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Biomes are regions in a Minecraft world with varying geographical features, flora, heights, temperatures, humidity ratings, and sky and foliage colors. Introduced in the Halloween Update, biomes separate every generated world into different environments, paralleling the real world; examples of biomes include the forest, jungle, desert and tundra. Prior to the Halloween Update, every world had only a single theme, either grassy or snowy.

In the Anvil file format, biomes are stored directly in the world data. This differs from the previous Region file format format, where biomes were dynamically calculated from the seed.

The term biome is analogous to its scientific usage: on Earth, a biome is climatically and geographically defined by distinctive communities of plants, animals and soil organisms supported by similar climatic conditions. They are often referred to as ecosystems.^[1]^[2]

Biome Types

There are 12 main biome types and a number of technical biomes. Main biomes can be distinguished by the grass and leaf colors in the biome, along with the types of blocks present (e.g. types of trees or other plants like cacti, sand coverage in deserts). Biomes are pseudo-randomly generated using the map seed. Technical biomes provide smoother transitions between main biome types, or introduce extra custom features within a main biome, such as rivers, beaches, hills and border areas.

Name and Features	Description and Sample Image
Forest Oak and Birch Trees, Flowers, Wolves, Mushrooms	Main article: Forest A biome with a lot of trees, occasional hills, and a fair amount of grass. Oak and birch trees grow in this biome. Mushrooms, tall grass, roses, and dandelions can occasionally be found. Forests can occasionally be generated as a technical biome in plains biomes. This is one of the best biomes to start out in, due to the abundance of wood. The frequency of trees makes it dangerous to navigate at night, due to obscured vision, and ease of mobs to spawn. Forest biomes are also one of the smallest biomes.
Desert Sand, Cacti, Dead Bushes, Sandstone, Sugar Cane, Desert wells, Desert Temple, NPC Villages	Main article: Desert A barren biome consisting mostly of sand, large dunes, dead bushes, and cacti. Sandstone is commonly found underneath the sand. Rain never falls in this biome. Sugar cane can be found if the desert is next to an ocean or river biome. The lack of visual obstruction makes mobs highly visible at night. Desert NPC villages, desert wells and desert temples are found exclusively in this biome. As of the Horse Update, lakes do not generate in this biome, although lava lakes still can. File:2012-02-01 16.26.19.png
Plains Tall Grass, Grass, Flowers, NPC Villages, Horses	Main article: Plains A relatively flat biome with rolling hills and much tall grass but with few trees. Gullies, water holes, and NPC villages are common. Cave openings and water or lava springs are easily identifiable due to its unobstructed terrain. Passive mobs spawn often in plains biomes, and it is also the only biome where horses spawn naturally.
Swampland Witch Huts, Oak Trees, Grass, Vines, Lily Pads, Clay, Mushrooms, Slimes,	Main article: Swampland A biome characterized by a mix of flat, dry areas around the sea level and shallow pools of water with floating lily pads. Clay, sand, and dirt are commonly found at the bottom of these pools. The colors of the water, grass, leaves, and vines are much darker than in other biomes. Trees are often covered with vines and can be found growing out from the water, and mushrooms and sugar canes are very abundant. Witch huts spawn exclusively in swamps, and slimes will also spawn naturally at night, most commonly on full moons, making this a dangerous biome at night.
Jungle Jungle Trees, Jungle Temples, Ferns, Flowers, Vines, Ocelots, Cocoa Pods	Main article: Jungle A very dense, tropical biome. It features large jungle trees that can reach up to 31 blocks tall with 2x2 thick trunks. Oak trees are also common. The landscape is lush green and quite hilly, with many small lakes of water often nestled into deep valleys, sometimes above sea level. Leaves cover much of the forest floor—these "bush trees" have single-blocks of jungle wood for trunks, surrounded by oak leaves for foliage. When inside a jungle, the sky will become noticeably lighter. This is the only biome naturally containing ferns and the aforementioned jungle trees. This is one of the most dangerous biomes at night, due to the difficult terrain making getaways hard, highly obscured vision, getting lost, and if killed, finding your stuff becomes almost impossible amongst the mobs and foliage. Vines are found alongside most blocks and may be found close to the surface in caves. Ocelots, jungle temples, and cocoa plants spawn exclusively in this biome. In the addition in 13w36a, Melons were added to jungle biomes, which spawn randomly on the surface floor Warning: If you have a slow computer or your hard drive is 90% full or more, venturing into a jungle may crash Minecraft, or worse, your computer.
