All about Minecraft biomes

Snowy biomes

With areas including Frozen River, the Snowy Tundra, Ice Spikes and Snowy Slopes biomes, snowy biomes will snow at any level and are characterised by having vast amounts of snow as well as packed ice, which is exceptionally rare anywhere else in the game.

They also solely contain spruce trees, and the grass is dark aqua-green. Few mobs spawn in the area, beyond Strays, the occasional wolves, polar bears and rabbits. You can also find Villagers and Pillager in villages throughout the Snow Taiga region. Water in this area is a faint shade of purple and can contain salmon and Drowned.

Cold biomes

Cold biomes, which includes Mountains, most Taiga and the Stone Shore biome, are warmer than snowy biomes, but will snow in areas that are 90 blocks above sea level, mostly on top of mountains or cliffs. The grass and water are similarly shaded to the Snowy biomes, but seem a bit dull in comparison.

Much like the snowy biomes, they are characterised by the vast amount of spruce trees in the area, even including giant spruce forests, but also contain podzol, ferns and mushrooms amongst its giant trees. Wolves, sheep, rabbits, and the usual enemies (zombies, skeletons and creepers) are all found in this area as well as the occasional Village and Pillager outpost.

Lush biomes

A biome that will rain unless they are over 256 blocks above sea level, lush biomes are the most commonly found biome in Minecraft. This category includes most Forests, Plains, Swamps, Jungles, Mushroom Field biomes, and all of The End biomes. As such, there is some tremendous variation on what certain areas look like, and what enemies you might face there.

In biomes such as the Forest, Jungles and Plains, the grass is a vibrant light green the same shade as Minecraft promotional art and the default texture for a grass block. This changes when entering swamps and dark forests which have dark green grass. Regardless of the biome, the water in lush areas is always a deep shade of blue.

All common creatures, flora and fauna can be found in lush biomes. Horses and donkeys can be found in Plains, slimes and witch huts in swamps, parrots and ocelots in the Jungle, and turtles and drowned in Rivers and Beaches. They also mostly contain birch and oak trees, except for the Jungle biome that grows jungle trees.

Mushroom Field biomes are comprised of mycelium, not grass, grow giant mushrooms instead of trees, and small mushrooms instead of grass and flowers. Mooshrooms are the only inhabitants of these biomes as no hostile mob, including night spawning mobs, can spawn there naturally, only through mob spawners in underground caverns. Mobs can wander into this area, but cannot spawn there.

The End biomes are made up of End Stone with no water and no weather system. The only enemies found in these biomes are endermen, shulkers and the ender dragon, with none of the usual hostile mobs being able to spawn naturally in The End. 

While mostly seen as a boss venue, The End contains a lot more than just the Ender Dragon! Full of chorus plants and flowers with the occasional blocks of obsidian, The End contains portals to and from the main island to the various end islands as well as back to the Overworld. On these End islands, you’ll find End city and End ship structures, which, while dangerous, are full of valuable loot such as elytra which can only be obtained in End ships.

Dry & warm biomes

In these biomes it doesn’t rain or snow at any level, becoming overcast when it should be raining. These areas include Desert, Savanna and Badlands, characterised with olive or dark brown grass and light blue-green waters. There are also occasional pockets of lava, except for in the Nether, where lava replaces all water.

Though scarce, cacti, dead bushes, tall grass and acacia trees grow in dry biomes, with the occasional oak trees found in some areas of Badland. The earth that isn’t grass is mostly sand, sandstone, red sandstone, coarse dirt or terracotta, particularly in the Badlands where there are also gold ore deposits and Overworld mineshafts. As well as the usual enemies, Husks can be found roaming the Deserts as can desert villagers and rabbits, while horses, llamas, cows and sheep can be found in the Savanna.

Aquatic biomes

Aquatic biomes mostly comprise of vast oceans of water which cover up to 60% of the Overworld. These oceans are differentiated by temperature, the creatures, and items that can be found in them, though most mobs, passive and hostile, remain largely the same.

Warm Oceans are identified by the sand covered ocean floor and a light green tinge to the surface of the water. They contain coral reefs, seagrass and kelp, like most ocean biomes, and shipwrecks with tropical fish swimming alongside typical aquatic mobs. Guardians can appear in these biomes, but only the Deep Ocean variant, where the water is deep enough to spawn ocean monuments.

Cold oceans are characterised with a darker blue hue to the water at any depth and with gravel on the ocean floor, though this can also contain clay. Cod and salmon spawn in this biome type, as well as drowned and dolphins, with guardians spawning in deep versions of this biome. This biome can have small islands dotted throughout them, but only hostile mobs will spawn on these small chunks of land.

Frozen Ocean biomes are dark blue-purple, and its surface is broken up by large ice patches and icebergs of packed and blue ice, where polar bears and stray spawn. Under the water, the floor is comprised of gravel. The only fish in these biomes are salmon and squid, with the water being too cold for other mobs to spawn. Deep Ocean variants of the frozen biome lack the large sheets of ice, but will have icebergs, and spawn guardians and monuments under the water.

