5 major changes in Minecraft Bedrock 1.20.70.20 beta and preview

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition's latest preview, version 1.20.70.20, debuted on January 24, 2024. Compared to many betas of its kind, this preview made some pretty substantive changes to mobs and introduced a long list of bug fixes that should improve the overall quality of life. Several technical changes were also made to the Editor Beta and Deferred Graphical Preview.

With such a heap of content packed into a single Minecraft preview, it can be tricky to determine the most impactful among them. Although this question has different answers depending on who is asked, many players would likely agree on certain changes and additions.

Since that's the case, it doesn't hurt to take a look at some of the major tweaks and inclusions in preview 1.20.70.20.

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5 significant changes and additions in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition's 1.20.70.20 preview

1) Revamped armadillo appearance and mechanics

Armadillos have been reworked in Bedrock following recent Minecraft Java snapshots (Image via Mojang)

After a bit of fan feedback, Mojang has continued to rework the armadillo. In this preview, the textures of the mob, as well as its spawn egg and armadillo scutes, have been updated. Armadillos are also now more responsive to threats and will curl up when attacked by a player or mob instead of running away.

Armadillos will also keep track of the most recent player that has attacked them and register them as a threat for 20 seconds before uncurling. Curled armadillos can now mitigate incoming damage slightly, and baby armadillos will now move faster to reach their parents. All in all, this preview has been a substantial one for 2023's Mob Vote winner.

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2) Wolf and wolf armor improvements

Wolves got a significant buff in Minecraft Bedrock to match with Java (Image via ECKOSOLDIER/YouTube)

Wolves can be a Minecraft player's best friend, but they haven't gotten much attention lately, aside from the introduction of wolf armor. Fortunately, preview 1.20.70.20 has given wolves on Bedrock Edition some improvements in both the visuals and gameplay departments.

For starters, wolf collars have been enlarged so that they can be seen from multiple angles. Even better, wolves received a Java Edition parity improvement. After 1.20.70.20, wolves will be able to sustain the same amount of damage as they can in Java. Wolf armor was also retextured to round out the preview, both when worn by a wolf and when it's in its item form.

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3) The bridging bug fix

A persistent Minecraft Bedrock Preview glitch surrounding bridging has been addressed (Image via Mojang)

Although this wasn't necessarily an issue in vanilla Bedrock, players who regularly enjoy previews encountered a bug where blocks couldn't continuously be placed over water while jumping. This proved to be an issue for fans who love practicing their Minecraft bridging techniques, but the good news is that Mojang has fixed this issue in 1.20.70.20's beta.

Sure, this change may not necessarily bother players who don't bridge much in their day-to-day gameplay. However, it's a bug fix that certainly needed to be implemented ahead of future vanilla update releases before the bug became a problem.

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4) Upward motion/fall damage fix

Upward momentum will now appropriately break falls in Minecraft Bedrock Preview 1.20.70.20 (Image via Phoenix SC/YouTube)

One of the more annoying aspects of Minecraft Bedrock, dating back to at least version 1.16, is the fact that upward momentum wouldn't break a player's fall. Even if players used something like a Riptide-enchanted trident, they still took full fall damage when they hit the ground. Fortunately, preview 1.20.70.20 addressed this longstanding bug.

Now, when players create upward momentum in just about any form or fashion while in the air, their fall distance will reset. This should help fans bail themselves out of a bad fall without unnecessarily taking a high amount of fall damage to try to save themselves.

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5) Improved Realms text-to-speech function

Minecraft Realms has received additional accessibility support (Image via Mojang)

Mojang has gone through strident efforts in recent updates to make the game more accessible, and one way they've done so is via the narrator/text-to-speech function. However, there have been some gaps in what the narrator can read out to players, and Mojang has added additional functionality for the text-to-speech for multiple menus in Realms in this preview.

The narrator is now capable of reading both the filter and sort menus in the members' tab for Minecraft Realms, even when their dropdowns are collapsed. The Realms Feed and Realms Slots menus have had their text fixed for the narrator, and the double narration that occurred in the opt-out menu in Realms settings has also been removed.

This may not seem like the most impactful change in this Bedrock preview, but it's helpful for fans who rely on text-to-speech narration to navigate the game.