Biomes

What Are Biomes?

Biomes are often referred to as “ecosystems.” They’re large areas separated from each other by climate and geography. In Minecraft, just like the real world, each biome has its own set of geographical features, elevations of natural formations, plants and animals, temperatures, humidity ratings, weather, and sky and foliage colors.

The mixture of different biomes creates the world you explore in Minecraft. The specific set of biomes used to generate a world is called a “seed.” When you first create your Minecraft world, you have the option to use a randomly generated world (a random seed) or enter a known seed. Although you may be familiar with some features available in a known seed, your experience in the world will still be unique; the only difference is that you may be more experienced with nearby environments or interesting locations.

Biome Categories

Regardless of how your world is created, you soon find yourself in one of several possible biomes. You can tell which biome you’re in simply by looking around and examining the terrain’s color, the number of mountains and hills, and the kinds of trees. The types of blocks that are immediately available to you also provide a good indication.

If you don’t like the biome in your starting location, you have two options. First, you can restart and generate a different world. Each time you create a world, you start in a different location (you may not get a different biome; some biomes are more common than others). The second option is to pick a direction and run as fast and as far as possible. If you’re still in a region you don’t like by the time night falls, dig a hole three blocks deep, cap it off with a ceiling block, and wait inside for day to break. Either way, you’ll eventually arrive at a biome with your preferred conditions.

The biome types in Minecraft are divided by temperature. There are five categories: snowy, cold, medium, dry/warm, and neutral. The temperature ranges prevent biomes with large differences from being next to each other; for example, deserts aren’t found next to ice plains.

Weather

A biome’s temperature range also determines its weather. Depending on where you are, your biome may have snow, rain, both, or neither. In game terms, both snow and rain are considered the same weather effect, but whether you get snow or rain varies according to biome type. If a non-snowy biome touches a snowy biome, there can be both rain and snow. The required values for different weather conditions are <0.15 for snow, 0.15-0.95 for rain, and >1.0 for none.

Elevation also plays a role in weather. An area with hills or mountains has a greater chance to have snow over rain. In the same way, a low, hot region of desert has no rain or snow at all.

Noteworthy weather can occur during the day or night. Usually, weather occurs every seven Minecraft days and continues for 15 minutes. If you don’t like the weather, you can use a Bed to sleep through it during evenings or thunderstorms.

Both rain and snow have a chance to form thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are relatively rare occurrences, but their dark conditions and potential for lightning make them more dangerous than other weather. Even if it’s daytime during a thunderstorm, the low light causes monsters to spawn. There’s also the potential for lightning to strike enemies. Creepers that are struck by lightning do a huge amount of damage, so be on the lookout at all times.

Possible Effects of Lightning

• Starts fires
• Turns Pigs into Zombie Pigmen
• Supercharges Creepers (watch out!)
• Damages players
• Turns Villagers into Witches (requires Version 1.8)

Biome Types

There are 61 total biomes. Some are quite similar to others, but each has a few distinct elements. Your current biome determines the availability of various blocks, plants, and creatures.

Snowy Biomes

Cold Biomes

Medium Biomes

Dry/Warm Biomes

Neutral Biomes