are cute but beware because they can push you hard and might even knock you off the mountains.

This is a random mechanic, they don’t directly hit you when they see you or when you hit them. It will run away from you when you hit them but randomly they will decide to knock you off the mountain.

They like Wheat and this might be a glitch but in the new snapshot if you breed them they will give 6 babies. Another to know is that they will drop a Horn if they ram a tree.

This will be a little hard to set up but to get a Goat horn you have to stand between the goat and the tree and then immediately run away when they star attacking you.

I know huge mountain generation and goats yeeting you off the mountains is a dangerous but awesome combo but it made the snow biome so interesting and are welcomed feature in the snowy cliffs.

POWDERED SNOW

Speaking of snow, there is a new type of snow called Powdered snow. They are more like trap blocks like the spider web, they will suck you in if you walk over it.

They look exactly like snow so you cannot differentiate between them and beware because they hurt. You can jump over them if you hold jump button similar to water when you hold jump and swim jump over the water blocks.

They added a new mechanic in powdered snow known as Freezing effect. It is like frost bite and activates when you are fully covered with powdered snow.

You will see a freezing overlay on your screen and will start hurting you. You will also notice that your hearts go blue when you are in freezing effect.

Another great thing to notice is that they reduce fall damage, I can imagine a lot of uses like camps with mob catcher or even for players.

To farm this new trap snow you need cauldron and snowy weather. Just place cauldron in the snow biome let it snow and you will have your own powdered snow. They fill up in four stages and can be transported in buckets.

Yes, for each block you need a bucket and also yes they are collected very slowly so happy snowing.

Craftable Stuffs.

We have already talked about the copper stairs and slabs above but there are few more craftable additions in Caves and Cliffs Update.

SPYGLASS

They are just like they sound, an item to zoom into the distance like a pirate. To craft one of these you need Amethyst Shard and 2 Copper Ingots.

There is nothing more to this item, you can zoom in to the far distance similar to the one in Optifine mod. It’s just more fun to zoom in with spyglass and find structures or desert temples for example.

LIGHTNING ROD

It is a copper lightning rod and brings a lightning attraction mechanics into the game. It will attract the lightning strike and it covers a huge area, the main purpose of the lightning rod is that it will protect wooden houses.

There is nothing much to talk about, they do activates the Redstone signals when struck with lightning but that’s it. Let’s hope community comes up with a fun idea.

TINTED GLASS

Tinted glass has a unique type of mechanics, you can see through these glass panels but they completely block the light. This is a little hard to explain but take this for an example

If you create a room completely with tinted glass and add some mobs like zombies inside the room, you will see some silhouette or the dark shape and outline of zombies inside the room.

CANDLE

Caves and cliffs added a new light source, candles. Candles can be crafter with 1 Honeycomb and 1 string. It can be lit by flint and steel and each candle gives a light of level 3 which is not that much.

Now I said each because they can be stacked up to 4 candlesticks which add up to the light level of 12 which is very good.

You can colour the candles by combining the candles with dye. Also neat little feature in candles is that they can be placed over cakes so advance happy birthdays to all miners.

Bundles

They also added a new storage system known as bundles which need 6 rabbit skin and 2 strings to craft one.

This one will be very useful and also a must-have every time you go down mining because it can store 64 of any stackable block. It can stack 32 iron 12 diamonds and 20 gold ingots which totals 64 in one bundle.

And to remove the items just double right click on it.

The item will be stored inside the bundle and will look like a filled pouch with a bar indicating how much storage is left. Hovering your mouse over the filled bundles will tell what items are stored inside the bundles.

Have to admit this is a very nice way to solve the storage issues and making game a little more difficult by adding one more important thing to grind.

This makes inventory management very interactive and efficient. You can store crafting recipes like leather and paper or sticks and coal in a bundle for easy access. Let’s leave the ideas to the Reddit community and talk about next stuff.

These are all the stuff Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs is bringing to the table. They all are in beta and might change in the final update.

They also might add new crops or blocks in the future so wait for that because we will cover those too.