Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Update Announced!

Many players in Minecraft have been awaiting the next announcement of what the future update in the game will be, and we have finally received an answer at Minecraft Live! The update is called Minecraft Caves and Cliffs, and will be adding some new additions to both mountains and caves. This was a highly sought after addition to the game, so players should be pretty happy with the announcement.

Not a lot is known about the update yet, we're awaiting to see what kind of details are revealed from the developers at Minecraft Live. We'll be adding to this post as soon as more details are revealed. See what Mojang is saying about it live, via the Minecraft Live stream:

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!

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.

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.

New Resources

If you're wondering what you will be able to find in the new caves update, well then one of them is Amethyst Geodes. These are going to be a rare find, but when you do they will light up the cave in a purple glow. These geodes can only grow as apart of the special amethyst block, which you can't move from where it spawned. So, you will need to keep track of the location you find them in to collect the geodes.

You can use the geodes to create the soon to be added 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!

Bigger Mountains

New mountain generation will be coming via 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!

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!

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 going to be 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!

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!

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.

New Biomes

The Dripstone Caves will be 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!

One new biome that you can expect to see 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.

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 going to be 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. 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!