Ice Plains (Tundra) Snow, Snowfall, Oak Trees, Ice	Main article: Ice Plains A relatively rare but expansive, flat biome with a huge amount of snow. It does not rain in this biome — it snows instead. Lakes and rivers are frozen over. Hills tend to be more mountainous. Sugar canes will spawn in this biome, but tend to become uprooted when chunks load as the water sources freeze to ice. There are very few natural oak trees in this biome. Due to their size and the scarcity of wood, initial survival becomes difficult in comparison to other biomes.
Taiga Snow, Snowfall, Ice, Spruce Trees, Flowers, Wolves	Main article: Taiga A hilly biome densely filled with spruce trees. Grass is a dull gray-blue. Snowfall occurs in this biome, forming snow and ice. Hills are common, and wolves are found more frequently in this biome.
Extreme Hills (Mountains) Oak Trees, Flowers, Emerald Ore, Monster Egg	Main article: Extreme Hills A highly mountainous biome (with some mountains reaching y=124) with dull green-blue grass and a few scattered oak trees. Cliffs, peaks, valleys, waterfalls, overhangs, floating islands, and many other structures exist, offering outstanding views. More underground cave systems are present here than in any other biome. Falling is a significant risk, as there are many ledges and sudden drops large enough to cause severe fall damage or even death. Extreme hills are the only biomes where emerald ores and silverfish can be found naturally. In 1.7, Spruce trees will generate in this biome.
Ocean Water, Sand, Clay, Dirt, Squid	Main article: Ocean An extremely large, open biome made entirely of water, with underwater relief on the sea floor, such as small mountains and plains, usually including dirt, sand and clay. There is no maximum limit to the size of oceans.^[3] Oceans typically extend under 25,000 blocks in any direction, reaching out to 100,000 in rare circumstances. Small islands with infrequent vegetation can be found in oceans. Passive mobs are unable to spawn on these islands, but hostiles can. Cavern entrances can be found infrequently at the bottom of the ocean. Oceans can also be generated as technical biomes, appearing as deep ponds on beaches. In the Xbox 360 version, they surround the edges of the map. File:1.8 Biomes Ocean.png
Mushroom Island Mushrooms, Huge Mushrooms, Mycelium, Mooshrooms, No Hostile Mobs	Main article: Mushroom Island This rare biome consists of a mixture of flat landscape and steep hills and has mycelium instead of grass as its surface. However, if you do place down grass, it is a very bright green color compared to other biomes. Mushroom islands are always adjacent to an ocean and is often found isolated from other biomes. It is the only biome where huge mushrooms can spawn naturally, and where mushrooms can grow in full sunlight. No mobs other than Mooshrooms spawn naturally in this biome, including the usual night-time hostile mobs. This also applies to caves, abandoned mine shafts, and other structures underground, meaning exploring underground is relatively safe. However, monster spawners will still spawn mobs, and the player will still be able to breed animals and spawn mobs using items. Trees can be grown from saplings in this biome, as well as other dirt or grass-based plants, as long as they are not directly adjacent to mycelium, which will take over the dirt square from the plant and uproot it. Mycelium cannot be tilled directly, but it can be dug away and replaced as dirt, then immediately tilled. Once created, farmland can resist takeover by mycelium. File:MushroomBiome19pre.png
Hell (Nether) Magma Cubes, Netherrack, Glowstone, Soul Sand, Nether Brick, Gravel, Nether Quartz, Ghasts, Blazes, Zombie Pigmen, Nether Fortress, Wither Skeletons	Main article: The Nether This is the biome used to generate the Nether. Most of the terrain is composed entirely of expansive terrain of netherrack at all altitudes, though also spawns Nether quartz. Unlike other biomes it is enclosed by bedrock at layers 128 and 1. Lava oceans cover this biome at layer 31, while lava springs flow down from the bedrock ceiling (and occasionally from walls), making lava streams and lakes very common. Besides generating more often, lava also flows further and faster than it does in the Overworld. It is the only biome where ghasts, blazes, wither skeletons, and magma cubes naturally spawn. Glowstone is also found beneath netherrack ceilings and outcrops, while gravel and soul sand appear in layers and outcrops. Many of the creatures and resources of the Nether can only appear in Nether fortresses.
Sky (The End) End Stone, Endermen, Obsidian, Ender Crystals, The Ender Dragon	Main article: The End This biome is used to generate The End. Only Endermen and the Ender Dragon spawn in this biome. However, most of the End's structure is provided by the dimension rather than the biome. If the biome is used for a superflat world, the sky will be dark gray, an Ender Dragon will spawn at 0,0 coordinates in the Overworld, and only Endermen will spawn (at night), but the world structure will be as specified in the superflat custom options, with no obsidian towers nor Ender Crystals. The End itself is composed almost entirely of a finite, floating landmass of End Stone, studded with obsidian towers, each bearing an Ender Crystal. There is no bedrock "floor", so anything that falls off the floating island will fall into the Void.

