Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.16.230.54 drops with tons of tweaks for 'Cave and Cliffs Update'

Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Update Image
Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Update Image (Image credit: Mojang Studios | Twitter)

What you need to know

  • Minecraft: Bedrock Edition has an ongoing beta program on Xbox, PC, and Android to test future updates.
  • The beta program is currently testing bug fixes for 'the Nether Update' and experimental features for the 'Caves and Cliffs Update.'
  • The latest beta, 1.16.230.54, is now rolling out to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players with lots of improvements and tweaks.
  • There are no new features here, but several 'Caves and Cliffs Update' features receive changes.

It's time for Minecraft to drop another beta release for insider players. Today, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is releasing the 1.16.230.54 beta, which continues to test new features coming in the massive Caves and Cliffs Update. Today's beta isn't going to include any new features, but does feature a lot of changes and improvements for existing experimental features, like the axolotl added in the last Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta.

This means tweaks to axolotl, the Creative Menu, powder snow, glow squid, cave biomes, and so much more, as well as the usual suite of bug fixes for regular ole' Minecraft. Players enrolled in the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta program can download and play with the 1.16.230.54 beta now.

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The full changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.16.230.54 includes:

Experimental Features

Axolotl

  • Leads now correctly attach to Axolotl

Creative inventory

  • There are no longer any unknown items in the creative inventory
  • Cobbled Deepslate is now next to cobblestone in the Creative inventory. Polished Deepslate is next to Deepslate

Deepslate

  • Deepslate Bricks now have correct breaktime

Dripstone

  • Water and lava now drip more often from pointed dripstone
  • Fixed pointed dripstone texture mapping

Glow lichen

  • Glow lichen can now appear on the walls of underground water lakes
  • The game no longer crashes when placing glow lichen on all sides of a single block

Glow squid

  • Leads now attach correctly to glow squid (and squid)

Lush Caves

  • Hanging roots now drop correctly when mined by silk touch enchanted tool
  • Moss can now also spread vertically when fertilized
  • Dripleaves now break completely when the leaf part is broken
  • Breaking a dripleaf stem now drops a dripleaf item, matching the Java Edition
  • Fertilizing a moss block can now also grow vegetation on existing moss blocks
  • Small Dripleaves can now be composted just like Big Dripleaves
  • Bonemealing moss blocks no longer generates ferns
  • Azalea and Flowering Azalea can now be grown into an Azalea Tree when fertilized (No ID)

Powder snow

  • Leather horse armor prevents horses from freezing in powder snow
  • Mobs that enjoy the heat (Blazes, Magma Cubes, and Striders) take increased freeze damage
  • Polar bears, strays, and snow golems no longer take freeze damage
  • The time taken to freeze fully is now 7 seconds instead of 15
  • Frozen entities now take damage every 2 seconds instead of every 3 seconds
  • The speed at which entities can move vertically when inside powder snow has increased
  • Powder snow takes slightly longer to mine
  • Entities wearing leather boots falling from a height of > 2.5 blocks sink into powder snow instead of landing on top of it
  • Entities that are on fire that walk into powder snow now melt the powder snow block in addition to extinguishing the fire
  • Entities that are fully frozen now shake
  • Applied fog effect while standing very close outside a Powder Snow block

Striders

  • Striders shake properly when out of lava again

Dripstone

  • Dripstone feature and dripstone cluster feature now rarely generate in caves below y59
  • Rooted dirt, Small dripleaf, Moss Block and Pointed dripstone can now be obtained from the Wandering Trader
  • Glow berries can be found in abandoned mineshaft minecart chests
  • Moss block can be found in shipwreck chests
  • Masons now trade Dripstone blocks
  • Dripstone block can be crafted from pointed dripstone
  • Axolotl and Glow Squid now spawn in water in non-ocean biomes under y = 30

Bug fixes

General

  • Fixed a bug where if the view bobbing setting was disabled, the player's hand would still bob
  • Zombie Villagers properly shake while being cured
  • Fixed player spawning in unsafe locations when entering a random world for the first time

Structure blocks

  • The structure placement block now has placement animation options similar to /structure command

Commands

  • Fix output message for /stopsound being incorrect

Graphical

  • Charged creeper aura is rendered correctly in most cases now
  • Fixed Paintings no longer rendering
  • Ray tracing specific textures will be allocated / deallocated when toggling ray tracing on / off

Items

  • Switching between some items (bow, trident, crossbow, shield) in your main hand will no longer skip animation

Underwater gameplay experience

  • Underwater visibility has been improved
  • Underwater color has been tuned better to match Java Edition with a richer blue tint

User interface

  • A message will now display when trying to place blocks below the minimum build height

Technical updates

Updated interfaces

  • assertContainerContains - ItemIdentifier parameter changed to ItemStack
  • assertItemEntityNotPresent and assertItemEntityPresent APIs - ItemStack parameter changed to ItemType

New interfaces

  • assertEntityNotTouching(entityIdentifier: string, position : Location) - Asserts that there is no entity of the given type at the given position
  • assertEntityTouching(entityIdentifier: string, position : Location) - Asserts that there is an entity of the given type at the given position
  • assertItemEntityCountIs(itemType : ItemType, position : BlockLocation, searchDistance : number, count : number) - Asserts that the entity item count in the given search area matches the expected count
  • pulseRedstone(position : BlockLocation, duration : number) - Creates a Redstone block at the given position and destroys it after "duration" ticks

Known issues

  • Parts of Villages generate underground
  • Axolotl doesn't spawn naturally
  • Glow Squid does not spawn naturally
Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.