Minecraft 1.9: New enchants, tranportaion and more

General

Splash text

• "More Digital!"
• "doot doot"
• "Falling with style!"
• "There's no stopping the Trollmaso"
• "Throw yourself at the ground and miss"

Subtitles

• Subtitles which display for each sound for the hard of hearing/deaf.
• Mobs have individualised subtitles, for example “Creeper hissing”.
• "<" or ">" points in the direction the sound is coming from.

World selection screen

• Worlds now display the version they were last played in or "unknown" if the version was older than snapshot 15w32a.
• The version number will display in red if it has been played in a newer version before.
• Now displays a thumbnail per world, showing a glimpse of the world (it takes a screenshot when you have just created or opened it for the first time in the 15w32b snapshot or higher).
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• When the world hasn't been opened in snapshot 15w32b or before, or if the game couldn't make a screenshot thumbnail, there will be a gray-scale image.
• The thumbnail will be saved in the world folder under .minecraft/saves with the name "icon.png".
• This allows the player to modify it easily and safely.
• An exclamation mark will appear on top of the thumbnail, indicating that the world has not been played in the current snapshot yet.
• It displays the following message when hovered over: "Don't forget to backup this world before you load it in this snapshot."
• It will also warn if a world was played in a newer version of Minecraft, telling the player that the world may corrupt if they open it in an older version.
• The player can now click the play arrow on the thumbnail to open the world, just like the server list.
• When edit world is clicked, you have two new options:
• Reset icon: This allows you to reset the thumbnail without going into the folder.
• Open folder: It will open the folder for the world, under .minecraft.

Dominant hand option

• An option for players to change their dominant hand on their player model.
• A toggle under "Skin Customization".
• Also changes the orientation of the offhand slot in the hotbar (left for right-hand players and vice versa).
• As well as the attack charge indicator, when set to the hotbar (on the opposite side of the offhand slot).
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• Attributes
• generic.attackSpeed
• Measures fully-charged attacks per second.
• The attack speed value is shown as a tooltip on the respective tool.
• Base is 4.0, meaning the bar refills in 0.25s.
• Swords have a modifier of -2.4, resulting in a default modifier of 1.6 (refilling in about 0.63s).
• Pickaxes have a modifier of -2.8, resulting in a default modifier of 1.2 (refilling in about 0.83s).
• Shovels have a modifier of -3, resulting in a default modifier of 1 (refilling in about 1s).
• Axes have a modifier based on the tier.
• Wooden and stone axes have a modifier of -3.2, resulting in a default modifier of 0.8 (refilling in about 1.25s).
• Iron axes have a modifier of -3.1, resulting in a default modifier of 0.9 (refilling in about 1.11s).
• Diamond and gold axes have a modifier of -3, resulting in a default modifier of 1 (refilling in about 1s).
• Hoes have a modifier based on the tier.
• Wooden and gold hoes have a modifier of -3, resulting in a default modifier of 1 (refilling in about 1s).
• Stone hoes have a modifier of -2, resulting in a default modifier of 2 (refilling in about 0.5s).
• Iron hoes have a modifier of -1, resulting in a default modifier of 3 (refilling in about 0.33s).
• Diamond hoes have a modifier of -0, resulting in a default modifier of 4 (refilling in about 0.25s).
• The Haste effect increases the attack speed by 10% per level, while Mining Fatigue decreases it by 10% per level.
• generic.armor
• Measures the amount of protection of armor.
• Capped at 0 and 30.
• The modifier of attributes can be changed using NBT tags.

Frosted Ice

• Created when using "Frost Walker" enchantment.
• Cannot be obtained in inventory, neither with silk touch nor with commands. (Can only be placed using /setblock)
• Despawn after a few seconds.
• Despawning takes place in four breaking stages (blockstates: age:0, age:1, age:2, age:3). Still decay with randomTickSpeed set to 0, but a higher number will make them decay faster.
• Despawns faster with a higher light level (doesn't despawn at night).

Enchanting

• "Treasure" enchantments
• Can only be obtained from chest loot, fishing, or trading for enchanted books.
• New "treasure" enchantment: Frost Walker
• Turns water into meltable ice which decays in multiple stages.
• Does not work on flowing water.
• Different tiers:
• Level I creates a circle of frosted ice around the player with a radius of 2 blocks.
• Each additional level adds 1 to that radius.
• Works while riding mobs
• Will not turn water into frosted ice if an entity is in that spot.
• Works as long as you are with in one block above a solid block.
• Cannot be combined with Depth Strider enchantment.
• New "treasure" enchantment: Mending
• Any experience collected while holding the item repairs it instead of going to the experience bar.
• Mainhand, offhand, and armor slots all count as held.
• If multiple held items have the enchantment, one will be chosen at random for each XP orb collected.
• Repairs at a rate of 2 durability per XP.
• If the amount of repair needed is less than the value of the XP orb, the extra XP will go to the experience bar.
• Shields cannot be enchanted with mending using /enchant or a survival anvil.
• Mending enchantment does affect the shield when using creative anvil or NBT commands.

Elytra

• Death message now says that you've experienced too much kinetic energy

Loot tables

• All loot from mobs, chests etc. is now based on loot tables, excluding block drops.

Boats

• Changed how player movement is sent and processed by the server
• Crafting recipe now includes a wooden shovel as a paddle.
• Now require oar movement to move, using the left and right keys.
• The left key will paddle the left oar, turning the boat to the right – and vice-versa.
• Holding both left and right will paddle both oars, propelling the player forward. Rapidly pressing left and right in alternation will make the boat travel even faster
• Using the mouse, the player can look fully to the left or to the right, but not behind. This does not turn the boat.
• Holding the forward, back or sprint keys no longer have any effect.
• The player cannot use or attack with items in hand while the boat is in motion.
• All entities can go into boats, with a maximum of two entities (including the player)

Statistics

• sleepInBed: Tracks the number of times the player has slept in a bed.
• sneakTime: Tracks the amount of ticks the player has held the sneak key, regardless if the player was moving.
• pickup: Tracks the amount of items that are picked up into the inventory from the ground.
• drop: Tracks the amount of items that are dropped from the inventory to the ground.

Keyboard shortcuts

• F3+N to toggle between creative and spectator mode, if the player is in either of them.
• The player needs to be OP in the case of servers for this to work and have cheats enabled in the case of singleplayer.
• Alt+F3 to show a statistic of FPS.

Particles

• * sweepAttack -- Used for the defensive "swipe" sword attack.
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• * dragonBreath -- Used for the new attack of the ender dragon of the same name.
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• * endRod -- Produced by end rod blocks.
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• * wake -- Can be changed by mapmakers by adding a json file within the "WORLD/data/loot_tables" folder, however it's broken in 43a.

Info is from minecraft at Gamepedia