Minecraft 1.17: Caves & Cliffs – Part I

Released on June 8, 2021, Minecraft 1.17 marked the beginning of the highly anticipated Caves & Cliffs Update. Originally planned as a single massive release, the developers decided to split the update into two parts to ensure quality and manage the sheer scale of the changes. This first part focused on introducing a wealth of new blocks, fascinating mobs, and intriguing underground materials, effectively laying the groundwork and building excitement for the massive world generation changes slated for Part II (1.18). While players had to wait for the new cave and mountain generation, 1.17 Part I significantly refreshed the game's palette and introduced new mechanics to explore.

New Mobs

Axolotl

• Biome: Primarily associated with Lush Caves. In 1.17, they didn't spawn naturally in the world yet but could be found in creative mode or obtained by using a Bucket of Water on an existing Axolotl, similar to fish. This allowed players to bring them into their worlds ahead of Lush Cave generation.
• Behavior: Aquatic and generally passive towards players. However, they are formidable predators against most other aquatic mobs, including fish, squid, Glow Squids, Drowned, and Guardians (but not Elder Guardians or dolphins). They prioritize attacking hostile mobs over passive ones. Players can lead them on leashes.
• Features:
  • Combat Assistance: If a player fights alongside an Axolotl against an underwater mob, the Axolotl may grant the player temporary Regeneration I and remove Mining Fatigue effects.
  • Playing Dead: When an Axolotl takes damage underwater, it has a chance to feign death, sinking to the ground while regenerating health. Hostile mobs will ignore Axolotls playing dead.
  • Breeding: Can be bred using Buckets of Tropical Fish (not just Tropical Fish items). The specific type of fish in the bucket doesn't matter. Baby axolotls follow their parents.
  • Color Variants: Available in five colors: pink (leucistic), brown (wild), gold, cyan, and the rare blue variant. The blue variant has roughly a 1 in 1200 chance of appearing when two axolotls breed, making it highly sought after by collectors.
  • Land Adaptation: Axolotls can survive on land for up to five minutes, but they will actively seek out water. They move slowly on land and take damage if out of water for too long, unless it's raining or they are in a thunderstorm.

Glow Squid

• Origin: The winner of the community mob vote during Minecraft Live 2020, beating out the Iceologer and Moobloom.
• Drop: Upon death, drops 1-3 Glow Ink Sacs. These are distinct from regular Ink Sacs.
• Behavior: Passive aquatic mob that behaves similarly to the regular squid. They swim aimlessly and emit a soft, glowing texture and particle effect, making them visible in the dark depths. Despite their name and appearance, they do not actually emit dynamic light that affects the surrounding light level.
• Spawning: Spawns in deep, dark bodies of water, typically below Y=30 in complete darkness. This makes finding them an adventure into the abyssal parts of oceans or deep underground lakes.
• Uses of Glow Ink Sacs: Glow Ink Sacs can be used to craft Glow Item Frames, which make the item displayed inside appear brightly lit, even in darkness. They can also be applied to Signs to make the text glow, significantly improving visibility underwater or at night without requiring an external light source.

Goat

• Biome: Spawns naturally in jagged Mountain biomes (specifically Windswept Hills, Windswept Gravelly Hills, and Windswept Forest in later versions, but initially just 'Mountains' before the biome overhaul). They favor steep slopes and high altitudes.
• Behavior: Known for their incredible jumping ability, capable of leaping several blocks high to navigate the rugged terrain. Goats are generally neutral but can occasionally become hostile, targeting players or other mobs by ramming them. They line up, pause briefly, and then charge, inflicting knockback and some damage. They tend to avoid Powder Snow. A rare variant, the Screaming Goat (about 2% spawn chance), makes different sounds and is more likely to ram.
• Drop: Can be milked using a Bucket, providing a source of milk like cows. In later versions (post-1.17), they drop a Goat Horn when ramming into solid blocks like Stone or Trees, but in 1.17 this mechanic was not fully implemented for survival gameplay (horns were mainly creative/command items).

