Minecraft 1.19.70 Patch Notes Available for Switch: All You Need to Know

This latest patch version of Minecraft, 1.19.70, is a substantial one that includes the usual bug fixes and preparation for new features.

However, players will also get to enjoy a few changes and new features ahead of the 1.20 release.

Minecraft 1.19.70 Patch Notes

One of the new experimental features included in this update is Archaeology, which allows players to get a sneak peek at what’s to come. Another new addition is the Sniffer mob. Additionally, the update amends horse breeding, allowing pet horses to give birth to foals with potentially better stats.

Some of the changes in this update bring Minecraft in line with the Java version, while others address minor bugs and glitches. Let’s take a closer look at all of them.

What to expect from Minecraft 1.19.70 Patch

Some of the changes in this update bring Minecraft in line with the Java version, while others address minor bugs and glitches. Let’s take a closer look at all of them.

Player Emotes

Several improvements can be seen live in Bedrock Edition for player emote features.

Emote usage now appears in the chat
The emote wheel now has four slots with an improved interface
Quick emoting with new hotkeys
Easier sorting of emotes
Creating a new character now automatically applies four default emotes

VANILLA PARITY

Improvements have been made with vanilla parity to align with Java Edition, especially with horse breeding, mobs, and blocks.

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where the night could not be skipped if one or more players were on the death screen
Eating and drinking animations are now always centered, regardless of screen aspect ratio

Mobs

Breeding horses can now produce random variants (MCPE-129071)
When breeding horses, the baby Horse now has a chance of being better than its parents in speed, jump strength, and health. This change is intended to make Horse breeding a viable way of getting great Horses if a player starts with good parents and puts in enough time and Golden Carrots
Horses cannot be pushed over Fences covered by Carpets anymore (MCPE-164717)
Ghasts’ sound volume will now fade the further they are from the player (MCPE-35222)
Villagers will now emit anger particles when hit by a player outside of a village
Fixed a bug where Zombified Piglins would spawn in the Nether in light levels above 11
Minecarts can now eject mobs into liquid blocks (MCPE-120078)
Witches will now drink a Fire Resistance Potion when standing on a Campfire

Blocks

Bells that are connected to multiple blocks no longer drop when one block is broken
Note Block sound attenuation over a distance is now linear (MCPE-164935)
Impact sounds of projectiles on Amethyst blocks and clusters are now audible
Dead Bush will now drop Sticks when broken with any tool except Shears, even those with the Silk Touch enchantment. Vines will drop nothing in the same situation (MCPE-163246)

Experimental Features

Minecraft players can now try out the experimental features of the upcoming 1.20 update, which is now named Trails & Tales. The new features include the Sniffer and Archaeology, which are still being developed and are considered works in progress.

As a precaution, players are advised to back up their worlds before enabling experimental features. The features can be accessed by turning on the “Next Major Update” toggle in world settings.

Archaeology

Added the Brush item
Added the Decorated Pot block
Added four Pottery Shards (Arms Up, Skull, Prize, and Archer)
Added the Suspicious Sand block
Added Suspicious Sand to the Desert Temple
Added Suspicious Sand to the Desert Well

Brush

The Brush is a craftable item you can use to brush things

Pottery Shards and Decorated Pots

Pottery Shards have pictures on them. They cannot be crafted and must be found in the world. Hint: you will need a Brush! By crafting four of these together you can create a Decorated Pot with a picture on each side.
You can also use Brick items instead of Pottery Shards in the crafting recipe. The sides that were made from Brick items will not have pictures.
Smash a Decorated Pot with any block-breaking tool to break it apart and get the Pottery Shards back! Or hit it with your fist to pick up the pot without breaking it.

Suspicious Sand

Desert Temples and Desert Wells now contain Suspicious Sand. This fragile block is hard to spot and easy to destroy, so be careful!
If you manage to find the Suspicious Sand and brush it with your Brush, you will extract objects that were buried long ago.
We’re giving you an early look at these Archaeology features. We want to spend more time developing them. Please let us know where you think we can improve or expand!

Sniffer

The Sniffer is the mob vote winner of Minecraft Live 2022 and the first [HS1] extinct mob brought to life and added to the game
Sniffers cannot be tempted or tamed
Sniffers are passive friendly mobs
Sniffer sniffs in the air and occasionally digs for seeds

Torchflower

The Torchflower seed can be planted on farmland and grows into a flower
The seed can be used to breed two Sniffers
The full-grown flower can be harvested and replanted but can also be crafted into a dye

FIXES

Stability and Performance

Fixed an issue where simultaneously pressing the “Mine” and “Place” buttons on any input device while targeting a Structure Block could cause the game to crash (MCPE-155689)
Fixed a crash on Nintendo Switch when attempting to log in while set to local network mode
Fixed a crash that could occur when entering a 1.7.1.0 world in 1.8 or above (MCPE-165564)

