Java Edition 15w31a

{
 "title": "Minecraft 15w31a",
 "images": [
 "Java Edition 15w31a.png"
 ],
 "rows": [
 {
 "field": "''(link to Java Edition article, displayed as Java Edition)''",
 "label": "(link to Edition article, displayed as Edition)"
 },
 {
 "field": "July 29, 2015",
 "label": "Release date"
 },
 {
 "field": "(link to Snapshot article, displayed as Snapshot)",
 "label": "(link to Version types article, displayed as Type)"
 },
 {
 "field": "(link to Java Edition 1.9 article, displayed as 1.9)",
 "label": "Snapshot for"
 },
 {
 "field": "[https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/d702effa2e2ff9f79ffc74dc6becc3eeca376fee/client.jar Client] ([https://piston-meta.mojang.com/v1/packages/bd5a158581e6ceec4c34b32774153661b63913e3/15w31a.json .json])<br />[https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/7799f1f6a486be08185b470a64ca4649e37de578/server.jar Server] ([https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/69df0c2615d2ea5ebe08381df6d1bbd3c403c036/windows_server.exe .exe])",
 "label": "(link to Tutorial:Installing a version#Manual version installation article, displayed as Downloads)"
 },
 {
 "field": "49",
 "label": "(link to Protocol version article, displayed as Protocol version)"
 },
 {
 "field": "2",
 "label": "<span style=\"white-space: normal;\">(link to Pack format#List of pack formats article, displayed as Resource pack format)</span>"
 },
 {
 "field": "<span class=\"plainlinks\">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_version_history#Java_SE_6 Java SE 6]</span>",
 "label": "<span style=\"white-space: normal;\">Minimum Java version</span>"
 }
 ],
 "invimages": [],
 "footer": "<table style=\"margin: auto; word-break: break-word;\">\n<tr style=\"background: inherit;\">\n<td style=\"padding: 0.4em\" rowspan=\"2\">[[Java Edition 1.8.9|<span style=\"margin-right:-0.35em\">◄</span>◄  1.8.9]]</td>\n<td style=\"padding: 0.4em\">'''[[Java Edition 1.9|1.9]]'''</td>\n<td style=\"padding: 0.4em\" >[[Java Edition 1.9.1| 1.9.1 <span style=\"margin-right:-0.35em\">►</span>►]]</td>\n</tr>\n<tr style=\"background: inherit;\">\n\n<td style=\"padding: 0.4em\">''' 15w31a'''</td>\n<td style=\"padding: 0.4em\">\n[[Java Edition 15w31b| 15w31b ►]]\n</td>\n</tr>\n</table>"
}

15w31a is the first snapshot for Java Edition 1.9, released on July 29, 2015,^[1] with a large amount of End-related changes. This is the first snapshot released in 2015.^{[note 1]}

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Chorus plants

• Generate in the End.
• Can be grown using chorus flowers.
• Breaks in quick succession if the supporting chorus plant below is broken.
• Drop chorus fruit.

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Chorus flowers

• Spawn on the top of the chorus trees.
• Break if the supporting block below is broken.
  • It only drops when mined directly.
• Can only be planted on End stone in any dimension.
• Has a different texture when it can no longer grow.

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Dragon heads

• While worn, the head's mouth opens and closes repeatedly when moving around.
• When powered with redstone while placed on solid block, the jaw starts to open and close.
  • Keeps the mouth position of the exact moment it was unpowered.

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End gateway blocks

• A portal block used to transport the player to the new outer regions of the end.
  • The texture is identical to the End portal block, but the model is that of a full block rather than plane.
• The player cannot use pick block or /give to obtain it.
  • It can only be set by using /setblock.
• Naturally generate after killing the dragon and traveling someplace new in the End with it.
• Show yellow beacon beam when created and used.
• Emits light level of 15.

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End rods

• Generate in the End cities.
• Placeable horizontally and vertically.
• Emits light level of 14.
  • The model has a little base that is oriented against the block it was placed on.
    • If placed on top of another rod, then it has the opposite orientation.
• Produce white particles.
• Used as a lighting source with the same efficacy as torches.
• Unlike torches, they are tangible.
  • Horizontal End rods can be stepped up onto like slabs.

