Biome

A river bisecting a jungle biome. At the top right is a forest.

Αρχείο:Screenshot of River through Mesa v1.7.2.png

A river running through a mesa biome with mesa plateaus, with a savanna biome in the bottom right.

	“	In case you don’t know what a “biome” is, it’s a climate zone used in the game to set what kind of surface the ground has (sand? grass?), whether it should rain or snow, what trees grow there, and sometimes also what kind of animals that are allowed to spawn there.	„
		—Jens Bergensten

Biomes are regions in a Minecraft world with varying geographical features, flora, heights, temperatures, humidity ratings, and sky and foliage colors. Biomes separate every generated world into different environments, such as forests, jungles, deserts, and taigas.

Temperature

Biomes have a temperature value that determines if it snows, rains, or does not have either. The required values are less than 0.15 for snow, 0.15 - 0.95 for rain, or greater than 1.0 for neither. These values can be used to determine the heights that snow generates in different biomes. The temperature also drops 0.00166667 per meter above sea level (Y=64). For example, extreme hills generate snow at Y=95, due to highland climate, as the base value is 0.2, and savannas do not experience rain or snow due to their heat.

Biomes are split into 5 categories based on their temperature: snow-covered, cold, medium, dry/warm, and neutral. They were separated to prevent biomes with huge temperature differences being placed side-by-side (such as cold taiga next to a desert), and to allow biomes with similar temperatures to be placed next to each other more often. (Such as forest and swampland)

Biome types

There are 38 main biomes in the Overworld (with two being unused), one in The Nether, one in The End and 23 technical biomes, bringing the total number to 63 distinct biomes. 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.

Biomes are separated into 5 categories. The snow-covered biomes are marked in blue, cold in green, medium/lush in orange and dry/warm in red. The biomes which are not labeled are either neutral or unknown. Temperatures are given at sea level.

Snowy biomes

In these biomes, it snows at any height. The foliage and grass is a dark aqua-green.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
12	Ice Plains Temperature: 0.0 Snow, Snowfall, Oak Trees, Ice, Spruce Trees, Igloos, Strays, White and some Black & White Rabbits, Polar Bears, Occasional Tall Grass	A somewhat rare but expansive, flat biome with a huge amount of snow. All sources of water exposed to the sky are frozen over. Sugar cane will generate in this biome, but can become uprooted when chunks load as the water sources freeze to ice. There are very few natural oak and spruce trees in this biome. It has a lower chance of spawning passive mobs during world generation than other biomes (7% versus 10%), however it is one of the few biomes where Polar bears and Strays spawn. Due to the biome's size, snow and ice cover, and scarcity of wood and animals, initial survival becomes difficult in comparison to other biomes.	300px
140	Ice Plains Spikes Temperature: 0.0 Packed Ice, Snow, Snow Blocks, Strays, White and some Black & White Rabbits, Polar Bears, Ice Spikes	A rare variation of the Ice Plains biome that features large spikes of packed ice, as well as packed ice 'lakes'. Usually the spikes are 10 to 20 blocks tall, but some long, thin spikes can reach over 50 blocks in height. All grass blocks in this biome are replaced with blocks of snow. It has a lower chance of spawning passive mobs during world generation than other biomes (7% versus 10%).
30	Cold Taiga Temperature: -0.5 Snow, Snowfall, Ice, Spruce Trees, Flowers, Wolves, White and some Black & White Rabbits, Igloos	A snowy variation of the taiga biome, where ferns(and large ferns) and spruce trees grow. It is one of the few places where wolves will naturally spawn.	300px
158	Cold Taiga M Temperature: -0.5 Spruce Trees, Snow, Snowfall, Ferns, Wolves, White and some Black & White Rabbits	Large, mountainous version of the snowy taiga.	300px
11	Frozen River Temperature: 0.0 Ice, Water, Sand, Clay	This variant of river only generates in ice plains biomes. The surface layer of water is frozen.
26	Cold Beach Temperature: 0.05 Sand, Snow, Snowfall, Ice	A beach with snowy weather conditions. Often found when the Ice Plain biome borders an ocean biome.	300px

