Download Minecraft Snapshot 12w21a - Trading, Golden Apple Effect and Secret Obsidian Item

Jeb's given the all clear - you can now download Minecraft snapshot 12w21a. As expected, this snapshot is going to be one the best we've seen so far. As Del Boy might say, it's the creme de la menthe! New features include: villager trading, secret obsidian block/item, golden apple effect and much more.

So we missed out on a snapshot last week because of a Swedish holiday but this one will certainly make up for that!

One of the biggest and most exciting additions this week is villager trading. Using new Emeralds (currency) you can exchange your inventory items with villagers. Trade anything from amour and weapons to food and diamonds. These villagers seem to be good hagglers though so you'll need a decent amount of resources to make it worthwhile.

Reddit seems to be having some influence over Jeb's ideas lately and the next addition was added purely from user requests through the social bookmarking website. It's a secret block/item but the only thing Jeb revealed was that it needs obsidian.

Another great addition this week is the new golden apple effect. It's still a secret but Jeb hinted that it will have the effect worthy of its cost to craft. If you remember back to the beta's (when the golden apple meant something), you'll need 8 gold and 1 red apple to craft it. Yeah, it'll make a serious dent in your gold stash.

Nathan's also been busy himself. He's fixed the annoying Lilly pad bug which could sink the titanic if it came too close. He's also had a go at making buckets stackable and boats more responsive in SMP. Good job to him.

New Features included in 12w21a

Villager trading - spend emeralds and trade them in for villager items
New Golden Apple effect
A new block (requested 7 months ago on Reddit)
Stars are smaller but brighter
Stackable buckets that behave just like bottles
Boats are more responsive in SMP
New /seed command for showing the map seed
New sandstone stairs
Lilly pads are less deadly and you can safely ride over them in your boat
Performance improvements to local servers

The secret item - 'Ender Chest'

The new secret item is the Ender Chest. Similar to the standard wooden chest except that this chest can share its contents with any other Ender Chest. So, if you have two chests in two completely separate places, put something in one and it’ll appear in the other.

If you take an item from one chest, it is also removed from the other. There is only one storage space, it’s just virtual in nature.

How to craft an Ender Chest?

You will need 8 obsidian and 1 Eye of Ender. See the video below:

How to trade with villagers?

Trading is simple. Just right click a villager and the trading screen will open. Bbrowse through the items that the villager has to trade by clicking the left and right arrows (at the top). Over time, villagers will have more items to trade (they will glisten/glow with purple sparks when they have new items to trade).

Depending on the item you want to take from the villager, place the required items into the empty box on the left hand side of the trading screen. If you place the correct number of items, the villagers item will appear in right hand box.

In a similar manner to the crafting table, drag the item into your inventory to accept the trade.

Watch the video below to see trading in action.