How to download Minecraft 1.18 pre-release 3 and 4 for Java Edition

With the announcement of the official release of Minecraft’s Caves and Cliffs part 2 update on November 30, Minecraft developer Mojang seems to be hard at work refining and applying bug fixes to the game. Prior to the release, however, the developers have been busy releasing a number of test versions for the update, called pre-releases.

Pre-releases are almost-ready versions of an upcoming update, which follow a series of “snapshots” released before them. Pre-releases mostly contain bug fixes and undergo extensive testing procedures.

Mojang has divided the pre-releases for the upcoming update into 4 parts. The third and fourth pre-releases for 1.18 arrived, bundled together, mere minutes after Mojang’s blog post announcing the release of the official version.

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Minecraft 1.18 pre-release 3 and 4: How players can download it

Pre-release 3

As the Minecraft community rejoiced at finally getting a release date for the much-awaited 1.18 update, the developers at Mojang worked hard to push out the pre-releases for the Caves and Cliffs part 2 update. Pre-release 3 was posted about 15 minutes after the blog post announcing the release date of 1.18.

This pre-release contains 13 fixed bugs across Minecraft 1.18.

Some bugs include:

• Players cannot navigate between servers in the multiplayer menu with the up or down arrow keys.
• Lighting take more time to generate than world generation.
• Pockets of Lava generating in icebergs. (Bug from Pre-release 2)

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Pre-release 4

The fourth pre-release was released around two hours after pre-release 3. It contains three bug fixes, mostly dealing with game crashes in the Nether and End dimensions.

With just 12 days to go before the release of the official version, this might very well be the last pre-release for Minecraft 1.18.

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Steps to install both versions

Players can follow these steps to install the pre-releases:

1. Open the Minecraft Launcher.
2. Head over to the “Installations” tab on the top of the screen.
3. In order to download pre-release 3 or 4, players should check the box next to “Snapshots” under the “Versions” tab.
4. Create a new installation.
5. Make a new profile, selecting 1.18 pre-release 3 or 4 in the drop-down bar under “VERSION”.
6. Head back to the “Play” tab and select the freshly installed profile.
7. Click “Play” to install the pre-release version and launch the game.

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The Caves and Cliff’s update is proving to be Minecraft’s biggest update till now, changing a plethora of game mechanics and adding a number of new items and resources into the game. The aforementioned pre-released are versions of the game that help developers as well as the community to help make the game better.

The full patch notes for all pre-release versions can be found here.