Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta 1.16.210.53 adds new powder snow features for ‘Caves and Cliffs update’

Minecraft, which continues to be one of our top picks in the best Xbox games for kids, is back with another beta, which should surprise no one. This time it’s Beta 1.16.210.53, which continues Minecraft’s recent trend of testing out a handful of features from the upcoming Caves and Cliffs update using an “experimental features” toggle in the already-released Nether update. Today’s beta contains the usual bug fixes and tech tweaks, but also includes a bunch of powder snow tweaks, which was added in the beta a while ago.

The Caves and Cliffs update, slated for release in summer 2021, has yet to begin proper testing in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, and at this point it likely won’t be until the new year. However, players can still jump into the beta (by following our guide to joining Minecraft: Bedrock Edition betas) and take a look at the goats and powder snow.

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Updated caves and cliffs

Powder

• Powder snow block now emits particles when an entity moves through it or lands on it.
• A freezing effect is gradually applied to the player and all monsters that are inside the powder snow blocks
• Freeze effect is removed from any monsters or players that catch fire
• Players in survival mode can now enable/disable freeze effect damage using the in-game rules, for example: /gamerule freezedamage false
• Mobs that have sunk into powder snow can now navigate through it
• Entities on fire now have their fires extinguished when entering powder snow
• Redstone dust, torches and item frames can no longer be placed on powder snow
• Grav blocks no longer break when landing on powder
• In powder snow blocks, the third person camera is no longer pushed inside the character’s head
• Monsters spawned inside the powder block no longer have a chance of spawning underground
• The powder snow block is no longer present in the creative inventory
• Powder snow no longer stops projectiles in Bedrock
• Light mobs can now climb and navigate through powder snow blocks
• Rabbits, Silverfish and Endermites do not fall through powder snow blocks
• It is now possible to specify a list of blocks that an entity should avoid
• Goats are smart enough to avoid powdery snow blocks when traversing
• An entity walking in powder snow will make the correct footstep sound regardless of the block it is walking on
• Wearing leather boots now allows entities to climb powder snow blocks
• Powder snow blocks have unique interaction sounds
• When the camera is inside a block of powder snow, fog is rendered around it and an overlay texture is rendered on it
• Buckets can be used to pick up and place loose snow
• Powder snow blocks have a slightly different texture than regular snow blocks
• Entities can enter powder snow blocks, but their movement is slowed inside
• Fall damage is ignored
• Leather boots make it easier for players to traverse powder snow
• Fixed occlusion for powder snow; adjacent blocks no longer appear transparent when inside powder snow

Bug fixes

Nether Ambient Sounds

• Mobile players now get ambient sounds in The Nether
• Be sure to update the Minecraft Original Music Pack via the Marketplace to hear these new sounds!

General

• Shulker boxes no longer lose inventory when not dyed in cauldrons
• Added new logic for monsters dismantling rides
• This also introduces finer-grained entity height checking allowing different drop locations for entities of different heights
• Player will no longer descend into liquids (lava or water) from rolling objects such as boats
• Added F11 as keyboard shortcut for full screen mode
• Login failures now have a more useful error message and provide error codes

Gameplay

• In all worlds created with the same seed, the same chest will now always spawn the same content in the same order
• Double chests placed at the edges of blocks do not become partially invisible and do not block the title when opened
• Golden Apple and Enchanted Apple now have colored hotbar text when selected

Technical changes

• Added new slash command options for /setblock, /filland /clone commands to pass a list of block states to set on the block being generated
• Changing the ‘RideableComponent’ property rotate_rider_by work for custom mobs

Chart

• Added fog documentation
• Added “fogs” folder to resource pack template