Minecraft 26.3 Wilderness Bound: What's New
Java Edition 26.3 Wilderness Bound, out 15 September 2026, adds the Dappled Forest, poplar trees, Abandoned Camps, Straw Beds, Cushions and Wool Slabs.
It is a free update and the third game drop of 2026. Bedrock Edition got the same content on the same day as version 26.50. Both editions share the "26" year prefix, but the numbers after it differ because the two editions release on different schedules. In an existing world, the new biome, trees and camps only generate in chunks you have never loaded, so head into unexplored land to find them.
The main additions at a glance
| Addition | What it is | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Dappled Forest | Orange-grassed forest near cold biomes | New chunks, or /locate biome minecraft:dappled_forest |
| Poplar wood set | A full wood set from red, orange and yellow trees | Chop poplars in the Dappled Forest; a Wandering Trader may offer 8 Poplar Logs for 1 Emerald |
| Shelf Mushroom | A bouncy mushroom for stews | Poplar trunks; a Wandering Trader may offer 3 for 1 Emerald |
| Red Shrub | Decorative plant | Patches in the Dappled Forest |
| Abandoned Camp | Tent and campsite with loot | 18 Overworld biomes |
| Straw Bed | One-use bed that skips the night | 3 Hay Bales in a row make 4; camp barrels |
| Cushion | A seat in 16 colours | 3 matching Wool Slabs in a row |
| Wool and Concrete Stairs and Slabs | All 16 colours of each | Crafting Table; Stonecutter for concrete |
| New explorer maps | 16 map items with their own icons | Cartographers, shipwrecks, ocean ruins and camp chests |
Dappled Forest and poplar trees
The Dappled Forest guide covers how to find one in survival, the tree mix, the spawn table, every poplar recipe and the biome's own camp. The short version: it generates near cold biomes and is hard to miss, with orange grass under red, orange and yellow poplars that shed leaves in their own colour. Poplars give a full new wood set, and Adventuring Time now needs 56 biomes instead of 55.
Shelf Mushrooms and Red Shrubs
Shelf Mushrooms grow on standing and fallen poplars. Bone Meal turns a small one into a large one, which drops two. Stepping on one gives a slight bounce, like a bed.
They work in the stew recipes. Mushroom Stew now takes any two mushrooms plus a Bowl, so two Brown Mushrooms or two Shelf Mushrooms work. Suspicious Stew takes any two mushrooms, a Bowl and a flower. Before 26.3, both needed one Brown and one Red Mushroom. Rabbit Stew accepts a Shelf Mushroom too. Fermented Spider Eye still needs a Brown Mushroom.
Red Shrubs are purely decorative. Bone Meal spreads one to a free neighbouring spot, and they compost. They make no dye and cannot be potted.
Abandoned Camps
Abandoned Camps generate in 18 biomes, from Taiga and Cherry Grove to Swamp, Savanna and Pale Garden, each with its own design. A camp is a tent of White Wool Stairs, usually holding Straw Beds, beside a campsite with an unlit Campfire and scattered Cushions.
Barrels hold camping supplies such as Bread, Coal, Leather and Straw Beds. Chests usually add copper gear and a map to a camp in another biome. The best loot sits in an Oxidized Copper Chest in the campsite, often hidden under other blocks, with a 36% chance of a Diamond, potions and an explorer map. Only about two camps in five have one.
With cheats on, /locate structure #minecraft:abandoned_camp finds the nearest camp. The seed map marks where camps can generate but does not check biomes, so each marker is a candidate, not a guaranteed camp. The Abandoned Camps guide has the full loot tables and where each map leads.
Straw Beds and Cushions
Three Hay Bales in a row craft four Straw Beds, so each costs under 7 Wheat. A Straw Bed lets you sleep through the night without changing your spawn point. When you get up it breaks and drops nothing. Like a normal bed, it clears the weather and resets the phantom timer. In the Nether or the End it destroys itself when you try to sleep, but it does not explode. Mined before you sleep in it, one drops as an item. Villagers never claim them.
Three Wool Slabs of one colour craft a Cushion. Place it on any flat surface and use it to sit. Any dye recolours it. Cushions have no collision, a piston breaks one instead of pushing it, and they break if the block beneath is removed. Each costs 1.5 Wool.
Wool and Concrete Stairs and Slabs
| Block | Crafting Table | Stonecutter |
|---|---|---|
| Wool Slab | 3 Wool in a row make 6 | No recipe |
| Wool Stairs | 6 Wool in a stair shape make 4 | No recipe |
| Concrete Slab | 3 Concrete in a row make 6 | 1 Concrete makes 2 |
| Concrete Stairs | 6 Concrete in a stair shape make 4 | 1 Concrete makes 1 |
Wool Slabs and Wool Stairs can be re-dyed. Stairs use wool fast, so a wool farm helps before a big build. Sculk sensors cannot hear you walk on wool slabs or stairs, but only full Wool blocks stop vibrations passing through, so a wall of wool slabs will not hide you from a Warden. The Deep Dark and Warden guide has more on staying quiet.
Explorer maps are now their own items
Explorer maps are now separate items with their own icons instead of renamed Filled Maps, and old ones convert when a world loads. Some names changed: the Ocean Explorer Map is now the Ocean Monument Map, the Woodland Explorer Map the Woodland Mansion Map, and the Trial Explorer Map the Buried Trial Chambers Map.
Cartographer prices did not change: a Journeyman still sells the Ocean Monument Map for 13 Emeralds and a Compass, and the Buried Trial Chambers Map for 12. You can still copy explorer maps, but they and Buried Treasure Maps can no longer be zoomed out. Buried Ancient City, Buried Mineshaft, Desert Pyramid and Warm Ocean Ruins Maps come only from camp secret chests. The maps guide covers copying and marking.
Smaller changes you will notice
- Raising a Shield now takes priority over tilling or making paths. Crouch to use the Hoe or Shovel.
- Teleporting with an Ender Pearl resets your momentum.
- A villager's new trades appear even while its trading screen is open.
- Improved Transparency now uses a new method that Mojang expects to handle see-through blocks much better, at a higher performance cost. F3 + X toggles it.
- Borderless Fullscreen is the default, and the Raw Input setting is gone.
- Also new: spectators can use portals to teleport, Realm owners can create Invite Codes, Gothic is supported as a language, the player icon on maps always shows which way you face, the Statistics screen counts Straw Bed sleeps, and map makers get the
/posteffectand/computecommands.
What comes next
The first 26.4 snapshot (22 September 2026) is a technical test build with no new blocks, items or mobs. At Minecraft Live on 26 September 2026, Mojang announced ice caves for the next game drop and the Sift, a fourth dimension due in 2027; the Minecraft Live recap has the details. The versions page tracks the current release.