Minecraft 1.21.6 update patch notes: Happy ghast, locator bar, new music disc, and more

After three months of waiting, the Minecraft summer drop for 2025, titled Chase the Skies, is finally out for Java Edition as the version 1.21.6 update. Minecraft: Chase the Skies introduces a new jolly variant of ghasts called the happy ghast, a helpful multiplayer feature called the locator bar, a relaxing new music disc, and more.

Minecraft now finally features a tameable flying mob that players can ride and use to explore the world. Along with the happy ghast, Chase the Skies also brings several interesting quality-of-life improvements related to leashes and saddles. Mojang has even added a couple of advancements that had been missing in Java Edition.

Without further ado, let's go through the patch notes for the Minecraft 1.21.6 update for Java Edition.

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Minecraft 1.21.6 update patch notes: All you need to know

New Features

• Added Happy Ghast mob
• Added Dried Ghast block
• Added Harness items
• Added the Locator Bar, a new HUD element that shows the direction of other Players in multiplayer
• Added a new Music Disc with the track "Tears" by Amos Roddy
• Added 5 new music tracks by Amos Roddy
• Added new advancements
• Added Old Spelling Indonesian (Indonesian pre-reform) and Cantabrian language support

Happy Ghast

The Happy Ghast is a new mountable flying mob.

Dried Ghast Block

The Dried Ghast block is found in Nether Fossil structures and is the first stage of the Happy Ghast mob.

• Can be crafted with 1 Soul Sand block and 8 Ghast Tears
• When waterlogged, it undergoes 3 hydration level changes over approximately 20 minutes until it spawns a Ghastling mob
• The hydration level decreases when it is no longer waterlogged, using the same timescale
• The hydration level is not preserved when mined
• Makes sounds and shows particles depending on its hydration level
• The Dried Ghast block emits a vibration frequency of 11 when its block state changes

A Dried Ghast block underneath a Nether Fossil in a Soul Sand Valley. In the background, two players are battling angry Ghasts. (Image via Mojang).

Ghastling Mob

• The Ghastling is a young version of the Happy Ghast mob
• Spawns from a Dried Ghast block that has continuously been waterlogged for about 20 minutes
• After spawning, the Ghastling will try and follow:
• Players within a 16-block radius or
• An adult, non-aquatic passive mob or some of the neutral mobs within a 16-block radius
• If no player or suitable mob is close around, the Ghastling will idle around within 32 blocks from its home position where it spawned or was last interacted with
• It will reset its home position if it is moved more than 16 blocks away from the border of its home position
• Can be tempted and fed using Snowballs
• Will grow up into a Happy Ghast after about 20 minutes, or faster if fed Snowballs

In a Savanna village, a baby Happy Ghast is being lured with a Snowball by Efe. A stray cat is also quite curious about what Efe is holding in their hands. (Image via Mojang)

Happy Ghast Mob

• Can be equipped with a Harness and then be mounted by up to four players
• Tempted by Snowballs and Harness
• The Happy Ghast can only be tempted with a Harness when it has no harness equipped
• Slowly regenerates health, with regeneration speeding up during rain, snow or when flying at the same height as clouds
• The first player that mounts the Happy Ghast will control it, sitting above it in the front seat
• When controlled, the goggles of the Happy Ghast flip down to cover its eyes
• Players mounting after the first player are placed in slots on each side of it, starting clockwise from the first player
• Pressing the sneak key dismounts the player on top of the Happy Ghast
• If the Happy Ghast detects players standing on top of it, it ceases all movement and rotates to the closest cardinal direction
• This happens regardless of whether it has a Harness equipped or not
• When mounted on the Happy Ghast, the third-person camera is further away from the player
• When there are no players mounted or walking on the Happy Ghast, it starts its roaming behavior
• If players dismount midair, the Happy Ghast will descend towards the ground before it starts roaming
• The roaming behavior is similar to the Ghastling, except for the radius being 64 blocks
• When wearing a Harness, the Happy Ghast roams closer to the home position, within a 32 block radius
• When leashed, the Happy Ghast has a roaming distance of 10 blocks
• The Happy Ghast will try to stay close to blocks when roaming
• Cannot be bred
• Cannot enter boats
• Has no panic behavior when taking damage

Ari and Efe are building a castle. Ari is standing on a Happy Ghast, using it to place blocks under the balcony. (Image via Mojang)

Harness Item

• The Harness is a new item that can be equipped on a Happy Ghast to allow players to ride it
• The Harness comes in 16 different colors
• Can be crafted out of 3 Leather, 2 Glass blocks and 1 Wool block
• The Harness will have the same color as the Wool block used when crafting
• Can be re-dyed in the crafting grid
• Can only be equipped on a Happy Ghast
• Allows up to 4 players to mount the Happy Ghast
• Can be removed from the Happy Ghast using Shears when no players are mounted

Locator Bar

The Locator Bar is a new UI element that displays the direction of other players in the world.

