Minecraft 26.3: Wilderness Bound Features, Server Changes and Paper Support
Minecraft 26.3 adds the dappled forest, abandoned camps, cushions and straw beds. Paper's 26.3 builds are still experimental, and servers need Java 25.
Minecraft 26.3 reached Java Edition on 15 September 2026 as the Wilderness Bound drop.1 Within a day Fabric supported it and NeoForge had a beta, and a fresh 26.3 server now turns away anyone who is not on its whitelist.
Minecraft 26.3 adds the dappled forest and camps
Wilderness Bound is built around one new biome and one new structure:
- Dappled forest — a forest biome near cold biomes, full of red, orange and yellow poplar trees, red shrubs and shelf mushrooms that bounce you like a bed.
- Abandoned camps — a structure in 18 biomes, each with its own design, whose chests can hold diamonds, iron gear and potions.2
- Explorer maps — camp chests carry maps to other camps, ancient cities, trial chambers, mineshafts and woodland mansions. Explorer maps are now separate items, and old ones convert when a world loads.
Wandering traders now sell poplar saplings and shelf mushrooms, so players who spawn far from the biome can still grow poplars.
Cushions come from wool slabs, straw beds from hay
Each of the four new crafted blocks below comes in 16 colours, except the straw bed.1
| Block | Crafted from | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cushion | 3 wool slabs of one colour | A seat on any flat surface |
| Straw bed | 3 hay bales, makes 4 | Sleep through one night |
| Wool stairs and slabs | Wool | Dampen vibrations |
| Concrete stairs and slabs | Concrete | Also cut on a stonecutter |
A straw bed does not set your spawn point and breaks after one use. Among the smaller changes, players in spectator mode can now go through portals, and any two mushrooms make a stew.
26.3 servers need Java 25 and whitelist by default
- Java 25 — the minimum Java version for 26.3.2
- Whitelist on —
white-listinserver.propertiesnow defaults totrue, so a server that creates that file on 26.3 turns away every player who is not on its whitelist.1 - Data packs — the format is now 121.0, and loot tables, predicates and world generation files renamed fields. A pack written for 26.2 may need an update before it loads.
- Command signs — a newly placed sign no longer runs the commands in its text. Signs saved in a world from before 26.3 keep running them.
Chunk generation is faster too, and so is finding a structure with /locate.
Paper 26.3 is experimental while Fabric is ready
A modded or plugin server can only move to 26.3 once its server software ships a build for it. On 16 September 2026, a day after release:
Fabric
Fabric Loader supports 26.3, and Fabric published its 26.3 update notes on release day.3
Paper
Paper's 26.3 builds are experimental, and its newest stable version is 26.2.4
NeoForge
A 26.3 beta is out.5
Forge, Folia, Leaf, Quilt
No 26.3 build yet.6
Geyser and ViaVersion
Geyser lets Bedrock players join, and ViaVersion lets newer game versions join an older server. The newest builds of both stop at 26.2.78
When you pick a version, Pixly warns if your server type has no build for it yet; Forge is the one type it does not check.
Back up and check plugins before updating to 26.3
Fabric's 26.3 notes ask players to "be patient, and give mod developers time to update to this new version".3 Three steps keep a server playable through that wait:
- Back up the world. Fabric's notes recommend it for every player. On Pixly every server keeps a daily backup for a week, and a version change on a paid account takes one more just before it applies.
- Check each plugin and mod for a 26.3 build. Look for 26.3 in the supported versions on its download page. Fabric says 26.3 brings changes that "will affect most mod developers".
- Switch the version. On Pixly, pick 26.3 in the server's Settings. A vanilla server on Latest moves by itself at its next start, and a server pinned to a version stays on it until you pick another.
26.3 join errors and release-week questions
The first two answers start from the exact messages Minecraft 26.3 shows a player who cannot join.
Minecraft 26.3 turns the whitelist on by default. Run /whitelist add <player> as an operator, or set white-list=false in server.properties and restart. On Pixly, a turned-away player appears on the Players tab with an Add as member button.
The player's game is on 26.3 and the server is still on 26.2; the message names the server's version.9 In the Minecraft Launcher, open Installations and create an installation set to 26.2.10 On a plugin server, ViaVersion can bridge the gap once it supports 26.3, which took about three days for 26.1 and 26.2.8
PaperMC publishes no date. For the last two drops, its first stable build arrived 38 days after 26.1 and 40 days after 26.2.11
Once Geyser, the plugin Bedrock players join through, lists 26.3. Its builds first listed 26.2 24 days after that release, and 26.1 after 44 days.7 A crossplay server on 26.2 keeps working meanwhile, and the crossplay setup guide covers it.
Not safely: Minecraft's own warning says "Downgrading a world is not supported".9 Restore a backup from before the update. On Pixly, picking an older version asks you to confirm a world reset and takes a backup first.
Footnotes
Mojang, Minecraft Java Edition 26.3, 15 September 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩
minecraft.wiki, Java Edition 26.3. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩ ↩
FabricMC, Fabric for Minecraft 26.3, 15 September 2026. ↩ ↩
PaperMC, Paper downloads. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩
NeoForged, NeoForge versions. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩
MinecraftForge, Forge downloads. Folia, Leaf and Quilt read from their own build feeds. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩
GeyserMC, Geyser versions on Modrinth. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩ ↩
ViaVersion, ViaVersion versions on Modrinth. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩ ↩
Mojang, the Minecraft 26.3 game's English text file (
en_us.json). Read 16 September 2026. ↩ ↩minecraft.wiki, Tutorial: Installing a version. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩
PaperMC, build history for 26.2 and 26.1.2, compared with Mojang's release dates. Checked 16 September 2026. ↩