1.17 'Caves and Cliffs Update' Part One for Minecraft officially releases today with new features, mobs, and more

Source: Mojang Studios | Twitter

Turn on your favorite gaming devices and make sure you're connected to the internet, because the day has finally arrived: the next major update for Minecraft, hands-down one of the best Xbox games, is here! Part One of the Caves and Cliffs Update, or the 1.17 update, is officially rolling out today on all modern platforms Minecraft is available on with a huge batch of new content for players to dive wholeheartedly into. Players can look forward to three fantastic new mobs, over 90 new blocks and craftable items, and a host of other improvements and quality-of-life changes for Minecraft.

Highlights of 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Update Part One include:

• Three new mobs. Minecraft's bustling ecosystem is growing even larger with the addition of the axolotl, a cave-dwelling aquatic animal that comes in a variety of colors, can play dead, and can help players hunt underwater monsters; the mountain goat, a mountain-dwelling animal that rams with its mighty horns, jumps incredible distances across mountain cliffs, and occasionally screams; and the glow squid, a passive squid variant found deep underground in subterranean pools and lakes that glows in the dark and drops useful glow ink sacs when killed.
• Over 90 new blocks. It wouldn't be a Minecraft update without new building blocks to use for epic houses and forts, new items to craft and use, and much more. Minecraft is gaining a ton in this update, including notable additions like the shiny copper ore, the dark and broody deepslate, a ton of new foliage and plant life, amethyst crystals, and many crafting recipes tie it all together.
• Other awesome changes. Of course, dozens of other changes and additions are hidden in the cracks of this gargantuan Minecraft update, including a great accessibility improvement with all-new ore textures and visuals and a general improvement with new raw ore blocks for iron, gold, and copper. There are also lots of bug fixes and parity improvements to be found.

Mojang Studios has put in a huge amount of time and effort to ensure the 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Update is as fantastic as possible, including making old worlds work seamlessly with the new content. This update also lays the groundwork for 1.18 Part Two of the Caves and Cliffs Update coming later this year. You can check out the official changeloges for 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Update Part One for every included change and addition.

Players will see Part One of the Caves and Cliffs Update become available throughout today anywhere that Minecraft is available, including Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Android, and iOS. Like every other Minecraft update, the Caves and Cliffs Update is totally free, which means it's also included for Minecraft through Xbox Game Pass.

Players who have followed along with Minecraft and the development of the Caves and Cliffs Update may lament that today's Part One release does not include the full range of new features and content coming in the Caves and Cliffs Update. The 1.18 release, or Part Two, will include even more exciting and ambitious features that dramatically change Minecraft, like updated world generation for caves and mountains, new biomes, entirely new systems and mobs, and far more than can be included here.

If you're interested in everything coming in Part Two, we have a full guide on when the release date is for Part Two of the Caves and Cliffs Update. The list of content coming in the full Caves and Cliffs Update is mind-boggling massive, and it can be difficult to remember it all. To stay ahead of the curve, be sure to bookmark our ultimate guide to Minecraft's Caves and Cliffs Update for a constantly-updated breakdown on everything you could need to know. You can also check out the best Minecraft merch, toys, and gifts for a list that'll make any Minecraft fan happy.