After nearly three months of The Garden Awakens, Minecraft returns with an exciting new update—Spring to Life. This fresh update revitalizes Overworld biomes, adding long-awaited features to enhance gameplay.

The Minecraft 1.21.5 update introduces two new pig, chicken, and cow variants, based on whether they spawn in warm or cold biomes. Original variants are now classified as temperate animals. Additionally, Mojang has expanded the game’s aesthetics with new ambient blocks, improving the visual appeal of plains, deserts, rivers, swamps, and more.

	Minecraft 1.21.5 update patch notes (Image via Mojang)

Other major changes include a spawn egg design revamp, new ambient sounds in deserts and badlands, various quality-of-life improvements, and bug fixes. Check out the full Minecraft 1.21.5 patch notes for Java Edition below!

Minecraft 1.21.5 Update: New Animal Variants, Spawn Egg Revamp & Biome Enhancements

The Minecraft 1.21.5 update introduces exciting new animal variants, ambient blocks, and biome enhancements, making the Overworld more immersive than ever. Here’s a detailed look at the latest features:

Animal Variants & Mobs

• New Pig, Cow, and Chicken variants for cold and warm biomes
• Sheep now spawn with biome-dependent wool colors
• New wolf sound variants for added immersion

Spawn Egg Revamp

• Improved visuals for Spawn Eggs to enhance readability and accessibility

New Blocks & World Generation

• Fallen trees now generate naturally
• New plant-based blocks:
• Firefly Bush
• Leaf Litter
• Wildflowers
• Bush
• Short Dry Grass & Tall Dry Grass
• Cactus Flower (grows on Cactus blocks)
• New falling leaf particles have been added to all leaf blocks that previously lacked them

Biome & Sound Enhancements

• New ambient block sounds for Desert and Badlands biomes

Language Support

• Kyrgyz language is now supported in Minecraft

This update brings a variety of gameplay improvements, biome diversity, and quality-of-life changes, making Minecraft’s world feel even more dynamic!

Warm and Cold Animal Variants

New warm and cold variants have been introduced for the following animals:

• Pig
• Cow
• Chicken

The variant is determined by the biome they spawn in:

Temperate Variant: The default variant found in biomes where other variants do not spawn.

Cold Variant: This variant appears when spawned naturally or by a player in the following biomes:

• Cold Ocean
• Deep Cold Ocean
• Deep Dark
• Deep Frozen Ocean
• End Barrens
• End Highlands
• End Midlands
• Frozen Ocean
• Frozen Peaks
• Frozen River
• Grove
• Ice Spikes
• Jagged Peaks
• Old Growth Pine Taiga
• Old Growth Spruce Taiga
• Small End Islands
• Snowy Beach
• Snowy Plains
• Snowy Slopes
• Snowy Taiga
• Stony Peaks
• Taiga
• The End
• Windswept Forest
• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Hills

Warm Variant: This variant appears when spawned naturally or by a player in the following biomes:

• Badlands
• Bamboo Jungle
• Basalt Deltas
• Crimson Forest
• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Desert
• Eroded Badlands
• Jungle
• Lukewarm Ocean
• Mangrove Swamp
• Nether Wastes
• Savanna
• Savanna Plateau
• Soul Sand Valley
• Sparse Jungle
• Warm Ocean
• Warped Forest
• Windswept Savanna
• Wooded Badlands

When animals are bred by a player, their baby variant is randomly selected from one of the parents' variants, rather than the biome they are in.

New Chicken Egg Variants:

• Blue Egg: Laid by and hatches cold Chicken variants.
• Brown Egg: Laid by and hatches warm Chicken variants.

