Minecraft’s forthcoming Caves & Cliffs update is still a while away, but dedicated players have already sampled its wares in the form of content snapshots. The latest of these, memorably titled 21W03A, adds glowing squids and glowing lichen to the Java Edition of the game.
That’s pretty cool, because the ocean is a very drab place, especially in the dark. The glow squid can be spotted “from even far distances” and will drop glow ink if you slay the helpless beasts. This ink can be used on signs, works with colours, and can be used to craft a glow item frame. Oh, and if you’re hunting down glowing squids, expect to find axolotls in the vicinity: apparently the latter really love to attack the former.
As for the glow lichen, it can also be put to practical purpose. Once harvested with shears, you can use bonemeal to spread it along block surfaces, effectively making those blocks glow. It’ll be like a rave.
The other small addition is a tweak to dripstone blocks, which can now be crafted from four pointed dripstone. Aside from that, it’s a big list of bug fixes, which you can find over on the official Minecraft website. As always, you’ll need to enable snapshots from the “Installations” menu in the Java Edition launcher.
The Caves & Cliffs update is expected to roll out in summer, or winter in Australia. To find out what the block building phenomenon has ready this year, check out the state of Minecraft in 2021.