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End stone bricks

• Generate in the End cities.
• Can be crafted with 4 blocks of End stone.

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Grass paths

• Are visually 15/16 block high.
• Obtainable by right-clicking grass blocks with a shovel.
  • This reduces the shovel's durability by one.
• Drop dirt, even when using Silk Touch.
• Cannot be obtained from the Creative inventory.
  • But unlike farmland, it can be obtained by using the pick block key in Creative.

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Purpur blocks

• Generate in the End cities.
• Can be crafted with popped chorus fruit.

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Purpur pillars

• Generate in the End cities.
• Can be crafted with purpur slabs.

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Purpur slabs

• Generate in the End cities.
• Can be crafted with purpur blocks.

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Purpur stairs

• Generate in the End cities.
• Can be crafted with purpur blocks.

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Structure blocks

• Only placable via /setblock.
• Can be used with NBT parameters (/setblock or /blockdata).
  • GUI is only used by Mojang employees.
• Have a letter on the texture based on its mode.

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Spectral arrows

• The tip is gold colored, but just in the item model.
• Show mob and player outlines in their respective team color when hit – even when invisible.
• Tag for entities to disable outlines. ​^{[more information needed]}
• Tag to force outline: {Glowing:1b}.
• The glowing is a status effect.
• Crafted by surrounding an arrow with 4 glowstone dust.
  • Yields 2 spectral arrows.

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Tipped arrows

• Arrows tipped with potions.
  • 14 new arrow types in total.
  • Each differently tipped arrow is available in the Creative inventory, just like enchanted books.
  • Corresponding effect is applied on hit.

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Beetroots

• Restore 1 (👁 🍖
  ).
• Spawn naturally in villages.
• Can be used to craft beetroot soup.
• Can also be used to craft rose red dye.

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Beetroot seeds

• Used to grow beetroot.

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Beetroot soup

• Restores 6 (👁 🍗
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  ).
• Crafted from 6 beetroots and a bowl.

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Chorus fruits

• Obtained from chorus plants.
• Can be eaten even if the player is not hungry, similar to golden apples.
  • Teleports the player to a random nearby location when eaten (like an enderman or a shulker).
  • Does not heal hunger points if the hunger bar is full.
    • Otherwise it heals 4 (👁 🍗
      👁 🍗
      ).
• Can be cooked in the furnace to obtain popped chorus fruits.

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Popped chorus fruits

• Obtained from cooking chorus fruit.
• Used to craft purpur blocks.
• Cannot be eaten.

👁 Invicon Shulker Spawn Egg Revision 1.png: Sprite image for Shulker Spawn Egg Revision 1 in Minecraft
Shulker spawn eggs

• Used to spawn a shulker.
• Purple with darker purple spots.

General

• Mobs have a 5% chance to spawn left-handed, through the new LeftHanded boolean tag.
  • Mobs able to hold items hold them according to their dominant hand.

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Shulkers

• Short for "Shell Lurker".
• Hostile mobs with the appearance of a purple block.
  • Only spawn on the ground or at the walls of End cities when they first generate.
• When attacking, they open their shell with a spinning animation, revealing the creature inhabiting.
  • The creature looks like a little white cube with big eyes.
  • Its attack consists of shooting projectiles.
    • The projectiles chase the player until the projectile is out of range.
      • They can only move along one of the three grid axes at a time and on integer steps.
        • This means they can move only via taxicab geometry.
    • Projectiles can be knocked away by attacking them.
    • Getting hit by a projectile causes 2 hearts of damage and inflicts the Levitation status effect.
    • They take more damage while their shell is open.
      • Their shells are considered armor, and bounce arrows off.
  • It has an idle animation, where it opens its shells a little to peak through.
• Can be pushed by pistons, and can exist only on coordinates that are integers (except if they are on minecarts).
• Can teleport like an enderman.
  • Sometimes does this while being attacked or placed in unusual circumstances:
    • Removing its support block.
    • Pushing it into a non-air block (except piston heads).
    • Pushing a non-air block into its position (except piston heads).
• Is one of the few entities (apart from boats and minecarts) that can be stood upon.
  • It even displaces the player properly during its attacking and idle animations.

