Minecraft adds new pig variants, ambient falling leaves, wildflowers, and more for public testing

With the decorations packed away for another 12 months and the new year now well and truly begun, developer Mojang has roused from its festive slumber to release six new features for public testing ahead of Minecraft’s first planned update of 2025.

Mojang did, of course, announce it was changing the way it released new Minecraft content last September, revealing it would be ditching its traditional mega-sized summer updates in favour of multiple smaller drops throughout the year. And it’s now detailed a number of the features it’ll launching (and that are now available for testing) in Minecraft’s first update in 2025.

That starts with two new pig variants, intended to complement the bog-standard one that’s been available in-game for 15 years now. More specifically, it’s introducing the new cold pig and warm pig variants – found in sub-zero biomes and sandy biomes respectively.

Elswhere, forests biomes are getting an upgrade in Minecraft’s next update, thanks to three new ambient features: falling leaves, leaf litter, and wildflowers. Falling leaves are encountered in all forest biomes, but leaf litter – which crunches underfoot and can be used to decorate other blocks – is exclusive to dark forests and wooded badlands.

Wildflowers, meanwhile, are found in meadows and birch forests (plus their old growth counterparts), manifesting as yellow and white flowers that can be crafted into dye. These all have four growth stages players can speed up with bonemeal, and will bloom in different patterns depending on the angle they’re placed in.

And finally for now, lodestones – the magnetised blocks players can place in order to helpfully attract their compasses while navigating – have a new, simpler crafting recipe.

All the above features are scheduled to arrive as part of Minecraft’s next update, but they’re first being released for public testing so adventurous players can put them through their paces. All six additions are accessible via Minecraft’s latest Java snapshot right now, and everything except Minecraft’s new leaf litter and wildflowers are available in the Bedrock preview and beta. Those two missing features should hit Bedrock “soon”, and more information on accessing Minecraft’s test builds can be found on Mojang’s website.