Technical Biomes

Technical biomes are found alongside or within their larger counterparts. They are not considered true biomes but they are referred to as biomes in the code and the debug menu. However, these technical biomes serve an important role in the Minecraft world in creating more realistic terrain.

There are seven known technical biomes, although there are less-technical biomes.

Name	Description and Sample Image
River	A biome that consists of water blocks that form in an elongated, curving shape similar to a real river. Rivers cut through terrain or separate the main biomes. They attempt to join up with ocean on the other side, but will sometimes loop around to the same area of ocean. Rarely, they can have no connection to the ocean and form a circle. They have no current. Rivers are also a reliable source of clay. These biomes are good for fishing.
Frozen River	This variant of the river only spawns in tundra biomes. The surface layer of water is frozen.
Beach	Generated on the shores of oceans, beaches are composed of sand. Beaches penetrate the landscape, removing the original blocks and placing in sand blocks. These are also useful for fishing. Beaches are usually a lot bigger in a Taiga biome. For the history of beaches, see the Beach page. File:Minecraft Beaches.png
Mushroom Island Shore	Mushroom shores represent the flat shore area of the mushroom biome.
Frozen Ocean	Found near snowy biomes, frozen oceans contain ice on the top layer of water.
Extreme Hills Edge	Acts as a fringe between mountains and most other biomes. File:Extreme Hills Edge.png
Hills	Hills are generated within Forest, Taiga, Desert, Jungle, and Tundra biomes and are referred in the F3 menu as "ForestHills", "TaigaHills", etc. Forest hills seem to be generated more rarely than the other hills in their respective main biome. Tundra Hills are usually taller, with height comparable to Extreme Hills biomes. In update 1.3 hills generated in forest and desert biomes are now taller. File:2012-05-20 08.54.26.png

Upcoming Biomes

This article describes content that may be included in a future update.

This content has appeared in development versions, but the full update containing it has not been released yet.

These biomes have been released as of snapshot 13w36a, and is to be further expanded to list all new biomes released in the latest snapshot

Two other new biomes have been confirmed which currently have no image, but mentioned by Jeb at V&A.^[4] The biomes are the Birch Forest and Black Forest. Almost every biome will also have rare variations of themselves.^[5] The only confirmed variation is that on the Taiga biome, which can now generate without snow.^[6]

