After more than a year of development, snapshots and twitter previews, Minecraft 1.9 is live. This update brings a sweeping overhaul of Minecraft’s combat mechanics, and a number of other additions.
No longer is PvP a spam-click game. Instead, weapons now have a cooldown period in between swings. Different weapon types also bring diversity to the field — a crushing axe blow and a sword sweep. To balance this all, Mojang have also added shields, which can block attacks, and be customised with a banner.
The End has also been revamped, with ‘End Cities’ now generating after the dragon is slain.You can also re-summon the Ender Dragon for another round, if you so desire. Another addition is the Elytra – a chestpiece with wings that allows gliding, which can be found in the new End.
The entire update list:
(From Mojang.com)
- Added shields
- Attacking now has a “cool-down” delay, making it more important to time your attacks
- You can now hold items in both hands (default quick key to swap items is ‘F’)
- Swords have a special sweep attack
- Axes have a special crushing blow attack
- Added the elytra
- New mob: Shulker
- Expanded The End
- Added Chorus plants
- New Purpur blocks
- New End Rod block
- Added dragon head block
- Ender Dragon can be resummoned
- Added beetroot and beetroot soup (from MC:PE)
- Added grass path block
- Added igloos
- Armor protection values have been lowered
- Added tipped arrows
- Added spectral arrows
- Added Frost Walker enchantment and frosted ice block
- Added a whole bunch of new sound effects
- Added sound effect subtitles
- Brewing Stand now requires Blaze Powder to activate
- Added skeleton riders
- We believe we’ve fixed MC-10 and a whole bunch of other issues
- Removed Herobrine
