Minecraft News Roundup: Bedrock Beta 1.16.100.53, Creeping Winter Hints, and Graduation Worlds

Plenty going on in the Minecraft world this week, covering Bedrock beta tinkering, fresh leaks for the next Dungeons DLC, and a surprisingly wholesome use of the game for school events. Here is the rundown.

Bedrock Beta 1.16.100.53 Is Live

A new Bedrock beta patch is now available for testing on Xbox One, Windows 10, and Android.

One heads up before opting in: enrolling in the beta swaps out the regular client for a stripped-down build without Realms support. If you care about your save data, copy it somewhere safe before joining the program.

Worth a look: the Nether Update guide for broader context on the 1.16 changes feeding into this build.

Patch 1.16.100.53 brings a small but useful set of tweaks. The highlights:

• Water and lava are now visible through slime and honey blocks
• Crop growth near chunk borders behaves more predictably
• The `/execute` command can summon entities again after a recent regression
• Particle effects tied to animation controllers no longer misbehave

Betas are unstable by nature, so expect rough edges. Reporting what breaks is exactly the point of joining one.

Creeping Winter DLC Leaks Hint at Frozen Zones

The next DLC pack for Minecraft Dungeons does not arrive until September 8th, but datamining has already turned up clues. Music track names inside the DLC audio directory point to three new zones: Frozen Fjord, Lonely Fortress, and Lost Settlement.

Those names line up cleanly with the official teaser map, which makes the leak look credible.

Other rumored additions fit the snowy theme nicely: polar bears, icy reskins of familiar mobs, and frost-flavored weapons, armor, and magic.

Creeping Winter will join the Jungle Awakens DLC that landed a couple of months back. The combination should be more than enough to pull back lapsed players who drifted away after launch.

If a return to Dungeons has been on the to-do list, now is a good moment to dust off the loadout and prep for the 8th.

Graduation Ceremonies Move Into Minecraft

COVID-19 lockdowns forced schools to improvise on the graduation front. Zoom calls and pre-recorded video montages did the job, more or less.

Mojang has now put together a more interesting option: the official Graduation Celebration world.

The map supports up to 30 players and offers a built-in venue for handing out diplomas without leaving the block-based comfort zone.

Yes, someone will inevitably show up with TNT. With a decent moderator on hand, though, this is one of the more creative ways to mark the milestone during a strange year.