Minecraft, following the theme of more exciting non-player characters and mobs, has made a new addition to its game: bees. 

These bees bring along many new possibilities for redstone, automatic farms, food sources, and building. Mojang also took this opportunity to fix many existing performance issues, and update the mountain biome.

But what performance issues have to be fixed? Since the 1.13 Aquatic update, there have been many issues. For example, the cod in-game mechanics have been causing major lag. The following mechanism from fish to fish is causing many servers and games to drop major frames. This has caused lag back and many phantom blocks, blocks that don’t allow water to flow into them. Mod packs like “Kill cod” already exist, which gives players a command to kill all naturally spawned cod to reduce lag. For players who do not wish to play with mods; however, fixing the following mechanics would be more convenient. Many more issues similar to this exist, and Mojang has discussed fixing them in the 1.15 update. Additional bug fixes include no longer being able to destroy the end portal or gateway by placing a bucket of water onto one of the sides. Also fixed was banner movement: the banners no longer stop swaying in the wind. Carved pumpkins can now be enchanted with curses, a feature accidentally removed in a previous snapshot. Finally, Endermen, the three-block tall neutral mob that spawns frequently in the end and occasionally in the overworld, will no longer teleport to any sort of waterlogged or water block to avoid arrows.

And now for the mob we’ve all been waiting for, Bees. Bees are creatures that turn hostile when you destroy their nest. They attack you with stingers that inflict poison and a bit of damage. These entities fly around, looking for flowers. They will collect “pollen” from the flower and produce honey within their nest. The more flowers there are near a beehive, the faster they will produce honey. They also avoid flying near water in the newest snapshot. Bees will accelerate crop growth if they collect pollen near the crops.

Honey is an interesting item. It can be bottled by right-clicking on an “overflowing” hive with a glass bottle. You can craft it into blocks, and they act as slime blocks The only difference is that you cannot bounce off them, they do not stick to slime blocks, and when you stand on them when the block moves, you move with the block instead of bouncing or being left behind. Honey blocks also prevent you from jumping onto full blocks, though you can still jump onto slabs. Honey blocks do not stick to slime blocks, which makes the redstone circuits of large piston doors much easier to manage.

Other minor changes that were included are nitwits no longer have profession badges, craftable beehives are now flammable, chunks keep loading around the player even if they die, and the death screen no longer shakes. Additionally, ravager pathfinding is no longer broken when they encounter pillager patrols. Mobs like slime, magma blocks, iron golems, and ocelots will react more vigorously than before to splash potion effects. Some instances of consuming food or potions twice have been fixed.

One major that many voted to be updated was mountains. Chunk generation was changed to make mountains seem more majestic, and mobs like the mountain goat were introduced.

This update will bring many changes and new possibilities to redstone, enabling one to make piston doors larger and fancier, and making flying machines safer and easier to use. The bees itself will also add new mechanics to the game, potentially making villager automatic crop farms much more effective.