Cold biomes

In these biomes, it begins to snow over a certain height, but before the 256 block height limit. Otherwise, it rains. The foliage and grass is an aqua-green.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
3	Extreme Hills Temperature: 0.2 Oak Trees, Spruce Trees, Gravel Flowers, Emerald Ore, Monster Egg, Llamas	A highland biome (with some mountaintops reaching y=130 or even higher) with a few scattered oak and spruce trees. Cliffs, peaks, valleys, waterfalls, overhangs, floating islands, caverns, and many other structures exist, offering outstanding views. This is one of the few biomes where llamas spawn naturally. Snowfall also occurs above certain heights, thus creating "snow caps" on the top of the mountains. Falling is a significant risk, as there are many steep ledges 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.	300px
131	Extreme Hills M Temperature: 0.2 Spruce Trees, Oak Trees, Gravel, Snow	Variant of the regular extreme hills biome that features higher mountain peaks, most of which reach into the clouds. Mountains here are composed mainly of gravel and a little bit of dirt and grass, with a sparse population of spruce and oak trees.	300px
34	Extreme Hills+ Temperature: 0.2 Stone, Dirt, Spruce Trees, Oak Trees	A variant of the regular extreme hills biome, adding larger mountains, steeper cliffs, and a moderate amount of spruce trees and scattered oak trees.	300px
162	Extreme Hills+ M Temperature: 0.2 Spruce Trees, Oak Trees, Gravel, Grass	A rare variant of the extreme hills+ biome where huge gravel mountains appear, with sparse oak and spruce trees and small patches of grass.
5	Taiga Temperature: 0.25 Spruce Trees, Flowers, Fern, Wolves, Brown, salt & pepper and black rabbits, Villages[Computer and Pocket editions]	A biome densely filled with spruce trees, ferns and large ferns. Wolves tend to spawn here fairly commonly.	300px
133	Taiga M Temperature: 0.25 Spruce Trees, Flowers, Ferns, Sheep, Brown, salt & pepper and black rabbits	Mountainous version of the regular taiga biome.
32	Mega Taiga Temperature: 0.3 Spruce Trees, Podzol, Ferns, Wolves, Brown, salt & pepper and black rabbits, Moss Stone, Mushrooms, Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Dead Bush	Mega taiga is an uncommon biome composed of spruce trees, much like the standard taiga biome. However, some trees are 2×2 thick and very tall, not unlike large jungle trees. Moss stone boulders appear frequently, brown mushrooms are common and podzol can be found along the forest floor. There are also patches of coarse dirt, which will not grow grass. Wolves may also spawn here, as they do in normal taiga biomes.	300px
160	Mega Spruce Taiga Temperature: 0.25 Spruce Trees, Podzol, Ferns, Grass, Moss Stone, Mushrooms, Dirt	A variation of the mega taiga. In this biome there is a much higher density of smaller spruce trees. Also, the tall trees look very similar to regular spruce trees, as opposed to the short-topped trees in the normal mega taiga biome.	300px
25	Stone Beach Temperature: 0.2 Stone, Gravel, Water	This stone-covered biome often appears adjacent to mountains and the ocean. Depending on the height of the nearby land, it can generate medium slopes or huge cliffs.	300px
9	The End Temperature: 0.5 End Stone, Endermen, Obsidian, End Crystals, the Ender Dragon, Chorus Plants, End Cities, Shulkers, Purpur Block, End Stone Bricks	Main article: The End This biome is used to generate the End. The ender dragon, and large amounts of endermen, spawn in this biome. Most of the End's structure is provided by the dimension itself rather than the biome. It does not rain or snow in this biome unlike the other low temperature biomes. The outer islands in the End can be accessed using the End gateway portal after the ender dragon has been defeated. These contain endermen, chorus plants and End cities. End cites are the only place where shulkers naturally spawn .If the biome is used for a superflat world, the sky will be dark gray and an ender dragon will spawn at 0,0 coordinates in the Overworld. Only endermen will spawn at night.	300px300px