• If another player is in the world (and that player is not hiding) the Locator Bar will display in the same area as experience bar
• When experience is gained the experience bar will appear
• If there are no other players in the world the experience bar will display as normal
• Facing other players within a 120 degree range will display those players as colored indicators on the Locator Bar
• Other players that are above/below the screen will also display an up/down arrow together with their indicator
• The indicator will change to different sized icons depending on how far away the other Player is
• Colored indicators are randomized for each player
• Operators can modify the colors of indicators with the /waypoint command
• e.g.: /waypoint modify @s color red to set an indicator to red
• Players on a team will override their default indicator color with their team color
• Players can hide by crouching, wearing a mob head or a Carved Pumpkin, or using a Potion of Invisibility
• Players in Spectator Mode are not visible on the Locator Bar
• However, spectators are visible to each other
• The Locator Bar can be toggled off by setting the locatorBar game rule to false

A player using the locator bar to find their friends in a large cave with skeletons onlooking. (Image via Mojang)

Music and Sound

• Added a new music discs:
• "Tears" by Aaron Cherof
• Can be obtained by killing a Ghast with a Fireball deflected by a Player
• Has a comparator output of 10 when played in a Jukebox
• Added 5 new background music tracks by Amos Roddy:
• "Below and Above"
• "Broken Clocks"
• "Fireflies"
• "Lilypad"
• "O's Piano"
• Added a new sound for when a Lead snaps
• Added new custom sounds for shearing Saddles, Horse Armor, and Carpets from Llamas
• Added new sound volume category called "UI" for sounds played by UI elements, like button clicks
• Music now plays even when the game is paused
• Added an option to the Music & Sound settings that allows players to change how frequently music plays while in a game world
• Added an option to the Music & Sound settings that enables a music toast to be shown whenever a song starts playing
• With this option enabled, the song that is currently playing will always be seen in the top left corner of the in-game Pause Menu

A player is harmoniously fishing in the open ocean. A Music Toast shows them listening to "Amos Roddy - Lilypad." (Image via Mojang)

Advancements

• Added new "Stay Hydrated!" Husbandry Advancement when a Dried Ghast block is placed into Water
• Added "Heart Transplanter" Adventure Advancement that is unlocked when a player places a Creaking Heart with the correct alignment between two Pale Oak Log blocks

Changes

• Changed leash mechanics and updated recipe for Lead
• Saddles are now craftable and shearable
• Updated Ghast texture
• Improvements to fog
• Updates to music and sound
• Improvements to the Realms configuration screen and introduced a region preference setting
• Piglins can now give Dried Ghast blocks when bartered with
• Splash Potions effect strength is now based on the distance of the hitboxes
• The target tolerance margin of projectiles now changes over time
• Changed Elytra so that while gliding, using a Firework Rocket will only be used as a boost even if it could be placed on a block
• Spectators will now teleport together with entities that move to other dimensions, but will stop spectating them
• Increased the third-person camera distance when spectating or riding Ghasts or Ender Dragons
• The fix to MC-3697 has been partially reverted
• Decorative hanging entities such as paintings and item frames are now immune to explosions from submerged TNT while items and armor stands are once again vulnerable to them
• Wolves, Sheep and Pigs now have their legs mirrored
• The test framework will no longer try to restart running tests after a server restart
• Clouds now exist all the way to the horizon, with an option to reduce them
• Updated the pattern of clouds in the sky
• Horses, Donkeys, and Mules can now be fed Carrots to heal, grow, and improve their temper
• Updated the main screen panorama
• Removed Herobrine

A tamed Wolf is leading a small herd of Sheep with leads. They are being led into a small Cherry Blossom pen. (Image via Mojang)

