Minecraft Cave & Cliffs 1.17 Update
The 1.17 update is finally here, which means there is a whole new world of stuff to discover! Whether you are about to start playing or already knee-deep in a new realm, here is everything added in the Cave & Cliffs Update…
Amethyst Blocks
The new amethyst blocks are generated as part of geodes and come in several types. Buds will grow on to full-size blocks and eventually grow into an amethyst cluster, which then drops amethyst shards when broken. They emit an increasing amount of light at every stage, up to Level 5 for a full cluster.
Shards can be crafted into a decorative block of amethyst, which also generates as part of a geode and can be mined directly. The budding amethyst block which grows buds, cannot be obtained even with a Silk Touch pickaxe and will never drop when mined.
Azalea Blocks
There are two types of azalea block – one is a small bonsai-like block with no blossom and the other is a variant with pink blossom. They can grow from moss blocks if bone meal is used on them and can be planted in dirt or grass.
They can be grown into a full-size azalea tree using bone meal, at which point they become a larger structure with an oak trunk and azalea leaf blocks (which also come in blossom and blossom-free variants). Azalea trees don’t currently generate naturally in the world except as part of a single-biome Lush Caves world, though they will be added properly in version 1.18.
Copper
A major new addition to the game, raw copper is collected from copper ore and can be crafted into ingots, then into blocks or items. Copper ore is found anywhere underground where stone and other ores can form, in layers 0 to 96, so even around 25 blocks above sea level. It must be mined with a stone pickaxe or better, otherwise it will drop nothing. When mined properly, copper ore will drop 2-3 pieces of raw copper.
Copper blocks can be cut into many of the standard shapes – slabs, stairs, etc – and will gradually turn green through four visible stages as they oxidise (just like copper in real life does). If you use honeycomb on a copper block, it will turn into waxed copper, which will stay at the level of oxidisation it was when waxed.
The only other block copper can be crafted into is the lightning rod, which attracts lightning safely during a storm, preventing it from setting anything on fire. You can harness this effect to damage or transform mobs (e.g., Creepers into charged creepers) or simply prevent it from damaging wherever it strikes. You can fully reverse the oxidisation process of copper if lightning strikes near the affected block, and a lightning rod allows you to make that happen!
We are sorry to say that despite player enthusiasm for new types of armour and tools, copper cannot be used to craft either – it is largely just decorative.
You can find discounted Minecraft gift cards over at our online store here, along with a wide variety of other gift cards here.
Keywords: Minecraft, Update, Caves and Cliffs, Gaming, Videogames.