New Blocks and Items

Copper

• Forms: Found underground as Copper Ore (which drops Raw Copper unless mined with Silk Touch). Raw Copper can be smelted into Copper Ingots. Ingots craft into Blocks of Copper, Cut Copper (decorative variant), Cut Copper Stairs, and Cut Copper Slabs. Also used for Lightning Rods and Spyglasses.
• Features:
  • Oxidation: Copper blocks exposed to air will gradually oxidize over time, changing color through four stages: regular orange (Block of Copper), light teal-green (Exposed Copper), medium teal-green (Weathered Copper), and finally full teal (Oxidized Copper). This process occurs based on random ticks and proximity to other copper blocks. Cut Copper variants oxidize at the same rate.
  • Waxing: Players can halt the oxidation process at any stage by right-clicking a copper block with Honeycomb. This applies wax, creating a "Waxed" version of the block (e.g., Waxed Block of Copper, Waxed Weathered Cut Copper Slab). Waxed copper will never oxidize further.
  • Scraping and Reversal: Using an Axe on an oxidized copper block will scrape off the patina, reverting it one stage backward (e.g., Oxidized -> Weathered). Waxed copper can also be scraped, removing the wax and allowing oxidation to resume or allowing further scraping. A lightning strike hitting a copper block or hitting nearby via a lightning rod will fully deoxidize affected copper blocks in the vicinity, returning them to their original orange state (unless waxed).
  • Redstone Conductivity: Blocks of Copper and its variants behave like standard solid blocks for redstone purposes, conducting signals.

Amethyst Geodes

• Structure: Large spherical structures found commonly deep underground (typically below Y=70 down to bedrock). They are easily identifiable by their unique layers: an outer shell of smooth Smooth Basalt, a middle layer of Calcite (a new white decorative block), and an inner hollow lined with Amethyst Blocks and growing Amethyst Clusters. Geodes often emit distinctive ambient chime sounds, helping players locate them while mining.
• Contents:
  • Amethyst Blocks: Solid purple blocks forming the inner lining. Primarily decorative.
  • Budding Amethyst: A special variant of the Amethyst Block with a cross-like pattern on its faces. Amethyst Clusters can grow on any side of a Budding Amethyst block if there is air or a water source block adjacent to it. Budding Amethyst cannot be obtained even with Silk Touch and cannot be moved with pistons, making Amethyst Clusters a finite resource tied to the geode's location.
  • Amethyst Clusters: Grow in four stages: Small Amethyst Bud, Medium Amethyst Bud, Large Amethyst Bud, and finally Amethyst Cluster. Only the final stage, Amethyst Cluster, drops Amethyst Shards when broken with a pickaxe (Fortune enchantments increase the yield). Breaking earlier stages yields nothing.
  • Amethyst Shards: The primary resource harvested from geodes. Used to craft Spyglasses and Tinted Glass.

Tinted Glass

• Crafted With: 1 block of Glass surrounded by 4 Amethyst Shards in a crafting table.
• Properties: Visually transparent like regular glass, allowing players to see through it. However, unlike normal glass, Tinted Glass completely blocks light from passing through. Light sources placed behind it will not illuminate the other side. It also doesn't suffocate mobs if their head is inside the block. Useful for mob farms (controlling light levels), creating dark rooms with observation windows, or aesthetic builds where light control is crucial. It can be broken and picked up without Silk Touch.

Deepslate

• Forms: A tougher type of stone found deep underground, typically starting to replace regular Stone around Y=8 and becoming the dominant stone type below Y=0. It has a darker, more detailed texture. Mining Deepslate takes slightly longer than Stone. When mined without Silk Touch, it drops Cobbled Deepslate. Cobbled Deepslate can be smelted back into Deepslate or used to craft a full set of building blocks: Deepslate Stairs, Slabs, Walls, Polished Deepslate, Deepslate Bricks (Stairs, Slabs, Walls), and Deepslate Tiles (Stairs, Slabs, Walls).
• Ore Variants: All standard ores (Coal, Iron, Copper, Gold, Redstone, Lapis Lazuli, Diamond, Emerald) generate within deepslate layers. These have distinct "Deepslate Ore" variants (e.g., Deepslate Diamond Ore) which are tougher to mine than their stone counterparts.
• Location: Replaces stone in the lowest layers of the world, adding visual variety and a sense of depth to mining expeditions. Its hardness makes it slightly more blast-resistant than regular stone.

