Minecraft Pocket Edition continues to receive enormous free updates, that bring this mobile version of Minecraft closer and closer to feature parity with the main, PC build of the game.

Case in point: the next version of Pocket Edition will add new redstone devices like comparators, hoppers, and repeaters, witches and cauldrons, maps and item frames, bouncy slime blocks and creeper masks.

You can play this new version right now by accessing the Android-only alpha program. But if you'd rather wait for the full version, or you're rocking an iOS device, then you can live vicariously through us.

Here is absolutely everything coming to Pocket Edition in the next update.

Unless stuff is added or removed during the testing stages. Take this with a block of salt.

Cauldrons



Cauldrons, which are crafted from seven iron ingots, are blocks that store water.

You can fill 'em up using a bucket full of water. They also fill up slowly when it's raining.

Once the cauldron has water inside you can transfer the liquid to a glass bottle. This will reduce the water level by one (there are three levels).

Cauldrons can also be used with the new comparator redstone device - the signal strength of the comparator will change depending on the water level. With this, you could make a redstone contraption that only starts working when it's raining.

Exclusively to Pocket Edition, you can change the colour of the water with a dye (which lets you dye leather armour) or store potions in the cauldron.

Maps

Maps are handy objects that let you make an overhead image of your current location.

To get an empty piece of map paper, just craft nine pieces of paper. Then use the empty map object (hold your finger on the screen for a second), and a map will appear in your inventory.

Equip the map and then look down to see a bird's eye view of your current position. Currently it doesn't seem possible to craft zoomed in or zoomed out versions of the map.

You can, however, use the map with an item frame to display your atlas on the wall. This is my kingdom. I built this.

Hoppers



Hoppers are blocks that are designed to slowly transfer items to a container, or slowly siphon items from a container. It's made from five iron ingots and a chest.

For this example, let's use a chest.

To attach a hopper, enter sneak mode (double tap the button in the middle of the directional pad) and then use the hopper on the top or side of the chest. It will now be attached.

Now, you can open the hopper's interface to see five slots. If you put something in one of the slots it will trickle into the chest, one item at a time.

The hopper will also automatically gather objects that fall into its gaping maw, and transfer them to the chest.

You can also put a chest on a hopper, like above (use the sneak mode again so you don't activate the hopper), for the reverse effect. Now, anything in the chest will slowly trickle into the hopper until it is full.

You don't have to use a chest, though: you can use a dispenser, a dropper, a cauldron, a furnace, a brewing stand, and more.

And because you can suck items from one container to another, you can transfer items across distances (and long distances, if you include a mine cart - more on that in a second).

Hoppers work with redstone of course. Hoppers will suck, siphon, and transfer all by themselves - but if you hook them up to a redstone circuit then you can stop them from sucking, siphoning, and transferring items by turning off the power.

You can also make a mine cart with a hopper, by crafting with those two items.

This will pull in items, and siphon items from a container above the mine cart track - and can transfer items to a hopper (but not a container) below a mine cart track.

Dispensers and droppers

Dispensers are redstone devices that have a small inventory (nine slots), and will fire one of its inventory objects out whenever it is activated by redstone.

In the image above, we've filled the dispenser with redstone and attached a lever to the side. Every time the lever is pulled, the dispenser shoots out redstone.

The block is made from seven blocks of cobblestone, one redstone dust, and a bow.

The dispenser's hole will always face you when you place the block, so you can even have the dispenser fire directly down or directly up with careful positioning.

There are lots of uses for this thing, from firing objects into hoppers to automatically shooting arrows at mobs.

Droppers (Left) are almost exactly the same as dispensers (Right), but don't require a bow in their crafting recipe, and have some crucial differences.

A dispenser will fire an arrow as a deadly weapon, while a dropper will simply drop an arrow on the floor. A dispenser will spill a bucket of water, while a dropper will simply drop the bucket of water out for you to pick up.

Try other objects to see how they are handled differently.

Repeaters are used to boost the distance that a redstone signal will travel, and are made on a crafting table using three stone blocks, two redstone torches, and a chunk of redstone dust.

Place a repeater next to a redstone trail that has power, and this will reset the signal strength back to full blast.

In the image above, the redstone lamps are too far away from the power source (the redstone torch) to light up, but the repeater resets the signal (to 15).

While you can use these to make a redstone signal travel infinitely far, it's worth mentioning that a repeater adds a delay to the circuit.