Medium/Lush biomes

In these biomes, it begins snowing over the 256 blocks height limit. Otherwise, it rains. The foliage and grass is a vibrant light green, except swamps and roofed forests, which have a dark green grass. Rivers are also exempt from this, as they have a dull blue hue.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
1	Plains Temperature: 0.8 Tall Grass, Grass, Flowers, NPC Villages, Horses, Donkeys, Oak Trees	A relatively flat and grassy biome with rolling hills and few trees. Gullies, water holes, and NPC villages are common. Cave openings and water or lava springs are easily identifiable due to the flat unobstructed terrain. Passive mobs spawn often in plains biomes; this biome and its variants are also one of the only biomes where horses spawn naturally.	300px
129	Sunflower Plains Temperature: 0.8 Grass, Sunflowers, Horses, Oak Trees	A rare variation of the plains biome, where sunflowers naturally spawn in abundance.	300px
4	Forest Temperature: 0.7 Oak and Birch Trees, Flowers, Wolves, Mushrooms	A biome with a lot of oak and birch trees, occasional hills, and a fair amount of tall grass. Mushrooms and flowers can occasionally be found here. This is one of the most preferred biomes to start out in, due to the abundance of wood. However, the frequency of trees also makes it dangerous to navigate at night, due to obscured vision. Forest biomes are also one of the smallest biomes.	300px
132	Flower Forest Temperature: 0.7 Flowers, Trees, Brown, salt & pepper and black rabbits	A variant of the forest biome that has fewer trees but has a huge amount of various flowers. There are certain flowers that are exclusive to the flower forest.	300px
27	Birch Forest Temperature: 0.6 Birch Trees, Flowers	A forest made solely out of birch trees.	300px
155	Birch Forest M Temperature: 0.6 Tall Birch Trees, Flowers	A variation of the birch forest biome which features taller birch trees than usual.	300px
29	Roofed Forest Temperature: 0.7 Dark Oak Trees, Huge Mushrooms, Mushrooms, Rose Bushes Woodland Mansions	This biome is composed of dark oak trees, a mostly closed roof of leaves, and occasional large mushrooms. Trees in this forest are so plentiful and so close together, that at some spots it may become dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn, even during the day. Rarely, a woodland mansion may spawn.[Computer edition only]	300px
157	Roofed Forest M Temperature: 0.7 Dark Oak Trees, Huge Mushrooms Woodland Mansions	A mountainous version of the roofed forest biome, with steep cliffs lining the edge.	300px
6	Swampland Temperature: 0.8 Witch Huts, Oak Trees, Grass, Vines, Lily Pads, Clay, Mushrooms, Slimes, Huge Mushrooms[Pocket edition only], Fossils	A biome characterized by a mix of flat, dry areas around sea level and shallow pools of brackish green water with floating lily pads. Clay, sand, and dirt are commonly found at the bottom of these pools. Trees are often covered with dark green vines, and can be found growing out from the water. Mushrooms and sugar canes are very abundant; huge mushrooms will spawn in this biome[Pocket edition only]. Witch huts generate exclusively in swamps. Slimes will also spawn naturally at night, most commonly on full moons, making this an especially dangerous biome at night. Temperature varies randomly within the biome, not affected by altitude, causing foliage and grass colors to vary. The water is dark gray instead of blue[Pocket edition only].
134	Swampland M Temperature: 0.8 Swamp Trees, Vines, Lilypads, Water, Witches, Fossils	A slightly hillier swampland with greener grass. Witch huts do not generate in this biome, unlike the normal swampland biome.	300px
21	Jungle Temperature: 0.95 Jungle Trees, Jungle Temples, Ferns, Flowers, Vines, Ocelots, Cocoa Pods, Melons	A very dense, but rather uncommon tropical biome. It features large jungle trees that can reach up to 31 blocks tall with 2×2 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. When inside a jungle, the sky will become noticeably lighter. Vines are found alongside most blocks and may cover the surface of caves. Ocelots, jungle temples, melons, and cocoa plants can be found exclusively in this biome. Melons generate in small patches, similar to pumpkins.	300px
149	Jungle M Temperature: 0.95 Jungle Trees, Jungle Temples, Ferns, Flowers, Vines, Ocelots, Cocoa Pods, Melons	Much more mountainous version of the normal jungle, with foliage so thick that the ground is barely visible. A very resource-demanding biome. Due to the hilly nature of the terrain in this biome, and the height of the tall jungle trees, trees frequently reach into and go above the clouds. Extremely dense foliage and treacherous hilly terrain make this a very difficult biome to navigate, especially at night.
23	Jungle Edge Temperature: 0.95 Jungle Trees, Ferns, Melons, Flowers, Vines, Ocelots	A very rare biome that only generates at the border of a jungle biome and any other biome. Similar to a jungle but with much fewer and smaller trees, and relatively flat terrain.
151	Jungle Edge M Temperature: 0.95 Jungle Trees, Oak Trees, Grass, Flowers, Vines,Melons	One of the rarest biomes in the game. A slightly more mountainous variation of the jungle edge biome, which only generates on the border of a jungle M and another biome. There are very few to no tall trees in this relatively tiny biome.
7	River Temperature: 0.5 Water, Sand, Clay	A biome that consists of water blocks that form an elongated, curving shape similar to a real river. Unlike real rivers, however, they have no current. 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 a dull green grass hue, much like the ocean, and trace amounts of oak trees tend to generate there as well. Rivers are also a reliable source of clay. These biomes are good for fishing.
16	Beach Temperature: 0.8 Sand, Gravel, Water	Generated on the shores of oceans, beaches are composed of sand. Beaches penetrate the landscape, removing the original blocks and placing in sand blocks. Some beaches generate with gravel instead of sand. These are also useful for fishing. For the history of beaches, see the Beach page.	300px
14	Mushroom Island Temperature: 0.9 Mushrooms, Huge Mushrooms, Mycelium, Mooshrooms, No Hostile Mobs	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, not unlike that of the jungle. Mushroom islands are most often adjacent to an ocean and are often found isolated from other biomes. It is one of the only biomes where huge mushrooms can generate naturally, and where mushrooms can grow in full sunlight. Technically 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 dark structures, meaning exploring underground is supposedly safe. However, mob spawners will still spawn mobs, and the player will also still be able to breed animals and spawn mobs using eggs.	300px
15	Mushroom Island Shore Temperature: 0.9 Mushrooms, Huge Mushrooms, Mycelium, Mooshrooms, No Hostile Mobs	Mushroom shores represent the flat shore area of the mushroom biome.	300px

