Minecraft Beta & Preview 26.60.21: Camps, Caves, and a Heap of Bug Fixes
What Changed
Minecraft Beta & Preview 26.60.21, released on 2 September 2026, is a substantial work-in-progress build for Bedrock Edition (and Preview on Xbox, PlayStation, Windows, and iOS). It touches almost every corner of the game, world generation, blocks, mobs, commands, the user interface, and accessibility, alongside a long list of community-reported bug fixes.
- Abandoned Camp overhaul: Swamp camps no longer contain a stray Mycelium block or lone Coarse Dirt blocks, making the structure feel tidier and more intentional.
- Biome generation fix: Lush Caves now correctly replace Dripstone Caves or Sulfur Caves in very humid underground regions, so your lush cave expeditions will actually feel lush.
- Snow vibrations: Placing a Snow block now produces a sculk vibration signal, a small but satisfying detail for redstone engineers.
- Shelf Mushroom texture update: Textures now match Java Edition and hidden faces have been removed from the model.
- Shulker piston parity: Shulkers are now pushed by Pistons and by blocks a Piston moves, bringing Bedrock in line with Java Edition behaviour.
- Large Fireball change: The Large Fireball no longer sets its target on fire on impact.
- Explorer Map renames: Six maps have been given clearer, destination-focused names, for example, "Ocean Explorer Map" is now "Ocean Monument Map" and "Trial Explorer Map" is now "Buried Trial Chambers Map".
- Drowned model update: The Drowned now more closely matches Java Edition's look, and helmets worn by Drowned are finally visible.
- Font expansion: Extended Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek characters have been added to the bitmap font at a larger 8×12 px size, eliminating mixed-font menus for many languages.
- Bundle fix: Items stored in a Bundle placed inside a Double Chest will no longer mysteriously vanish.
- Cushion sitting tweak: Players sitting on a Cushion are moved down two pixels for a more natural look.
- Wind Burst Mace fix: A Wind Burst–enchanted Mace no longer launches the player skyward when hitting non-living entities like Boats, Minecarts, or Cushions.
Why It Matters
This build is notable less for splashy new features and more for the sheer depth of quality-of-life repairs. Several of the fixed bugs have been open for years, Villagers freezing mid-conversation (MCPE-138181), Drowned helmets being invisible (MCPE-153500), and the block selection outline disappearing when a mob stands on a block (MCPE-172630) are all finally resolved. The Explorer Map renames alone will reduce confusion for players who never quite understood what "Jungle Explorer Map" actually led to. The font expansion is a meaningful step toward inclusive, polished menus for players whose native languages use Cyrillic or Greek scripts.
Java and Bedrock
This is a Bedrock-only Beta & Preview release, Java Edition has its own separate snapshot track. That said, several changes in this build are explicitly described as Java parity improvements: Shulker piston behaviour, the Drowned model and helmet visibility, and the Shelf Mushroom texture all now match what Java players have experienced for some time. The Explorer Map renames are also expected to reach Java in a future snapshot, as the goal is consistent naming across both editions.
For Server Owners
A pair of command fixes deserve attention if you run any automated systems:
- Using selectors that match no entities (e.g.,
@a[tag=nonexistent_tag]) in/kickor/tellcommands no longer boots the player who ran the command, a significant relief for server admins using command-block automation. - Blocks replaced by
/fillor/setblocknow correctly retain their Redstone functionality, and Piston arms no longer clip into neighbouring blocks after such replacements. This affects any world using command-driven map resets or puzzle mechanics.
The reduction in lag when opening an Abandoned Camp chest for the first time (MCPE-310693) is also welcome news for servers with active exploration worlds, no more freeze-frames on first loot.
For Parents
Accessibility improvements are a highlight of this build. Screen narration now correctly announces navigation control positions in the Realms Timeline tab, closed captions for Baby Turtles and Baby Polar Bears display the right labels, and disabled buttons no longer appear clickable when narration is switched on. These fixes make the game meaningfully more usable for children who rely on assistive technology. The scrollable report-player side panel also ensures the mute option is always reachable, regardless of screen size or UI scale, a useful safety feature for younger players in online spaces.
For Players
Lots to celebrate here if you've been hitting any of these frustrations:
- Bonus Chests now actually appear in Water World and Snowy Kingdom flat world presets, no more starting with nothing when you expected a little help.
- Grown-up Horses can no longer clip through tight two-block-high, one-block-wide corridors, so your stables will stay secure.
- Fall damage at water boundaries now works correctly, landing on a solid block at the very edge of a water block deals damage as it should.
- Untipped Arrows no longer bounce off fully-armoured targets, which was both visually odd and tactically confusing in PvP.
- The Wind Burst Mace fix means you can smack a Boat without accidentally yeeting yourself into the sky.
- The pack reorder UI now scrolls while you're dragging a pack, so you can finally move packs past the bottom of a long list.
Do SNT Kingdoms Need an Update?
No action needed, and SNT kingdoms cannot run 26.x clients yet. SNT Gaming kingdoms are built on Paper 1.21.11 backends with Velocity as the proxy, and Bedrock crossplay is handled by Geyser + Floodgate. PaperMC, Velocity, and the Via compatibility layer (ViaVersion / ViaBackwards / ViaRewind) have not yet migrated to Mojang's new year-based versioning scheme, which means Minecraft clients reporting version 26.x, including anyone running this Beta or Preview, cannot connect to SNT kingdoms at this time.
If you're a young player eager to try the new Beta features, you're welcome to explore them in a separate local world. Your SNT kingdom will be waiting for you on a stable, fully supported version whenever you're ready. We'll announce here as soon as the wider server ecosystem catches up to the 26.x release line, so keep an eye on the SNT blog!