Minecraft Java Edition 26.2 "Chaos Cubed": Sulfur Cube, Sulfur Caves & Friends List

Chaos Cubed has landed in Minecraft Java Edition! Explore a striking new cave biome filled with bubbling sulfur pools, build with sulfur and cinnabar, and discover the sulfur cube's curious appetite for blocks! From bouncing and sliding to explosive surprises, this unpredictable mob unlocks exciting new ways to build, compete, and survive.

Here's everything you need to know about Minecraft Java Edition 26.2.

🟨 Sulfur Cube

The headline feature of 26.2 is the new Sulfur Cube mob:

• Spawns in the new Sulfur Caves biome.
• Absorbs blocks — when a player interacts with it while holding a block, the Sulfur Cube absorbs it and its AI is disabled, turning it into a physical object that can be pushed and punched.
• Archetypes — the absorbed block determines the cube's physical properties (regular, bouncy, slow flat, fast sliding, explosive, hot, and more).
• Folles players holding a block it can absorb, and hunts nearby block items.
• Splits when killed into two smaller Sulfur Cubes; small cubes can be fed Slime Balls to grow.
• Pickup — a large Sulfur Cube can be picked up with an empty Bucket.
• Sulfur Cubes can't enter Boats but can ride Minecarts; Dispensers can insert/swap blocks, use Shears, and spawn cubes from a Bucket.

Sulfur Cube Archetypes

Each archetype is defined by speed when hit, bounciness, ground friction, air drag, and whether it floats in liquids:

• Regular — minerals and soil; buoyant.
• Bouncy — wooden blocks; fast & high bounce, buoyant.
• Slow Bouncy — stone-like blocks.
• Slow Flat — metal blocks.
• Fast Flat — organic blocks.
• Light — wool blocks; buoyant.
• Fast Sliding — icy blocks.
• Slow Sliding — shroom blocks.
• High Resistance — Soul Sand/Soul Soil.
• Sticky — Honeycomb Block.
• Explosive — TNT block. Absorbed TNT can be primed (6s fuse via fire/Redstone, randomized 0.75–3s via explosion). Primed TNT can't be sheared out or bucketed, and no small cubes spawn on explosion.
• Hot — Magma Block; damages entities on contact.

⛏️ Sulfur Caves Biome

• Generates naturally underground with bands of Sulfur and Cinnabar.
• Spawns the new Sulfur Cube mob as well as Cave Spiders.
• Features Sulfur Pools containing Potent Sulfur.

Sulfur Spring

A new feature that generates naturally above the Sulfur Caves biome, consisting of Sulfur, Potent Sulfur, and Magma Blocks. Comes in four size variants: Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large.

🧱 Cinnabar and Sulfur Block Sets

• Added Cinnabar and Sulfur stone block sets.
• Each has Polished and Bricks variants, plus Slabs, Stairs, and Walls.
• Added Chiseled Cinnabar and Chiseled Sulfur blocks.

💨 Potent Sulfur

• A new block that generates naturally in water pools inside the Sulfur Caves biome.
• Produces bubbles rising up to 4 water source blocks above it, and generates a cloud of nausea-causing gas on the water surface.
• Can be crafted from 9 Sulfur blocks.
• Can create a geyser when placed above Magma or Lava under 1–4 water source blocks — erupting at random intervals (Magma) or continuously (Lava), shooting water particles and applying upward impulse to entities.
• Eruptions emit game events detectable by Sculk Sensors.

🔺 Sulfur Spike

• Generates on Sulfur blocks inside Sulfur Caves, forming stalactites (ceiling) or stalagmites (floor).
• Can be combined into longer spikes; stalactites and stalagmites merge if tips are next to each other (unless sneaking).
• Stalactites fall if unsupported and are sharp when they hit you; stalagmites aren't sharp.
• Thrown Tridents break Sulfur Spikes; four craft into one Sulfur.

🎵 Music & Sound

• New music disc "Bounce" by fingerspit, found in Mineshaft Chest Minecarts within Sulfur Caves (comparator output 8).
• 5 new background tracks by fingerspit: "Shores", "Memories", "Nightly", "Home", "Ebb".
• Block, mob, bucket, and geyser sounds added.