Dry/Warm biomes

In these biomes, it neither rains nor snows at all, but the sky will still turn overcast during inclement weather. The foliage and grass is an olive color, except mesa biomes, which have brown grass.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
2	Desert Temperature: 2.0 Sand, Cacti, Dead Bushes, Sandstone, Sugar Cane, Desert wells, Desert Temples, NPC Villages, Gold Rabbits, Fossils	A barren and relatively inhospitable biome consisting mostly of sand dunes, dead bushes, and cacti. Sandstone is commonly found underneath the sand. The only passive mobs to spawn naturally in deserts are gold rabbits, their coloring well-camouflaged against the sand. 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 villages, desert wells and desert temples are found exclusively in this biome. This biome sometimes appear as edge of mesa biome.
130	Desert M Temperature: 2.0 Sand, Cacti, Water, Sugar Canes, Gold Rabbits, Fossils	Unlike in normal deserts, patches of water can be found in this biome.	300px
35	Savanna Temperature: 1.2 Acacia Trees, Tall Grass, NPC Villages, Horses, Cows, Sheep, Llamas	A relatively flat and dry biome with a dry grass color and scattered acacia trees. Villages can generate in this biome, and it is the only biome where both horses and llamas spawn naturally.	300px
163	Savanna M Temperature: 1.2 Acacia Trees, Tall Grass	Variant of the savanna biome. Dirt paths and giant mountains are prevalent in this biome. However, this biome is unique in that its mountains can generate past the clouds, and even to the world height limit, without using the AMPLIFIED world type.	300px
37	Mesa Temperature: 2.0 Dead Bushes, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay, Red Sand, Cacti, Red Sandstone, Above ground mineshafts, Gold ore	A rare biome consisting of hardened clay, stained clay, and dead bushes – similar to a desert. Red sand will also generate here instead of regular sand, with occasional cacti. Its composition is useful when other sources of clay are scarce. However, finding mesa biomes can be difficult due to their rarity. On the other hand, it offers great variety - there are a total of 6 variations of this biome to explore. Mesas can contain above ground abandoned mineshafts. They also allow gold ore to generate near surface levels, rather than just at layer 32 and below.	300px
165	Mesa (Bryce) Temperature: 2.0 Red Sand, Cacti, Red Sandstone, Dead Bushes, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	Mesa (Bryce) is a 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.	300px
38	Mesa Plateau F Temperature: 2.0 Oak trees, Dead Bushes, Dirt, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	A rare variation of the mesa plateau, where small forests of dry oak trees and grass generate at the top of the plateaus.	300px
166	Mesa Plateau F M Temperature: 2.0 Oak trees, Dead Bushes, Dirt, Hardened Clay, 6 colors of Stained Clay	Very rare variant of the Mesa Plateau F biome. Features steeper cliffs than the normal Mesa Plateau F biome, with a reduced occurrence of trees and smaller, more erratic hills.	300px
36, 39	Plateau Temperature: Same as their respective base biomes.	Like the hills biomes, but flattened at the top, coming to rest at about 20 to 30 blocks above sea level. Only generates in savanna and mesa biomes.	300px
164, 167	Plateau M Temperature: Same as their respective base biomes.	Similar variant of the plateau biomes, which are themselves a variant. The mesa plateau M biome features slightly flatter terrain and smaller plateaus in general, compared to the average mesa plateau biome. On the contrary, the savanna plateau M biome features incredibly large and steep cliffs that jut violently out of the terrain, compared to the regular savanna plateau; these cliffs generally exceed cloud height, sometimes above y=200, and sometimes even border the world height limit.	300px 300px
8	Hell (The Nether) Magma Cubes, Netherrack, Glowstone, Soul Sand, Nether Brick, Gravel, Nether Quartz, Ghasts, Blazes, Skeletons, Zombie Pigmen, Nether Fortresses, Wither Skeletons, Nether Wart, Lava, Endermen, Magma Blocks	Main article: The Nether This is the biome used to generate the Nether. In a Superflat world using this biome, the Overworld will contain only Nether mobs (ghasts, packs of zombie pigmen and occasional magma cubes) and won't receive rain, but it won't have Nether structures (such as Nether quartz or glowstone veins or Nether fortresses), and it can still have water lakes and mineshafts, beds will also explode in this biome, even when in the Overworld.