Neutral biomes

These are the biome types that don’t fit into any of the other categories or can take on the properties of the biome they are in, namely The Void and Hills. The Void is an empty biome that has a stone platform with a single cobblestone block in the centre. This biome can only be accessed through The Void superflat preset and cannot naturally spawn mobs of any type, only able to through spawn eggs, commands or mob spawners.

Hills are variants of specific biomes, such as Deserts, Jungles or Forests and add gentle rolling slopes to the default biome, with some occasional sharper cliffs. Bar the terrain design, they are no different from the biome type that they generate in.

Nether biomes

The 1.16 Nether update introduced various new mobs, blocks and biomes to the Nether to make it less of a one-note fiery hellscape and more like a dangerous and expansive realm to explore. In the update, five new biomes were introduced into the Nether; Nether Wastes, Crimson Forests, Warped Forests, Soulsand Valleys and Basalt Deltas.

Nether Wastes are what the Nether used to be: primarily made of netherrack, soul sand and gravel, with no access to the sky, being lit by fire, lava and glowstone. Serving as a connector between the other new biomes, you’ll easily find glowstone and nether quartz in this area as well as Piglins, Ghasts, Striders and Zombified Pigling.

Crimson Forests can blend a little bit into Nether Wastes due to their similar colour scheme but contain far more vegetation and vibrancy. Full of Piglin to trade with and Hoglin to harvest for food, Crismon Forests can serve as a general resupply point in the Nether. 

Crimson stem ‘trees’ offer a fresh supply of wood, but players can also find Crismon Fungui, shroomlights, netherwart blocks and crimson nylium, which encourages fungus growth as opposed to plant growth.

Warped Forests are the mirror image of the Crismon forest. While both are vibrant forests, Warped Forests trade the active liveliness of Crimson forests for a brooding and mysterious atmosphere. Devoid of nearly all mob life, only Endermen spawn in Warped Forests, making it a reasonably safe section of the Nether…if you can avoid the Endermen.

You’ll also find warped stem (another wood substitute), warped fungi, warped wart block (a blue nether wart variant), and warped nylium as well as shroomlight and nether sprouts.

Soulsand Valleys are one of the most dangerous of the new biomes, completely comprised of soul sand and soul soil, making it difficult to traverse without soulspeed boots. Coupled with the armies of skeletons, endermen and ghasts that call Soulsand Valleys home, you can quickly find yourself in trouble if you’re not prepared. 

But these risks aren’t without their rewards as Soulsand Valleys are the place to find Soul Fire, a vibrant blue flame that can scare away Piglin.

Basalt Deltas are a perfect example of beautiful but deadly. Full of jagged towers of basalt and blackstone (a cobblestone substitute) covered in a gentle haze of ash, Basalt Deltas can stretch for miles, a perfect breeding ground for Magma Cubes thanks to the pockets of lava that pool at the base of each stretching tower. Beautiful, functional and dangerous, Basalt Deltas embody this new Nether perfectly.

While all the new nether realms are different there are universal traits, there is no weather or day/ night cycle in the Nether, water is replaced by lava and cannot be placed in this biome, though ice can. Nether Fortresses as well as the new Bastion structures spawn in all Nether biomes except for the Basalt Deltas. Beds can be placed in the Nether, however, trying to sleep on them causes them to explode, providing a cheap and effective tool to farm for Netherite, the new ore found throughout the Nether

Cave biomes

Introduced as part of the 1.18 Cliffs and Caves update, Cave biomes have been a long-awaited part of Minecraft and were certainly worth the wait! Found under the ground, while these biomes lack the usual weather conditions and day/night cycle we associate with typical Minecraft biomes, their inclusion adds life and variety to a huge part of the Minecraft experience, the mining!

There are two different cave biomes to explore; The Dripstone Caves and the Lush Caves. Lush Caves are the most vibrant of the cave structures, full of moss blocks, grass and azalea bushes, as well as vines, spore blossoms and glowberries, a useful source of food as well as a lighting block. These caves also contain springs and lakes full of clay and dripleaf plants, where axolotls, glow squid and tropical fish can spawn. Beautiful as they are, Lush Caves can be dangerous as all hostile mobs can spawn in them.

Dripstone Caves are the largest of the two new cave biomes, covering most cave structures in 1.18 generations. While similar to the larger cave structures prior to 1.18, Dripstone Caves, as their names suggest, contains stalagmites and stalactites, structures that grow out of dripstone blocks and can be broken to drop onto any entity below them, making them useful for traps and mob control. Stalactites also drip water if placed over a pool of water or a cauldron, and grow longer if placed over water or a stalagmite, eventually fusing together to create dripstone pillars. Copper ore spawns more frequently in these biomes than anywhere else.

As if you don’t have enough to worry about with stalactites hanging over your head, ready to drop at any minute, all hostile overground mobs spawn in these biomes, including creepers, skeletons, zombies, endermen and spiders, though glow squid and bats can also be found in these caves.