Minecraft 1.21.5, titled Spring to Life, is a mid-cycle update released on March 25, 2025. Following The Garden Awakens (1.21.4), this version introduces a wave of nature-themed content focused on ambient immersion, farm animal diversity, and biome identity. It also continues Mojang’s push toward parity between Java and Bedrock Editions.
Designed as a “spring cleaning” for the Overworld, this update aims to make each biome more vibrant, distinct, and memorable. With new decorative flora, regional mob variants, ambient sound improvements, and enhanced visual mechanics, Spring to Life reinforces Minecraft’s core themes: exploration and creativity.
What You Need to Know
- Biome-adapted mobs: Chickens, cows, and pigs now appear in cold, temperate, or warm variants depending on the biome they spawn in.
- Reworked ambient audio: Arid biomes now feature dry wind and insect sounds. All leaf blocks can emit falling leaf particles.
- Enriched decorative flora: Wildflowers, bushes, firefly bushes, dry grasses, and leaf litter now generate naturally.
- A livelier fauna: Wolves have randomized sound personalities, sheep colors depend on biome, and mobs like Mooshrooms and camels received visual tweaks.
- New and updated items: Colored eggs from chickens, redesigned spawn eggs, biome-specific cartographer maps, and improved wandering trader trades.
- More natural world generation: Fallen trees, wild flora, and terrain refinements bring more life and realism to the world.
Table of Contents
Mobs
Chicken, Cow, and Pig Variants
Two new variants for each species have been added.
Cold Variant
Cold chickens, cows, and pigs now spawn in snowy, cold, and End biomes. They have new textures adapted to frigid environments.
Warm Variant
Warm variants spawn in jungles, deserts, badlands, and the Nether. They visually match hot climate settings.
When breeding these animals, the baby randomly inherits the variant of either parent—independent of biome. The original versions are now referred to as “temperate” variants.
Blue and Brown Eggs
Cold chickens lay blue eggs; warm chickens lay brown eggs. These eggs hatch into their respective chicken variants and can be used for crafting (such as cakes).
Wolves
Wolves now have seven random sound variants: Classic, Big, Cute, Shy (Puglin), Angry, Grumpy, and Sad. These sound profiles reflect different “personalities” but do not affect visual appearance.
Blocks
Leaf Litter
Leaf litter is a new decorative block that generates in temperate forests, dark forests, and wooded badlands. Up to four layers can occupy a single block space, with each placement changing its shape and orientation. Its color adapts to the biome, helping it blend naturally into the environment.
It can be obtained by smelting any type of leaf block and used as fuel (smelts half an item), composted (30% chance), or moved by water. It breaks instantly with any tool and produces new rustling sounds when stepped on or broken.
Wildflowers
Wildflowers generate naturally in birch forests, old growth birch forests, and meadows. Up to four flowers can share a single block with different rotations. They can be multiplied with bone meal and used to craft yellow dye. Like other vegetation, they can be washed away or broken easily.
Dry Grass (Short and Tall)
Dry grass grows in deserts and badlands in two forms: short and tall. It can be placed on sand, dirt, or terracotta. Using bone meal on short dry grass turns it into a tall version, while tall grass may generate nearby short grass.
Both variants can be composted, used as fuel, and eaten by sheep to regrow wool.
Bush
Bushes now appear in various biomes, including plains, rivers, forests, and windswept hills. Their color depends on local grass tint. They can be broken instantly, spread with bone meal, and have a 30% chance of adding a compost layer.
Firefly Bush
Firefly bushes grow near rivers and in swamps. At light level 13 or below, they emit glowing firefly particles that spread up to 5 blocks away. They glow faintly (light level 2), can be composted (30%), spread with bone meal, and are found in small clusters of 2–5. They break instantly.
Cactus Flower
A rare decorative flower that grows directly on cactus blocks in deserts and badlands. It has a 10% chance to appear on small cacti (1–2 blocks tall) and 25% on tall ones (3+ blocks). It requires open space around the cactus to generate.
Cactus flowers can be composted or used to craft pink dye.
Technical Blocks
Two technical blocks have been added for test environments (Java Edition only):
- Test Block: Comes in four modes—start, log, fail, and accept. It interacts with redstone signals and is used to run and track automated tests.