Neutral and other biomes

These biomes are usually covered with water and have very little land exposed. Either that, or they have many variants of themselves which are also variants of other non-neutral biomes.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
0	Ocean Temperature: 0.5 Water, Gravel, Squid	A large, open biome made entirely of water going up to y=63, with underwater relief on the sea floor, such as small mountains and plains, usually including gravel. Oceans typically extend under 3,000 blocks in any direction, around 60% of the Overworld's surface is covered in Ocean. 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. In the Console versions, they surround the edges of the map.	300px
24	Deep Ocean Temperature: 0.5 Water, Gravel, Clay, Squid, Guardians, Elder Guardians, Ocean monuments	A variation of the Ocean biome. 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. Ocean monuments generate in deep oceans, which spawn guardians.	300px
13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28, 31, 33, 156, 161	Hills Temperature: Same as their respective base biomes.	Hills are generated within certain biomes (including some of their variants) and are referred in the F3 menu with Hills or Mountains added to their name. This includes: Forest Hills, Taiga Hills, Cold Taiga Hills, Jungle Hills, Desert Hills, Birch Forest Hills (M), Mega Taiga Hills, Redwood Taiga Hills, and Ice Mountains. Ice Mountains are usually taller, with height comparable to Extreme Hills biomes, and has a lower chance of spawning passive mobs during world generation than other biomes (7% versus 10%).	300px300px300px

Unused biomes

These biomes don't generate in default worlds, but they can be accessed by using the Customized world type.

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
(128)	Plains M Temperature: 0.8 Tall Grass, Grass, Flowers, Horses	A variant of the Plains biome with occasional water patches and slightly hillier terrain.
(10)	FrozenOcean Temperature: 0.0 Ice, Water, Gravel, Squid	A variant of the ocean biome that is completely frozen over. However, warmer rivers occasionally run through it.	300px
(20)	Extreme Hills Edge Temperature: 0.2 Grass, Dirt, Stone, Pigs, Sheep, Cows, Wolves, Spruce trees, Oak trees, Snow (occasionally)	Similar to the jungle edge sub-biome, this sub-biome generates exclusively at the edge of extreme hills biomes (or any variant).	300px

Other biomes

Biome ID	Name and Features	Description	Images
127	The Void Temperature: 0.0 Stone, Cobblestone	A completely empty biome that generates only a single structure: a 33×33 stone platform with a single block of cobblestone in the center. Can only be accessed through The Void superflat preset, or through Customized worlds.	300px

Biome IDs

Main article: Data values§ Biome IDs

Each type of biome has its own biome number, shown in the following table. These biome numbers are used when creating a customized superflat world. Main biomes have an ID number from 0 to 39, while biome variations normally have an ID number of 128 + <original biome number>. Three biomes, FrozenOcean (10), Extreme Hills Edge (20) and Plains M (128) are no longer naturally generated.

