Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update part 2 pre-releases, release candidates, and everything revealed so far

Fans have been eagerly waiting for the Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update. The release date has been announced and the features have been confirmed.

As there are only a few days left for the release, no more changes will be made to the update. However, if the developers find a bug, they will most likely fix it and release a new Minecraft 1.18 release candidate.

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Minecraft 1.18 pre-releases and release candidates

What are pre-release and release candidates?

When the developers create a new major update for Minecraft, they usually add a ton of new features and changes. With new features come bugs and glitches that need to be fixed before the update is officially released.

Finding bugs in the game isn't an easy task. Therefore, developers release test versions for the players to try out the features and report bugs they might come across.

Pre-release and release candidates are test versions that come out after the snapshots. They are usually released when the developers have finished working on the new features of the update.

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Minecraft 1.18 pre-releases and release candidates

New cave in Minecraft pre-release 8 (Image via Minecraft)

Release candidates are much more stable than pre-releases. For Minecraft 1.18, eight pre-releases were released, and over 150 bugs were fixed in them. After that, developers also released three release candidates.

The first Minecraft 1.18 release candidate came out on November 25, and it came with one change and one fix. The server resource pack's size limit was increased to 250 MB. Other release candidates came with one bug fix each and no new changes.

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Every bug fixed in release candidates so far

• Release candidate 1: In spectator mode, moving through blocks caused a memory leak.
• Release candidate 2: Large lava lakes not generating in large caves.
• Release candidate 3: Loot inside blocks was lost when the player dies.

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How to download these test versions?

As these are Java Edition versions, only players with the Minecraft launcher installed can play them. Here's what needs to be done to get the latest pre-release or release candidate:

Step 1: Open the Minecraft launcher.

Step 2: Navigate to the "Installations" tab.

Step 3: Enable snapshots.

Step 4: Click on the new installation option and write a name for it. Select the latest pre-release or release candidate version and create a new installation.

Then, players can select the installation they newly created and click on the play button.