Name and Features	Description and Sample Image
Mesa Dead Bush, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	Main article: Biome/Mesa Mesa is an upcoming biome in 1.7 made of hardened clay and stained clay, with dead bushes around similar to a desert. It is a good way to get hardened clay, due to clay being rare.
Mega Taiga Spruce Trees, Podzol, Ferns, Moss Stone, Mushrooms, Dirt	Main article: Biome/Mega Taiga Jeb tweeted an image of a new biome, unofficially dubbed the Redwood Forest.^[7] This biome is an upcoming feature in 1.7, and is composed of spruce trees, some of which are 2x2 thick. Moss stone appears frequently in clusters, and a new block called podzol can be found in this biome. There will also be dirt that will not naturally turn into grass. Variants of this biome are Mega Spruce Taiga (featuring a different type of huge trees, looking more spruce-like and having more leaves) and the usual hill-variants.
Roofed Forest Roofed Forest Trees, Huge Mushrooms, Mushrooms, Rose Bushes	This biome, also called Black Forest, is an upcoming feature in 1.7, and is composed of trees with 2x2 trunks, a mostly closed roof of leaves, and occasional large mushrooms. Its trees are very close to each other and it has such a dense foliage that most of the forest will be dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn in day.
Birch Forest Birch Trees, Flowers	A forest made of birch trees. There is also a more hilly Birch Forest Hills variant.
Savanna Acacia Trees, Tall Grass, NPC Villages, Horses	A relatively flat biome with yellow grass and many savanna trees. NPC Villages can generate in this biome, and it is one of only two biomes (the other being plains) where horses spawn naturally. Savanna Plateau is a variant of this biome which is raised higher, but still flat on top. Rain never falls in this biome.
Extreme Hills+ Stone, Dirt, Spruce Trees	Extreme Hills+ is a variant of the regular extreme hills biome, adding a medium amount of spruce trees.
Deep Ocean Water, Gravel, Clay, Squid	A variation of the Ocean biome introduced in 13w36a. In Deep Ocean biomes, the ocean can exceed 30 blocks in depth, making it twice as deep as the normal ocean. In contrast to default oceans, the ground is mainly covered with gravel.
Taiga (snowless) Spruce Trees, Flowers, Fern, Wolves	In snapshot 13w36a, Taiga biomes don't have snow by default, the regular snow covered variant has been renamed Cold Taiga.

Upcoming Technical Biomes

Name	Description and Sample Image
Stone Beach	The stone beach was introduced in snapshot 13w36a and is a variant of the regular beach. It often appears between hills/mountains and the ocean. Depending on the height of the adjacent land, it can generate medium slopes or huge cliffs. Because of a tweet of Jeb, this biome was previously referred to as cliff biome.^[8] As no separate biome with the name "Cliff" has been confirmed as of yet and stone beaches do generate in the same way as shown in Jeb's screenshot, Jeb most likely referred to this biome. File:Stone beach.png
Cold Beach	(description needs to be added)
Jungle Edge	(description needs to be added)
Hills	More technical hills biomes were added in 13w36a to fit with the new biomes. Hills can now be generated in Birch Forest, Cold Taiga and Mega Taiga.
Plateau	Like the hills technical biome, but flattened at the top. Added for Savannas and Mesas. (Mesa Plateau F is a variant of the Mesa Plateau, adding a few layers of dirt/grass and a forest of small trees with brown leaves) File:Mesa plateau fixed.png

