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Minecraft's newest update adds bamboo, scaffolding, pandas and redesigned kitty cats

Stephany Nunneley-Jackson avatar
News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson Former News Editor
Published on

Minecraft players have a new update to apply, and it comes with some nifty changes.

Minecraft's Bedrock update 1.8.0 is out in the wild, and sure it contains a new climbable block, but who cares about that: it now has pandas and better cats.

What could be considered a bit disappointing is ocelots can no longer be tamed; however, players can still gain their trust y feeding them, which works I guess.

With the update comes a new biome featuring bamboo. The plant can be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests. Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update.

Bamboo jungle biomes will see pandas spawn either as a single mob or in duos. Pandas will have random personalities, and while absolutely adorable, they are also "fiercely protective" of their cubs, so don't trust them to be passive. Because they eat bamboo, players will find pandas will drop blocks of it.

Next year, Minecraft players can look forward to the Village and Pillage update. Plus, there's Minecraft: Dungeons coming next year too. It's the first major spin-off of the popular game and is playable solo or with up to three friends.

Today's patch notes are a bit long, so know that before diving in below. Links to additional information included where applicable.

This update is now available for  Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.

Minecraft - Bedrock update 1.8.0 patch notes

New Features 

  • Pandas now spawn in jungles where they roll, lounge, and laze around
  • Stray cats now spawn in villages
    • Cats can be tamed using fish
    • Ocelots are no longer tameable
    • Players can now feed ocelots to gain their trust
  • Bamboo can now be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests (Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update)
  • Scaffolding - A climbable block that can be crafted using bamboo

New Achievements

  • Where have you been? - Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning (20G)
  • Top of the World - Place scaffolding to the word limit (20G)
  • Zoologist - Breed two pandas with bamboo (40G)

Added

  • randomTickSpeed game rule

For Map Makers and Add-On Creators 

  • Updated templates for 1.8.0 with new assets and behaviors can be downloaded from minecraft.net/addons
  • Updates to Add-Ons that allow players to add new entities, particles, and animations. See aka.ms/MinecraftAddons for more details and enable Experimental Gameplay in your world!
  • Functions have come to Bedrock! Functions allow players to write the commands their worlds use in an external file, not just Command Blocks. See the Minecraft Wiki for more information

Experimental Gameplay 

(Only available when Experimental Gameplay is enabled in world settings)

Crossbow weapon with new enchantments

  • Multishot
  • Piercing
  • Quick Charge

Changes 

  • Phantoms are now afraid of cats and will not swoop down while cats are around
  • Increased the size of Tropical fish (MCPE-35877)
  • Skeleton Horse and Zombie Horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg
  • Added a crafting recipe for Packed Ice
  • Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes and unified all dye names
  • The splash screen now has an animated loading bar
  • The following commands can now be run in-game without enabling cheats:
    • /gamerule showcoordinates
    • /gamerule dofiretick
    • /gamerule tntexplodes
    • /gamerule domobloot
    • /gamerule naturalregeneration
    • /gamerule dotiledrops
    • /gamerule pvp
  • A warning now appears when attempting to change settings on a world template, as it could change the creator's intended experience
  • Command blocks now have the default name of ! instead of @
  • More skin packs are now shown in the skin picker menu, and each pack can be opened and viewed in its own page
  • The autocomplete list for player mentions now works in slash commands
  • The Remix3D upload service on Windows 10 is no longer available, but creations can still be exported as .glb 3D Object files
  • Text-to-Speech can now be enabled on Nintendo Switch
  • Minecraft Marketplace:
    • Content can now be sorted by 'Updates Available' in your inventory
    • Content can now be sorted and filtered by rating when browsing the Marketplace
    • Bundles of content can now be purchased

Fixes 

Crashes/Performance

  • Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay
  • Fixed a crash that would occur if the player was disconnected while loading resource packs
  • Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox One if the player signed out too quickly after signing in
  • Fixed a crash that could occur during the splash loading screen on Windows 10 Mobile
  • Fixed a crash that could occur on startup for Gear VR
  • Fixed a crash that could occur due to a recent Windows 10 update (MCPE-36274)
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a renamed firework charge (MCPE-37822)
  • Using a bucket of fish in a dispenser no longer crashes the game (MCPE-38194)
  • Fixed a crash that would occur when using lava buckets on fish
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when kelp grows
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and resuming the game on the main menu (154576)
  • Fixed a crash that could occur in worlds that contained locator maps
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving the Realms settings screen
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading or saving data on Nintendo Switch
  • Fixed a crash that could occur on Switch when split screen players broke a large chest
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when killing and summoning a salmon with its navigation component removed
  • Improved performance on some devices with less available memory
  • Fixed a bug where multiple UI screens could be opened at once, causing the game to crash
  • Shulker boxes that contain tropical fish buckets no longer cause performance issues (MCPE-27167)
  • Fixed a bug that caused a significant performance drop when rendering chunks (MCPE-37192)
  • Improved the loading time of various game files
  • Fixed delayed touch response on the bottom of the screen on iOS (MCPE-29718)