Moss Blocks & Azalea

• Found In: In 1.17, Moss Blocks could be obtained primarily through Wandering Trader trades or found in Shipwreck supply chests. Azalea bushes and Flowering Azalea were available from the Wandering Trader or in Creative Mode. They serve as indicators for Lush Caves below ground in later versions.
• Use: Moss Blocks are decorative green blocks. Applying Bone Meal to a Moss Block causes moss to spread to adjacent compatible blocks (Stone, Dirt, Andesite, Diorite, Granite, Deepslate, Tuff) within a radius. This process also generates patches of Moss Carpet (a thin layer like snow), tall grass, and occasionally Azalea or Flowering Azalea bushes on top of the new moss. This makes moss a renewable source of greenery and decoration. Azalea blocks can be planted on dirt/moss and grown into Azalea Trees using bone meal (though the tree structure itself contains mostly oak logs/leaves).

Dripstone

• Types: Consists of Pointed Dripstone and the Dripstone Block. Found in patches underground, hinting at the larger Dripstone Cave biome introduced later.
• Mechanics:
  • Growth: Pointed Dripstone can grow into stalactites (hanging from ceilings) and stalagmites (growing from floors). A stalactite will grow downwards if there is a Dripstone Block above it with a water source block above that. If there is a solid block within 11 blocks below a growing stalactite, a stalagmite will begin growing upwards towards it.
  • Damage: Falling onto a stalagmite causes significant fall damage amplification. Stalactites can fall if the block they are attached to is broken or if hit by a trident, causing damage to entities below based on falling distance.
  • Cauldron Filling: If a stalactite has a water source block above it, it will slowly drip water particles. Placing a Cauldron below will slowly fill it with water. If the stalactite has a lava source block above it, it will drip lava particles and slowly fill a cauldron below with lava, providing a renewable source of lava.

Glow Lichen

• Behavior: A non-solid block that generates on stone surfaces in caves and underwater. It emits a dim light level of 7. Applying Bone Meal to Glow Lichen causes it to spread to adjacent block faces within reach.
• Use: Can be harvested with Shears. Used primarily for subtle atmospheric lighting in builds or caves. It can be waterlogged.

Powder Snow

• Behavior: A trap block that looks similar to regular Snow but causes entities (players, most mobs) that walk on it to sink slowly inside. Prolonged contact causes freezing damage, indicated by a frosty vignette effect on screen and hearts turning blue. Wearing any piece of Leather Armor prevents sinking and freezing entirely. Mobs like Skeletons, Strays, and Polar Bears can walk on it normally. Entities on fire will be extinguished upon contact.
• Use: Can be used for hidden traps, secret passages (by wearing leather boots), or cushioning falls (negates fall damage like water or cobwebs).
• Collected By: Using an empty Bucket on a Powder Snow block picks it up as a Bucket of Powder Snow. In 1.17, it could also be collected by placing Cauldrons outside during snowfall; they would slowly fill with Powder Snow.