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End cities

• Generate on the new outer End islands.
• Dungeon-type structure fashioned like a branching tower made of End stone and many of the new blocks.
  • Resemble a tree house.
• Generate with shulkers in it.

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End ships

• Can generate up in the air, right next to an End city.
  • Always generate sailing away from what appears to be a pier.
  • Composed of many of the same materials as the End city.
• Generate with shulkers in it.
• Have a beacon set to Speed, a brewing stand with potions of Healing, and other loot.

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Chorus trees

• Tree-like arrangements of the new chorus plant and chorus flower blocks.
• Generate on the outer End islands
• The whole structure is destroyed when the bottom-most block is destroyed, like cacti.
• Can be farmed by planting the chorus fruit flowers that come from the top of the plants.
  • Unlike cacti, chorus plants do not require the supporting block to be below it, but rather adjacent.
    • This allows the structure to grow around obstacles, like other plants.

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End gateways

• Small structures consisting of an End gateway block and two little bulbs of bedrock, at both the bottom and the top.
  • Are an alternative way of traveling to the outer End islands, without having to build or fly all the way over there.
  • Since the bulbs of bedrock only leave a one block slit on the horizontal plane, it is only accessible by throwing ender pearls at it, or by riding pigs, boats or minecarts.
    • The player is teleported to somewhere on the outer End islands.
    • The final location of the player depends on what angle they entered or at what angle the ender pearl was thrown at.
• One gateway is created for each dragon kill.
  • Up to 20 gateways are possible to create this way.
  • Gateways spawn in a radius around the End portal.
  • Another gateway is created every time the player teleports to a new location.
    • The created gateway is linked to the original, so the player has a way back.

NBT format

• Added tags HandItems, ArmorItems, HandDropChances, and ArmorDropChances to Living.
• Added tags HandItems and ArmorItems to ArmorStand.
• Added tag Glowing to Entity.
• Added tag Team to LivingBase.
• Added tag DragonPhase to EnderDragon
• Added entity Shulker, child of SnowMan.
• Added entity ShulkerBullet, child of Entity.
• Added entity DragonFireball, which extends FireballBase and has no unique tags.
• Added entities TippedArrow and SpectralArrow, children of Arrow.
• Added block EndGateway, child of TileEntity.
• Added block Structure, child of TileEntity.
• Added item tag Potion, child of tag.

Dominant hand option

• An option for players to change their dominant hand on their player model.
  • Under "Skin Customization".
• Changes the orientation of the offhand slot in the hotbar (left often suits right-hand players better and vice versa).

Dual wielding

• Players can now use both hands at the same time to do different actions, with the left and right mouse buttons.
  • For example, if a player has a pickaxe in their main hand and a torch in their other hand, right clicking places the torch.
    • This happens because a pickaxe lacks a right click use, and therefore the game tries to then treat the other item as if it's being right clicked.
    • The player cannot click both buttons at the same time.
  • This is achieved through an extra inventory slot called the "offhand" slot.
    • Pressing (by default) switches whatever item is selected in the hotbar with the item in the offhand (including no item).
    • The offhand slot is displayed next to the hotbar when it's not empty (left for right-hand players and vice versa).
      • It's also available in the inventory screen.
• Only the main hand can be used for attacking.
  • Even bows can't be used in the offhand.
• Bows can be used when something else is in the offhand.
  • Arrows in the offhand take priority over arrows in the rest of the inventory slots.
• The offhand model is invisible in first person view, while it's empty.
• Some attributes and enchantments apply to the offhand item, while others do not.

Status effects

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  Levitation
  • Received when the player is hit by shulker projectiles.
  • Makes player involuntarily float high into the air.
    • Can be used to get to higher places.
  • Listed as a negative effect, due to the potential to kill from fall damage.
  • Higher levels of Levitation result in faster floating, except for the last two:
    • Level 255 does nothing.
    • Level 254 results in slow fall (similar to lunar gravity).

