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Minecraft:Biome/Before 1.18

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Revision as of 23:51, 27 March 2026 by imported>Tardis10MC (Oceanic temperature generation)
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Template:OutdatedTemplate:Unobtainable

File:Biomes before 1.18.png
Different Minecraft biomes before the world generation overhaul in 1.18.

In Minecraft:Java Edition 1.18 and Minecraft:Bedrock Edition 1.18.0, Minecraft:Overworld terrain generation was rewritten to be more varied and independent of biome generation. This made many biome variants that were in the game redundant, as the only difference between them and their regular counterparts was the way terrain generated in them. As a result, most variant biomes were removed from the generator. Template:IN, these biomes were merged with their normal variants, while Template:In, these biomes still exist but are no longer used.

Generation

Minecraft biomes were generated in layer stacks. These layers generated specific aspects of Minecraft biomes, such as scale, rivers, varieties, and biome categories.

Earlier stages

Biome generation was initialized as a 1 to 4096 scale of ocean, with a few spots of landmasses scattered throughout. This map was then scaled and additional landmasses shuffled around to decrease the amount of ocean, twice, to reach a scale of 1 to 1024. Additional layers that decrease the amount of ocean were repeatedly applied until the ratio of land to ocean was about 50-50. Snowy biome categories were then assigned to a few spots of land, which was then shuffled around a final time to obtain a ratio of 33% ocean and 67% landmass.

At this stage of biome generation, the final climate zones were applied as follows. Areas of dry landmasses were assigned to be a normal biome if it bordered a cold or frozen landmass. Areas of snowy landmasses were assigned to the cold temperature category if it bordered a normal or dry temperature zone. 1 out of every 13 landmasses was then marked as "Special", which would be used to place some of the rarer biomes in later stages of biome generation. This map was then scaled twice, until a scale of 1 to 256. An additional layer was applied to create a more jagged coastline, creating areas of large islands and lakes around the coastline. 1 out of 100 areas of oceans were assigned as Minecraft:mushroom fields biomes and areas of ocean far from the coast converted into Minecraft:deep ocean.

The final areas of climate areas were as follows: 31% oceanic, which consisted of 22% deep ocean and 9% ocean, 0.07% mushroom, 13% dry, 22% medium, 23% cold, and 6% frozen. Areas of rare biomes made up 4% of the total area.

The biome generation was then split into 3 separate stacks.

Generation of biomes and biome variants

One stack of biome generation generated the actual biomes in-game. The biome categories generated the following biomes as follows. Some biomes were weighed more and as such generated more commonly than other biomes. Snowy biomes had an unused rare biome variant and as such generated as normal snowy biomes.

Climate zone Biome
Dry Template:BiomeLink (3 times), Template:BiomeLink (2 times), Template:BiomeLink
Rare dry Template:BiomeLink (2 times), Template:BiomeLink (0.9% of the final map)
Medium Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink
Rare medium Template:BiomeLink (1.5% of the final map)
Cold Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink, Template:BiomeLink
Rare cold Template:BiomeLink (1.6% of the final map)
Frozen Template:BiomeLink (3 times), Template:BiomeLink

Forest and Template:Abbr biomes could generate in both cold biome clusters in addition to normal temperature clusters. Plains biomes could generate in all temperature clusters except in frozen biomes.

Minecraft:Bamboo jungles overwrote certain areas of jungle biomes since Minecraft:Village and Pillage.

This map was scaled twice until a scale of 1 to 64 in both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. In Legacy Console Edition, the map was not scaled at all at this stage of biome generation unless biome size was set to medium or large. To ensure a smooth transition between biomes, some biomes generated an "edge biome" as follows. These edge biomes could also generate hills and modified biome variants:

  • Badlands plateau and wooded badlands plateau generated regular Minecraft:badlands on all edges.
  • Giant tree taiga generated the regular taiga on all edges, unless there was a pre-existing snowy taiga or taiga bordering it.
  • If a desert bordered a snowy plains, an edge of [[Minecraft:Windswept Forest|Template:Abbr]] generated.
  • If a swamp bordered a jungle, a [[Minecraft:Sparse Jungle|Template:Abbr]] generated. If a swamp bordered a desert, snowy taiga, or Template:Abbr, a plains biome generated.

