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Minecraft 1.17 Update – Release Date, Caves and Cliffs!

The 1.16 patch brought a lot of new life to Minecraft's Nether area, but that only leaves us to wonder what is next?
This article is over 4 years old and may contain outdated information

Big changes have arrived with the arrival of update 1.17 for Minecraft and here you will find everything you need to know about what the update has and what new items are in the game.

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Here you can find the old Livestream for Minecraft Live, and the information we learned from the stream

Minecraft 1.17 Release Date

Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs is out now and we at Pro Game Guides have a ton of guides already up that cover the update. However, if you were here wondering about Minecraft 1.18, it is set to release sometime later this year.

New Mob: Axolotl

The axolotl is a new mob that spawns in the Lush Cave biome, and you can capture them in a bucket of water! You could potentially bring them back to your base and add them to an aquarium. You can also bring them with you as your own little army. They will attack other mobs in the water, particularly Guardians that spawn in ocean monuments.

New System: Archaeology

A whole new mechanic called Archaeology is to be added to the game. It looks like you'll find excavation sites around the world, and you can use a new tool called the brush to dust away the dirt and find different pieces of pottery and other things. You will then be able to take these pieces and create clay pots via the art that is exposed from the dig sites!

Minecraft archaeology pots

New Item: Bundle

If you're constantly finding your inventory full, then this is going to be a very helpful addition to the game for you. You can create a bag that you can place items into, that will conserve space in your inventory. 

Minecraft Bundle example

New Item: Lightning Rod

If you are a fan of using a roof that might be a bit flammable, then creating a Lightning Rod will be a way to prevent this from happening. You can place that on your roof, and the lightning will hit it instead of igniting your flimsy roof.

Amethyst Geodes

Amethyst Geodes is a brand new small biome that players can find and get amethyst shards from. You can find amethyst geodes spawning after Y=70 underground and around bedrock levels. You can also find the geodes spawning occasionally on the overworld, exposed both in beaches and underwater.

Amethyst Geodes in Minecraft

You can also use the shards from these geodes to create a spyglass and tinted glass.

Minecraft Telescope

The Telescope will require another new resource which is copper! This can be found by mining, and can create different blocks, which can of course set off some great looking builds by using it in different ways. As your world ages, copper that has been placed will slowly turn green, just like copper in real life will do!

Minecraft Copper example

Bigger Mountains

New mountain generation has arrived with the cliffs portion of the update. These are going to be a lot snowier, and there will even be a new powdered snow block. This new block will be kind of like a trap, because if you or a mob walk onto it, you will fall through it!

Larger mountain biome in Minecraft

New Animal: Goats

On those new mountains, you will find the new Goats spawning on them! You will have to be careful though, because if you mess with them, they might just knock you off the mountain by charging at you!

Minecraft Goats

New Mob: Warden

This new mob will occur in the Deep Dark Biome, and is the first blind mob that has been added to the game. The Warden is attracted by sound, so you can technically fool it by throwing snowballs and making noise away from yourself. It is very similar to the Sculk Sensors that are going to be part of this new biome.

New Deep Dark Biome

This is a new biome that exists at the deepest parts of the world. In this biome, you will encounter Sculk Growths. There will be a new block called the Sculk Sensor, and this will detect if a block is placed, footsteps, and a whole lot more are sensed and emit a redstone signal. If you place a wool block next to the sensor, it will make it so the detection isn't felt by it and will not trigger. This sensor can also create a wireless redstone sensor, if it is trigger it will emit the signal and can send it to another Sculk Sensor wirelessly!

Minecraft Sculk Growths

Improved Cave Generation

Caves have had how they generate greatly improved. You will find underground lakes that you can swim through to get to wide open areas. There will also be naturally generated waterfalls that will spawn throughout these newly created caves. It was even suggested that you could go cave rafting if you wanted!

Minecraft Cave Rafting example

Here's a look at how some of the caves will generate. It's important to note that ores will not glow when this goes live, it is just shown to light up the cave so you can see things in it.

Minecraft Cave Generation example

New Biomes

The Dripstone Caves is a new biome that you will come across while exploring these newly generated caves. You will get the stalagmites and stalactites that players have been wanting to see, which can be knocked from the top of the cave and will drop down and break. If they are on the ground, they will deal damage to you if you or an enemy drops into them!

Minecraft Dripstone Caves biome

One new biome that you can expect to see eventually in patch 1.18 is called Lush Caves. This includes a bunch of vegetation and hanging vines. You will certainly get the feel that you are within a cave that the plants have taken over. There's going to be a new Azealia tree that shows up in the overworld, this will signify to the player that there is a Lush Cave biome if you look below where the tree is located!

Here's a deeper look of all the vines and plant life, including some pooling water that you will see in this biome.

Related: How to grow glow berries in Minecraft

If you notice the glowing gold berries on the vine, these are called Glow Berries. You can harvest these and eat them if you'd like.

New Plants

There's some interesting new plants added in this update, and one of those is the Drip Leaf Plant. They can grow from water, and will vary in height. If you notice there is a flat top to them which you can platform onto.

Minecraft Dripleaf Plant

If you stand on it for too long, it will start to tilt downwards, which will eventually make you fall through. This will be a pretty amazing for people who like to make maps!

For more on Minecraft, check out Where to find Glow Lichen in Minecraft and How Long Does it Take for Copper to Oxidize in Minecraft?


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Andrew Vaughan
Andrew Vaughan is a Contributing Writer at Pro Game Guides that has written guides on popular RPGs and FPS survival titles for several years. Andrew Vaughan specializes in survival and roleplaying games and has been a lifelong gamer.
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