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  Glowing
  • Received when players or mobs are hit by spectral arrows.
  • Makes player's outline glow, seen even through non-transparent blocks.
    • The outline includes the models of the currently held items.
  • Listed as a negative effect, because it prevents players from hiding from other players.
  • It becomes colored differently if the player is part of a team, to match its team color.

Dead bushes

• Now drop anywhere between 0–2 sticks when broken without shears.

Doors

• Changed the shading on acacia, birch, dark oak and jungle doors.

Fire

• The block states flip and alt were removed, and the integer state upper was reimplemented as the byte state up.
  • This reduced the number of states representing fire from 3072 to 512.

Glass panes and iron bars

• Are now 2×2 pixels in footprint if no blocks connect to them.
  • This is compared to the big cross configuration that was the default.

Pressure plates

• Now have a slightly thinner item model.

Redstone wire

• Model was changed somewhat, resulting in subtle appearance differences.
  • Before:
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Stairs

• Are now rotated 90° in the inventory.

Trapdoors

• No longer require supporting blocks.
  • Therefore they can be moved by pistons freely.
• An open trapdoor may be climbed like a ladder if it is directly above one and on the same side of the block.

Bows

• The bow in the hotbar now shows an animation for drawing back an arrow.
• Arrows in the off hand are prioritized over arrows in the rest of the inventory slots.

Ender pearls

• Can now be thrown in Creative mode.

Fishing rods

• Casting fishing rods now has an animation in the hotbar/inventory.

Item models for chest-like blocks

• Unlike other blocks, chests, trapped chests and ender chests have their item model rotated, to have the front face in view of the player.
  • This made it easier to distinguish between trapped and regular chests while being held, since only their front face is different.

Maps

• Now display as a mini map when held in the off hand, or if the offhand slot is occupied.
  • The (old) large version is visible only when held in the dominant hand with both hands-free.

Potions

• Mixed potions' colors now blend.
• Numeric IDs are no longer used. Instead, a "Potion" tag is used.
  • e.g. /give @s minecraft:potion 1 0 {Potion:"minecraft:swiftness"}
• Splash potions now have a separate data value and ID name and can be created from all potions, including water bottles.
• Added Mundane, Thick and Awkward potions to the Creative inventory.
• Glowstone dust or redstone can no longer be added to extended or tier-II potions, respectively.
• Most recipes for potion of Weakness were removed; only brewing from a water bottle remains.
• Potion of Slowness can no longer be brewed from a potion of Fire Resistance.
• Potion of Harming can no longer be brewed from a potion of Water Breathing.
• Splash potions now have the same duration as drinkable potions.^[2]

Chickens

• Can be led and bred with melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds.

Ender dragons

• Similar to the one on Legacy Console Edition.
• The dragon can be re-spawned indefinitely by creating a creeper face configuration out of clay in the End.
  • Subsequent dragons spawn new gateways, but don't drop XP or create new dragon eggs.
• The dragon AI and attacks has been changed:
  • Breathes fire/purple particles on players and mobs, while on top of the portal.
  • Drops fireballs on top of the player.
  • Defends the obsidian pillars more, the further the fight progresses.
• The dragon flies and stops over the portal sometimes, only then can the last blow be dealt.

Endermen

• Remain aggravated towards the player despite being in contact with water.
• Drop the block they were holding when killed.

Pigs

• Can be led and bred with potatoes and beetroots, in addition to carrots.

Skeletons

• Have an animation for lifting up and drawing back their bow.

Villagers

• Farmer villagers now harvest beetroot.

Armor stands

• Can now be summoned to dual wield with commands in Creative.

