A new snapshot version is now available for Minecraft Java Edition players, with the update introducing a slight tweak to splash potion mechanics alongside changes to the crafting recipes for dried ghast blocks and the recently overhauled leads. Some of the most recent experimental versions of Minecraft have given fans a preview of the new happy ghast mob that was revealed earlier this year during Minecraft LIVE.
As the name suggests, happy ghasts are friendly variants of the iconic floating mobs that patrol the Nether. They’re set to officially come to the game in the Summer content drop later in June and will be something of an unprecedented mob in that players will be able to stand on them and use them as solid mobile platforms – a useful function for survival mode players working on huge builds. To befriend a happy ghast, players will first need to acquire a dried ghast block in Minecraft and bring it back to the Overworld. There, it can be submerged in water, after which it will eventually hydrate and become a baby ghastling. These adorable mobs can be fed snowballs until they grow up into happy ghasts, which players can then equip with a saddle and fly on through the skies of their worlds.
Dried ghast blocks can be found naturally, albeit uncommonly, in the Nether’s soul sand valley biomes, though interestingly, they can also be crafted. The latest snapshot 25w18a for Java Edition updates the recipe for this unusual block, which now requires a soul sand block and several ghast tears. The block was previously crafted using a bone block and ghast tears instead, though with soul sand being just as, if not easier to obtain than a bone block once in the Nether, it seems likely that this small change was made to benefit Minecraft’s vague but undeniably present lore more than anything else.
The snapshot also makes it much easier for players to craft leads by updating the item’s recipe, which no longer requires a slime ball, instead just an additional piece of string in its place. Minecraft’s leashing mechanics were recently overhauled in an earlier experimental preview version, allowing mobs to be leashed to each other, as well as to boats.
The other major change made in the latest snapshot version focuses on Minecraft’s splash potion mechanics, with a small adjustment being made to the distance calculation used when a mob is affected by a splash potion. Further, splash potion effect strength is now based on the distance between the impact site and mob hitbox. This means that mobs will receive the full effect of a splash potion if they’re hit by it directly, and a group of mobs equidistant from the impact site will receive the same effect strength as each other.
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Source: https://gamerant.com/minecraft-snapshot-update-patch-notes-april-2025-recipe-potion-changes/