Number	Biome Name (Alternative Name)	Color / Variation Color		Variation Number	Variation Name
0	Ocean	000070		N/A	N/A
1	Plains	8DB360	N/A	(128)	Plains M
			B5DB88	129	Sunflower Plains
2	Desert	FA9418	FFBC40	130	Desert M
3	Extreme Hills	606060	888888	131	Extreme Hills M
4	Forest	056621	6A7425	132	Flower Forest
5	Taiga	0B6659	596651	133	Taiga M
6	Swampland	07F9B2	2FFFDA	134	Swampland M
7	River	0000FF		N/A	N/A
8	Hell	FF0000		N/A	N/A
9	The End (Sky)	8080FF		N/A	N/A
(10)	FrozenOcean	9090A0		N/A	N/A
11	FrozenRiver	A0A0FF		N/A	N/A
12	Ice Plains	FFFFFF	B4DCDC	140	Ice Plains Spikes
13	Ice Mountains	A0A0A0		N/A	N/A
14	MushroomIsland	FF00FF		N/A	N/A
15	MushroomIslandShore	A000FF		N/A	N/A
16	Beach	FADE55		N/A	N/A
17	DesertHills	D25F12		N/A	N/A
18	ForestHills	22551C		N/A	N/A
19	TaigaHills	163933		N/A	N/A
(20)	Extreme Hills Edge	72789A		N/A	N/A
21	Jungle	537B09	7BA331	149	Jungle M
22	JungleHills	2C4205		N/A	N/A
23	JungleEdge	628B17	8AB33F	151	JungleEdge M
24	Deep Ocean	000030		N/A	N/A
25	Stone Beach	A2A284		N/A	N/A
26	Cold Beach	FAF0C0		N/A	N/A
27	Birch Forest	307444	589C6C	155	Birch Forest M
28	Birch Forest Hills	1F5F32	47875A	156	Birch Forest Hills M
29	Roofed Forest	40511A	687942	157	Roofed Forest M
30	Cold Taiga	31554A	597D72	158	Cold Taiga M
31	Cold Taiga Hills	243F36		N/A	N/A
32	Mega Taiga	596651	6B5F4C	160	Mega Spruce Taiga
33	Mega Taiga Hills	545F3E	6D7766	161	Redwood Taiga Hills M
34	Extreme Hills+	507050	789878	162	Extreme Hills+ M
35	Savanna	BDB25F	E5DA87	163	Savanna M
36	Savanna Plateau	A79D64	CFC58C	164	Savanna Plateau M
37	Mesa	D94515	FF6D3D	165	Mesa (Bryce)
38	Mesa Plateau F	B09765	D8BF8D	166	Mesa Plateau F M
39	Mesa Plateau	CA8C65	F2B48D	167	Mesa Plateau M
127	The Void	N/A		N/A	N/A

Technical details

grass.png

foliage.png

The temperature and rainfall values of the biome are used to change the colors of grass, foliage, and (for swamplands) water.

A biome's rainfall value is typically a value from 0.0 to 1.0. A biome's temperature starts at a given value at sea level, Y=64, and goes down by 0.00166667 per meter increase. Starting values range from 2.0 (e.g., Desert) to -0.5 (e.g., Cold Taiga). The temperature does not increase below sea level.

The temperature and rainfall values are used to access two texture images in Minecraft, grass.png and foliage.png, in \assets\minecraft\textures\colormap. These textures are triangular, only the lower left is used, despite the upper right of the foliage file having colors. The adjusted temperature and adjusted rainfall values are used to access these two triangles. Treating the lower left corner as temperature = 1.0 and rainfall = 0.0, with adjusted temperature decreasing to 0.0 at the right edge and adjusted rainfall increasing to 1.0 at the top edge, the values used to retrieve the colors are computed as follows:

AdjTemp = clamp( Temperature, 0.0, 1.0 )

AdjRainfall = clamp( Rainfall, 0.0, 1.0 ) * AdjTemp

"clamp" limits the range of the temperature and rainfall to 0.0-1.0. The clamped rainfall value is then multiplied by the 0.0-1.0 adjusted temperature value, which brings its value to be inside the lower left triangle. Some biomes' ranges are shown on the right; the multiplication makes all the line segments point towards the lower right corner.

The color for grass block top and sides, along with various forms of grass – specifically tall grass, ferns, double tall grass, and large ferns – is modified by the color retrieved from the grass.png image. The color for various tree foliage - all tree types except spruce and birch, which have fixed colors in the code – is modified by the color retrieved from foliage.png.

At borders between or among biomes, the colors of the block and its eight neighbors are computed and the average is used for the final block color.

Exact temperature and rainfall values for biomes can be found in various projects, e.g. this biome code.

