Alright so if you don’t know the Minecraft 1.3.1 update was launched today, here’s a list of all the new features that were added to the game.

General
Updated the launcher

• Includes demo mode. Note: Clicking on demo mode without the game installed will not work, and instead freeze at game updating and not download.
• The “Loading update news” message which appears when the launcher attempts to load the release feed is now styled, rather than the plain html it was prior.
• Minecraft logo updated

Improved overall stability and performance

• Reduced CPU, RAM & bandwidth usage.
• Accelerated chunk loading.
• Decreased lag spike frequency.
• Made the Nether less laggy.
• Decreased unnecessary world updates.
• Made the chat work smoothly even when the server is laggy.
• Decreased packets sent between client and server.

Made Singleplayer internally use a Multiplayer server

• Decreased world saving intervals.

Added optional single-player commands called “Cheats” on non-hardcore worlds

• Type / and then hit tab to autocomplete & get help on various commands
• Most commands from MP are available.

Added option to let LAN friends join SP games

• You can choose which gamemode players join in and whether they are allowed to use cheats.

Added demo mode for non-premium users

• Lasts 5 game days per world.
• Singleplayer only.

Added Chat Settings

• Change which parts of chat are shown and how opaque it is.
• Toggle chat colors, links being clickable and warning prompts for links.
• Option to rebind the command key, which opens the chat with / in the textfield.

Added Snooper Settings

• Allows users to toggle anonymous data being sent to Mojang.
• Shows which data will be sent.

Added video options

• Have to be toggled manually in options.txt for now.
• Vertical Synchronization.

Fullscreen mode can now be enabled at startup.
Mobs can now spawn on top of upside down all slabs and stairs
Improved F3 mode:

• Truncated coordinates to 5 fractional digits.
• The y-coordinate now shows both the feet level and the eye level.
• Removed frame rendering time history graph (bottom-left).
• 3 new values:
• ws: Walking speed (constant)
• fs: Flying speed (constant)
• g: Boolean value, true when you touch the ground

Updated language files

• Added tooltips for all types of Monster Egg blocks and the End Portal Frame.
• Added more descriptive tooltips for different types of tree-related blocks, sandstone and stone bricks.
• Localized server commands.
• Added missing commands-related strings.
• Added missing double chest GUI caption.

Fixed many bugs

• Fixed texture packs in folders not showing their icon and description.
• Fixed Man-in-the-middle attack allowing hackers to log in as you when you visit their server.
• Fixed the Open texturepack folder button not working on OS X.

Gameplay
Added Adventure mode

• Only playable using commands.
• Building, setting things on fire and using buckets is disabled.
• Players can only interact with mobs and the environment.
• Players can place and take stuff from a chest, a furnace or a dispenser.

Added trading

• Using emerald as currency, villagers will, depending on profession, offer different trades to players.
• There are three kinds of trades: Selling, buying and enchanting.
• As displayed in the top-most part of the trading GUI, villagers take one or more items or item stacks and give back something.
• After trading, villagers will sometimes emit purple particles for a few seconds to indicate that their trades changed.
• Otherwise unobtainable bottles o’ enchanting and chainmail armor can be obtained by trading.

Improved Creative mode inventory

• There are categorized tabs for various groups of items and blocks.
• Added a search tab which will automatically be switched to when the chat key is hit.
• Added survival inventory tab, which shows the full inventory, a ‘Destroy item’ slot, armor slots including a preview of your character and a 2×2 crafting field.
• Items can now be deleted from the inventory by shift-clicking them.
• Added layered snow block, Monster Egg Blocks (Silverfish spawning blocks), Ender Portal frame and all potions.
• Now shows potion effects’ timers like in Survival.

Improved experience collection

• Depending on ore type, experience now drops from ores that drop items.
• Taking smelted items out of furnaces gives experience now.
• Destroying mob spawners gives experience now.
• Adjusted experience level progression:
• Levels 1-15 cost 17 XP points each
• Levels 16-30 cost 3 more XP points than the previous (cost = 17 + (level – 15) * 3)
• Levels 31-∞ cost 7 more XP points than the previous (cost = 62 + (level – 30) * 7)

Improved enchanting

• The new maximum level with bookshelves is 30, without 8.
• 15 bookshelves are enough to reach level 30.
• The 3rd slot shows the most expensive possible enchantment more often.
• Increased chances for multiple enchantments at once.
• Adjusted enchantments’ to go with the new maximum level.

Added writing in books

• New crafting recipe for books: 3 pieces of paper and one piece of leather in any possible shape.
• New item: Book and Quill – Crafting recipe: 1 ink sac, 1 feather and 1 book in any possible shape.
• Right-click to write on & edit up to 50 pages or read.
• Click ‘Done’ to save the book, ‘Sign’ to choose a title and finalize the book.