Leash Changes

• The Slime Ball in the Lead recipe has been replaced with a String
• Improved leash mechanics, with reworked leash physics, allowing for more stable leash connection, especially when leashed entities are not on ground
• When dragged on the leash, leashed objects will now orient themselves towards the entity holding the leash
• Using a Firework Rocket when flying with leashed entities will now break the leash connections
• Leashes are now rendered twice as thick, matching Minecraft: Bedrock Edition
• Leashes can now be used to leash two mobs together
• Sneak-interact on any mob while holding leashed mobs will leash these mobs to the entity interacted with
• Re-leashing an entity is prevented if the re-leashing would result in immediate leash snapping due to distance
• Leashes can be snipped from an entity when interacting with them using Shears
• This applies to its own leash connection as well as all entities attached to it
• Dispensers can now snip leashes from entities in front of them when they are equipped with Shears
• When leashing an already leashed mob, their previous leash snaps
• You cannot steal leashed entities from other players
• Interactions with a Leash Knot/Fences:
• Fails for entities that are not in range of the Leash Knot/Fence
• All entities leashed to the player will be leashed to the Leash Knot/Fence
• Transfers all its leashed entities to the player if the player has no entities leashed
• Sneak-interact only ever attaches leashes
• Shearing or punching the Leash Knot will result in all current connections to be broken
• A Leash Knot requires at least one connection to exist
• Boats and large mobs that can be leashed but cannot fit in a Boat (Horses, Donkey, Mule, Camel and Sniffer) can be leashed in a special quad connection to the Happy Ghast
• Happy Ghast will also show a custom layer when it's leashing something using a quad connection
• Entities leashed in quad connection are now rendered without slack
• Leash snapping distance has been changed from 10 to 12 blocks
• Happy Ghast has a leash snapping distance of 16 blocks
• The distance between two leashed entities is determined based on the center of their bounding boxes, rather than their feet

Player crafting two Leads using the new recipe, using only five Strings. (Image via Mojang)

Saddle Changes

Crafting Saddles

• Saddles can now be crafted with 3 Leather and 1 Iron Ingot
• The recipe is unlocked when a player picks up their first Leather

Player crafting a Saddle using the new recipe using three Leather and one Iron Ingot. (Image via Mojang)

Removing Saddles and Equipment

• Saddles, Horse Armor, Harnesses and Carpets can now be removed from the mobs by using Shears
• This does not work in case the mob has a rider, or if the player is crouching
• Saddles cannot be removed from Ravagers using Shears
• Dispensers with Shears cannot remove Saddles, Horse Armor, Harnesses or Carpets equipped on mobs
• Shearing Saddles, Horse Armor, and Carpets will emit a vibration frequency of 6, along with the Unequip frequency of 4

Loot Table Changes

The following loot tables have had Saddles removed from them and replaced with 1-5 Leather:

• Monster Room chests
• Ancient City chests
• Desert Pyramid chests
• Jungle Pyramid chests
• Stronghold altar chests

Fog

• Fog was tweaked for improved atmospheric perspective
• It now becomes foggier when it rains
• Fog is now applied to 3D HUD elements such as first-person player hands and items in hands

Standing in a rainy Forest with a Jungle far in the distance. Clouds stretching as far as the eye can see. (Image via Mojang)

Ambient Desert Block Sounds Changes

• Ambient sand sounds no longer require sky access to play
• Ambient sand sounds now have a slightly decreased chance to play
• Terracotta blocks no longer trigger ambient sand sounds
• Sand blocks no longer trigger ambient wind sounds
• Terracotta blocks no longer trigger ambient wind sounds
• Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry Grass can now trigger ambient wind sounds when above 2 Sand, Red Sand or Terracotta blocks
• Dead Bush ambient sounds now have a slightly increased chance of playing

Music and Sound

• The following sound categories have been renamed:
• Friendly Creatures -> Friendly Mobs
• Hostile Creatures -> Hostile Mobs
• Rules for when ambient desert blocks sounds play have been tweaked

Realms

• Changed the layout of the Realms configuration screen to use tabs
• The Worlds tab allows changes to any of the world slots, creating new worlds and changing their settings
• The Players tab allows management of the players that have access and their level of access to the Realm
• The Subscription tab allows management of the Realms subscription
• The Settings tab allows changing the settings of the Realm
• Introduced a Region Preference setting that allows for more granular control over what region a Realm is hosted in
• Changed wording for Close/Open Realm to Temporarily close/Reopen Realm
• Added the Realms logo to the Realms loading screens
• Added region information when connecting to a Realm

A new user interface for configuring your Realm. (Image via Mojang)