Modified and hill biomes were then merged into the biome generation. Most biomes had a "hills" variant but some biomes used other biomes as their "hills" variant, which are listed below. This stage also allowed islands to generate in areas of deep ocean. Swamps, wooded mountains and regular badlands did not generate a hills biome variant.

Oceans and bamboo jungles did not have a "modified" biome variant. While most biomes had a "modified" variant, few biomes generated a unique "modified hills" variant, such as birch forests and mountain biomes. Some other biomes used another existing biome as a "modified hills" variant. If a biome did not have a "modified hills" variant, such as swamps or snowy taigas, the regular biome variant generated instead.

Existing biome Hills Modified Modified hills
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink 1/2 Template:BiomeLink, 1/2 Template:BiomeLink 1/2 Template:BiomeLink, 1/2 Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink 2/3 Template:BiomeLink, 1/3 Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink

Additional areas of sunflower plains were generated separately to the modified biome stage of biome generation, covering 1/57 of normal plains biome.

The map was then scaled and the coastline made more jagged, then scaled again and beaches were generated. The generation of shorelines and beaches were as follows, this also added a few additional biome edge biomes for jungles and badlands, without biome variants:

  • Template:BiomeLink biomes generated on all coastlines except the regular swamp and regular badlands biomes.
  • Template:BiomeLink biomes generated on the coastline of the standard Template:Abbr and Template:Abbr biomes.
  • Template:BiomeLink biomes generated on the coastline of all frozen biomes.
  • Template:BiomeLink biomes generated on the coastline of all mushroom fields biomes, excluding the coastline with deep oceans.
  • A regular desert generated on the edge of all badlands biomes, excluding eroded badlands. The desert border did not generate next to oceans.
  • A jungle edge generated on the edge of all jungle biomes. The jungle edge did not generate next to oceans.

This also created unique quirks in generation, where gravelly mountains and swamp hills generated a beach biome, and swamp hills bordering a regular jungle edge, with a modified jungle edge bordering jungles.

This biome map was scaled two more times (scaled 4x) until a scale of 1 to 4. River generation was merged with the regular biomes, then ocean climate zones merged.

Generation of rivers

A layer stack for river noise generation was used as a random number generator to generate areas of hills and mutated biomes, which was scaled twice before applied to the biome stage of biome generation at scale 1 to 64. Since Minecraft:Update Aquatic, modified biomes could conform to an entire biome or border a river. A separate layer stack to generate rivers throughout was scaled 4 times, before it was merged with the rest of the generation at scale 1 to 4.

Minecraft:Rivers generated across all land biomes excluding areas of oceans. Frozen rivers replaced rivers in regular Template:Abbr, and Minecraft:mushroom field shore replaced rivers in mushroom fields.

Once the ocean temperature stack and river generation stack was merged with the biome generation stack, a final layer was applied to make the biome scale 1:1, which was the final biome generation used in Minecraft.

Oceanic temperature generation

Ocean biomes generated their climate zones separately from land biome generation, because they were added later in 1.13 and to avoid changing existing seeds. Ocean climate zones were initialized at a scale of 1 to 256, then scaled 6 times, before it was merged with the rest of the biome generation. There were 5 different climate zones, and deep oceans were converted into the deep variant of these biomes. Warm oceans overwrote deep warm oceans as they did not generate.

Ocean Deep ocean
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink

Template:IN, ocean climate zones were done so warm oceans could not border frozen oceans. One must go incrementally from warm oceans, to lukewarm oceans, regular oceans, and cold oceans, before reaching frozen oceans.

If a frozen ocean or deep frozen ocean bordered a land biome, a regular cold ocean generated. If a warm ocean generated next to a land biome, a regular lukewarm ocean generated.

Ocean climate zones were based off the 48 bit seed, unlike the rest of the land biome generation, as such, shadow seeds Template:In contained entirely different ocean climate areas, even though common land biomes generated identically in Java Edition shadow seeds.