🏆 Advancements

• New "Uh Oh" Husbandry advancement for having a Sulfur Cube absorb a TNT block.

👥 Friends List

• New Friends button on the Title Screen and Pause Menu, with a new key bind (default: "O").
• Overlay with two tabs: Friends (view/remove/send requests by Profile Name) and Pending (incoming/outgoing requests).
• Shows friend presence: Offline, Online, Online (LAN), Online (World), Online (Realm), Online (Server).
• Toast notifications for friend events, showing player faces when available.
• Checks for updates every minute while open, or every 5 minutes otherwise.
• Managed from the new "Friends List" section in Online Options, with an opt-in on first use.

Friends List Settings (Online Options)

• Availability toggle for the Friends List.
• "In-Game Notification" — whether toasts appear in-world.
• "Allow Requests" — whether players can send you friend requests.
• "Visibility" — Full (shares activity), Hidden (appears Offline), or Limited (only Online/Offline).
• "Xbox Settings..." button opening Microsoft privacy settings.

🖥️ Vulkan Support (Experimental)

• Minecraft is transitioning from OpenGL to Vulkan; OpenGL is the fallback on older hardware.
• Requires Vulkan 1.2 with dynamic rendering and push descriptors (may change).
• Currently experimental — may not be as performant or stable; bug reports welcome.
• Prefers your dedicated GPU over integrated graphics (a change from OpenGL).
• F3 shows the active backend; macOS uses MoltenVK to translate Vulkan to Metal.

"Graphics API" Video Setting

Three values: Default, Prefer Vulkan (Experimental), and Prefer OpenGL. Default currently equals Prefer OpenGL. If the game crashes at startup, the setting automatically falls back to a safer value.

🎮 General Changes

• Tweaked various mob hitboxes, eye heights, and rider positions.
• Hoglins are now hostile and don't spawn on Peaceful difficulty.
• Fixed baby Hoglin/Zoglin left ear texture mirroring.
• Updated the Main Menu background panorama.
• Improved particle handling under overload (random selection instead of removing in-flight particles).
• World host changes default game mode with F3+F4 or commands.
• Faster world upgrades from before 26.1.
• Removed Touchscreen Mode.
• Beds are now slightly more bouncy to match Bedrock; bounces emit a frequency-2 vibration.
• Added 5 new languages: Swiss French, Chuvash, Gallo, Uzbek, and Võro.

🖥️ Server-Side Changes

Server Properties

• Added chat-spam-threshold-seconds and command-spam-threshold-seconds, separating spam thresholds for chat vs commands (both default to 10). Either can be set to 0 to disable kicks.

Minecraft Server Management Protocol 3.0.0

• The management server now starts before the Minecraft server, so the heartbeat is sent while the world loads/upgrades.
• New unpublish command to unpublish the integrated server.

⚙️ Technical Changes (Highlights)

• Data Pack version 107.1; Resource Pack version 88.0.
• Added bounciness, friction_modifier, air_drag_modifier, name_tag_distance, and below_name_distance attributes.
• Data-driven sulfur_cube_archetype registry.
• New sequence, template, and weighted_random_selector feature types; interval_select density function; removed weird_scaled_sampler.
• Renamed pointed_dripstone/dripstone_cluster to speleothem/speleothem_cluster; entity predicate format reworked to component-like maps.
• Beds, Signs, and Hanging Signs now use block models instead of built-in entity models.
• Tracy profiling (--tracy) now includes GPU timings; reversed depth buffer reduces Z-fighting.
• New particles for Sulfur Cubes and geysers (geyser_base, geyser_poof, geyser_plume, geyser).

How to Play

Minecraft Java Edition 26.2 is available to play now. If you run a Minecraft server, remember the new spam-threshold properties and the earlier-starting management protocol, and keep your server software up to date. Hosting a 26.2 server? Check out our Minecraft server hosting to keep your world online with reliable performance.