Sheep Wool Color in Warm and Cold Biomes

Sheep now spawn with wool color based on the biome:

Temperate Biomes: (Unchanged from previous behavior)

• Common wool color: White
• Uncommon wool colors: Black, Gray, Light Gray, Brown
• Rare chance: Pink Sheep

Cold Biomes:

• Common wool color: Black
• Uncommon wool colors: Gray, Light Gray, White, Brown
• Rare chance: Pink Sheep

Warm Biomes:

• Common wool color: Brown
• Uncommon wool colors: Gray, Light Gray, White, Black
• Rare chance: Pink Sheep

New Wolf Sound Variants

Six new wolf sound variants have been added, each with unique ambient, hurt, death, growl, whine, and pant sounds:

• Big
• Cute
• Puglin
• Angry
• Grumpy
• Sad

The original wolf sounds are now used for the "Classic" variant.

Every Wolf will have a sound variant randomly assigned from these seven options. The sound variant is independent of the wolf's texture variant.

Spawn eggs have a new look (Image via Mojang)

Spawn Egg Visuals

Each Spawn Egg now features a unique visual that captures the personality and character of the mob it spawns.

The visuals vary in shape to reflect the in-world size of the mob it spawns. For example, smaller mobs tend to have smaller Spawn Eggs.

Fallen Trees

Fallen Trees are a new decorative variant of trees that add a touch of realism to the game world.

Fallen trees come in four different wood type variants:

• Oak
• Birch
• Jungle
• Spruce

Birch fallen trees come in two variations: a shorter and a longer version.

Some fallen trees can be decorated with Mushrooms or Vines for added aesthetic appeal.

Fallen trees can be found in all biomes where their standing tree variant naturally grows, with a few exceptions:

• Bamboo Jungle
• Flower Forest (has fallen Birch trees, but not fallen Oak trees)
• Grove
• Meadow
• River

Firefly Bush

The Firefly Bush is found adjacent to water in Swamps, Mangrove Swamps, Badlands, and near Rivers.

When it is dark, glowing firefly particles appear around the Firefly Bush.

Using Bone Meal on a Firefly Bush grows a Firefly Bush in a random adjacent space if possible.

The Firefly Bush emits a light level of 2.

The Firefly Bush has a chance of playing ambient sounds when the following conditions are met:

• It is night.
• It is not blocked from above by any collidable block except leaves.

Leaf Litter

Leaf Litter is a new type of decorative block which can be found in Forests, Dark Forests, and Wooded Badlands biomes.

Note: Leaf Litter is only spawned during world generation and does not regenerate during gameplay.

Leaf Litter can have different amounts of leaves in one block space, with up to four pieces being placed in the same space.

Placing a Leaf Litter into an existing Leaf Litter block increases the amount of leaves.

Leaf Litter can be placed in four orientations on any block with a full top face.

Leaf Litter can be created by smelting any type of Leaves block and can be used as fuel for smelting or in the Composter.

Leaf Litter has unique block sounds and is tinted based on the biome it is in.

Leaf Litter is replaceable when building.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers are a new type of flower that can be found in Birch Forests, Old Growth Birch Forests, and Meadows.

Wildflowers can have different amounts of flowers in one block space, with up to four Wildflowers being placed in the same space.

Placing a Wildflower into an existing Wildflowers block increases the amount of flowers.

Using Bone Meal on Wildflowers will produce more Wildflowers.

Wildflowers can be placed in four orientations and can be crafted into Yellow Dye.

Bush

The Bush is a new type of decorative block found in small patches in the following biomes:

• Birch Forest
• Forest
• Frozen River
• Old Growth Birch Forest
• Plains
• River
• Windswept Forest
• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Hills

The Bush can be used in the Composter.

Using Bone Meal on a Bush grows a Bush in a random adjacent space if possible.

A Bush only drops when broken with Shears or a Silk Touch tool.

The Bush is replaceable when building.

Short and Tall Dry Grass

Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry Grass are two new types of grass, each 1 block high. Tall Dry Grass differs from regular Tall Grass, which is 2 blocks high.

Both types generate in Desert and Badlands biomes and can be placed on Sand, Terracotta, Dirt, and Farmland blocks, similar to the Dead Bush.

Both can be bonemealed:

• Using Bone Meal on Short Dry Grass grows it into Tall Dry Grass.
• Using Bone Meal on Tall Dry Grass grows Short Dry Grass in a random adjacent space if possible.