Swampland color

Swamplands are special. Temperature, which starts at 0.8, is not affected by altitude. Rather, a Perlin noise function is used to gradually vary the temperature of the swampland. When this temperature goes below -0.1, a lush green color is used, 0x4C763C, otherwise it is set to a sickly brown, 0x6A7039. In addition, the color of the water in swamplands is always multiplied by a greenish tinge, 0xE0FFAE. These colors are locked in the code and not retrievable from any texture.

Roofed forest color

The roofed forest biomes' grass color is retrieved normally, then averaged with a dark green color, 0x28340A, to produce the final color.

Mesa color

All mesa biomes' grass and foliage have hardwired colors, two tan colors, 0x90814D and 0x9E814D respectively. These are not modifiable by grass.png and foliage.png and unaffected by temperature.

Achievements

Videos

Main article: Biome/video

[edit]

History

Alpha
1.0.4				Added Winter Mode. Maps now have a snowy or grassy theme randomly determined when creating the world.
1.2.0				Added biomes; they were rain forest, seasonal forest, forest, shrubland, taiga, tundra, savanna, plains, swampland, desert, and frozen desert.
				World saves remained unchanged, other than a change in the hue of the grass. If the player moves into ungenerated chunks, the new biomes would generate.
Beta
1.6				Added the Sky Dimension with its own biome. It could only be viewed through the use of mods and hacks.
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. See here for more details.
Official release
1.0.0				Re-added tundra (as ice plains) and added Mushroom Islands.
1.1				Re-added snow in taigas, added hills and beaches.
				Smoothed color transitions between biomes – swampland grass, foliage and water smoothly transition into other biomes.
1.2.1		12w03a		Added jungle biome.
		12w07a		The Anvil file format was introduced and it 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.
1.3.1				Hills in forests and deserts are taller.
1.6.1		13w17a		Water lakes no longer generate in deserts.
1.7.2		August 2, 2013		Jens Bergensten tweeted the first image of the mesa biome. He jokingly referred to them as "disco mountains."
		August 7, 2013		Jens tweeted the first image of a mega taiga, unofficially dubbed the Redwood Forest. The name was changed following 1.7's release.
		August 9, 2013		Jens tweeted the first image of a stone beach, which was then referred to as a "cliff" biome.
		13w36a		Mesa, mega taiga, roofed forest, birch forest, savanna, extreme hills+, deep ocean and snowless taiga biomes were added as well as variations for many of the biomes. Biomes were also separated by temperature, and snowing was added to extreme hills.
				Biomes will attempt to avoid getting placed next to a biome that is too different from itself, temperature-wise.
				The frozen ocean and extreme hills edge biomes no longer generate naturally.
				Biome-hopping achievement "Adventuring Time" added, but it was broken until 1.8 making the goal of getting all achievements impossible in 1.7.
		13w39a		Red sand now generates in mesa biomes and their variants.
		13w43a		Savannas and roofed forest biomes now generate with new logs and leaves.
1.8		14w17a		The End's biome name is now "The End" instead of "Sky".
				Adventuring Time is now available without commands. Before, the 38 biomes had to be visited without visiting any other biomes, which made the achievement unavailable because the End has to be visited for its prerequisite, The End?. The “no other biomes” restriction is now lifted.
				Visiting the frozen ocean and extreme hills edge biomes, which no longer generate since 13w36a, is no longer required for Adventuring Time.
		14w26a		Changed generation of marsh-like areas in swamp biomes.
		14w32a		Red sandstone now generates below red sand in mesa biomes and their variants.
1.9		15w37a		Add new biome "The Void", which is used in Superflat preset "The Void".
1.10		16w20a		Plains and sunflower plains now have some trees (5% of chunks). 1⁄3 large oaks, 2⁄3 normal oaks.
				Ice plains, ice plains spikes and ice mountains now have a lower chance of spawning passive mobs during world generation than other biomes (7% versus 10%).
				In mesa biomes, hardened clay and stained clay no longer generate more than 15 blocks deep, if the mesa is more than 15 blocks above sea level. In addition to the normal 2 veins of gold ore below Y=32, now attempts to generate 20 veins at elevations between 32 and 79. Also can generate dark oak abandoned mineshafts above ground.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.9.0		build 1		All biomes as of PC version 1.7.2 have been added. These include: Jungles, mesa, plains, roofed forests, savannas, taiga, extreme hills, mushroom islands, flower forest, mega taiga, mega spruce taiga, swampland, desert, forests, and deep ocean.
0.9.5				Added bryce mesa, extreme hills +, and jungle M.
0.10.0		build 1		Mesa biomes have gold at every elevation and can generate mine shafts on the surface.
				Water in swamps is tinted dark gray.
				Huge mushrooms generate in swamps
0.11.0		build 1		Added birch forest M, birch forest hills M, extreme hills M, and extreme hills+ M.
		build 8		Changed the default biome.
		build 10		Increased the amount of gravel on extreme hills M biome.
0.12.1		build 1		Added Nether biome.
		build 10		Leaves coloring shaders are now only used when the color for a biome actually changes.
0.16.0				The biomes can now be viewed on maps based on the grass color.
Pocket Edition
1.0
Console Edition
TU5	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	Added swampland, ice plains, extreme hills and ocean biomes
				Removed rain forest, seasonal forest, savanna, shrubland and taiga.
TU7				Re-added tundra (as ice plains) and added Mushroom Islands.
TU9				Re-added beaches and snow in taigas, added hills.
				Smoothed color transitions between biomes – swampland grass, foliage and water smoothly transition into other biomes.
TU12				Added jungle biome
TU14		1.04		Hills in forests and deserts are taller.
TU19	CU7	1.12		Water lakes no longer generate in deserts.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	Added mesa, mega taiga, roofed forest, birch forest, forest, savanna, extreme hills+, deep ocean, snowless taiga and 20 technical biomes.
				Changed generation of marsh-like areas in swamp and extreme hills biomes.