Template:IN, ocean climate zones could border every other ocean climate zone and land biomes. Ocean climate zones were much smaller than in Java Edition, and frozen and warm climate zones were roughly twice as rare as other climate zones.

Other information

Template:IN, the possible shapes of biomes could use only the first 24 bits of the 64-bit world seed, and biome shapes within a world seed could repeat beginning around Template:Sup blocks from 0,0. Biome generation overflowed at Template:Sup blocks from 0,0. However, as biomes were generated in a zoomed out stage, before it was scaled upward, it technically means that biome generation could extend further out during earlier stages of biome generation as the integer overflow point is further out.

Even though there are 64-bit seeds on Java, there were only Template:Sup unique noise maps for continental/ocean biome generation, because a quadratic equation was used, and quadratic equations always can be mirrored so that for every input except one to the quadratic equation, there is another that results in the same output (halving the number of truly distinct possibilities). For any seed, the other seed resulting in the same output to this equation was colloquially known as a shadow seed. In this case, land biome and general ocean biomes were exactly the same in a pair of seeds, but ocean biome temperatures, structures and hills differed in the shadow seed. A user could find a shadow seed by adding the constant -7379792620528906219 to the negative of their current world seed, to obtain the shadow seed. Shadow seeds were exclusive to Java Edition.

With Template:Edition using 32-bit seeds and a different world generation algorithm, there were few similarities between it and the 64-bit world generation. The positions of mutated biomes, oceans (and islands), rare biomes (jungles, badlands, mushroom fields, giant tree taiga), as well as specific biomes in cold, temperate, or dry biome clusters, bore some geographical relationship with the equivalent positive value seed of the 64-bit generation. The biome shapes deviated significantly. The specific generation of lush biomes and ocean variants was completely different on Bedrock.

File:JE Map before 1.18.png
Java Edition biomes before 1.18
File:BE Map before 1.18.png
Bedrock Edition biomes before 1.18

Redundant biomes

The following biomes became redundant after 1.18 and were either removedTemplate:Only or made unused.Template:Only

Hills

Hills were generated as relatively small spots within certain biomes.

Most hills were gentle rolling slopes on which the usual biome terrain generates, with some sharper cliffs here and there. The same structures and features generated as in the regular biomes.

Biome name Description Screenshot
Minecraft:Bamboo jungle hills
File:Bamboo Jungle Hills.png
Bamboo jungle hills
Minecraft:Birch forest hills
File:Birch Forest Hills.png
Birch forest hills
Minecraft:Desert hills
File:Desert Hills.png
Desert hills
Minecraft:Giant tree taiga hills
File:Giant Tree Taiga Hills.png
Giant tree taiga hills
Minecraft:Jungle hills
File:Jungle Hills.png
Jungle hills
Minecraft:Snowy mountains Despite the name implying that this biome was more mountainuous than other hills biomes, the snowy mountains had the exact same terrain as other biomes. Snowy mountains had a lower chance of spawning passive mobs during world generation than other biomes (7% versus 10%).
File:Snowy Mountains.png
Snowy mountains
Minecraft:Snowy taiga hills
File:Snowy Taiga Hills.png
Snowy taiga hills
Minecraft:Taiga hills
File:Taiga Hills.png
Taiga hills
Minecraft:Wooded hills
File:Wooded Hills.png
Wooded hills

Modified biomes

Modified biomes were rare variations on their regular counterparts. They were much larger in size than hills, and often bordered each other.

These biomes had only different terrain than the regular biomes, and were therefore removed. Most of them were even more mountainuous than the hills biomes.