General

  • Fixed the bug where the player would unexpectedly turn in a random direction on touch screens (MCPE-35910)
  • The "Body Guard" achievement can once again be unlocked after creating an Iron Golem (MCPE-33686)
  • Fixed an issue with custom player permissions that might not apply correctly in multiplayer (MCPE-34864)
  • Worlds larger than 1GB can now be copied and exported on Windows 10 (MCPE-37269)
  • Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to start a split screen session with a guest on Xbox One
  • Split screen players no longer get stuck on the loading screen when re-joining Old worlds

Gameplay

  • Lightning no longer strikes if the destination is in a cold biome (MCPE-19015)
  • Players will no longer teleport when standing against a non-full block and reloading the game (MCPE-31242)
  • Fixed rare enchantments being too hard to get at higher levels
  • Potion of Slow Falling will now slow down Elytra descent (MCPE-34926)
  • The player locator map marker now faces the right direction when aboard a boat
  • Players will now face forwards when entering a boat (MCPE-36795)
  • Explosions will now drop blocks if the default game mode is Creative and Tile Drops are enabled (MCPE-23498)
  • Planting crops continuously will no longer skip blocks (MCPE-35857)

Items

  • Fixed a bug where only white firework stars could be crafted
  • Crafting multiple cakes using the recipe book will now return the correct amount of empty buckets to the player (MCPE-37387)
  • Dyed beds now have the correct crafting recipe
  • Fixed an exploit where rails could be duplicated (MCPE-36917)
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed Tridents to be duplicated (MCPE-37900)
  • Fixed Enchanted Tridents being lost from anvils following a server disconnect (MCPE-37526)
  • Flower pots that contain saplings will once again drop the correct type when broken (MCPE-37328)

Mobs

  • Large Slimes and Magma Cubes now have the correct sized hitbox based on their size (MCPE-18518)
  • Fixed mobs not always taking fall damage when they should (MCPE-37257)
  • Tamed wolves will now tilt their heads when the player is holding meat (MCPE-17144)
  • Magma cubes no longer inflict damage during their death animation (MCPE-14426)

Blocks

  • Kelp will now only grow into water source blocks or full downward flowing water, and no longer creates a new source block (MCPE-37155)
  • Pistons no longer drop as items when being pushed or pulled (MCPE-37492)
  • The hitbox of piston arms now matches the size and shape correctly (MCPE-13758)
  • Players no longer fall through Shulker Boxes as they open (MCPE-28812)
  • Double wooden slabs can now be placed regardless of crosshair position (MCPE-13799)
  • When the player has just moved out of a block space, they can no longer place a repeater or comparator that can't be powered (MCPE-36762)
  • Mobs in minecarts no longer activate adjacent detector rails (MCPE-21863)

Realms

  • Fixed the bug where players on Realms could be instantly killed in one shot by a Blaze fireball attack (MCPE-19535)

Graphical

  • Fixed a bug that caused horses (and variants) to show flashing colors on certain devices (no more disco horses!) (MCPE-31726)
  • Fixed a bug where players could see through solid blocks when swimming
  • Water now renders correctly when surrounded by Barrier Blocks
  • Wall signs no longer show different types of wood particles when being broken (MCPE-16141)
  • Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause black visual glitches to appear around blocks when riding a horse
  • The player's hands are now properly rotated and positioned when aboard a boat and holding a bow
  • Fixed the Ghast projectile firing animation

Audio

  • Ghast sounds are no longer repeated when they are shooting fireballs (MCPE-19156)

User Interface

  • Multiple items can be collected when trading with villagers again when using touch controls (MCPE-32635)
  • Fixed incorrect interact buttons appearing briefly for certain mobs on touch screen devices
  • The right bumper button now correctly scrolls through the tabs in the game menu on Nintendo Switch
  • Reassigned Page Up and Page Down keys are now labelled correctly on the Settings screen
  • The multiplayer toggle is now accurately shown when using platform restricted content on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch
  • The Achievements button no longer appears in the pause menu if not signed into Xbox Live
  • Controller hints now show the correct usage of "Open" and "Use" when looking at containers
  • Health Boost and Absorption effects no longer have the same icon
  • Fixed the buttons used on the startup message for players using Windows Mixed Reality
  • Removed "MCPE!" from the list of splash screen messages (MCPE-36741)
  • Search results in the Marketplace are now more consistent when searching through all content
  • Only templates are suggested in the "Get More Templates" menu now
  • Fixed incorrect message when accepting an invite from a notification on Nintendo Switch with certain parental controls set

Commands

  • Running the 'title' and 'subtitle' commands will once again override any titles and subtitles currently on screen
  • Relative coordinates in commands are once again consistent below 3 on the y-axis (MCPE-35130)
  • Using Shift + Tab to reverse cycle through slash command auto-complete suggestions now properly cycles to the end of the list
  • Lava blocks no longer appear green in the command autocomplete area (MCPE-33788)
  • Player names that are made up of only numbers are now surrounded with quotation marks when using autocomplete for slash commands

Add-Ons:

  • 'minecraft:navigation.walk' can now be used in component groups without causing the game to crash
  • Added a underscore to "frozen_river" in the 'biomes_client.json' file so it matches the other vanilla Resource Pack entries (MCPE-36799)

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