A very old image of biomes work-in-progress. "To the right of the player is a taiga, to the left is either a forest, or woods, I can’t remember. In the distance is probably tundra." ~ Notch

Issues

Issues relating to “Biome” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Interestingly, the hilly version of "Mega Spruce Taiga" is called "Redwood Taiga Hills M," rather than "Mega Spruce Taiga Hills".
• The term biome is analogous to its scientific usage: in real life, 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.
• The only fictional biomes are the Nether (Hell), The End and those with huge mushrooms. All the others are entirely or almost entirely based on real-life counterparts.

Gallery

Graphs and templates

• 

  This is the biome colors template for 1.7.2

• 

  The biomes graph from Notch, prior to beta 1.8, with new biomes added. Notice the chicken scratch handwriting, as Notch was working quick to try to get the biomes update out.

• 

  The old biomes graph with linear axes.

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  A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the grass at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

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  A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the leaf blocks at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

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  A .png from the Minecraft files that determines the color of the water at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

• 

  The color of the sky in two different biomes.

Scenery

• 

  The first image of a mega taiga, as tweeted by Jeb.

• 

  This is the first picture provided of the mesa biome.

• 

  The first image of a stone beach (then called cliff) biome, provided by Jens Bergensten.

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  A jungle sunset.

• 

  A rare mesa variant called Mesa Plateau F M.

• 

  An above view of a flower forest biome.

• RoffedforesthillsPe.jpg

  A roofed forest biome in the Pocket Edition. The stone variants granite, diorite and andesite can also be seen in the cliff.

• 

  A large cold taiga biome, with a beach off to the side.

• MushroomBiome19pre.png

  A mountainous mushroom island.

• 

  A variant of extreme hills, where large swaths of gravel generate.

• 

  The Nether biome before beta 1.8.

• 

  A frozen ocean biome, with fog obscuring the distance.

• 

  A large river separating a desert and a forest.

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  A Mesa biome with a small lake nearby. An F variant can be seen in the upper corner.

• 

  A small area of a jungle with desert biome coloring data.

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  A desert with a jungle right beside it.

• 

  A swamp generated in the middle of an ocean, causing miscolored water and lily pads without any actual swampland.

• 

  A rare occurrence of a mushroom biome touching the mainland.

• 

  A rare biome transition of a colder biome touching a warmer biome.(e.g. mesa and ice plains spikes.)

• SwampPE.jpg

  Swampland in Pocket Edition, with some huge mushrooms.

• 

  A mesa and jungle biome generated together in Pocket Edition. Note the exposed mineshaft in the lower right.

• 

  A river runs through a flower forest, a sunflower plains, a jungle, and a jungle edge biome.

• 

  A river that splits off into two rivers.

• 

  Two extreme hills variants. On the left is a normal extreme hills. On the right is an extreme hills+. Click for a better view.

See also

• The Overworld
• Generated structures
• Weather
• Large Biomes
• Amplified

Environment

View at: Template:Environment/content [edit]