- Test Instance Block: Used to place, save, launch, or reset testing structures in the world. Both blocks are only accessible in Creative mode via commands or the Operator tab.
World Generation and Ambience
Fallen Trees
Fallen trees are a new decorative structure exclusive to Java Edition. They appear as naturally generated logs lying on the ground and come in four types: oak, spruce, birch, and jungle.
Birch fallen trees have two variants (short and long). Some logs may be decorated with mushrooms or vines. They generate in any biome where the upright version exists—except meadows, bamboo jungles, rivers, flower forests, and groves (meadows only have birch fallen trees).
Falling Leaf Particles
All leaf blocks can now emit falling leaf particles. This previously exclusive feature is now applied globally, creating a more atmospheric and dynamic forest environment.
Ambient Sounds in Arid Biomes
Dead bushes now produce ambient sounds (wind, dry rustling, insects) when placed on sand, red sand, or terracotta with a matching block underneath.
Additionally, blocks like sand and terracotta emit these sounds if surrounded by at least three similar blocks within an eight-block radius. These sound effects enhance the realism and immersion of desert and badlands areas.
Changes
Items
Bundle
The bundle can now be found in village chests, making it easier to obtain in the early game. This change improves accessibility for inventory management from the start of an adventure.
Spawn Eggs
All spawn eggs have received new textures. Each egg now features a stylized caricature of the mob it summons, enhancing visual clarity and personality.
Lodestone
The lodestone can now be crafted using 1 iron ingot and 8 chiseled stone bricks. This removes the need to explore bastions and makes the block more accessible for compass navigation setups.
Entities
Cartographer
Cartographers now offer up to seven new maps, pointing to specific village types based on biome, as well as jungle temples and witch huts. These maps are available at the Apprentice level, and vary depending on the cartographer’s origin village.
There are three types of maps:
- Maps pointing to villages in other biomes (e.g. desert, savanna)
- Maps pointing to rarer villages (e.g. taiga, snowy)
- Maps pointing to natural structures (e.g. jungle temple, witch hut)
This system is based on a climate-matching logic: for example, a cartographer from a hot, dry village might offer a map to a neighboring cool or wet biome.
At the Journeyman level, cartographers still offer trial chamber and ocean monument maps. From the Expert level, they sell biome-specific colored banners. At Master level, the woodland mansion map and globe banner pattern remain available. Some prices and quantities have been adjusted to balance progression.
Wandering Trader
The wandering trader has received a major update. Prices have been rebalanced, the stock has expanded, and he can now purchase certain basic items from players, offering a new way to earn emeralds.
New items for sale may include:
- Various types of logs (oak, birch, jungle, etc.)
- Enchanted iron pickaxe
- Potion of Invisibility
He may also buy two items from a pool including water bottles, milk buckets, hay bales, or baked potatoes.
Sheep
Sheep wool color now depends on the biome where they spawn:
- In temperate biomes, white sheep are most common, followed by gray, black, brown, and rarely pink.
- In cold biomes, black sheep become more common.
- In warm biomes, brown sheep dominate.
This change matches existing Bedrock Edition behavior. In addition, sheared sheep now correctly display their skin color in Java Edition. The wool texture has also been refined to remove a visible line at the back of the model.
Mooshroom
Both red and brown Mooshrooms have received slight texture adjustments, including a snout extended by one pixel.
Camel
Camels now spawn naturally in desert biomes. This makes them easier to find without relying on breeding or villager trades.
Bug Fixes
Over 120 bugs have been fixed in Minecraft 1.21.5, including issues that have existed for years. These fixes improve the handling of saddles, projectiles, powdered snow, and portals. Sound effects, animations, and subtitles have also been adjusted for greater consistency.
Many of the fixes target commands, entity behavior, and client-server synchronization, resulting in a smoother and more reliable gameplay experience.
Videos
Download Minecraft 1.21.5 “Spring to Life”
To install Minecraft 1.21.5 on PC, open the Minecraft Launcher and select Latest Release 1.21.5 from the version list.
On mobile and console, simply launch the game — it will update automatically to the latest version if connected to the internet.