Projectiles

• Slightly altered the path of projectiles.^[3]

The End

• A set amount of differently-sized obsidian pillars are arranged in a circular fashion.
  • The tallest pillars have iron bars around their ender crystal to deflect projectiles.
• The exit portal is pre-generated at the center of the island, but without the dragon egg and portal blocks.
• Now generates a great amount of islands in every direction from the main island, though separated from it in all directions by an empty gap of about 1,000 blocks.
  • Mini islands generate between the center and main islands.
  • End islands and mini End islands have chorus trees spread throughout them.

The Nether

• Removed the fog in the Nether.

Villages

• Farms now include beetroot crops.

NBT format

• Tag Equipment (under Living) has become deprecated.
• Tag DropChances (under Living) has become deprecated.

Crosshair

• No longer shows the crosshair in 3rd person view.

Inventory

• Rearranged the Survival inventory and the Creative "Survival tab" to accommodate for the new offhand slot.
• Unified the orientation of many items in the inventory.

Status effects

• Status effects icons are now displayed on the HUD on the right hand corner, instead of just in the inventory (similar to Pocket Edition).
  • They are ordered by the time of infliction from right to left.
  • Positive effects are on the top row and negative effects on the bottom row.
  • Effects that are about to run out, blink.
    • They blink faster when they are closer to running out and start fading away.

Attributes

• CustomNameVisible:true makes the name tag on mobs show in the same way as on players.
• Entities can now be summoned straight to teams: {team="TeamName"}.
• DropChances and Equipment tags are no longer used.
  • ArmorItems, HandItems, ArmorDropChances and HandDropChances are used instead.

Bosses

• Proper support for multiple bosses' health bars, so they show at the same time without obstructing each other.

Damage tooltips

• Items can damage differently based on where they are placed to (main hand, offhand, armor slots).

Death messages

• Death messages now are displayed on the player's death screen as well as in the chat.

Models

• Different models/textures can be used for each different damage values, item states, and whether the item is held in a different hand.
  • This works on compasses, clocks, and anything that can have a durability bar.
  • It also contains additional tags for bows and fishing rods.
• Models can be put together based on block state attributes, such as fences.
  • As a result, the vanilla set of block models was reduced by almost 300.
• Block model JSON is now strict: comments and quote-less identifiers are not allowed.
• display tag defaults have changed, and the thirdperson and firstperson tags were replaced with thirdperson_righthand, thirdperson_lefthand, firstperson_righthand, and firstperson_lefthand.
• parent and elements tags can coexist now, though the top level elements tag overwrites all former ones.
• UV is now optional, and if not supplied it automatically generates based on the element's position.

Options

• Removed the Broadcast Settings section, as well as Twitch integration as a whole.
• Removed Super Secret Settings and Alternate Blocks from video settings.

Resource packs

• Updated resource pack pack_formatto 2 as the following has changed:
  • Changes in the model system, such as item tags, multipart, and changes to display tags.
• Older resource packs require user acknowledgment to use.

Structure data

• Now comes from /assets/structures.

13 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.9

• MC-438 – Ender pearl can't be used in creative mode.
• MC-1537 – Sometimes doors in strongholds are misplaced.
• MC-1663 – Dying while having a GUI window open doesn't make the death screen appear.
• MC-1956 – Arms misplaced in skeletons with a bow.
• MC-2768 – Ladder bug with trapdoors.
• MC-4474 – Boss health bar temporarily viewable after respawn and loading another world.
• MC-5404 – Name Tags/XP Orbs/Splash Potions are angled in third-person mode.
• MC-42841 – Incorrect Creative instant health damage value.
• MC-47526 – Ender Crystal entity spawning 1 block too low.
• MC-56268 – Breaking the bedrock below an ender crystal (in the End) creates performance drops, rapidly flickering light.
• MC-68062 – Boss health bar only visible when looking at boss.
• MC-69320 – Data tag output by /entitydata and /blockdata contains too many commas.
• MC-75082 – End music will stop every time the ender dragon loads out of view.

• Before 18w43a, 15w31a holds the record as having the most content in one developmental release, having nearly twice as much content as Java Edition 1.4.2 had in October 2012.
  • The previous record was held by 13w36a for Java Edition 1.7.2.
• 15w31a was previously removed from the launcher for some time, but was added back in September 2018.