Java Edition 15w42a

15w42a is the thirty-third snapshot for Java Edition 1.9, released on October 14, 2015.^[1]

Frosted ice

• Created when using "Frost Walker" enchantment.
• Cannot be obtained in inventory, neither with Silk Touch, pick block nor with commands. (Can only be placed using /setblock, /fill etc.)
• Despawns after a few seconds.
  • Despawning takes place in four breaking stages (blockstates: age:0, age:1, age:2, age:3). Still decays with randomTickSpeed set to 0, but a higher number makes it decay faster.
  • Despawns faster with a higher light level (doesn't despawn at night).

NBT format

• Brewing stands
  • Fuel (byte): Stores how much fuel is remaining in a brewing stand.
    • e.g. /setblock ~ ~1 ~ minecraft:brewing_stand 0 replace {Fuel:127b}.

Enchanting

• "Treasure" enchantments.
  • Can only be obtained from chest loot, fishing, or trading for enchanted books.
• New treasure enchantment: Frost Walker.
  • Turns water into frosted ice.
  • Different tiers:
    • Level I creates a circle of frosted ice around the player with a radius of 2 blocks.
    • Each additional level adds 1 to that radius.
  • Works while riding mobs.
  • Doesn't turn water into frosted ice if an entity is in that spot.
  • Works as long as the player is within one block above a solid block.
  • Flowing water also turns into frosted ice, making one bucket of water enough to make an infinite water source.
  • Cannot be combined with Depth Strider enchantment.
• New treasure enchantment: Mending.
  • Any experience collected while holding the item repairs it instead of going to the experience bar.
    • Mainhand, offhand, and armor slots all count as held.
    • If multiple held items have the enchantment, one is chosen at random for each XP orb collected.
    • Repairs at a rate of 2 durability per XP.
    • If the amount of repair needed is less than the value of the XP orb, the extra XP goes to the experience bar.
    • Shields cannot be enchanted with Mending using /enchant or an anvil in Survival.
      • Mending enchantment does affect the shield when using anvil in Creative or NBT commands.

Splashes

• Added the following splashes:
  • "Falling with style!"
  • "There's no stopping the Trollmaso"
  • "Throw yourself at the ground and miss"

Brewing stand

• Requires blaze powder to be able to use.
  • One piece of blaze powder allows for 30 ingredients to be brewed in the brewing stand (tag: Fuel:30b).
    • To be exact, it removes 1 from fuel (1 blaze powder = 30 fuel) every time the player puts an ingredient in (if the player takes it out and puts it back in, it takes another fuel).
  • Can be automated by putting a hopper feeding in the side of the block like water bottles.

Elytra

• Nerfed - the player is no longer able to go higher than where they started.
• New sneaking animation.
• The player can now fit through one block high gaps while gliding.
• Horizontal collisions now deal damage, new death message: "Player experienced kinetic energy".

Boats

• Now slightly faster than sprinting.
  • This makes them similar in speed to the old boats, though with less momentum.
• Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing.
• All types of boats are now craftable, except for dark oak boats.^[2]

Anvil repairing

• Renaming an item does not increase the repair cost for a future repair/rename any more.

Enchanting

• Enchantments with maximum level I no longer display the level, e.g. "Infinity" rather than "Infinity I".
• When multiple pieces of Thorns armor are worn, one is now chosen at random instead of always using the "bottommost" piece.

Players

• When crouching, players are 1.65 blocks tall (versus 1.8 blocks normally).
• When flying with elytra, players are now only 0.6 blocks tall.
• When laying in bed, players are as tall as a 0.2 blocks cube.

Splashes

• Changed "0% sugar" to "1% sugar".
• Removed "SOPA means LOSER in Swedish!".

18 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.9

• MC-1565 – Silk touch and Fortune enchantments do not activate on last use.
• MC-11883 – Cured zombie villagers don't keep their profession.
• MC-12845 – Skeletons unable to damage the player when in a 2x1x2 area.
• MC-46164 – Zombie hit animation is only when they hold an item. (Should be every time they hit).
• MC-55593 – /clear won't remove items 'in hand' in the inventory screen.
• MC-62485 – When using an invalid enchantment ID, /enchant says "<text> is not a valid number".
• MC-81507 – Right clicking non-placeable item give wrong animation.

From the 1.8 development versions

• MC-69097 – Flying into an unloaded chunk flashes random biomes.

From the 1.9 development versions

• MC-83897 – Enchanted Books found in chests or fished don't have enchants.
• MC-88646 – Spider Jockeys are broken - skeleton does not move.
• MC-89127 – Netty Epoll Server IO #26/ERROR.
• MC-90012 – Boats will paddle once when getting in for the first time.
• MC-90013 – Excessively slow boats.

From the previous development version

• MC-89923 – No AI mobs from natural mob spawners.
• MC-89942 – Can only craft oak boats.
• MC-89975 – Elytra stationary while sneaking.
• MC-89988 – Nether portals causing fall damage.
• MC-90099 – Player flying with elytra has incorrect hitbox.

• 15w42a was previously removed from the launcher for some time, but was added back in September 2018.