Projectile Targeting

• The target tolerance margin of projectiles now changes over time
• Previously, all projectiles had a target tolerance margin of 0.3 blocks
• Now, all projectiles start with no margin for the first two ticks of their flight
• After that, the target margin will expand by 0.05 blocks per tick until it reaches the previous 0.3 blocks margin
• This allows for better precision close to the shooting player or entity, while still allowing for some collision leeway when the projectile is further away

Splash Potions

• Splash Potions distance to affected entities now depends on the closest distance between the entity hitbox and the splash potion hitbox where it landed
• This means that if an entity is hit directly by the splash potion, it will receive the full effect of the potion
• If the entities are grouped together, they will receive the same effect strength

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Fixed bugs in 1.21.6

• MC-36696 - Clicking on the statistics button on the menu screen advances the game by 1 tick
• MC-69821 - TNT "forgets" the player that ignited it when the world is reloaded
• MC-94800 - URL shown in open URL dialog is not shortened
• MC-97423 - Horse temporarily stuck in jump animation if dismounted
• MC-103511 - Sound/Song stops playing after adjusting the volume
• MC-104231 - Loading a custom structure doesn't load rails correctly
• MC-112730 - Beacon beam and structure block render twice per frame
• MC-118081 - Sounds don't pause when game is paused on some UI screens
• MC-118430 - Vex summoner is not stored in NBT despite being used for AI task
• MC-118432 - Vex summoner is not reset once it is dead
• MC-140819 - Lectern model extends past inventory slot
• MC-147260 - Map icons are not displayed in the cartography table
• MC-148278 - You can select multiple buttons at once in the book editing GUI by repeatedly pressing Tab
• MC-189246 - Unable to copy and paste on title page of a Book & Quill
• MC-191306 - Sounds played using /playsound are played in all dimensions
• MC-200092 - /setworldspawn seems to ignore the 'angle' parameter
• MC-200925 - Ghasts are not affected by potions thrown on their head
• MC-217887 - Unsigned books written in 1.9-pre1 or earlier don't upgrade properly
• MC-224704 - Block cracks are not affected by the fog from powder snow or lava
• MC-228451 - You cannot move the cursor around on the title page of a book and quill
• MC-229483 - Withers are not affected by instant harming and healing splash potions thrown above their heads
• MC-230902 - Black shapes sometimes appear in the end sky at low render distance
• MC-236464 - Beacon beams emitted from below the player are invisible after reloading chunks
• MC-237015 - The cursor in the book signing GUI doesn't turn fully invisible when blinking
• MC-238931 - Clouds stop rendering before they are hidden by fog
• MC-239701 - Rendering issue when breaking ice and flying with "Chunk Builder" set to Threaded
• MC-240121 - "1x1_b5.nbt" piece does not generate in woodland mansions
• MC-248682 - Translucent blocks moved by pistons aren't affected by fog correctly
• MC-248688 - Falling translucent blocks aren't affected by fog correctly
• MC-256411 - Clouds not fully rendered depending on angle
• MC-257532 - Clouds don't fill the sky after 1.18 height change
• MC-258336 - Frost Walker causes frequent visual corruption near chunk borders on Threaded and Semi-Blocking Chunk Builder
• MC-262268 - Keyboard navigation does not work in the book and quill GUI
• MC-264431 - #minecraft:sand tag has two minecraft:suspicious_sand
• MC-266318 - Trapdoors and doors have inconsistent subtitles for being opened and closed
• MC-269744 - Out of memory crash when using a preset with a large layer
• MC-270279 - Disabled item cooldown overlay renders incorrectly over stack size number
• MC-272825 - Custom filled maps from 23w31a and earlier do not upgrade properly in later versions
• MC-275374 - Drowneds with CanBreakDoors:1b don't break doors
• MC-276264 - Advancement screen shadow renders below item icons
• MC-276665 - Music is never turning on when it's toggled in the menu
• MC-277369 - The draft report icon isn't initially visible when saving a report as a draft
• MC-277370 - The draft report icon doesn't initially disappear when a report is discarded
• MC-277486 - Mob effect icons ignore "scaling" parameter in mcmeta files
• MC-277903 - Creative inventory tab icons can display item cooldown overlay
• MC-277991 - The 2 brightest pixel colors on pale oak boat items are still switched
• MC-277992 - 1 color in the pale chest boat item is incorrect
• MC-278231 - Space characters at the end of a line in book and quill are invisible even if given a texture
