NEW COPPER, AMETHYST, CANDLES, BUNDLES, & MORE! New Minecraft 1 17 Caves And Clips Snapshot 20W45A!

Hey everybody, it’s UnderMyCap, and welcome back. Today I’m excited to share the first-ever Minecraft 1.17 snapshot. I’m not sure what the snapshot name is off the top of my head, but it’s shown on-screen in the video (a bunch of letters and numbers). In this post, I’m going through every new feature added, what you can do with it, and how to craft it.

I’m also going to try to make this a regular thing: whenever a new snapshot comes out, I’ll do a review covering all the features and changes so you can stay up to date.

Candles

The first new addition is candles. Candles are a really cool decorative light source for your Minecraft worlds. They look great, and they’re fun to use.

One thing I noticed right away is that candles behave a lot like sea pickles. They have a similar “stacking” style, and you can place multiple candles on the same block—anywhere from one to four.

The big difference from sea pickles is that candles can be turned on and off. You can light them by right-clicking with flint and steel, and you can extinguish them by right-clicking again.

Candles on cake

Another feature I really like is that you can place a candle on top of a cake. Finally, you can actually have a birthday moment in Minecraft. Place a cake, then right-click it with a candle to add it.

One thing to note: you can only place one candle on a cake. Also, if you interact with the cake afterward, you’ll start eating the cake and the candle will pop off.

Candle brightness

Candles aren’t very bright. Their light level is weaker than a redstone torch, which makes them better for atmosphere than for lighting large areas. They’re great for spooky builds or decorative corners, but for caves you’ll still want torches (or other stronger light sources).

How to craft candles

To craft a candle, you’ll need honeycomb (from a beehive) and string. You can also add dye to make colored candles, but dye isn’t required.

Copper Ore and Copper Blocks

The next big addition is copper ore. Copper is mined like a normal ore and requires at least an iron pickaxe. Once mined, you smelt it like iron to get copper ingots.

Weathering copper

Copper can be crafted into copper blocks, and copper blocks introduce a brand-new mechanic: weathering. Over time, copper blocks exposed in the world will oxidize and change appearance, shifting from freshly placed copper to progressively more weathered (greener) stages.

Waxing copper

A really cool feature I found is that you can wax copper blocks to stop them from weathering. This means you can let copper oxidize to the exact stage you like, then apply wax to “lock” that look in.

I tried testing weathering speed by changing the random tick speed, but I didn’t see much happen during my short test. That might be a bug or something that wasn’t fully behaving in my world at the time. However, the waxed version is clearly meant to prevent further oxidation.

Lightning Rod

Copper can also be used to craft a lightning rod. The main purpose of the lightning rod is to redirect lightning strikes, helping protect your builds from catching fire—especially wooden structures or areas with wool.

In my testing, it worked most of the time, though I did notice lightning sometimes struck nearby rather than directly on the rod. I’m not sure if that’s a bug or intended behavior, but overall it’s a useful and good-looking addition that doesn’t stand out too much visually.

Geodes and Amethyst

Another major feature added in this snapshot is geodes. Geodes are spherical structures found underground, and they’re where you’ll find amethyst.

Geodes are surrounded by new blocks like calcite and tuff, which form the rough outer shell. This helps signal to players that they’ve found something special and encourages you to mine carefully so you don’t damage what’s inside.

Amethyst sounds and behavior

Inside the geode, amethyst blocks and crystals make unique sounds when you break them, and you’ll also hear sounds when you walk on certain amethyst blocks. It adds a lot of character and makes geodes feel distinct and vibrant.

There are different types of amethyst blocks. Some are decorative, and some generate amethyst crystals. Importantly, the blocks that generate crystals can’t be collected normally. Mojang designed geodes so you can’t just pick up the “generator” and move it—you’ll need to return to the geode location to farm crystals over time.

Amethyst crystals also emit a small amount of light, but they aren’t a strong light source—more for ambience than for practical cave lighting.

Spyglass

With copper and amethyst, you can craft a spyglass. The spyglass works like a vanilla version of OptiFine zoom: it lets you zoom in to see distant objects more clearly.

One important detail is that it doesn’t increase your render distance—it simply zooms in on what’s already being rendered. Still, it’s very helpful for scouting terrain, checking out mobs, or looking at builds from far away.

You can’t use it with a crossbow or bow, but you can use it alongside other items. For example, you can hold it in your offhand while holding tools in your main hand, letting you zoom in and continue doing other tasks.

How to craft the spyglass

To craft a spyglass, you need two copper ingots and one amethyst shard.

Amethyst blocks

You can also collect amethyst shards and craft them into amethyst blocks if you want the amethyst look for building without relying only on naturally generated blocks.

Tinted Glass

Next is tinted glass. Unlike stained glass, tinted glass does not let light pass through. That means you can build with a glass-like block that still blocks sunlight or other light sources from brightening your interior.

Even though it blocks light, you can still see through it clearly. It doesn’t “darken” your view—it simply prevents light from passing through the block.

Bundles

The final feature in this snapshot is bundles. Bundles are essentially an early version of a backpack-like item for inventory management.

How to craft a bundle

Bundles are crafted using rabbit hide and string.

How bundles work

Bundles don’t open a normal storage GUI. Instead, you add items into the bundle directly, and it fills up until it reaches its capacity (up to a total of 64 items’ worth of space).

When it’s full, you won’t be able to add anything else. To empty it, you right-click the bundle, and it dumps the contents back into your inventory rather than opening a menu. That can feel a bit awkward, but it also feels very “Minecraft,” and it’s still extremely useful for carrying more variety of items while exploring.

Wrapping up

That’s everything I found in this new Minecraft Java snapshot. If I missed anything, I’ll cover it in a follow-up. I’m planning to keep reviewing new snapshots as they come out so everything stays current.

I’m also aware that goats are already out in Bedrock, and I’ve purchased Bedrock Edition so I can make more tutorials there as well—I just need to figure out how to access the beta.

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.