1.9 Pre5 is out!

Earlier today, Jeb released prerelease 5. Unfortunately, staying true to the promise of “feature freeze”, this release doesn’t add any new features; for the most part, it only fixes bugs.

One notable bugfix is that lily pads will now be colored in your inventory, as well as have their own tooltip.

Enchanted weapons with Sharpness, Smite, or Bane of Arthopods will deal an extra 0.5- 2 hearts more than they did in the previous release, making them more worthwhile. Also, breaking a chest with an enchanted item will no longer un- enchant the item.

In the last prerelease, the Silk Touch enchantment was introduced. This allowed you to pick up any block, even if it was supposed to be unobtainable. If you picked up a monster spawner and re- placed it, it would always turn out to be a pig spawner. Many people wanted this to be fixed so that they could make mob grinders and things like that. Well, this prerelease brings horrible disappointment to those people. Now you can’t pick up mob spawners at all. Also, you can no longer get Silk Touch and Fortune(double- drop enchantment) on the same tool.

Grass, dirt, stone, gravel, planks, netherrack, glowstone, and iron/diamond/gold blocks have minor graphical changes. Many of the changes aren’t very noticable, but they tend to make the game look slightly better. (View Image)

Aside from all this, there have been some great performance improvements; something the community has been asking for ever since 1.9. To try out the new release, just check out Jeb’s tweet (Click Here).

What do you think of the new prerelease? Leave a comment with your opinion. Thanks for reading this article, be sure to follow Farming Melons for the latest Minecraft news and the hottest mods.

Potion Brewing: A Simple Guide

If you’re using 1.9 Pre4, chances are that you’ve toyed around with potion brewing. The problem with potion brewing is that because there are so many steps in the process, it can be difficult to remember all of the recipes and combinations of ingredients. However, there are a few patterns that can make things easier for you. Certain ingredients will almost always have the same effects. Just remember these key ingredients, and you’ll be making the most powerful potions in no time!

Glowstone Dust

Glowstone dust is used to increase a potion’s power. It will, however, decrease the duration of the potion’s effect.

Redstone Dust

Redstone dust is used to increase a potion’s duration. However, it will generally decrease the potion’s effectiveness.

Fermented Spider Eye

The fermented spider eye will turn any potion into a negative potion. For example, brewing a fermented spider eye into an instant health potion will turn it into an instant damage potion.

Gunpowder

Once you are satisfied with your potion, you can optionally add gunpowder to it to turn it into a splash potion. Upon right clicking with a splash potion, you will throw it instead of drinking it. The potion will effect multiple mobs around its area of impact. Splash potions are the only real reason to craft potions with harmful effects.

To actually get a potion which can be effected by these ingredients, you’ll first have to make a base potion. There are three base potions: 

• Thick Potion- Brew glowstone dust into a water bottle
• Awkward Potion- Brew nether wart into a water bottle
• Mundane Potion- Made by brewing either redstone dust, blaze powder, a glistering melon, or a spider eye into a water bottle

None of the base potions have effects, but you can brew other ingredients into them to make more effective potions. To view a simple list of the potion recipes, Click Here.

Thanks for reading. If you found this article helpful, or want to stay updated with the latest Minecraft news and the hottest mods, be sure to follow Farming Melons! Happy Brewing!

Feature Freeze

Today is October 18th, or, more accurately, the official day of the Minecraft feature freeze. What is the feature freeze, you may ask? The feature freeze has been planned by Notch and Jeb for over a month. As of today, there will be no updates to Minecraft until Minecon. That means that 1.9 won’t officially be released for an entire month!

With all of the updates and prereleases that have been coming out lately, it’s been difficult for mod coders, map designers, and texture pack makers to keep their creations compatible and updated. Thanks to the feature freeze, there will be plenty of time for these creators to catch up. Perhaps the ever- popular Aether mod will be updated to 1.8, or even the 1.9 prereleases!

Now that features are frozen, the community can recover from the rapid updates that Notch and Jeb have been belting out lately.

Aside from the community, the feature freeze gives us time to anticipate what will be coming in 1.9 and ahead. Currently, the newest glimpse into Minecraft’s future is 1.9 Pre4. This release contains a lot of features which can really give us insight into what Notch and Jeb have planned.

NPCs

Notch has planned to add NPCs to the game since Alpha, but it was only in 1.8 that we got to see the plan take action: 1.8 brought naturally generated villages. With the 1.9 prereleases, there came the first NPCs. Each NPC wore a different color robe to represent its job in the town: Farmer, butcher, librarian, blacksmith, and villager. Currently, they won’t actually do their jobs. Their AI is very limited, and they won’t defend themselves if you attack them. However, Notch has said that he wants them to either be hostile or passive based on the player’s decisions. Also, Notch firmly believes that the NPCs should not talk. Keeping the NPCs mute will help keep Minecraft to its original feel, but it also leaves some gameplay issues when it comes to trade, quests, or anything else that NPCs may be involved with. Many people have suggested using pictographs to demonstrate ideas. Whether Notch plans to use this idea or not is unknown.

