Minecraft 25w06a

25w06a arrived on February 5, 2025, as the fifth 1.21.5 snapshot, and this time deserts and badlands got the attention. Cactus flowers can now generate on top of cacti there, and they have a chance to grow on cactus blocks later. They break by hand, craft into pink dye, and bees are drawn to them and can be bred with them. Short and tall dry grass now grow in the same biomes. You need shears or Silk Touch to collect dry grass, sheep can eat it to regrow their wool, and it smelts half an item as furnace fuel.

Chickens now have variants, like pigs and cows before them. Cold chickens spawn in taigas and windswept hills, warm chickens in savannas, jungles and badlands, and the familiar white chicken covers everywhere else. Cold chickens lay blue eggs and warm chickens lay brown eggs, and each egg hatches its own variant. Blue and brown eggs both work in cake and pumpkin pie recipes.

The quietest change is the one server owners should know about. Fire no longer burns or spreads when no player is within 8 chunks, and a new game rule, allowFireTicksAwayFromPlayer, controls that. Firefly bushes only play their ambient sound at night when no solid block other than leaves is above them, and they no longer stop trees from growing. Pigs and cows in desert villages now spawn as warm variants, and the "Country Lode, Take Me Home" advancement moved from the Nether tab to Adventure. The snapshot fixed 19 bugs.