Another snapshot for Minecraft Java has just dropped - the 23w07a update includes some of the most anticipated features of the upcoming 1.20 patch. In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase everything you need to know about the 23w07a patch.

1. New Sniffer mob added

In the 23w07a snapshot, the Sniffer Mob is now available as an experimental feature. The Sniffer is the mob vote winner of Minecraft Live 2022 and the first "ancient" mob added to the game.

The Sniffer has a lying down animation.

Sniffers are passive friendly mobs, however, they cannot be tempted or tamed. Sniffers sniff in the air and occasionally dig for seeds. This makes ancient seeds farming easier, as players don't need to give the sniffer any resources to get seeds from them.

How to breed Sniffers

A new plant called Torchflower has been added to the game. Torchflower seed can be planted on farmland and grows into a flower - these seeds can only be obtained from Sniffers.

Sniffer and torchflower

By planting and harvesting Torchflower, players can give them to 2 Sniffers to breed. Fully grown Torchflower can be planted to duplicate, and similar to other flowers, it can also be crafted into dyes.

How to find Sniffers

Sniffers won't spawn in the overworld and players have to spawn them by their eggs. Players can find the mob's eggs inside loot chests found in underwater ruins in the oceans. Looks like there will finally be a purpose for exploring the ocean ruins.

Player size comparison.

Similar to most mobs, there will be two variants of the Sniffer: adult and baby. It will probably come out of the egg as a baby and grow up after players feed it. The adult mob will be as tall as the player model and long like ravagers.

2. New Cherry Grove biome

The 23w70a patch adds a new Cherry Grove biome, with pretty cherry blossom trees. You can find it in the mountains similar to Meadows.

The cherry blossom biome is going to be pretty peaceful, as the 3 mobs spawning on it are passive.

Cherry wood set

Added a new Cherry wood set, with all the corresponding wooden things you can make from it. You need to have the Update 1.20 experimental features enabled to see it in the game.

Cherry wood has a pink shade, which would look very pretty in builds.

Pink petals block

Added a new Pink Petals block with lots of pink flowers on the ground. It would be a great decorative block, allowing players to create beautiful gardens.

3. Archaeology & Pottery

The Brush

The brush is a craftable item you can use to brush things.

Suspicious Sand

Desert Temples and Desert Wells now contain Suspicious Sand. This fragile block is hard to spot and easy to destroy, so be careful! Brushing the Suspicious Sand with a Brush will extract objects that were buried long ago. Apparently, the spawn is going to be random - one can get anything from pottery shards to random objects.

The desert biome would look much more interesting now with pots being added.

Needless to say, breaking the block with any other tool would just destroy the item hidden inside.

Pottery Shards

Pottery Shards have pictures on them. They cannot be crafted and are only found by brushing Suspicious Sand. Currently, there are 4 different images of shards: Arms Up, Skull, Prize, and Archer.

Decorated Pots

Crafting four Pottery Shards together will create a Decorated Pot with a picture on each side. You can also use Brick items instead of Pottery Shards in the Decorated Pot recipe, however, the sides that were made from Brick items will not have pictures.

Pottery and its various patterns - the 4 patterns of the shards will appear on the 4 sides of the pot.

Players can smash a Decorated Pot with any block-breaking tool to break it apart and get the Pottery Shards back. Alternatively, just hit it with your fist to pick up the pot without breaking it.

4. Other notable changes

Jukebox

While playing a music disc, it will emit a redstone signal of 15. Droppers and hoppers can now interact with it.

Horse breeding

When breeding horses and the like, the babies' speed, jump height and health are no longer biased toward the average. This change is intended to make horse breeding a viable way of getting great horses, if a player starts with good parents and puts in enough time and Golden Carrots.

Breeding horses is actually viable now.

To check a horse's stat to decide how fast it is, you have to do the process manually:

  • Place a row of blocks to check the horse's speed. A horse's maximum speed is 14.23 blocks a second, and the average horse speed is about 9 blocks a second.
  • Create a 5-block-high pillar to check how high your horse can jump. A horse can jump anywhere from one to five blocks.

>>> Read more: 10 Useful Mobs To Farm In Minecraft 1.19