Minecraft Java Edition 26.2 'Chaos Cubed' has landed

Another nice free upgrade for Minecraft Java Edition has arrived with version 26.2 'Chaos Cubed' bringing new features and new creatures.

Unfortunately, the peer to peer hosting system did not actually make it into this release. It was removed in pre-release 1 as they said "With this pre-release, we are removing the Peer-to-Peer connection feature introduced in a recent snapshot. Because the experience wasn't what we wanted it to be for all players, we do not consider the feature ready for release in its current form.". Hopefully it can return soon as it will be a nice boost for the game.

Still, lots to be excited about. There is still the new fancy friends list system that's finally in the game officially! Along with some other highlights like Vulkan API support:

• Added the Sulfur Cube mob
• Added the Sulfur Caves biome
• Added the Cinnabar and Sulfur block sets
• Added the Sulfur Spike and Potent Sulfur block
• Added a new Music Disc with the track "Bounce" by fingerspit
• Added 5 new music tracks by fingerspit
• Added the Friends List
• Added new settings for Friends List in Online Options
• Added experimental support for rendering the game through Vulkan
• Added new option "Graphics API" in Video Settings
• Added Swiss French, Chuvash, Gallo, Uzbek, and Võro language support to the game

This new mob is going to be a fun one, to see what people end up doing with it because it absorbs different types of blocks. When it has a block inside, the AI is disabled and it turns into different archetypes that make it react differently when hit. These special types include:

• Regular: medium speed, medium bounciness, medium ground friction, and low air drag
  • It is buoyant
  • Used when absorbing loose mineral and soil blocks
• Bouncy: fast speed, high bounciness, medium ground friction, and low air drag
  • It is buoyant
  • Used when absorbing wooden blocks
• Slow Bouncy: slow speed, high bounciness, medium friction, and medium air drag
  • Used when absorbing stone-like blocks
• Slow Flat: slow speed, low bounciness, medium ground friction, and medium air drag
  • Used when absorbing metal blocks
• Fast Flat: fast speed, low bounciness, medium ground friction, and low air drag
  • Used when absorbing organic blocks
• Light: slow speed, high bounciness, medium ground friction, and high air drag
  • It is buoyant
  • Used when absorbing wool blocks
• Fast Sliding: fast speed, no bounciness, low ground friction, and low air drag
  • Used when absorbing icy blocks
• Slow Sliding: slow speed, no bounciness, low ground friction, and low air drag
  • Used when absorbing shroom blocks

And some special types:

• High Resistance: very slow, low drag with low bounce with high friction
  • Used when absorbing Soul Sand and Soul Soil
• Sticky: same properties as the Fast Flat archetype, but sticks with extremely high ground friction and no bounce to simulate stickiness
  • Used when absorbing a Honeycomb Block
• Explosive: similar properties to the Regular archetype with a slightly higher air drag
  • Used when absorbing a TNT block
  • Absorbed TNT can be primed by Redstone, fire sources (including a Dispenser with a Flint and Steel), or nearby explosions
  • When primed by fire or Redstone, absorbed TNT uses a fuse time of 6 seconds
  • When primed by an explosion, absorbed TNT uses a randomized fuse time between 0.75 and 3 seconds
  • Sulfur Cubes with an absorbed, primed TNT block cannot be picked up with a Bucket
  • Absorbed, primed TNT blocks cannot be sheared out
  • On explosion, no small Sulfur Cubes are spawned
• Hot: same properties as the Regular archetype, but damages entities on contact
  • Used when absorbing a Magma Block

There's a lot more to the update, it really is quite a big one on a technical level.

See more in the release announcement.