By default, the circuit will linger on the repeater for about 0.1 seconds before moving on. But if you edit the repeater (by using it, causing the two torches to move further apart) you can boost this delay to about half a second.

Repeaters are also handy (or annoying - depending on your construction) in that they will only accept signals in one direction, and not from the side (like normal trails of redstone).

This can be used to only allow certain signals and build redstone circuits in small, cramped environments.

More advanced builders will want to know about locking repeaters.

A repeater with a powered repeater going into its side (as shown above) will become locked - shown with a bedrock handle. This makes it deactivated, and is used for some very complex contraptions.

Comparators



Redstone comparators are built from three stone blocks, three redstone torches, and a rare piece of Nether quartz. This block can do all sorts.

Place a comparator on the side of a container (like a chest, furnace, brewing standing, or hopper) and the output signal will be dependent on the number of objects and stacks in that container. Above, an almost empty chest can only power one lamp...

But a practically full chest can send the signal much further.

Other objects that can be measured using the comparator include the cauldron (signal depends on how much water it's holding), and a cake (how much has been eaten). You can put the comparator in the middle of a circuit, too.

Comparators can also compare signal strength, if the red light on the front is turned off.

It will compare a redstone signal going into its rear input (the side with two redstone torches) with a signal heading into either of the side inputs (the sides with no torches).

If they're different, as above, no power will be sent to the front input (the side with the red light).

If they're the same, as above, then the signal will pass through.

The comparator can also be used to subtract signal from a redstone circuit. To start, tap the comparator to turn the red light on, and enter subtraction mode.

In this mode, the signal strength that is piped into the side of the comparator will be subtracted from the signal strength that is sent into the rear.

In this example, we've used the comparator to remove signal strength, and stop the redstone getting to - and powering on - the lamp.

Item frames

Item frames are used to show off objects and blocks that you own, or make signs to help you remember where you stored your weapons, armour, or fish.

Just use an object on an empty frame to attach the object, tap it once to rotate the object, and mine the frame to remove the object.

An item frame is crafted from sticks and leather.

Slime blocks

Slime blocks are weird jelly like blocks, made from six slime balls.

Their unique property is that they cause players and mobs to bounce like a trampoline.

The bounce quickly deteriorates, and you can't use this to jump ridiculously high (the first bounce is always less than the height of your jump) but it can be useful for certain builds.

Slimes really come into their own when combined with a redstone component called pistons, but they haven't been added to Pocket Edition just yet.

Red sandstone



Red sandstone can be found in the mesa biome and it works just like regular sandstone. Only... you know. It's red. Whoopee.

Hats / Masks



In Pocket Edition 0.14, you can turn all those creepy mob heads from version 0.12 into hats or masks that you can wear. Right now that's the skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, and creeper. To obtain a mob head, a mob has to be blown up by a charged creeper.

You can also wear pumpkins as masks. To equip one of these, simply have a pumpkin or mob head in your inventory and open the armour menu.

Oh, and it totally makes your view go weird when you wear one of these things.

Double trapped chests

Trapped chests are redstone devices that send a surge of power when the chest is opened - useful for setting off explosions or, with the new dispenser, firing arrows at greedy treasure stealers.

In 0.14 you can combine two of these to make wider, double chests. I dare you to open this one...

Whoops.

New mine cart variants

Three new version of the mine cart are now here.

There's the mine cart with hopper (discussed above), the mine cart with chest (does what it says on the tin) and mine cart with TNT (will detonate if the cart goes over an activator rail).

They're crafted by combining a mine cart with a hopper, a chest, or a TNT block.

Witch

The witch is the new hostile mob for Pocket Edition. Witches can spawn on the overworld, on in witch huts in the swamp.

Witches use splash potions as weapons and drop all sorts of goodies - glass bottles, glowstone dust, spider eyes, redstone, and more - upon death.

Creative inventory

You can now do a lot more in creative mode. The redesigned inventory lets you craft, keep an inventory, and change armour while in creative mode. You can also now access crafting tables, chests, and other objects.

This all makes it even easier to cheat, if you really want to.

GUI scale

A new option in the graphics menu called "GUI Scale" lets you decide how big the game's interface is. This affects the options menu and your inventory. Now those with massive tablets don't need to suffer the indignity of ENORMOUS menu screens. Thank the ender dragon.