Minecraft Snapshot 14w27b: Bunnies!
Players get a glimpse of the Snapshot 14w27b new feature.
Mojang: Here's the new Minecraft snapshot!
Players: Where?
Mojang: There!
Players: What? Behind the Rabbit?
Mojang: It *IS* the rabbit!
A new preview build for Minecraft 1.8 came out earlier this week. While Minecraft Snapshot 14w27b can be summed up as "they added rabbits", there is actually quite a bit more to this new build than first meets the eye. It fixes several bugs and adds mutton as a food item dropped from killing sheep, but most notably, this new snapshot adds bunnies into the world of Minecraft and several items related to the furry little creatures.
With one very rare exception, rabbits are a friendly mob in the game, content to hop around and steal carrots from your garden. As of this build, there is no way to breed the rabbits in Survival mode like other friendly mobs, but presumably this will be added before the 1.8 update officially releases. However, cute baby bunnies can currently be seen in Creative mode using Rabbit Spawn Eggs.
If you kill a rabbit, there are a few items that you will get including Raw Rabbit meat, Rabbit Hide, and a rare Rabbit's Foot drop. The meat can be cooked to make a delicious snack that restores 5 points of food (2.5 icons). It can also be crafted into Rabbit Stew by adding a carrot, potato, and mushroom with the cooked rabbit into a bowl. This meal will restore 10 points of food (5 full icons). Four pieces of Rabbit Hide can be combined to form leather, a decent alternative source for the material if you are hesitant to slaughter your herd of cows. Finally, the Rabbit's Foot can be used in potion brewing to create the new Potion of Leaping that comes in this snapshot. The potion somewhat increases player jump height and reduces fall damage.
The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog makes a meal out of Minecraft community member docm77.
Remember that rare exception I mentioned previously? Well, Mojang must be Monty Python fans because very rarely a normal rabbit will spawn as the dangerous Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The full name of this evil rabbit will show on the death screen if it manages to kill a player. So if you're wandering the wilds and come across a white bunny with bright red eyes, you'd better act quickly before this deceptively cuddly monster makes a meal out of you.
Even ignoring all the major changes Mojang is making to Minecraft "under the hood" with the next update, Minecraft 1.8 is shaping up to add a huge list of features into the game. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer for the official release.