Both types can be used in the Composter and as fuel for smelting.

Sheep can eat both types to regrow their wool.

Both types are replaceable when building.

Cactus Flower

Cactus Flower is a new type of flower that has a chance to generate on Cactus blocks in Deserts and Badlands biomes.

Cactus Flower can be placed on Cactus blocks, Farmland, or any block with center support at the top.

If a Cactus is 1-2 blocks tall, there is a 10% chance for a Cactus Flower to grow.

If a Cactus is 3 blocks or taller, the Cactus Flower has a 25% chance to grow.

Cactus Flowers will only grow if there is space on all four sides of the block.

Cactus Flowers can be used in the Composter and to craft Pink Dye.

Falling Leaf Particles

All Leaves blocks now have a chance of spawning falling leaf particles. The following blocks are affected:

• Acacia Leaves
• Azalea Leaves
• Birch Leaves
• Dark Oak Leaves
• Flowering Azalea Leaves
• Jungle Leaves
• Mangrove Leaves
• Oak Leaves
• Spruce Leaves

New Ambient Sounds for Desert and Badlands

Sand, Red Sand, and Terracotta blocks of any color now have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by another block in the same group on at least three sides, up to a distance of 8 blocks.

New sounds include:

• block.sand.idle (plays in any biome)
• block.sand.wind (plays only in Desert or Badlands biomes)

Dead Bush blocks also have a chance of playing ambient sounds when placed on top of two blocks of any color, Terracotta, Sand, or Red Sand in any biome.

Main Menu Panorama Update

A wolf is walking on top of a fallen oak tree. (wolf sound variants)

The main menu panorama has been updated for the "Spring to Life" drop.

Beacon and Beam Updates

Beacons and their beams now render beyond 16 chunks, up to the client render distance. To keep it easily visible at large distances, the beam is rendered thicker the further away you are.

The beam now renders up to 2048 blocks high, up from 1024.

Lodestone Changes

Lodestones have a new crafting recipe and can now be found in Ruined Portals.

Cartographer and Wandering Trader Updates

The trades of the Cartographer and Wandering Trader have been updated. Bundles can now be found in some of the Chests in Villages.

Mob Changes

Updates to Camel, Chicken, Cow, Pig, and Sheep spawning.

Zombified Piglins now need to be killed by a Player to drop Player-specific loot such as experience, making them consistent with other mobs in the game.

World Generation Changes

Changes have been made to the world generation of the Pale Garden and Meadow biomes. Chunks loaded by a portal will now be re-loaded automatically when the world is reopened.

Simulation distance now affects block ticks.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Tweaks to the Creaking and Creaking Heart.
• Textures and models for temperate Cow, Mooshrooms, and Sheep have been updated.
• Minor tweaks to existing blocks, items, and entities.
• Various changes and tweaks to sounds.
• Minor improvements to world uploads in Realms.

Reverted Fix: MC-152728

The fix for MC-152728 ("The player continues sprinting when performing actions that slow them down") has been reverted. This decision was made after reconsidering the effects, as it caused too many negative side effects for parkour, speed bridging, and movement in general.

Fullscreen Reset Option

If the game detects that the last startup did not complete normally, the fullscreen option will now be reset.

Herobrine Removed

Herobrine has been removed from the game.

Lodestone Crafting Recipe

The Lodestone is now crafted from 1 Iron Ingot surrounded by 8 Chiseled Stone Bricks.

Lodestones can now be found as loot at Ruined Portals in the Overworld or Nether.

Advancement Update

The advancement "Country Lode, Take me Home" has been moved from the "Nether" category to the "Adventure" category.

Cartographer and Wandering Trader Trade Rebalance

• Cartographer Trades: Cartographers now sell 7 new maps pointing to different villages or structures in different biomes. Some prices and quantities have also been adjusted.
• Wandering Trader Trades: The Wandering Trader now has better prices, more trades, and larger stock for many items. They will also now buy basic supplies from players to help prepare for their next journey.