Improved Multiplayer

• Made entities less likely to glitch through blocks.
• Added automagical downloading of standard sized texture packs when joining servers.
• Made server commands more descriptive.
• Added reason parameter to /ban.
• Added /seed command to show the map seed.
• Added /defaultgamemode command to choose the gamemode new players start in.
• Added /debug command to enable and disable profiling.
• /kick messages can now contain “\n” to force a new line.
• Blocks other players are mining now show cracks.
• /tp can now be used to teleport to specific coordinates.
• Made server list re-orderable: shift+click or shift+arrow keys move selected servers.
• Server list now scans for LAN servers.
• Added hardcore difficulty: Players are banned upon death.
• Connections are now encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
• Added SRV Record Lookup support
• Different subdomains of one domain can handle different servers via different port numbers.
• Service name should be “minecraft”; i.e. “_minecraft._tcp.example.com”.

Added & changed many minor things

• Individual, stackable items near each other on the ground now become one item stack.
• Added shift clicking support to armor slots, brewing stands & enchantment tables.
• Added setting to disable servers offering you texture packs.
• Made the stars smaller and brighter.
• Villagers spawned from spawn eggs will get a random profession now.
• Removed the downwards knockback while drowning.
• Doors being broken by zombies now show their damage.
• You now spawn with an empty inventory in Creative mode.
• The “Mojang” splash screen when opening the game appears for 1 instead of 3 seconds now.
• The sky color in the End changed.
• Blocks now show cracks when destroying them while the GUI is hidden.
• You can now fall 4 blocks without getting hurt (might be a bug as there exist other, higher distances that don’t cause damage either).
• Respawning in superflat is no longer random.
• Main domain of skin database is now skins.minecraft.net instead of s3.amazonaws.com.

Improved the Pick Block key

• You now get the actual block.
• You can now pick paintings, boats, minecarts and mobs, which will give you their spawn eggs.
• Picking huge mushroom blocks now gives mushrooms.
• You can no longer pick portal blocks.

Fixed many bugs

• Fixed liquids slowing down flying players.
• Fixed blocks with the same id but different data/damage values stacking in Creative inventory.
• Fixed boats & minecarts not being one-hit breakable in Creative.
• Fixed raw fish, dyes, saddles, potions, milk buckets and tools depleting in Creative.
• Fixed water destroying non-solid blocks when breaking them from above.
• Fixed Silk touch giving you only one slab from double slabs.
• Fixed redstone updates not propagating through unloaded chunks.
• Fixed repeaters getting stuck when loading their chunk.
• Fixed tools taking damage when breaking insta-breakable blocks.
• Fixed a few misalignments in the item sprite sheet.
• Fixed the arrow representing players on held maps being offset.
• Fixed being able to duplicate sand, gravel and powered rail.
• Fixed placing a piston in front of another powered, but not extended one resulting in a glitched piston with the head’s texture on all sides.
• Fixed TNT dropping as a resource on creative mode.
• Fixed powering specifically glitched pistons crashing the game.
• Fixed the End Portal Frame block not showing as a block in the inventory.
• Fixed weather not working correctly in certain biomes.
• Fixed Overworld portals above Y=127 not being recognized when leaving the Nether.
• Fixed various hacked mob spawners crashing the game.
• Fixed thrown splash potions not preserving their type when reloading the world.

Fixed many Multiplayer-specific bugs

• Fixed arrows scooting up to the top of the block they were shot on.
• Fixed endermen not opening their jaws.
• Fixed fully charged arrows not showing their particle effect.
• Fixed many sounds not playing.
• Fixed magma cubes’ and slimes’ jumping animations not showing.
• Fixed thunderstorms not darkening the sky.
• Fixed weather not fading in or out.
• Fixed enchanted armor and tools not glowing to other players.
• Fixed explosions not pushing players back.
• Fixed TNT not knocking back players.
• Fixed pistons not pushing back players.
• Fixed players on minecarts, boats or pigs and spider jockeys not being displayed in the correct location.
• Fixed glitchy mob prediction.
• Fixed fishing lines not showing.
• Fixed sneaking players’ nameplates not staying hidden when loading the chunks they are in.
• Fixed Unbreaking-enchanted tools sometimes breaking and then re-appearing a few times.
• Fixed potion effects losing their graphical effects when traveling between dimensions.
• Fixed blocks disappearing when placing them under yourself and jumping.

World Generation
Made sub-biome type mountains like Desert Hills or Ice Mountains taller
Made cocoa beans appear on some small jungle trees
Added optional starting chest on non-hardcore worlds

• Contents: wooden & stone tools, bread, apples, logs, planks and sticks

Added large biomes world type, increasing biome sizes immensely

• Beaches look closely to what they looked like in Beta 1.7.3.

Added desert-specific villages
Added Desert Temples

• Built out of various kinds of sandstone and wool.
• Include hidden chest room and TNT trap, with loot including rotten flesh, bones, iron ingots and gold ingots, diamonds and emeralds.

Added Jungle Temples

• Built out of various kinds of cobblestone.
• Contain multiple tripwire traps triggering dispensers filled with arrows.
• Loot chests include bones, rotten flesh, gold ingots, iron ingots, diamonds and emeralds.

