[Update #2]: First part of Minecraft's colossal Caves & Cliffs update has now brought in some very angry goats.

After sprucing up the Nether and bringing in a whole bunch of quality-of-life features, Mojang has set their sights on improving another set of commonly visited locations - caves & cliffs. While this might sound like a simple enough ordeal, the task has ended up being so complex and involved that Mojang has now decided to split the update into two.

The first part (1.17) will release at some point this summer. In terms of content, Update 1.17 will focus primarily on adding new mobs, items and blocks. As such, you can expect to see a variety of things like goats, axolotls, crystals, spyglasses, geodes, tinted glass, copper, lightning rods, and a bunch of other fun stuff.

Update 1.18, on the other hand, will arrive during the 2021 holiday season. What exactly it'll bring to the table, Mojang didn't detail just yet, but they did mention that the previously announced archeology skill will not be coming as a part of either update. They're still trying to make it work, but so far development has proven to be incredibly challenging and so archaeology had to be delayed indefinitely.

Once more information becomes available, ideally alongside a release date for update 1.17, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can read a little bit more about this split over at the Minecraft website, or simply check out the newest developer update. Enjoy!