Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 finally tests brand new features in Caves and Cliffs update

What do you want to know

• Mojang Studios is currently working on the second part of the 1.18 “Caves and Cliffs” update for Minecraft, which will be a massive release.
• Today, the studio finally brings the long-awaited features of the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta update to testers.
• Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 includes the new Stony Peaks mountain biome, world-gen adjustments, and more.
• As the year progresses, we should steadily see more and more features from the future update being tested in betas and snapshots.

The Caves and Cliffs update is the present and the future of Minecraft, with 1.18 Part 2 set to bring massive world-gen changes and new features to the long-running survival sandbox game. Today, Mojang Studios is finally bringing some of the key features they’ve been testing to the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta with the release of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20which includes new features such as Stony Peaks mountain biome and many other tweaks.

More recent betas of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, like the previous version 1.17.30.25, have been considerably more minor as Mojang has continued to test larger changes through Minecraft: Java Edition Experimental Snapshots. Now that the experiment is winding down, these features can start rolling out to more people for testing and feedback.

If you’re interested in trying out a slice of Minecraft’s future right now, you can. Mojang Studios is also hosting their Minecraft Live 2021 even in October, which will likely feature a ton of new Minecraft announcements and reveals in the months and years to come, including inspiration for the next wave of the best Minecraft toys and gifts.

The complete changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.17.40.20 includes:

Updated experimental cave and cliff features

General

• Added a new mountain biome: Stony Peaks!
  • It is simply a variation of high/snowy peaks that use stone and gravel instead of snow and ice, and are used to avoid temperature clashes, like a snowy peak coming out of a jungle.
• Fixed vegetation in Mountain Meadows
• Dripstone clusters can now only be found in the Dripstone biome
• Dripstone features now only generate in the Dripstone biome
• Mountain biomes now have correct feature locations to match the Java edition side snapshot
• Infested Stone can be found under new mountains
• Adjusted ore distribution to match Java edition side snapshot
• Clouds are now at Y level 192
• Adjusted biome placement, river size, and terrain shapes for better overworld experience
• Changed mob spawning in mountain and cave biomes to match Java edition side snapshot
• Trees in swamps can now generate slightly more depth when in water
• Deepslate now generates at lower depths
• Dripstone features now generate at Deepslate depths
• Small Dripstone feature placement logic has been refactored, frequency is similar but exact positions will be different
• Maps now correctly display block colors below a Y level of zero

lush caves

• Vines now generate in lush caves instead of above the surface
• Vines can now grow below zero

villages

• Villages now generate in the style of the biome they are in

Features and bug fixes

Blocks

• Falling icicles are now properly compensated to avoid interacting with entities outside of their intended hitbox
• Hives now generate in the world facing south

Candle cakes

• Pressing the “use” button on a candle cake now consumes the correct amount of cake slices

character creator

• Fixed a crash that could occur when using Character Creator
• Adjusted default Steve skin color tint to match default Steve
• Changed message when friends change skin

Orders

• Education Edition items are no longer displayed as an option when using @e[type=]

Gameplay

• Fixed a bug that caused players to get set on fire when changing dimensions if there was lava under the Nether portal
• Players can no longer eat food when fully hungry in Survival Mode
• Sea grass no longer spawns under water lilies during world generation to avoid breaking them
• Villagers can no longer spam open and closed doors
• Cartographers now drop new maps more consistently on all platforms

World Generation

• Amethyst Geodes are now much less likely to spawn in Strongholds, and if they do, they will not destroy End Portals

Chart

• Improved global visibility for underground situations to eliminate seeing the sky at the end of tunnels/stairs

Freak

• Improved mob routing around partial blocks
• Armor no longer displays on looters and vindicators, but still benefits from armor effects
• Fixed an issue with mob rendering that caused Vindicator axes to be visible even when not attacking on old resource packs
• More mobs will spawn underground in the Overworld

Powder

• Powder Snow no longer disappears when viewed from a distance

structure block

• Hatches now rotate correctly when loaded from a structure block

User interface

• Fixed an issue where the d-pad and directional keys could not be used to navigate certain parts of the UI
• Fixed an issue where an error message could display after suspending the game on achievement screens with screen animations disabled
• Fixed an issue where an obscure game rule was added to settings
• Fixed custom server keyboard/d-pad navigation to change server button
• New achievements screens are available on Windows 10 ARM PCs
• The login text on the splash screen will no longer overlap the Marketplace button
• Add a space between the tab title and the word “Tab” for text-to-speech on the Settings screen
• Added “More Info” button to modal login failure

Known issues

• Honeycombs generate too frequently in the world

Technical updates

Data Driven Items

• Updated documentation for block rotation component
• Added required toggles to documentation and content error for block components

Animation editor

• Animation editor nodes are now color-coordinated based on their type, which includes animation component, skeletal animations, animation controllers, and controller states

Orders

• Control blocks with Needs Redstone and a non-zero Delay in Ticks will now only run if left powered for the duration of the delay
• Fixed sidebar display alignment from the /scoreboard command when text length changes

Data Driven Blocks

• Documentation updated for BlockExplosionResistance

Chart

• Fixed Leash rendering failing when attached to a mob outside of the window
• Added content error for using a material but not providing the required number of textures to the render controller
• Testing the RenderDragon engine on a subset of Android (ARMv7) devices

Freak

• Fixed being able to summon experience orbs via /summon ordered
• Fixed display entity destruction only in block drop scenarios

Molang

• Fixed query.item_remaining_use_duration have incorrectly scaled or inverted results
• Add new compilation errors for expressions like text + 3`, which were previously ignored

User interface

• Added an ImGUI window for easier viewing of content errors

GameTest framework

• Renowned method succeedWhenBlockTypePresent at succeedWhenBlockPresent
• Fixed a bug where the property id would return “Unknown” for custom entities
• Identification strings returned by the property id now include element namespace

Game test sequence

• Removed method thenWaitWithDelay
• Added method thenWaitAfter(delayTicks: number, callback: () => undefined) — After a delay, execute the given callback every tick until it succeeds. Exceptions thrown in the callback will terminate the execution of the sequence

Player

• Fixed a bug where the location property returned incorrect height for players
• Property added id

To block

• Superseded method getLocation with property location
• Superseded method getPermutation with property permutation
• Superseded method getType with property type
• Superseded methods isWaterlogged and setWaterlogged with property isWaterlogged
• Superseded method getBlockData with property permutation
• Superseded method isEmpty with property isEmpty
• Property removed canBeWaterlogged

block type

• Superseded method getName with property id
• Superseded method canBeWaterlogged with property canBeWaterlogged

BlockPermutation

• Superseded method getType with property type