• MC-278459 - unifont.json contains trailing comma
• MC-278466 - Bundle experiment data pack related strings are not in deprecated.json
• MC-278873 - The data fixer regenerates chunks containing items obtained from flower pots using Ctrl + Pick Block before version 1.13, or it crashes the game if the item is in the player's inventory
• MC-279284 - Experience orbs from thrown bottles o' enchanting are very prone to getting stuck inside blocks
• MC-279417 - Luring mobs onto blocks at Y=-64 will instead make them pathfind to the highest elevation
• MC-279515 - The game stalls when running the "/test clearall" command with large radiuses
• MC-279875 - Cannot diagonally climb slab through suspended scaffolding
• MC-280047 - Temperate cows use their 1.14 texture with the Programmer Art resource pack enabled
• MC-280266 - Firefly bushes don't produce as many, or as constant, amounts of particles as on Bedrock Edition
• MC-280268 - Blazes and breezes use "large" spawn eggs despite mobs of a similar size using "medium"
• MC-280276 - Some item models can still clip into the block below when hovering on the ground
• MC-280281 - Fishing bobbers rapidly jitter when attached to entities that are moving
• MC-280297 - The volume level between grass and dirt is inconsistent
• MC-280471 - The Particle.color field in area effect clouds is read-only
• MC-280502 - Translation key snbt.parser.undescore_not_allowed has a typo
• MC-293619 - The chicken spawn egg texture in Programmer Art is missing pixels that match the inventory slot background color
• MC-293754 - Minecraft causes OpenGL errors occasionally
• MC-295395 - Entities interact differently with nether portals
• MC-295677 - Title screen fades in from black after closing the "Welcome to Minecraft" screen
• MC-295681 - Leaf litter can generate inside of woodland mansions
• MC-295690 - Players stay on fire for a while after barely touching fire
• MC-295850 - Done and Cancel buttons on the world creation Edit Game Rules screen do the same thing
• MC-295866 - The /setblock and /fill commands no longer update redstone power in some situations
• MC-295867 - Structures from previous versions fail with DataFixerUpper
• MC-295879 - Sprint-hitting boats and then getting in them causes the boat to fall through the block underneath
• MC-295895 - 1.21.5 breaks minecart behavior when travelling through nether portals
• MC-295914 - Loot table files accept invalid JSON
• MC-295944 - Reloading a professionless zombie villager causes it to gain random profession clothing
• MC-296035 - Two pixels from "mooshroom_spawn_egg" are the same as "cow_spawn_egg"
• MC-296099 - Nether portal collision is or isn't working depending on the cardinal direction
• MC-296121 - ClientboundLevelChunkPacketData buffer size is too big
• MC-296311 - TNT touching water will destroy blocks and damage entities but will ignore decorative entities
• MC-296337 - Minecarts cause memory usage increases and crashes
• MC-296348 - NoAI:1b mobs cannot be ridden in 1.21.5+
• MC-296624 - Old Brown Mooshroom texture is missing from Programmer Art
• MC-296638 - Clocks, compasses, and lodestone compasses do not render enchantment glint in certain display contexts when using Fabulous! graphics
• MC-296701 - Transformed entities do not retain their custom_data component
• MC-296709 - All non-default jukebox_playable components are deleted from existing items when updating past 1.21.4
• MC-296784 - The "Welcome to Minecraft" screen is missing its fade out
• MC-296866 - Predicates of particular namespaces failed to be accessed on /execute
• MC-297264 - Cat breeds are not seed based anymore
• MC-297347 - Tamed animals no longer sit when their owner changes dimension
• MC-297461 - Equipment and sleeping pos data cannot be loaded in 1.21.4, but can be loaded in 1.21.5 to bees spawned from bee nest and bee hive
• MC-297524 - Connection with realm gives weird HTML text
• MC-297537 - Extra "entity.wolf_whine.whine" sound event exists in sounds.json
• MC-297591 - Ender pearls can unexpectedly come to a halt
• MC-297614 - Area effect clouds with duration greater than or equal to 2147483628 disappear after a tick
• MC-297868 - Items in the armor.body and saddle slots are not kept when dying while the game rule keepInventory is set to true
• MC-297893 - prevent_equipment_drop enchantment effect does not work with armor.body and saddle slots
• MC-297894 - /clear command does not clear armor.body and saddle slots

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Apart from these additions, Minecraft 1.21.6 also includes a wide range of technical changes. Interested players can check out the official patch notes to explore all the updates made to the technical side of Minecraft Java Edition.