Minecraft snapshot 25w05a patch notes: New cow variants, firefly bush, and more

2025's first Minecraft game update is shaping up to be an exciting one for fans of mobs and ambiance. In a previous snapshot, Mojang unveiled new pig variants and introduced beautiful ambiance blocks throughout the Overworld. In the latest Minecraft snapshot, 25w05a, Mojang has taken things to the next level by adding two new cow variants and fireflies.

Many fans might remember how Mojang announced fireflies for The Wild Update but later canceled them. This creature has now returned as a block called the firefly bush instead of as a mob. Instead of being a tiny two-pixel mob, Mojang has turned fireflies into a block effect for the new firefly bush.

Like pigs, cows now have temperate, warm, and cold variants in Minecraft. Along with the new cow variants, Mojang has also updated the existing cow model. Other exciting features include new desert ambient sounds, beacon improvements, and various bug fixes.

Here are the patch notes for the latest Minecraft snapshot 25w05a.

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Minecraft snapshot 25w05a patch notes: All you need to know

• Added cold and warm variants for the Cow
• Added Firefly Bush block
• Added Bush block
• Added new ambient block sounds for ambient sounds in Desert and Badlands biomes

Cow Variants

Cow variants (Image via Mojang)

• New Cow variants have been added, the variant is determined by the biome they spawn in
• Temperate variant - The Cow we are all familiar with
• Spawns by default where the cold and warm variants do not spawn
• Cold variant - A variant that spawns in the following biomes:
• Old Growth Pine Taiga
• Old Growth Spruce Taiga
• Taiga
• Snowy Taiga
• Windswept Hills
• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Forest
• Warm variant - A variant that spawns in the following biomes:
• Savanna
• Savanna Plateau
• Windswept Savanna
• Jungle
• Sparse Jungle
• Bamboo Jungle
• Eroded Badlands
• Wooded Badlands
• Badlands
• When bred by a player, a baby Cow variant will not be chosen by the current biome, but instead randomly selected from one of the parents' variants

Firefly Bush

• The Firefly Bush is found in Swamps and near Rivers
• When it's dark, glowing firefly particles appear around the Firefly Bush
• Using Bone Meal on a Firefly Bush will spawn another Firefly Bush item
• The Firefly Bush emits light level 2

Bush

• The Bush is a new type of decorative block that can be found in small patches in the following biomes:
• Plains
• Windswept Hills
• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Forest
• River
• Frozen River
• Forest
• Birch Forest
• Old Growth Birch Forest
• The Bush can be used in the Composter
• Using Bone Meal on a Bush places a neighbouring Bush next to the Bush if possible

New Ambient Sounds for Desert and Badlands

• Sand, Red Sand and Terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by any one of them on at least 3 sides 8 blocks away
• block.sand.idle can be played in any biome
• block.sand.wind only plays when in Desert or Badlands biomes
• Dead Bush blocks have a chance of playing ambient sounds when placed on top of two blocks that are any color of Terracotta, Sand or Red Sand blocks in any biome

Changes

• The look of the temperate Cow has been slightly updated to have an extruded snout
• Landing on Powdered Snow with Leather Boots equipped after falling further than 2.5 blocks will now make entities fall through the snow
• Jumping or falling less than 2.5 blocks allows the entity to land on top of the snow like before
• Beacons and their beams now render beyond 16 chunks up to the client render distance
• To keep it easily visible at large distances, the beam is rendered thicker the further away you are
• The beam now renders up to 2048 blocks high, up from 1024

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Technical Changes

• The Data Pack version is now 65
• The Resource Pack version is now 50

Data Pack Versions 65

Commands

• Text component arguments in /bossbar, /scoreboard and /team commands are now resolved before use in context of entity held in @s

Tags

Block Tags

• Added #plays_ambient_desert_block_sounds - blocks that will play ambient desert block sounds

Damage Type Tags

• Renamed #bypasses_blocking back to #bypasses_shield

Cow Variants

• Cow variants can be data-driven by adding entries to data/<namespace>/cow_variant/<id>.json
• This feature is experimental
• Fields in file:
• model - one of: normal, cold, warm
• asset_id - namespaced id for this variant asset, resolves to assets/<namespace>/textures/<path>.png
• spawn_conditions - field described in uniform variant selection above

Item Components

Changes to the

blocks_attacks

component

• New bypassed_by field - hashtagged damage type tag (optional)
• If specified, blocking is bypassed by these damage types
• The objects within the damage_reductions list now have a new field:
• horizontal_blocking_angle - angle in degrees as a positive float (default: 90)
• The maximum angle between the user's facing and the incoming attack for the block to be effective

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Resource Pack Version 50

• Updated Pig textures
• New and updated Cow textures
• Added textures for new Firefly Bush block
• Added textures for new Bush blocks

Updated Pig textures

• Texture pig has been renamed to temperate_pig

New and updated Cow textures and model

• Added new textures for Cow variants:
• cold_cow
• warm_cow
• Texture cow has been renamed to temperate_cow
• Changed the size of temperate_cow texture
• Changed the size of red_mooshroom and brown_mooshroom textures
• The temperate Cow has an updated model and texture
• Cow models now have a snout
• Cow models now have their legs mirrored

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Fixed bugs in Minecraft snapshot 25w05a

• MC-108495 - Non-LivingBase entities can be on a team (and show color) but can't be targeted using team=
• MC-165711 - Eye of ender hitbox always lags behind the animation
• MC-279257 - crafting_transmute recipes don't give output if the resulting item has the same ID as the input item
• MC-279280 - windswept_hills is in both the warm and cold variant farm animal biome tags
• MC-279315 - Warm pigs do not spawn in windswept savannas
• MC-279353 - The minecraft:fall_damage_multiplier attribute doesn't function when riding specific rideable mobs
• MC-279390 - Baby zombified piglin helmet clipping
• MC-279497 - Structure preview outline breaks for max integer-length sizes
• MC-279531 - GameTest entrypoint doesn't report failures to spawn the structure
• MC-279534 - Display entities use interpolation duration value for teleport duration
• MC-279543 - Neutral Mobs don't attack the player back when attacked under certain conditions
• MC-279556 - The "/execute on attacker" command does not target an entity previously targeted by the "/data" command
• MC-279577 - Test blocks are restricted to one within a block-based structure
• MC-279684 - Shield blocking animation no longer plays when blocking an attack
• MC-279685 - Shields no longer consume durability when blocking attacks
• MC-279688 - Sprinting is canceled upon flying with elytra
• MC-279692 - Instrument component crashes the game
• MC-279693 - Summoned lingering potions render as splash potions
• MC-279697 - Llamas show a non-interactive saddle slot
• MC-279698 - provides_banner_pattern component does not use hash prefix
• MC-279760 - Typing an inline definition in the provides_trim_material component crashes the game
• MC-279857 - Piglins summoned by the /summon command do not pick up gold items

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Minecraft snapshot 25w05a is available to download on the official Minecraft launcher. You can get it and create a new world to discover the features added in snapshot 25w05a.