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Minecraft has one of the longest and best documented development histories in all of gaming. It has been in active development for nearly 15 years, if counting the earliest alphas and tests. And over the course of those years, a lot of the game has changed and been updated.
Detailed below are the largest and most meaningful changes from every single major update in its long and storied history, along with what makes them so important.
Every major Minecraft change
Alpha and earlier changes
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Due to the sheer number of updates early in the game's development, the largest and most impactful features will be touched on from alpha and earlier rather than listing every individual update.
Trending
The first major update was the Survival Test update in 2009. This is what added health to the game, along with Minecraft's iconic creepers, zombies, skeletons, pigs, sheep, and spiders. This update effectively made the game what it is today: a survival experience with a side of building rather than a pure building simulator.
Indev 0.31 added in the ability to craft items, along with the crafting table itself. It also added tools, diamonds, chests for Minecraft storage systems, and survival mode as a feature. This update really put the craft in Minecraft.
The Infdev cycle of development added the game's infinitely stretching worlds, or at least a very early form of them. It also added dungeons, now known as monster rooms, which are Minecraft's oldest still-used structure.
Alpha 1.0 brought with it redstone, an obvious game changer. The automation brought on by redstone led to the rise of the technical side of the fandom. It's also required for any of Minecraft's best farms, so the game would be totally different without it.
Alpha 1.2 added the first version of the Nether, though it lacked the structures and biome diversity of the current version of the dimension.
Beta changes
Similarly to the alpha changes, there are simply too many different beta releases to list them all. Instead, the most impactful updates and versions will be touched on.
Beta 1.3 added beds, useful for skipping danger-filled nights, as well as repeaters, which might be one of the single most important redstone components in the game. This update also added the ability to edit graphical settings in-game. Beta 1.4 brought wolves as the first player-tameable companion, as well as cookies, while Beta 1.7 added both regular and sticky pistons.
The last major beta update worth mentioning is Adventure Update 1, or Beta 1.8. It was huge in that it added the hunger mechanic, completely changing survival. Now, food didn't directly heal, and instead, players needed to keep Minecraft's hunger bar full to restore any health. It also added the game's horrifying enderman mob, as well as villages, swamps, and strongholds.
1.0 and post-release updates
Adventure Update 2 (AKA 1.0)
Adventure Update 2 might be the most significant in the game's history, as it marks the official release. The big v1.0 first came out in November of 2011 and added Minecraft's ending, including the end dimension, dragon fight, and credits poem.
It also added the nether fortresses required to actually fight Minecraft's ender dragon, along with villagers, mushroom islands, snow golems, potions, breeding, enchanting, and hardcore mode - at least for Java. Bedrock still hasn't seen hardcore officially released, with it only just recently entering experimental.
1.1
1.1 was released in January 2012 and was the first update post-release. Unfortunately, it was also a pretty small update. It only added spawn eggs, useful for creative mode testing, superflat worlds, beaches, and a few hill biome variants.
1.2
1.2 was released in March of 2012 and brought a few key features that have since become iconic. This update added jungles and abandoned mineshafts, for example. The update also added iron golems, which have become essential mobs due to their role in Minecraft's incredibly useful iron farms.
1.3
August 2012's 1.3 is the final update with no official name. It introduced the first version of Minecraft's villager trading, though it wouldn't be nearly as strong as it is today. It also added desert and jungle temples, emeralds, ender chests, and enchanted golden apples.
Pretty Scary Update
October 2012's Pretty Scary Update, or 1.4, was the final of the year. It brought with it the wither boss, commonly seen as Minecraft's most deadly mob, as well as anvils, beacons, carrots, potatoes, and item frames. Almost everything added in then is still used or interacted with frequently to this day, a true sign of a great update.
Redstone Update
The Redstone Update was released in March 2013 and is also known as 1.5. This update revamped and overhauled redstone, essentially making the system known today. This update brought hoppers, blocks of redstone, and comparators, all of which are essential to modern builds.
Horse Update
1.6, or the Horse Update, was released in July 2013. It's an interesting chapter in the game's history, as it's one of the only times that Mojang has officially used community content for the base game. The original creator of the "Mo' Creatures" mod, one of Minecraft's best mods to date, worked with Mojang to add horses from the mod into vanilla.
