What We Found Out About Minecraft 1.9 at Mincon 2015

There’s a lot of info so let’s get right to it. This is brought to you by /u/redstonehelper

• The off-hand slot is displayed next to the hotbar, possibly on the off-hand side – Screenshot
• Screenshot of the option to switch main hands

edit: More from the Behind the scenes panel.

• BlockModel improvements
  • Models can be put together based on BlockState attributes – Example: fences
  • As a result, the vanilla set of block models was reduced by almost 300 models

Behind the scenes panel information on top, information from the stage event this morning on the bottom.

• First 1.9 snapshot likely within 2 weeks, but no promises
• End stone bricks are one of the new blocks – Screenshot
• Screenshot of some new arrows in the creative inventory
• Mirroring/rotating structures will come to /clone
• More different textures for mobs
• White glowing pole blocks, placable horizonally and vertically which produce white particles – Screenshots – also shown on the earlier presentation, but I missed them there

• set amount of pillars arranged in a circular fashion
• ender dragon protects pillars more the further you progress – Screenshots
• fire breath
• ender dragon can be respawned as many times as you want
• you can craft a version of the ender crystals which spawn another dragon when placed
• ender dragon breath is an ingredient you can get from killing the dragon over and over, but only one dragon egg
• New type of portal: “End gateway” – Screenshots
• Multiple end islands
• You can now throw ender pearls in creative mode
• New item: Chorus Fruit (edible), comes from Chorus plants (farmable) – Screenshots
• Only the flowers atop the chorus fruits let you replant the plants
• Chorus plants drop the whole plant at once, like cacti
• End city: name of the new dungeon in the end with loads of new blocks – Screenshots
• First 1.9 snapshot very soon
• Hostile mob, “Shulker”, short for “Shell Lurker”, disguises as the block it’s sitting on
• Opens up and shoots projectiles which only move along the x/y/z axis – Screenshots
• Status effect HUDs! – show good effects on the top, bad effects on the bottom, left-most effects expire sooner
• Effects that are about to run out will blink
• New potion effect: Levitation, given by the Shulker projectiles – negative effect – Screenshots
• Shields with customizable patterns, like banners! – very WIP, possibly not in the first snapshot – Screenshots
• Patterns obtainable by combining shields with banners
• Shields block attacks from the side they’re held on
• Grey arrows are invisibility arrows
• Spectral arrows make hit entities glow for a while
• Poison arrows
• Arrows can be tipped with potions which will be applied on hit
• The bow in your hotbar shows how far arrows have been drawn – Screenshot
• You can find out whether you’re glowing from a spectral arrow using the potion effect HUD
• No more super secret settings/Broadcast Settings?
• edit: rewatchable stream
• new white pole blocks, can be horizontal and vertical

Q/A time:

• Stronger boats are being considered, planned feature parity with MC:PE is still a thing
• Levitation potion probably not being added
• Invisible entities hit by spectral arrows still get an outline