The End

The newest 1.9 prerelease (1.9 Pre4) introduced something that no one quite expected: The End dimension. The End dimension uses Notch’s skylands terrain generation, while replacing all blocks with the new White Stone. There are huge obsidian spikes across the landscape, and Endermen everywhere. While it isn’t currently obtainable without mods, there is also the new mob; the Ender Dragon. The Ender Dragon is speculated to be the first ever boss mob of Minecraft. While these Ender Dragons will only spawn in The End, Notch plans to add Red Dragons to the overworld.

Golems

While it isn’t discussed often, golems have a lot of potential. Notch has said that he may add more craftable “helper” mobs to the game. Also, after releasing 1.9 Pre1, he decided that more in- world crafting(Placing blocks on the ground instead of on a crafting grid) should be included in future updates.

Magic

While magic still needs some tweaking, there’s still a lot to work with. Magic potions are made using brewing stands. By brewing special ingredients together, you can create potions that will heal you, give you extra strength, speed, and more. There are also many potions that have negative effects, such as poison and instant harm. In 1.9 Pre4, however, these potions are finally given a use. By brewing gunpowder into any potion, you recieve a splash potion. When you right click with one of these, instead of consuming it, you’ll throw it(similar to the way you throw eggs or snowballs). Magic potions(and item enchantments) have a lot of potential to be a major aspect of the game.

With the feature freeze, Minecraft’s community is left to flourish, grow, and wonder: What will come next?

1.9 Pre4- Part 2: Item Enchantment

Item enchantment was originally introduced in 1.9 Pre3. However, enchanting an item would only add the word “Enchanted!” to the item’s tooltip. Other than that(and a glowing animation), enchanting items was completely useless. However, with the introduction of 1.9 Pre4, players are able to put item enchantment to good use.

An enchantment table is crafted with diamonds, obsidian, and a book. Once you have placed the enchantment table, you can right- click on it to view its gui. The gui includes one item slot. This slot is used to store the item you wish to enchant. Currently, only tools and armor can be enchanted. 

When you have placed an item into the enchantment slot, you will see three spells written in the standard galactic alphabet. Luckily, you don’t need to be able to read the galactic alphabet; as the names are completely random. You choose spells without quite knowing what they do. If you have enough experience levels, you will be able to spend them and enchant your item! Generally, spells that cost more experience yield better rewards. Other than that, there’s no real way to know for sure which enchantments your item will get.

If you happen to have a high experience level and want to further enchant your items, it may be useful to know that placing bookcases around your enchantment table will increase the value of the spells! The more surrounding bookcases, the better enchantments, the higher the cost. Once you’ve enchanted an item, its tooltip will include the names and tiers of any enchantments the item has. To view all of the possible enchantments, Click here. 

Item enchantment definitely has potential. Hopefully, Notch will implement alternate ways to get experience points, other than killing. Be sure to check back with Farming Melons. We’ll keep you updated with more information as it comes!

1.9 Pre4- Part 1: The End

Recently, Mojang released the fourth installment of the 1.9 prerelease. This prerelease is a very interesting window into Notch’s plans for the future of Minecraft. First of all, this prerelease introduces a new dimension: The End. Portals to The End aren’t created similarly to the way Nether portals (or modded Aether portals) are. Instead, you must find a portal inside a stronghold.

In previous releases, strongholds were nearly impossible to find. If you happened to find one, then the only rewards you could possibly hope to obtain were some decorative mossy bricks or an apple. However, strongholds have a nearly completely redone in this prerelease. While they are still rare, they aren’t as hard to find because of a new stronghold- locating item: The Eye of Ender.

The Eye of Ender is crafted by combining an Ender Pearl with Blaze powder (Blaze powder is crafted from a a blaze rod). Similar to Ender Pearls, the Eye of Ender can be thrown. However, the Eye of Ender has different properties. Once thrown, the Eye of Ender will fly towards the nearest stronghold. After it has gone a certain distance, it will hover in the air for a bit, then drop down so that you can pick it up and repeat the process until you have found a stronghold. Occasionally, they Eye of Ender will disappear instead of dropping, so it’s best to have a few of them prepared if you’re going on a stronghold- finding expedition.

Strongholds themselves are now generated differently as well. Now many of them contain a new room.

This new room contains a silverfish spawner, and, more importantly, a portal to The End. When you first enter the room, the portal won’t be complete; each block that makes up the portal requires an Eye of Ender to be put in it. Once each slot has been filled, the Ender Portal will activate.

By jumping into this void- like portal, you will instantly be transported into The End dimension.

The End is a vast floating island in which Endermen are abundant. The landscape is made up of White Stone hills and Obsidian towers. The End is very appropriately named, seeing as there is no way back to the overworld aside from dying. Fortunately, while there is currently no way to leave The End, there is also currently no reason to go to The End. The only unique block in The End is the white stone which the terrain is made up of, which has the exact same properties as stone. 
While Ender Dragons do not currently spawn in The End, Notch has programmed them in, and they can be spawned by using mods. 

Notch plans to have only one Ender Dragon within The End dimension, and it’s likely for this dragon to be a boss monster of sorts. The Ender Dragon is capable of flying around and destroying any blocks that get in its way. Because of its destructive habits, Notch has stated that he will not have Ender Dragons in the overworld. However, Notch has plans for Red Dragons to spawn in the overworld. These dragons will most likely be less destructive.

The End definitely has potential. It’s likely that it could be closely linked with the planned “Win Game” achievement. Be sure to check back with Farming Melons; we’ll keep you updated with information as it comes.