Gameplay

The player’s crosshair now properly mines/interacts with items in front of them while swimming/gliding, rather than 1 block above their position (MCPE-57257)
Players no longer take rapid damage when touching damaging blocks (MCPE-165347)
Projectiles shot while swimming/gliding no longer spawn from above the player’s position (MCPE-31896)
Items dropped while swimming/gliding, manually or on death, no longer spawn from above the player’s position (MCPE-31896)

Mobs

Fixed a bug where an Allay holding a Lead wasn’t able to be leashed unless the player held a full stack of 64 Leads in hand
Parrots will no longer shake while on a player riding a Horse that is turning mid-jump
Fixed a bug causing global entities (e.g. Ender Dragon and projectiles) to stop rendering when out of normal entity render distance (MCPE-161136)

Blocks

Sounds from all Button types and Lever are now controlled by the “Blocks” slider in Audio Settings (MCPE-166420)
Redstone source can now power a single block from different sides at the same time (MCPE-163651)
Destroying Mangrove Log or Mangrove Wood now properly cause leaves to decay
End Crystals occupying the same space as a block will no longer cause that block to disappear
Players are now able to place top Slabs in blocks that are only partially blocked by an entity (MCPE-155016)
Players can no longer see through partial blocks when sneaking or riding in the third person (MCPE-156273)
Composter now always consumes an item when becoming full (MCPE-162020)
Importing experimental blocks into a non-experimental world using the Structure Block will now correctly place unknown blocks, which are not interactable
Error messages about building outside the world height limit no longer appear when simply interacting with blocks at the world height limit from certain angles (MCPE-152935)
Fixed a bug where Observers would not detect changes due to corrupted data (MCPE-150506)
Hoppers now pull in items from above them through all blocks that have a lower height than a full block (MCPE-55824)

Items

Crossbows now shake while charging arrows (MCPE-152952)
Spawn eggs for Snow Golem, Wither, and Trader Llama now appear correctly in the inventory and Hotbar
Written Books can now be moved in the inventory even when the player has identical Written Books

Touch Controls

Updated the How to Play screen with information on new touch controls
Changing input modes from Gamepad to Touch while an item is selected will return the selected to the inventory or drop it
Fixed an issue on the Furnace screen where double-tapping the output window caused other slots to become unselectable (MCPE-164589)
Fixed a bug where stack splitting was automatically initiated on the first slot when opening a small Chest
Allowed left and right D-pad buttons to keep input when the forward button is pressed (MCPE-155199)
Added the leave Boat button when the player falls from a height within in the Boat (MCPE-158489)
Fixed an issue that prevented players from removing equipped armor by tapping on an item or block in the Creative inventory (MCPE-165790)
Tweaked the keyboard interaction on Android devices for text input fields

User Interface

Fixed an issue where the “Mine” tooltip was appearing when targeting a block with a Trident in Creative game mode (MCPE-44846)
Navigating right with controller left stick on the Marketplace sidebar now collapses it
Added a new ‘Marketplace’ icon to the Marketplace screen sidebar
Ocean Explorer, Woodland Explorer, and Treasure Maps now show the proper icon in the inventory (MCPE-163464)
Fixed a bug where mouse scrolling on the Friend Options dropdown would not scroll the dropdown contents
Resolved an issue where graphical elements of the Sign-In/Sign-Up screen could extend beyond the bounds of the dialog container
When starting a new world in Pocket UI, removed the “Press Open Chat to open chat” message for players with text-to-speech turned off
Double-clicking on the Furnace output slot will no longer drop the item (MCPE-165079)
Fixed a bug where moving the player or camera with a controller while text-to-speech for UI was turned on would cause the narrator to say “X of Y”
Fixed a bug where the Edit World screen couldn’t be opened for a world if the corresponding world directory had a space in it (MCPE-166763)
The loading screen no longer flickers when entering the Nether in immersive VR mode
The swap item animation now plays when switching hotbar items of the same type with the same durability

Spectator Mode

Phasing through blocks in third person view no longer makes the camera zoom in and out towards the player’s head (MCPE-160467)
End Gateways can no longer be used in Spectator Mode (MC P E-165689)

Realms

Added a Sign In button on the Realms screen if the player is not yet signed in
Fixed the issue that the “Find Friends” button and the “Close Realm” buttons would be autofocused when the “Members” or “Subscription” tab was clicked
Fixed a bug where players were not able to create another world on Realms if the first Create World on Realms attempt was interrupted
Fixed a bug where players could see duplicate applied packs with unknown titles the first time they entered the Realms settings screen
Resetting a Realms World now correctly updates the World settings
Removed the Close button in the Play on Realm popup dialog when using controllers
Updated the reset/replace world confirmation text to make it clearer what each function does
Fixed the world list not updating with a new Realm immediately after accepting an invite
In Realms Settings, then Members, the dropdown ‘…’ menu can now be opened/closed with the Enter key and navigated with arrow keys

Phew. Quite a read, don’t you think? Why don’t you finish things up by taking a closer look at Minecraft Education’s partnership with NASA to simulate the Artemis Moon Missions?