Mob Spawning Changes

• Camels now spawn in Deserts.
• Chickens, Cows, Pigs, and Sheep can now spawn in Badlands.

World Generation Changes (Cont.)

• The Pale Garden biome now occupies more space that was previously taken by Dark Forest.
• Woodland Mansions can now generate in the Pale Garden biome.
• Short Grass now generates slightly sparser in Meadows.

Simulation Distance Changes

Any block in simulation distance of a player, or loaded by another source of chunk loading (such as Ender Pearls), may now receive random ticks instead of only 8 chunks around players.

For example, crops can grow, ice can melt, and snow can fall in loaded chunks. However, mob spawning, lava spreading fire, and lightning strikes still occur in the previous radius of 8 chunks around players.

Creaking and Creaking Heart Changes

• Creakings can now be named using Name Tags, and named Creakings will persist throughout the day.
• Named Creakings are still resistant to damage and can communicate with their Hearts via particles.
• Creaking Hearts now have a new dormant texture during the day and cannot spawn new Creakings or Resin when dormant.

Mob Texture and Model Changes

• The temperate Cow has been updated to have an extruded snout.
• Both Mooshroom variants have been updated with an extruded snout.
• Sheep's wool undercoat is now colored when dyed, and the wool texture has been adjusted to remove the stark line at the back.

Minor Tweaks to Blocks, Items, and Entities

• Sheep can now eat Fern blocks.
• Entities landing on Powdered Snow with Leather Boots equipped after falling further than 2.5 blocks will now fall through the snow.
• Saddles equipped onto Pigs or Striders will now maintain properties, such as custom names, when dropped.
• Bubble columns produce fewer particles and sounds when entities unaffected by them are inside them.
• Pale Oak Leaves and Pale Oak Saplings have an updated map color.

Item Tooltips

• Crossbows will now show all charged projectiles in their tooltip, instead of just the first.
• All charged projectiles will have their entire tooltip displayed as a subsection, instead of only Fireworks.
• Container items (such as Chests) now list the first 4 items in their tooltip when picked with Ctrl+Pick Block.

Sound Changes

• The volume of the narrator is now affected by the game's "Voice" volume setting.
• New break, place, step, fall, and hit sounds have been added for Iron Blocks, Iron Bars, Iron Trapdoors, Iron Doors, and Heavy Weighted Pressure Plates.
• The breaking sound for the "grass" sound type has been lowered.
• Blocks broken by a Piston will now play their breaking sound.
• Ambient block sounds in Desert, Badlands, and Pale Garden biomes have been moved to the "Ambient/Environment" category.

Realms World Uploads

• Uploading a world to Realms will now enable Command Blocks by default.
• It is now possible to upload Hardcore singleplayer worlds to Realms.