Other New Blocks & Items

• Candles: Crafted with 1 Honeycomb and 1 String. Can be dyed into 16 different colors. Up to four candles can be placed on a single block, increasing the light level (3 per candle, max 12 for four). Can be lit with Flint and Steel or flaming projectiles, and extinguished by water or right-clicking. Can be placed on un-sliced Cakes. Available in Creative Mode and via commands.
• Raw Ore Blocks: Blocks of Raw Iron, Raw Copper, and Raw Gold. Crafted with 9 corresponding Raw Ore items. Primarily used for compact storage of raw ores obtained using Fortune-enchanted pickaxes, as Fortune increases the raw ore drop count but not the smelted ingot count. Can be uncrafted back into 9 raw ores.
• Lightning Rod: Crafted with 3 Copper Ingots. When placed, it redirects lightning strikes within a large radius (32 blocks in Java, 64x64x64 cube in Bedrock) to itself, preventing lightning from hitting other blocks (protecting flammable structures). When struck, it emits a full Redstone signal (strength 15) for a short duration. Can be used to trigger redstone contraptions, deoxidize nearby copper, or reliably create Charged Creepers. Can be placed facing any direction.
• Spyglass: Crafted with 1 Amethyst Shard and 2 Copper Ingots. Holding right-click allows the player to zoom in on distant objects, rendering a square vignette overlay on the screen. Provides a fixed zoom level (approximately 1/10th of the default Field of View). Player movement speed is significantly reduced while using the spyglass. Excellent for scouting terrain, observing distant mobs or players, or admiring build details from afar.
• Bundles: Introduced experimentally (obtainable only via commands in 1.17). Intended as an early-game inventory management tool, allowing players to store a mix of various items up to a total stack size of 64 (e.g., 32 arrows and 32 feathers, or 8 ender pearls and 56 cobblestone) within a single inventory slot. Their crafting recipe and full survival implementation were deferred to later updates.

Technical & Visual Improvements

• Ore Distribution Preparation: The most significant change was the introduction of Raw Ores for Iron, Gold, and Copper. Instead of dropping ore blocks (requiring Silk Touch for Fortune), these ores now drop raw items, which are affected by Fortune enchantments. Smelting one raw ore yields one ingot. This standardized Fortune's effect across more ore types. Some minor adjustments to ore generation heights and frequencies were made in preparation for 1.18, but the drastic changes were not yet implemented.
• New Advancements: Several new advancements were added to guide players through the new content:
  • "Whatever Floats Your Goat!": Enter a boat with a Goat.
  • "Wax On": Apply Honeycomb to a Copper block.
  • "Wax Off": Scrape wax off a Copper block with an Axe.
  • "The Healing Power of Friendship!": Team up with an Axolotl and win a fight.
  • "Glow and Behold!": Make the text of a sign glow using a Glow Ink Sac.
  • "Light as a Rabbit": Walk on Powder Snow using Leather Boots.
  • "Surge Protector!": Have a lightning strike hit a Lightning Rod near a Villager without the Villager converting.
  • "Is It a Bird?": Look at a Parrot through a Spyglass.
• New Sounds: A plethora of new sounds enriched the Minecraft experience: distinct sounds for walking/breaking/placing Deepslate and Calcite, Amethyst block chimes and breaking sounds, Dripstone dripping water or lava, Axolotl ambient and attacking sounds, Goat bleats (including the Screaming Goat variant), Copper waxing/scraping effects, Powder Snow freezing sounds, and the satisfying click of using a Spyglass. Cave ambient sounds were also tweaked.
• Block States & Rendering: More complex block states were added for things like Candles (number, lit status), Pointed Dripstone (thickness, direction, waterlogged status), and the introduction of Sculk Sensors (available via creative/commands, reacting to vibrations) showcased advancements in block behavior capabilities. Some background graphics engine work (OpenGL 3.2 core profile) began, aiming for future performance improvements and visual features.

Conclusion

Minecraft 1.17, Caves & Cliffs: Part I, successfully set the stage for one of the game’s most ambitious overhauls. While the community eagerly awaited the transformative world generation changes deferred to 1.18, Part I delivered a substantial and engaging content drop on its own. It introduced dozens of aesthetically pleasing and mechanically interesting new blocks, adorable (and sometimes dangerous) new mobs, and useful items that enriched nearly every aspect of gameplay – from deep-level mining and underwater exploration to building and redstone contraptions. Builders, redstoners, explorers, and collectors alike found plenty of fresh material to experiment with, making the wait for Part II an active period of discovery and creativity within the ever-evolving world of Minecraft. The split release strategy, while initially dividing some opinion, ultimately allowed for a more polished introduction of these numerous features.