Biome name Description Screenshot
Minecraft:Dark forest hills The dark forest hills featured high cliffs and overhangs, breaking the canopy. Clearings of small plains biomes did not generate here, making it even more dangerous than the regular dark forest.
File:Dark Forest Hills.png
Dark forest hills
Minecraft:Desert lakes In this biome, patches of water were more common, and the terrain is slightly more rough. Although desert wells could be found, desert pyramids, villages and outposts did not generate in this biome.
File:Desert Lakes.png
Desert lakes
Minecraft:Modified badlands plateau Compared to the average badlands plateau, the modified badlands plateau featured more variable terrain and smaller plateaus, as if a larger plateau was weathered down over time. It was the second-rarest biome in the game, after the modified jungle edge.
File:Modified Badlands Plateau.png
Modified badlands plateau
Minecraft:Modified jungle The modified jungle featured very mountainuous terrain, with many cliffs and overhangs.
File:Modified Jungle.png
Modified jungle
Minecraft:Modified jungle edge The very rare modified jungle edge only generated when a rare swamp hills biome bordered a jungle. Like the regular modified jungle, this biome had much more mountainuous terrain, but it was very small in size.
File:Modified Jungle Edge.png
Modified jungle edge
Minecraft:Modified wooded badlands plateau This biome featured grass and oak trees on top of plateaus, much like its regular counterpart. However, the plateaus that generated here were generally smaller, allowing far less foliage to generate. The terrain was more erratic, and could be compared to that of the similar modified badlands plateau biome, having an old and eroded appearance. Eroded badlands generated instead of badlands and deserts alongside this biome.
File:Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau.png
Modified wooded badlands plateau
Minecraft:Snowy taiga mountains The very rare snowy taiga mountains featured even more mountainuous terrain than the snowy taiga hills, although not as much as the windswept hills.
File:Snowy Taiga Mountains.png
Snowy taiga mountains
Minecraft:Swamp hills The swamp hills had a much more hilly terrain than the regular, flat swamp. The land patches were much bigger and higher, while the lakes were overall deeper.
File:Swamp Hills.png
Swamp hills
Minecraft:Taiga mountains Like the snowy taiga mountains, this biome featured very mountainuous terrain, sometimes passing snowfall hight. The taiga mountains were very similar to the windswept forest, but with a higher density of trees and slightly lower elevation.
File:Taiga Mountains.png
Taiga mountains

Modified hills

The modified hills biomes were variations on some modified biomes. Their terrain was somewhat different, with the tall birch hills being more hilly, and the shattered savanna plateau being slightly less shattered.

Modified hills did not generate as small spots within modified biomes, but as large biomes on their own.

Biome name Description Screenshot
Minecraft:Giant spruce taiga hills Giant spruce taiga hills were a special case. Template:IN, the game code sets the values setBaseHeight and setHeightVariation to define a "hilly" biome, but used the same values as for its non-hill variant (Template:Abbr), meaning there was absolutely no terrain difference between the two biomes.

Template:IN, this biome did generate as a much hillier version of the giant spruce taiga, even more mountainuous than regular hills biomes. However, the giant spruce taiga hills used the same trees as the giant tree taiga hills (with leaves only at the top), making this biome very similar to the giant tree taiga hills.

File:Giant Spruce Taiga Hills.png
Giant spruce taiga hills
Minecraft:Gravelly mountains+ The gravelly mountains+ had exactly the same terrain and features as the regular Template:Abbr Template:In.

Template:IN, the regular gravelly mountains did not have any trees, but this biome did, making it slightly different. Because almost no grass blocks were generated between the gravel, trees did rarely generate.

File:Gravelly Mountains Plus.png
Gravelly mountains+
Minecraft:Shattered savanna plateau The terrain of the shattered savanna plateau biome was much less tame than its normal counterpart. It featured incredibly large and steep mountains that jut out of the terrain, similar to the Template:Abbr biome, albeit slightly smaller and gentler in comparison.

Template:IN, the grass and foliage color was lush green (the same color as in mushroom fields), making it easily distinctable from the regular shattered savanna.

File:Shattered Savanna Plateau.png
Shattered savanna plateau
Minecraft:Tall birch hills Like the birch hills biome, the tall birch hills featured a much more hilly terrain than the regular Template:Abbr. The hills were very steep compared to other hills biomes.
File:Tall Birch Hills.png
Tall birch hills

Other biomes

These biomes were neither a modified variant nor a hills variant. They no longer generate due to various reasons.