Bugs have been fixed in the Minecraft 1.21.5 update

• MC-7697 - Tridents or arrows shot through lava sometimes don't catch fire.
• MC-13738 - Invisible saddle when using invisibility potion on a horse, donkey, or mule.
• MC-55800 - Successful "/fill air destroy" commands give error message and return 0 for result/success.
• MC-56653 - Zombified Piglins drop XP and rare drops if killed by anything while in an angered state.
• MC-80243 - Saddles don't apply attribute modifiers when worn by entities.
• MC-90212 - You cannot hang on to climbable blocks while gliding with elytra.
• MC-93185 - The exit portal in the End generates at the highest block at 0 0, which can make it generate incomplete.
• MC-97244 - The "minecraft:enchant.thorns.hit" sound event doesn't play when non-player entities are damaged by the Thorns enchantment.
• MC-98271 - The sound of blocking with a shield is only hearable by other players (not the person blocking).
• MC-101556 - Nether Portal teleport range is too large (equivalent to a full block).
• MC-108495 - Non-LivingBase entities can be on a team (and show color) but can't be targeted using team=.
• MC-113878 - Attribute modifiers description for chest is misleading / "When on body" instead of "When on chest".
• MC-117574 - Using /setblock or /fill to re-place a block entity keeps old NBT (if no NBT specified) but clears inventories, even when the command fails.
• MC-118092 - Crafting recipe unlock toast says "New Recipes Unlocked!" even when only one recipe was unlocked.
• MC-118470 - Narrator plays at full volume when volume is off.
• MC-122840 - "/data remove" cannot delete beam_target tag in End Crystals.
• MC-128079 - Statistic for using shears doesn't increase when mining certain blocks.
• MC-135192 - Boats are immediately sunken if there is a string on the surface of the water.
• MC-141297 - You cannot set the lit state of redstone torches using setblock, debug stick, and BlockStateTag, to be opposite of the situation it would be in.
• MC-152382 - End gateways and end portals don't fade away with render distance fog.
• MC-153392 - Unable to remove villager gossips using /data remove.
• MC-157196 - Tamed animals cannot be added to a team.
• MC-160304 - Sneaking on ice can change direction of movement to lines along axis.
• MC-165421 - Bubble columns have the opposite effect on wind charges.
• MC-165461 - Crossbow loading animation stops after loading, even when still holding down right click.
• MC-165711 - Eye of ender hitbox always lags behind the animation.
• MC-167125 - Rounding error on fall damage.
• MC-168262 - Dead bushes cannot be placed on farmland.
• MC-170134 - Minecraft uses several times more VRAM than needed after exploring terrain for a while.
• MC-176233 - Crossbows no longer have a transition after loading.
• MC-177522 - Wolf barking and whining sounds are subtitled as "Wolf pants".
• MC-183329 - Nether portal teleport overlay does not show up if the player has the nausea effect.
• MC-183623 - Hardcore worlds in the world menu have a comma after the red exclamation mark.
• MC-184530 - Player movement at low speeds is biased towards cardinal directions.
• MC-184681 - Customized worlds still say "Buffet world customization" since 20w21a.
• MC-186241 - World border faces are rendered incorrectly with "Fabulous!" graphics.
• MC-189525 - Armored entities from pre-1.9 worlds upgrade to dual wielding armor.
• MC-190000 - Saddles equipped on horses cannot be replaced without removing them first.
• MC-193404 - Changing a powered or activator rail to powered using a debug stick or /setblock does not work.
• MC-200311 - Advancement background texture referencing is inconsistent with models.
• MC-202226 - /recipe give or take for one recipe says "recipes".
• MC-203550 - Blocks broken by pistons do not play breaking sounds.
• MC-220091 - Summoning falling_block entities with BlockState NBT set to any air block (air, cave_air, void_air) default to sand.
• MC-220672 - Inconsistent pluralization in customize world preset heading source string.
• MC-222876 - "Buffet world customization" is incorrectly capitalized.
• MC-226772 - Shulker box opening/closing subtitle shows "Shulker".
• MC-227097 - End portals delete blocks that are inside of the portal.
• MC-230445 - End portals and end gateways are not rendered properly with the Blindness or Darkness effects.
• MC-231331 - Advancement toasts continue to appear despite the said advancements being revoked shortly after.
• MC-236100 - End crystal beam appears to be black.
• MC-239705 - Sprinting forward while facing a certain angle pushes the player either to the left or to the right.
• MC-241951 - Player momentum on X and Z axis are cancelled separately at low values.
• MC-248099 - Mob pathfinding breaks after falling into water accidentally while walking.
• MC-253721 - Wrong logs when running /op @a.