Added Emerald Ore

• Only generates in Extreme Hills biomes.
• Occurs up to 8 times per chunk in veins of 1.
• Generates between layers 4 and 31, inclusive.

Blocks & Items
Emerald Ore

• Drops Emerald.

Emerald

• Is used to trade with villagers

Block of Emerald

• Crafted by putting 9 emeralds on a crafting table.

Ender Chest

• Crafted by surrounding an eye of ender with 8 pieces of obsidian.
• Stores each player’s contents across dimensions and all Ender Chests.
• Contents are preserved even if all Ender Chests are destroyed.
• Explosion-resistant.
• Emits light and purple particles.
• Unless mined using a Silk Touch-enchanted pickaxe, they drop 8 obsidian.

Tripwire Hook

• String in between needs to be placed manually.
• Breaking the string triggers a redstone signal, cutting it using shears doesn’t.
• Entities like boats, mobs, arrows or players touching the string trigger a redstone signal.
• String can be up to 40 blocks long.
• Crafting recipe: Iron ingot on top of a stick on top of a wooden plank.

String

• Can now be placed on the ground decoratively.

Wood

• Can now be placed in 3 different directions.
• Placement works like similar to piston placement.

Furnaces

• Can be fueled by wooden tools now.
• Return an empty bucket when using lava buckets as fuel now.

Ice

• Instead of melting in the nether, it now disappears.
• Can be obtained using Silk Touch-enchanted gear now.

Glass Panes

• Can be obtained using Silk Touch-enchanted gear now.

Nether Portal

• Leaks into the Overworld now: Depending on difficulty, zombie pigmen rarely spawn in them.

Slabs

• Added all wood types.
• Wooden slabs crafted after the update act like wood.

Stairs

• Added Sandstone Stairs.
• Added wooden stairs for all kinds of wood.
• Adjusted hitbox.

Slabs and Stairs

• Will now be placed upside-down when placed on the upper half of a block’s side.
• When placed upside down, rails, pressure plates, levers, doors, torches, redstone torches, repeaters, redstone dust and beds can be placed on them – Redstone dust behaves like on glowstone – It transmits power horizontally and upwards, but not downwards. Redstone torches don’t power redstone placed on slabs/stairs above them.

Leaves

• Water slowly drips through them when it’s raining.

Cauldrons

• Slowly fill up when it’s raining.

Dispensers

• Minecarts & boats will now be placed if there’s rails/water in place.
• Instead of dispensing buckets, dispensers will now suck in or place water or lava in front of them.

Gravel

• Changed texture

Jungle leaves

• Have a 1/200 chance to drop a cocoa bean when destroyed now.

Levers

• Can be placed on the underside of blocks now.

Wooden Pressure Plates

• Can be triggered by arrows now.

Pistons

• Now take 2 redstone ticks (4 game ticks) seconds to expand.

TNT

• Depending on difficulty, does different amounts of damage now:
• Peaceful: no damage
• Easy: 1/2 less damage
• Normal: same damage as before
• Hard: 1/3 more damage.

Cocoa Beans

• Retextured item.
• Can be planted & grown on jungle wood now.
• Can be grown instantly using bone meal.

Cookies

• Give a full hunger point now.

Nether Warts

• Can now be grown in the Overworld and in the End.

Book

• Changed crafting recipe: 3 pieces of paper and one piece of leather in any possible shape.

Book and Quill

• Crafting recipe: 1 ink sac, 1 feather and 1 book in any possible shape.

Written Book

• Can only be obtained by signing a Book and Quill.
• Can be sold to villagers.

Empty buckets

• Stack up to 16 now.
• Stacked buckets work just like stacked glass bottles do.

Signs

• Stack up to 16 now.
• Crafting now gives 3 signs instead of 1.

Golden Apple

• Has two crafting recipes now, the new one replacing gold nuggets with gold blocks.
• Second tier gives Regeneration IV, Resistance and Fire resistance effects.
• Only second tier glows like enchanted tools.
• Has attributes the Golden Apple had before 1.1.

Monster Spawners

• Added NBT tags to further customize spawned mobs.
• Only changeable using map editors or mods.

Boats

• Are not broken by lilypads anymore, instead they run straight through the lilypad now, breaking and sometimes dropping it.
• Are less glitchy and more responsive now.
• Increased maximum speed.
• When exiting, players will be moved from the boat.
• When broken by a player, they drop a boat now.

Minecarts

• When on rails, they can be accelerated a bit while sitting in them.
• When exiting, players will be moved from the minecart.

Mobs
Pigs

• Drop 1-3 porkchops now.

Slimes

• Reduced spawn rate in superflat maps.

Silverfish

• When suffering from poison potions, they will now spawn more silverfish from nearby silverfish blocks more often.

Creepers

• Increased knockback effect.
• Depending on difficulty, they do more damage now:
• Easy: ~50% less damage
• Normal: same damage as before
• Hard: 33.3…% more damage.

Creepers & Spiders

• Become aggressive towards the last mob or player that hit them now

Skeletons, Creepers & Zombies

• Become neutral against players again a few seconds after being hit in Creative.