Biome name Description Screenshot
Minecraft:Badlands plateau Badlands plateaus generated as actual biomes in badlands biomes, and were flattened at the top, much like real-life plateaus. They came to rest at an elevation of about 20 to 30 blocks above sea level. One may discover the entrance to a mineshaft within the tall slopes of a badlands plateau.

With the new terrain generation in Minecraft:Caves & Cliffs: Part II, the regular Minecraft:badlands biome also featured these plateaus and this biome became redundant.

File:Badlands Plateau.png
Badlands plateau
Minecraft:Deep warm ocean Similar to the Minecraft:warm ocean biome, but without coral reefs or sea pickles, and twice as deep. Because they were a deep ocean variant, they could generate ocean monuments.

The deep warm ocean did not naturally generate in any non-snapshot or non-beta version. Unlike other biomes, it was removed in 21w43a, rather than 21w40a.

File:Deep Warm Ocean.png
Deep warm ocean
Minecraft:Mountain edge Similar to the Minecraft:sparse jungle biome, the mountain edge used to generate exclusively at the edge of windswept hills biomes in order to smooth the transition between biomes. This biome had lots of trees, similar to windswept forests. While the terrain was lower and gentler in nature, some areas may reach high enough to be covered by snow.

This biome doesn't generate naturally from Minecraft:Pocket Edition v0.9.0 alpha and Minecraft:Java Edition 1.7.2 onward.

File:Mountain Edge.png
Mountain edge
Minecraft:Mushroom field shore Mushroom field shores represented the transition between Minecraft:mushroom fields and the ocean, forming long strips between the biomes as a "beach", hence the name. However, it did not generate if the ocean biome was a deep ocean. This biome also generated when a river met a mushroom fields biome, similar to what frozen rivers did in snowy plains. The terrain of this biome was much more flat and shallow than the main mushroom fields biome, though it contained many of the same features, such as a mycelium surface layer, huge mushrooms and lack of hostile mobs, but shipwrecks and buried treasure could generate hereTemplate:Only.

Because the terrain was the only difference with the regular mushroom fields biome, this biome became redundant after Minecraft:Caves & Cliffs: Part II.

File:Mushroom Field Shore.png
Mushroom field shore

Climate

Template:Main This is a list of climate attributes and colors for each unused biome. For block renders with these colors applied, see Template:Slink.

Snowfall

Unused biomes have the following minimum heights for Minecraft:snowfall:

Biomes Minimum height for snowfall
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink
Any
Template:BiomeLink

Template:BiomeLink

120±8
Template:BiomeLink

Template:BiomeLink

160±8
Template:BiomeLink

Template:BiomeLink

200±8
Others 356±8 (out of world)

List of biome climates

The Minecraft:fog color in all these biomes is Template:Color.

Biomes Base temperature Downfall Precipitation Snow accumulation Grass color Foliage color Dry foliage color Water color Water fog color Sky color
Template:BiomeLink 2.0 0.0 FALSE 0.0-0.125 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.5 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.95 0.9 TRUE Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink
Template:BiomeLink 0.8 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.9 1.0 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.8 0.5 Template:Color
Template:Color
Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.7 0.8 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.6 0.6 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.5 0.5 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.3 0.8 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.25 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.2 0.3 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink 0.0 0.5 0.125-0.25 Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink -0.5 0.4 0.125-0.5 Template:Color Template:Color
Template:BiomeLink Template:Color

Data values

ID

Template:Edition: Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID tableTemplate:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table

History

Java Edition

Template:HistoryTable

Bedrock Edition

Template:HistoryTable

Gallery

See also

Navigation

Template:Navbox biomes

Minecraft:de:Biom/Vor 1.18 Minecraft:es:Bioma/Antes de 1.18 Minecraft:ja:バイオーム/1.18以前 Minecraft:ko:생물 군계/1.18 이전 Minecraft:pt:Bioma/Antes da 1.18 Minecraft:ru:Биом/до 1.18 Minecraft:zh:生物群系/1.18前