Minecraft 1.17 Snapshot 21w16a (Azalea Trees, Ice Caves)

Minecraft 1.17 Snapshot 21w16a shows us features from both 1.17 and 1.18 with renewable dripstone and new terrain generation.

This update adds the ability to grow Azalea trees with bonemeal, and grow pointed dripstone stalagmites and stalagtites. These features will be available in 1.17. But this video will focus on the datapack which adds previews of 1.18 features, because that adds giant veins of copper and iron ore which add more strategy, reward, and excitement to mining. So how difficult is it to find these in Survival? Let’s find out.

Features:

Azalea and Flowering Azalea can now be bonemealed to get an Azalea Trees.
Added dripstone growth.

Dripstone Growth:

If a stalactite is hanging from a dripstone block with a water source above, it will slowly grow both the stalactite from above and a stalagmite from below.
Growth speed is random but very slow, a single growth step can take several minecraft days.
A stalactite will only grow up to 7 blocks long.
A stalactite will only cause stalagmite growth if the floor or stalagmite below is within 10 blocks.
If the stalactite tip is inside water it won’t drip, and therefore won’t trigger any growth.
If the stalagmite tip is inside water it won’t receive drops, and therefore won’t be grown by a dripping stalactite. Same thing if there is any fluid between the two tips.
A stalagmite or stalactite will never grow into a fluid.

Screenshots:

How to install:

To install the snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the “Launch Options” tab.
Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.