Upcoming Biome Variants

Name and Features	Varation Of	Description and Sample Image
Sunflower Plains Grass, Sunflowers	Plains	This biome exists in snapshot 13w36a. It is a rare plains biome variation which naturally spawns sunflowers. File:Sunflower plains.png
Desert M	Desert	(description needs to be added)
Extreme Hills M Spruce Trees, Gravel, Snow	Extreme Hills	Variant of the regular Extreme Hills biome, featuring higher mountain peaks which reach into the clouds. Mountains are composed mainly of gravel and a little bit of dirt and grass, with a small population of Spruce Trees.
Flower Forest Flowers, Trees	Forest	This biome exists in snapshot 13w36a. It is a rare variation of the forest biome, having lower amounts of trees and huge amounts of various flowers (tulips, lilac, peony, azure bluet, oxeye daisy, allium, rose bushes, poppy). File:Flower forest 2.png
Taiga M Spruce Trees, Flowers, Fern, Sheep	Taiga	Somewhat rare and mountainous version of the snowless taiga.
Swampland M	Swampland	(description needs to be added)
Ice Plains Spikes Packed Ice, Snow, Snow Block	Ice Plains	A rare variation of the Ice Plains biome introduced in 13w36a. It features Snow Blocks and large spikes of Packed Ice. Usually the spikes are only a few blocks tall, but some can reach y=120 from normal ground level.
Jungle M	Jungle	(description needs to be added)
Birch Forest M Birch Trees, Flowers	Birch Forest	A rare variation of the birch forest biome. Features taller birch trees than usual. File:Birch forest m.png
Roofed Forest M Roofed Forest Trees, Huge Mushrooms	Roofed Forest	Mountainous version of the Roofed Forest biome, with steep cliffs lining the edge. File:Roofed Forest M.png
Cold Taiga M	Cold Taiga	(description needs to be added)
Mega Spruce Taiga	Mega Taiga	Huge Trees in the Mega Spruce Taiga biome look more like large version of regular spruce trees and generally have more leaves, instead of having a large amount of bare trunk.
Extreme Hills+ M Spruce Trees, Oak Trees, Gravel, Grass	Extreme Hills+	Rare variant of the Extreme Hills+ biome. Huge gravel mountains with sparse Oak and Spruce Trees and small patches of grass. File:Extreme Hills plus M.png
Savanna M Acacia Trees, Tall Grass	Savanna	Rare variant of the Savanna biome. Giant mountains with Savanna grass and trees spawn. This variant is unique in that it can generate past the clouds without using the amplified world type, typically peaking at around y=160 to y=170, but can peak at altitudes well above y=200. File:SavannahM1.png
Savanna Plateau M	Savanna Plateau	(description needs to be added)
Mesa (Bryce) Sand, Cactus, Dead Bush, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	Mesa	Mesa (Bryce) is a rare variant of the mesa biome, featuring a low desert-like ground area with tall, thin, spire-shaped columns of hardened clay, similar to the structures in the real Bryce Canyon.
Mesa Plateau F M Trees, Dead Bush, Dirt, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	Mesa Plateau F	Mesa Plateau F M is a rare variant of the Mesa Plateau F biome. It seems to feature steeper cliffs and a more rough surface than the regular biome. (Confirmation needed, it looks very similar, so these differences could be random, too.) File:Mesa plateau f m.png
Mesa Plateau M	Mesa Plateau	(description needs to be added)

Biome numbers

Each type of biome, including technical biomes, has its own biome number, shown in the following table. These biome numbers are used when creating a customized superflat world. As of snapshot 13w36a, biome variations for most biomes have been added. They seem to have an number of 128 + <original biome number>.

Number	Biome	Variation	Variation Name
0	Ocean
1	Plains	129	Sunflower Plains*
2	Desert	130	Desert M*
3	Extreme Hills	131	Extreme Hills M*
4	Forest	132	Flower Forest*
5	Taiga	133	Taiga M*
6	Swampland	134	Swampland M*
7	River
8	Hell
9	Sky
10	FrozenOcean
11	FrozenRiver
12	Ice Plains	140	Ice Plains Spikes*
13	Ice Mountains
14	MushroomIsland
15	MushroomIslandShore
16	Beach
17	DesertHills
18	ForestHills
19	TaigaHills
20	Extreme Hills Edge
21	Jungle	149	Jungle M*
22	JungleHills
23	JungleEdge*
24	Deep Ocean*
25	Stone Beach*
26	Cold Beach*
27	Birch Forest*	155	Birch Forest M*
28	Birch Forest Hills*	156	Birch Forest Hills M*
29	Roofed Forest*	157	Roofed Forest M*
30	Cold Taiga*	158	Cold Taiga M*
31	Cold Taiga Hills*
32	Mega Taiga*	160	Mega Spruce Taiga*
33	Mega Taiga Hills*	161	Mega Spruce Taiga*
34	Extreme Hills+*	162	Extreme Hills+ M*
35	Savanna*	163	Savanna M*
36	Savanna Plateau*	164	Savanna Plateau M*
37	Mesa*	165	Mesa (Bryce)*
38	Mesa Plateau F*	166	Mesa Plateau F M*
39	Mesa Plateau*	167	Mesa Plateau M*

(*) Biomes that were added in 13w36a.