• MC-255756 - When the shield is broken between players, the attacking side has no shield breaking sound.
• MC-256469 - Invisible camels don't show their saddles.
• MC-257133 - Desync when placing large paintings with NBT on a small space.
• MC-258253 - Spawn egg particles use an uncolored spawn egg overlay.
• MC-260440 - Players can no longer activate swimming mode in water while flying with elytra.
• MC-261385 - Bubble columns act differently at the surface depending on non-air blocks.
• MC-262928 - The "minecraft:entity.player.hurt" sound is no longer played when players receive thorns damage from guardians or elder guardians.
• MC-262939 - Changing dimensions or respawning with nausea effect active displays nether portal overlay.
• MC-265514 - HRTF stuck on even when directional audio is set to off in update 1.20.2.
• MC-266912 - Saddle equipping sounds aren't played when saddles are equipped on horses, donkeys, mules, or camels shortly after the said entity is summoned.
• MC-267221 - "value" within "change_page" clickEvent json looks for a string instead of an integer.
• MC-267323 - Items fields with old boolean JSON formatting are cleared upon world update.
• MC-268942 - The swimming animation no longer displays when gliding with an elytra and swimming at the same time.
• MC-269386 - Flow Pottery Sherd is not in the correct spot in the creative inventory.
• MC-269637 - Horses can wear multiple saddles but not multiple horse armor.
• MC-270043 - Reduced armor glint applies to tridents.
• MC-270192 - The saddles of some entities stay visible through their death animation.
• MC-270197 - The saddle on pigs and striders stays visible through their death animation.
• MC-270220 - Granting all advancements results in prolonged, disruptive and loud audio spam.
• MC-271065 - Diagonal player movement is not normalized when holding two movement keys.
• MC-272100 - Unused palette pixels in horse textures (horse_[brown/chestnut/creamy/white].png).
• MC-272790 - Shulker boxes and other blocks in the end exit portal when it changes state are not dropped as items.
• MC-273338 - Flying boat glitch using string and rising bubble columns.
• MC-274187 - The sweeping attack from a sword enchanted with Fire Aspect can ignite other players with PVP disabled.
• MC-274258 - All horse textures contain an unused chest bag texture.
• MC-275994 - Having the pie chart open while the window is unfocused spams the logs.
• MC-276061 - Decorated pot sherds don't visually update until relog when replacing with blank pot.
• MC-276861 - The player can sometimes teleport through blocked end portals when moving very fast.
• MC-277403 - Flaming arrows and tridents still don't extinguish when water is placed in their location.
• MC-277537 - Pale moss carpets sometimes generate disjointed.
• MC-277780 - Minecraft resaves all maps with every autosave even after the 1st patch.
• MC-277807 - Teleporting the player's mount causes rotation de-sync, previously did not.
• MC-277865 - The animation of boats in bubble columns breaks when over a certain "Time" in level.dat.
• MC-277922 - Boats in 1 block high downward bubble column will continue to rock back and forth.
• MC-278040 - Creaking swim pathfinding breaks after being submerged.
• MC-278096 - "Fabulous!" graphics and clouds disabled causes all particles to linger in frame buffer for one frame.
• MC-278140 - The "/fill" command doesn't work properly with the directional states of several blocks placed adjacent to one another.
• MC-278164 - Click sound is played twice when you click a setting button and there's a slider under the mouse in the next screen.
• MC-278204 - Blaze fireballs now cause TNT minecarts to explode instantly.
• MC-278249 - Experience orb positions desync severely and abruptly correct themselves.
• MC-278375 - Feeding wheat or hay bale to llama or trader llama with maximum Temper causes item stack to be desynced.
• MC-278376 - Arrows and tridents act weirdly in one block deep bubble columns.
• MC-278400 - Arrows and tridents move after hitting a block in flowing lava.
• MC-278417 - Arrows and tridents on fire and stuck in the ground cannot be extinguished by rain.
• MC-278422 - Reloading the world after removing Owner tag from a sitting tamed wolf with /data remove makes the wolf moving and sitting at the same time.
• MC-278455 - Slow sideways movement in spectator mode is wrong at angles which aren't (close to) a multiple of 45 degrees.
• MC-278466 - When climbing ladders in spectator mode, the camera follows along an axis too aggressively causing weird movement behavior.

The Minecraft Spring to Life update brings a host of new features, exciting changes, and important bug fixes. While these updates may seem less impactful to regular players, they introduce significant technical improvements. Data pack and resource pack developers should pay close attention to the official patch notes to stay informed about all the key modifications and updates.