Lichen is making an appearance in a new Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta

The glow lichen is adding even more life to Minecraft's caves.

What you need to know

• Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is releasing a new beta to Minecraft insiders on Xbox, Windows, and Android devices.
• Today's beta includes a ton of bug fixes and one major new feature with the addition of the glow lichen block.
• The glow lichen block, from the upcoming 'Caves and Cliffs Update,' grows in caves and gently glows.
• Players can test glow lichen and other 'Caves and Cliffs Update' features using the "Experimental Features" toggle in Minecraft.

Minecraft is following their last Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta exactly one week later with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.16.230.50. The latest Minecraft beta includes the usual swathe of bug fixes and general improvements, including for creators. However, there's once again a single new featuring hailing from the upcoming Caves and Cliffs Update with the introduction of glow lichen.

Glow lichen is a previously-unheard of block, and has a chance of growing along the walls inside Minecraft's various cave systems. Glow lichen, as the name implies, gives off a soft light. Players in the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition beta program can test out glow lichen for themselves through the "Experimental Features" toggle when creating a new world in Minecraft.

The Caves and Cliffs Update for Minecraft is starting to ramp up now. If you're as excited for Minecraft's next major update as we are, consider picking up something from our list of best merch, toys, and gifts for Minecraft. There's something there for any Minecraft fan!

The full changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Beta 1.16.230.50 includes:

New features

Glow lichen

• A dim light source that generates in caves
• It can be waterlogged
• Use shears to pick it up
• Use bonemeal to spread it along block surfaces
• Glow lichen can be composted

Bug fixes & tweaks

Android

• Added mouse and keyboard support for Android devices that support it (Oreo and newer)
• Certain Android devices no longer fail to perform multilingual input
• Crosshair placement is no longer offset on certain Android devices
• The game will no longer fail to properly shutdown on certain Android devices
• Fixed resolution issues on certain Android devices
• Fixed networking issues on certain Android devices
• Going underwater on certain Android devices no longer makes the screen go pitch-black
• Structure blocks can now be exported on Android

General

• Powder Snow Block no longer drops when destroyed by an explosion
• Fixed issue where smelting behavior for several fuel sources was broken
• First person eating animation is now centered in the frame
• First person main hand blocking animation now plays properly
• First person main hand and off-hand shields are now symmetrical
• Fixed an issue where patterns in the loom with different resolutions than Vanilla assets would not display correctly
• Crafting (Waxed) Weathered Cut Copper Slabs in the Stonecutter now yields two slabs instead of one
• Leads now correctly attach to Goats

Lush Cave blocks

• Azalea leaves and flowering azalea leaves now correctly dropped when sheared
• Moss blocks can now correctly be fertilized using dispensers
• Hanging roots can now correctly be composted
• Small dripleaf now drops as an item when sheared
• Placing a big dripleaf on another big dripleaf increases its height by one
• Using shovel on rooted dirt creates a grass path block
• Bees consider flowering azalea and flowering azalea leaves as flowers
• Using Pick Block function on Cave Vines or breaking them with Silk Touch-enchanted tool now yields Glow Berries

User interface

• Fixed an issue where cancelling joining a world while generating it caused the user to get stuck in the progress screen

Technical fixes & changes

GameTest Framework

• Added Dimension class
• Added World.getDimension
• Updated the GameTest Framework interface. See the list below for specific changes:
  • function assertEntityPresentInArea(entityIdentifier : string) - Throws an Error if an entity matching the given identifier does not exist in the test region
  • function print(text : string) - Prints the given text to the chat
  • function assertEntityInstancePresent(entity : Entity, position : BlockLocation) - Throws an Error if the given entity is not present in the given block location
  • Removed function setEntityTamed(entityIdentifier : string, position : BlockLocation) - Replaced by component function setTamed(showParticles : bool)
• Entity
  • function getComponents() - Returns an array of supported components
  • function getComponent(componentIdentifier : string) - Returns the component matching the given identifier
  • function hasComponent(componentIdentifier : string) - Returns true if the given component exists on the entity and is supported
  • function getName() - Returns the name of the entity (e.g. "Horse")
  • Components for color, health, leashable, and tamemount were added
  • function kill() - Kills the entity
• World
  • addEventListener(eventName : string, callback : function(entity : Entity)) - Registers an event listener for entity events
  • Supported Events:
  • onEntityCreated - Fires when an entity is created
  • onEntityDefinitionTriggered - Fires when an entity definition event is triggered
• Renamed /gametest runall to /gametest runset
• The default value for the tag parameter is now suite:default

Actors

• Several enums in ActorDataIDs were added by mistake, and are now being removed (DEFINE_PROPERTIES, UPDATE_PROPERTIES)
• Catmull-Rom animations will no longer glitch if the time for a keyframe matches its value
• All functions run using the /schedule command now run from the origin they are supposed to, instead of from the server

Other fixes

• Replaced "Whitelist" language use to "AllowList". Dedicated server command "whitelist" changed to "allowlist". Dedicated server "whitelist.json" file changed to "allowlist.json" file. JSON format remains the same. Modified instructions are found in bedrock_server_how_to.html
• Fixed query.is_in_ui so that it is available to use when a data-driven mob is rendering in the UI (query.is_in_ui returns true when the mob is rendering in the UI, such as in the inventory window)

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