The Update that Changed the World
The Update that Changed the World, or 1.7, was released in October 2013. As the name suggests, it revamped the game's worlds, adding in 11 new biomes, including mainstays such as mega taigas, as well as the mesa, which would go on to become Minecraft's modern, beautiful badlands. It also added custom Nether portals and stained glass.
Bountiful Update
1.8, or the Bountiful Update, was released in 2014. It's major claims to fame are adding in ocean monuments useful for farming Minecraft's guardians, slime blocks, endermites, banners, and the first of the stone variants in granite, andesite, and diorite.
The Combat Update
1.9, also known as the Combat Update, was released in February 2016 and was the first major update after Microsoft bought Mojang. And it wasn't a good start, with 1.9 being considered by many to be the worst update in the game's history. This is due to the fact that the combat changes that were made are largely hated by the community.
However, there was some good too. The update also brought end cities, shields, elytra wings, igloos, and the ability to use the off hand.
Frostburn Update
1.10 was the second update of 2016. It was a rather minor, major update, as strange as that sounds. It only added polar bears, magma blocks, strays, husks, bone blocks, nether wart blocks, and red nether bricks.
Exploration Update
1.11 was the final update of 2016, and brought with it three major additions. The first of these is Minecraft's elusive woodland mansions, filled with dangerous vindicators and evokers. Next up are totems of undying, found within woodland mansions. These items can stave off death, but they are consumed in the process. The last major addition was the ever-useful shulker box.
World of Color Update
The World of Color update, or 1.12, was released in 2017 and, as the name suggests, added a ton of colorful new blocks to the game. This includes all the different concretes, concrete powders, terracottas, and even the different colorful parrots found throughout Minecraft's best jungle seeds.
Update Aquatic
1.13, also known as the Update Aquatic, was released in 2018 and brought new life into the game's oceans. Kelp and seagrass were added, alongside dolphins, turtles, drowned tridents, coral reefs, conduits, and shipwrecks. The oceans before were bland and boring, but the same couldn't be said for the oceans after 1.13.
Not every change from the Update Aquatic is remembered so fondly, though, as this update also introduced the phantom, winner of the first mob vote and one of Minecraft's most annoying mobs.
Village & Pillage
Village & Pillage, or 1.14, released in April of 2019, is probably the most important update in terms of the game's current balance. It revamped villages completely, turning them from optional visits into one of Minecraft's best structures by far. This update is what made villager trading so powerful that Mojang now feels the need to nerf it.
1.14 also added raids, pillagers as a whole, foxes, pandas, and bamboo forests, making it a well-rounded update.
Buzzy Bees
Buzzy Bees, or December 2019's 1.15, is probably the most minor of the major updates. The only new content added were bees and their associated blocks, mechanics, and items. However, Buzzy Bees was a huge update for bug fixes and optimization, making it an amazing update in the grand scheme of things.
Nether Update
1.16, which was released in 2020, might be the most beloved update of all time. It completely revamped the Nether dimension from a barren wasteland only visited once to get blaze rods and nether wart into a diverse ecosystem worth exploring. Warped and crimson forests, soulsand valleys, piglins, loot-filled Minecraft bastions, hoglins, striders, and netherite all made their debut here.
Caves & Cliffs Part 1
Caves and Cliffs Part 1, released in June 2021, added a ton of new aesthetic items to the game. These include the Minecraft axolotl and its rare variants, lush cave plants, glow squids, goats, copper, amethyst, and candles. This combines to make 1.17 one of the best updates for builders.
Caves & Cliffs Part 2
Caves and Cliffs Part 2, released in November 2021, actually added new world generation, cave biomes, and the new Minecraft ore distribution promised as part of the original Caves and Cliffs update. This update also changed mob spawning behavior to make hostile mobs spawn in complete darkness, a huge quality of life upgrade.
The Wild Update
1.19, or The Wild Update, was released in 2022. It added the deep dark, along with ancient cities, mangrove swamps, frogs, allay, and the dangerous Minecraft warden mob. It was also supposed to add fireflies, but Mojang controversially removed them due to fireflies being poisonous to the jumping amphibians.
Trails & Tales
Trails & Tales is the most recent update to come out, released in 2023. It added Minecraft's long-awaited archeology, as well as camels, sniffers, armor trims, bamboo blocks, and the beautiful cherry grove biome. While not as flush with content as other updates, what was included was all very high quality.
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