Minecraft gets 1.16.3 Release Candidate for 'the Nether Update'

Just a few tweaks ahead of release.

What you need to know

• Minecraft is currently on the 1.16 update, or the Nether Update.
• The Nether Update has already received numerous patches and one sizeable update.
• Mojang Studios is currently working on the 1.16.3 update for the Nether Update, and it's almost ready.
• A Release Candidate, or potential public release, is now available for Minecraft: Java Edition testers.

The Nether Update continues to evolve with new updates, bug fixes, and more, with the 1.16.3 update nearly ready for Minecraft's public release. Mojang Studios has released a Release Candidate snapshot for players to test, and if everything looks good this update could be making its way to players everywhere shortly. The 1.16.3 update builds on top of the previous 1.16.2 update, but unlike that update won't include any new features or mechanics.

Instead, 1.16.3 will be another collection of bug fixes, optimizations, and general improvements to Minecraft before Mojang Studios talks about the next major update for Minecraft (possibly at the Minecraft Live event scheduled for October 3, 2020). It's not very exciting, but these kinds of updates are still very important, and should hopefully resolve some of the issues players have been having with the Nintendo Switch version.

If you're interested, the changelog for this Release Candidate versus previous 1.16.3 snapshots includes:

• Giving an item and a gold ingot to a baby piglin and killing it duplicates the item
• Piglins, Piglin Brutes, Hoglins and Zoglins have trouble pathfinding to the player when attacking

As long as no additional bugs are discovered, this update could begin rolling out any time this week. If you want to help test this Release Candidate, you'll need to learn about Minecraft: Java Edition snapshots first.

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