Minecraft Snapshot 21w16a Adds Growing Stalactites and Stalagmites
Minecraft presents more news from the big Caves &Cliffs update. Snapshot 21w16a introduces growing dripstones and enables players to grow an azalea tree.
Although we'll have to wait a bit longer for the debut of all the new features from the huge Minecraft update, we can still test them in the so-called snapshots. Snapshot 21w16a is now available for all interested Java Edition owners. To test it, activate the snapshots in the "installations" section. However, we recommend that you run the snapshot session from a separate folder or make a backup copy - otherwise you risk losing your Minecraft world!
Past snapshots have varied greatly in size - from snapshots that added many objects and mechanics, to those focused on improving previously released new features. Version 21w16a is one of the more modest ones. The key word here is "growth", because the two new features introduced by Mojang boil down to growth. From now on, dripping water will form expanding stalactites and stalagmites with a maximum length of 7 and 10 blocks, respectively. However, the growth is very slow, although fortunately not as much as in real caves. Azaleas will also grow after using bone meal, so players can turn them into trees.
Apart from these two innovations, snapshot 21w16a has slightly changed the textures of gold, copper, and iron ore blocks. In addition, a number of bugs have been fixed, including "flammable" mobs not being able to dodge hot lava, and mobs appearing in odd places (such as on top of azaleas).
