Java Edition 25w06a

25w06a is the fifth snapshot for Java Edition 1.21.5, released on February 5, 2025,^[1] which adds cactus flowers, short and tall dry grass, new chicken variants and fixes bugs.

Cactus flower

• A new type of flower which has a chance of generating on cacti in deserts and badlands.
• Can be placed on cactus blocks or any block which has center support at the top of the block.
• Has a chance of growing on cactus blocks.
  • If a cactus is one or two blocks high the flower has a 10% chance to grow instead of the cactus getting higher.
  • If a cactus is three blocks or higher the flower has a 25% chance to grow.
  • Cactus flowers will only grow if they have space on all four sides.
• Can be mined without any tool.
• Can be used in the composter, with a 30% chance to add a layer.
• Can be used to craft 1 pink dye.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Cactus Flower

Short dry grass

• Is one block high.
• Generates in the desert and badlands.
• Can be placed on types of sand, terracotta and dirt blocks like the dead bush.
• Can be obtained using shears or a Silk Touch tool.
• Can be bone mealed.
  • Using bone meal on short dry grass grows it into a tall dry grass.
• Can be used in the composter, with a 30% chance to add a layer.
• Sheep can eat short dry grass to regrow its wool.
• Can be used as fuel for smelting, where they smelt half an item.

Tall dry grass

• Is one block high.
• Generates in the desert and badlands.
• Can be placed on types of sand, terracotta and dirt blocks like the dead bush.
• Can be obtained using shears or a Silk Touch tool.
• Can be bone mealed.
  • Using bone meal on tall dry grass places a neighbouring short dry grass next to the block if possible.
• Can be used in the composter, with a 30% chance to add a layer.
• Sheep can eat tall dry grass to regrow its wool.
• Can be used as fuel for smelting, where they smelt half an item.

Blue egg

• A variant of the egg laid by the cold chicken variant.
• Spawns the cold chicken variant when hatched.

Brown egg

• A variant of the egg laid by the warm chicken variant.
• Spawns the warm chicken variant when hatched.

Chicken

• New Chicken variants have been added.
  • Temperate Chicken: The pre-existing chicken variant.
    • Spawns by default where the cold and warm chicken variants do not spawn.
  • Cold Chicken: A variant that spawns in the following biomes:
    • Old Growth Pine Taiga
    • Old Growth Spruce Taiga
    • Taiga
    • Snowy Taiga
    • Windswept Hills
    • Windswept Gravelly Hills
    • Windswept Forest
  • Warm Chicken: A variant that spawns in the following biomes:
    • Savanna
    • Savanna Plateau
    • Windswept Savanna
    • Jungle
    • Sparse Jungle
    • Bamboo Jungle
    • Eroded Badlands
    • Wooded Badlands
    • Badlands
• When bred by a player, a baby chicken variant will not be chosen by the current biome, but instead randomly selected from one of the parents' variants.

Game rule

• Added the allowFireTicksAwayFromPlayer game rule.
  • Default value: false.
  • When true, Fire and Lava ticks can occur outside of an 8 chunk range of a player.

Tag

• Added the #edible_for_sheep block tag.
  • Contains blocks that can be eaten by sheep to regrow their wool.

• Added the #eggs item tag.
  • Contains all variants of the egg item.

Bush

• The hitbox now reaches all the way to the ground.
• No longer prevents trees from growing.

Fire

• Will no longer burn or spread if no player is within 8 chunks.

Firefly bush

• Conditions for the firefly bush playing ambient sounds have changed. It now plays when all of the following conditions are met:
  • The firefly bush is not blocked from above by any collidable block (except leaves).
  • It is nighttime.
• No longer prevents trees from growing.

Leaf litter

• Can now be placed on any block which has center support at the top of the block.
• Now have a more appropriate color on maps.

General

• Any block in the simulation distance of a player or loaded by another source of chunk loading (such as ender pearls) may now receive random ticks, instead of just 8 chunks around players.
  • For example: if a chunk is loaded by an ender pearl or is in the spawn chunks, crops are able to grow, ice can melt, snow can fall, and a cauldron can be filled by rain.
  • Mob spawning, lava spreading fire, and lightning strikes still occur in the previous radius of 8 chunks around players.

Cakes and pumpkin pies

• Can now be crafted using blue eggs or brown eggs.

Bees

• Are now attracted to, and can be bred using cactus flowers.

Villages

• Pigs and cows spawned in desert villages are now of the warm variant.

Advancements

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

Data pack

• The pack format version is now 66.

Entity data

• The armor and off-hand equipment of players is now also stored in the equipment field.
  • Although items written into the Inventory using armor and off-hand slot numbers still work.

Entity variant components

• Chicken variants can be data-driven adding entries to data/<namespace>/chicken_variant/<id>.json.
  • This feature is experimental.
  • Fields in file:
    • model - one of: normal, cold.
    • asset_id - namespaced id for this variant asset, resolves to assets/<namespace>/textures/<path>.png.
    • spawn_conditions - field described in uniform variant selection above.

Resource pack

• The pack format version is now 51.
• Added new textures for chicken variants:
  • cold_chicken
  • warm_chicken
• The texture chicken has been renamed to temperate_chicken.
• The temperate_chicken texture has been moved to a new folder:
  • entity/chicken.png -> entity/chicken/temperate_chicken.png

Tag

• The #dead_bush_may_place_on block tag has been renamed to #dry_vegetation_may_place_on.
• Added cactus_flower to the #bee_attractive, and #flowers block tags, and the #bee_food item tag.
• Added bush, firefly_bush, short_dry_grass, and tall_dry_grass to the #replaceable_by_mushrooms, and #replaceable_by_trees block tags.
• Added short_dry_grass, and tall_dry_grass to the #replaceable block tag.
• Added many biomes to the #spawns_cold_variant_farm_animals, and #spawns_warm_variant_farm_animals biome tags.

Tooltip

• Tooltips for fireworks and crossbows now show a compact form of multiple repeated stars or projectiles that are identical.

19 issues fixed

From released versions before 1.21

• MC-157196 – Tamed animals cannot be added to a team.
• MC-186241 – World border faces are rendered incorrectly with "Fabulous!" graphics.

From the 1.21.5 development versions

• MC-279205 – Leaf litter map color is incorrect.
• MC-279207 – Leaf Litter can only be placed on dirt-like blocks.
• MC-279223 – Country Lode Take Me Home Advancement can be completed in the overworld but is still listed as a Nether advancement.
• MC-279235 – Certain farm animals are not spawned as their cold variant in some cold biomes due to an incomplete tag.
• MC-279242 – Kelp, twisting vines, weeping vines, and cave vines can no longer be stacked above or below one another by placing.
• MC-279261 – Making a mob its own owner causes persistent crashes.
• MC-279279 – Dismounting places player in same space as mount.
• MC-279292 – Pigs spawn as temperate in desert villages.
• MC-279309 – Wildflowers item has a misplaced transparent pixel.
• MC-279464 – Fire placed with /setblock doesn't tick/burn out.
• MC-279719 – Tooltip description for saddle attribute modifier slot is not translated.

From the previous development version

• MC-279912 – You can use bone meal on bushes in situations where nothing grows.
• MC-279914 – The hitboxes of bushes don't reach the ground and are too wide compared to other similar blocks.
• MC-279924 – Bushes cannot be replaced by trees or mushrooms.
• MC-279933 – Firefly bushes cannot be replaced by trees or mushrooms.
• MC-279950 – Modifying command data storage throws an error.
• MC-279972 – Using /setblock & /fill with fluids of levels at a non-full-block no longer updates the fluid.