Video

Biome/video

History

Biome history

Notch, when he was the lead developer of Minecraft, wanted to add biomes, but he couldn't for a long time. He says the intersection points looked terrible and so, biomes weren't added in the Seecret Updates.^{[citation needed]}

{{History||1.7|snap=13w36a|Mesa, Mega Taiga, Roofed Forest, Birch Forest, Savanna, Extreme Hills+, Deep Ocean and snowless Taiga biomes were added as well as many technical biomes and variations for many of the biomes.

alpha
1.2							Added biomes. {"type": "alpha", "version": "1.2", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Added biomes."}
beta
1.8							Biomes got an overhaul, removing some biomes, such as the tundra and the taiga, and others replaced with nine fractal-based biomes that were a mix of the previous biomes and new biomes. {"type": "beta", "version": "1.8", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Biomes got an overhaul, removing some biomes, such as the tundra and the taiga, and others replaced with nine fractal-based biomes that were a mix of the previous biomes and new biomes."}
r
1.0							Re-added tundra and added Mushroom Islands. {"type": "r", "version": "1.0", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Re-added tundra and added Mushroom Islands."}
1.1							Re-added snow in taigas, added hills and beaches. {"type": "r", "version": "1.1", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Re-added snow in taigas, added hills and beaches."}
1.2							Added Jungle biome. {"type": "r", "version": "1.2", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Added Jungle biome."}
1.3							Hills in forests and deserts are taller. {"type": "r", "version": "1.3", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Hills in forests and deserts are taller."}
1.6							Water lakes no longer spawn in deserts. {"type": "r", "version": "1.6", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Water lakes no longer spawn in deserts."}
Upcoming

Anvil file format

The Anvil file format allows for biomes to be stored in the world data. In contrast, the Region file format relies on the seed to dynamically calculate biome placement. This would cause biome placement in older worlds to change when the biome generation code was changed. With the current Anvil format, the biome data is stored along with the rest of the world data, meaning it will not change after the world is generated and can be edited by third-party map-editing tools. Furthermore, "edge" biomes allow for biomes to continue extend beyond the edge chunks of an old world. This allows for smooth transitions in world generation after the generation code changes in an update.

Issues

Issues relating to "Biome" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

This is the biome colors template for 1.2.5

This is the biome colors template for 1.2.5
The biomes graph from Notch. It was changed since the 1.8 update, with new biomes added.
The old biomes graph with linear axes.
A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the grass at certain temperatures and rainfalls.
A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the leaf blocks at certain temperatures and rainfalls.
A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the water at certain temperatures and rainfalls.
A small area of a jungle with incorrect coloring data.
A jungle sunset.
The color of the sky in two different biomes.
A swamp spawned in the middle of an Ocean, causing miscolored water and Lily Pads without any actual swampland.
A Desert with a Jungle right beside it.

References

↑ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, "Biome", accessed 20 April 2012
↑ Dictionary.com Unabridged, "biome", accessed 20 April 2012
↑ http://i.imgur.com/X3NJf.png
↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/1lfcm0/ive_just_got_back_from_jens_talk_at_the_va_and_he/
↑ https://mojang.com/2013/08/minecraft-world-generator-update/
↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/1lfcm0/ive_just_got_back_from_jens_talk_at_the_va_and_he/
↑ https://twitter.com/jeb_/status/365099357625778177
↑ https://twitter.com/jeb_/status/365794828153389056

@@ Line 420: / Line 420: @@
 | Mega Taiga
+| Huge Trees in the Mega Spruce Taiga biome look more like large version of regular spruce trees and generally have more leaves, instead of having a large amount of bare trunk.
-| (description needs to be added)
-|-
-| '''Mega Spruce Taiga''' (Hills)
-| Mega Taiga Hills
-| (description needs to be added)
 |-
 | '''Extreme Hills+ M'''