Minecraft 1.21.6 Official Download – Chase the Skies, Java Edition

Minecraft 1.21.6 Official Download, titled “Chase the Skies” introduces many exciting features. Most notably, the new mob Happy Ghast allows up to five players to fly together across the Overworld sky. Players can also use the Player Locator Bar to locate friends without having to enter coordinates. In addition, the lead has been improved, allowing multiple mobs to be connected and crafted more easily using only string. Finally, the Crafter Block enables automatic item crafting with redstone, combined with upgraded visuals such as water reflections and dynamic lighting effects.

Features:

Dried Ghast, Ghastling, and Happy Ghast

• Dried Ghast: A new variant of the Ghast, found in Nether Fossil structures in the Nether. Craftable using 1 Soul Sand and 8 Ghast Tears. When placed in water (waterlogged), the Dried Ghast undergoes three transformation stages over approximately 20 minutes, eventually spawning a Ghastling.
• Ghastling: An intermediary mob that evolves from the Dried Ghast during its “revival” process.
• Happy Ghast: A rideable mob that develops from the Ghastling. Players can control the Happy Ghast to fly through the air, offering a unique movement experience in Minecraft.
  • Happy Ghasts can wear a saddle with a classic aviator goggles design, creating a visually striking effect when ridden.
  • Bugs fixed include players getting stuck in blocks when mounting or dismounting Happy Ghasts (MC-298633) and synchronization issues when jumping onto Happy Ghasts (MC-297275).
• This feature introduces a unique “mob evolution” mechanic, allowing players to interact with Ghasts in a fresh way.

Player Locator Bar

• A new interface bar (replacing the XP bar in some cases) that displays the locations of nearby players on servers or Realms.
• Useful in multiplayer modes, helping players find and coordinate with friends without sharing coordinates via chat.
• Players can hide their location by crouching, using the invisibility effect, or wearing a mob head (e.g., pumpkin).
• A bug causing incorrect position display after respawning has been fixed (MC-298658).

Saddle Crafting Recipe

• For the first time, players can craft a saddle using a new recipe: 3 leather, 2 glass blocks, and 1 wool block.
• Previously, saddles could only be found in chests or obtained through trading, making this a long-requested feature by the community, simplifying taming and riding horses or mobs like Happy Ghast.
• In-game lore explains that the saddle crafting recipe was once “forgotten” in Minecraft’s history.

Vibrant Visuals Shaders

• The update introduces Vibrant Visuals, a built-in shader system that enhances lighting, shadows, and water reflections for a more immersive visual experience.
• Particularly optimized for Bedrock Edition, allowing Bedrock players to enjoy enhanced graphics similar to popular shader mods (e.g., BSL or Complementary).
• Dynamic lighting and shadow effects enhance the realism of builds, especially around lakes or oceans.

Vibration Frequency Improvements

• New actions and blocks have been assigned vibration frequencies for interaction with the sculk system:
  • Dried Ghast Block: Emits vibration frequency 11 when its block state changes.
  • Shearing Saddles, Horse Armor, and Carpets: Emit vibration frequency 6 when sheared, along with an “Unequip” frequency of 4.
• Dried Ghast ambient sounds are now adjusted under the Blocks audio setting instead of Ambient/Environment, improving the overall audio experience.

Interface and Technical Improvements

• Player Head Model: A new model for minecraft:player_head improves texture loading and display. Support for minecraft:profile has been removed, ensuring default textures display before custom ones load (MC-296458).
• Quick Actions Dialog: A new tag enables opening the minecraft:quick_actions dialog via keybind, allowing quick action selection when the tag has multiple elements.
• Realms UI Revamp: The Realms interface has been refreshed, improving server management and multiplayer interactions.
• Technical Bug Fixes: Several issues resolved, including item display in slots (MC-298520), book and quill bugs (MC-298022), and Happy Ghast movement or idle issues (MC-298510, MC-298633).

Other Fixes and Improvements

• HUD Enhancements: The Locator Bar is integrated into the default HUD, improving support for multiplayer servers.
• Mob and Item Bug Fixes: Examples include fixing ender pearl sudden stops (MC-297591) and Happy Ghast control issues with the NoAI attribute (MC-297575).
• Performance Optimization: Pre-release and release candidate versions focused on bug fixes and performance improvements for a smoother experience.

Screenshots:

Requires:

Java

Java Runtime Environment

How to install:

• To install the Official Release, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the “Launch Options” tab.
• Official Release can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.

Minecraft 1.21.6 Official Download Links

Java Client: Download from Server 1 – Download from Server 2

Java Server: Download from Server 1 – Download from Server 2