Minecraft's long-awaited Caves & Cliffs: Part 2 update arrives later this month
Some features including archaeology "put on hold".
Developer Mojang has announced that the long-awaited second part of Minecraft's ambitious Caves & Cliffs update will finally launch on 30th November for the Java and Bedrock editions of the game - meaning it'll be coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One,?PlayStation 5,?PS4,? Switch,?iOS,?Android, Windows 10, Windows 11, MacOS, and Linux.
Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update, you may recall, was initially unveiled during last October's Minecon, with Mojang promising the likes of new cave types - complete with fresh blocks, mobs, and items - underground lakes and waterfalls to raft down, a new archaeology system, and, above ground, significantly more mountainous cliffs, complete with goats.
Although Caves & Cliffs was originally due to launch this summer, Mojang ultimately made the decision to split its release in two, holding some of the updates more ambitious elements back for further development as a result of "significant technical challenges".
To that end, summer saw the release of Cliffs & Caves: Part 1, introducing mobs, items and new blocks, while the rest of the update was given a tentative "holiday season" launch window. Now, of course, Mojang has slapped Part 2 with a proper release date, setting its highly anticipated launch for later this month.
"Part 2 gives the mountains and caves that you know and love a makeover," the developer writes in its announcement post, before promising, "updated terrain generation, higher peaks, more elaborate cave systems - even the ore veins are larger!". It'll also include candles.
Unfortunately, not all Caves & Cliffs' initially announced features have made the cut, and Mojang says "archeology, bundles, and goat horns" have been put on hold. "They have not been cancelled," it writes, "we just had to put them on the backburner for now." As such, they'll now appear at some currently unspecified future point "when we're able to add them in the best possible way".
Everything else, however, will arrive on 30th November, when Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs: Part 2 finally makes its grand entrance on many, many platforms.