World boundary



The world boundary is the area defining the intended edge of the Minecraft world. It is distinct from hard limits, which are defined by limitations of the programming language itself.

Horizontal limits


There are several different intended horizontal boundaries in the game.

Firstly is the maximum distance nether portals can generate at in the Overworld, at X/Z ±29,999,872 blocks. This limit prevents any surpassing of the next borders using the Nether to multiply distance by 8.

The next layer is the world border, which lies at X/Z ±29,999,984 by default, and establishes an arbitrary (but capped at this default value) blockade to prevent the player from advancing. There are several methods of bypassing this border.

The third layer lies exactly one chunk further, at X/Z: ±30,000,000. At this point, there is an invisible "wall" preventing the player from advancing by setting any players' positions beyond it to it, even in spectator mode. Using commands like does not work, since the game does not accept any value beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000. This value is hard-coded into the game's source code. Other block interactions, such as TNT exploding or water flowing, affects blocks outside this limit. By using a minecart (in a superflat preset with the top layer as rails), the player can go even further, up to X/Z: ±30,000,496. At that point, the player is frozen in place until the minecart is destroyed, then they are teleported back to X/Z: ±30,000,000. The fourth and final layer lies at X/Z: ±30,000,496, which can be considered the absolute edge of the Minecraft world, as chunks no longer generate beyond this point, so it's impossible to advance past this point without the use of modifications.

By editing the source code for the game, it is possible to extend the terrain generation and world border past X/Z: ±30,000,240 (up to X/Z: ±2,147,483,647) and experience the game quite normally (no ghost chunks; mobs can spawn alright; commands accept higher values). The game performs normally even at distances of X/Z: ±2,000,000,000, as in modern versions most distance effects have been patched out of the game. It is advisable to take note of what distance effects do exist, as well as the hard limits present - notably the ±33,554,432 lighting stop and hard limit of ±2,147,483,647.

Vertical limits
The maximum possible height is 1.798×10308 (21024), the limit where mathematics break down in the game's code. In attempting to teleport beyond this limit, the game interprets the number as infinity and refuses to carry out the teleportation.

Bedrock Edition
Bedrock Edition technically has no hard boundary, and the world at far distances is far too ravaged by several distance effects to provide any semblance of reasonable gameplay. Nonetheless, there do exist intentional hard limits for some game fulctionality:


 * It is impossible to teleport beyond X/Z ±30,000,000 using commands in the vanilla game. Any attempts to teleport further puts the player back to this coordinate. Attempting to use any block placement command results in an error message. Despite this, it is still possible to use structure blocks and the command.
 * X/Z ±31,999,872 are the maximum coordinates reachable in the Overworld via Nether portal. The only way to teleport beyond these coordinates is to use external tools (such as a world editor).

Java Edition
Generally, long server response times caused by massive distances produce unintended results, but most blocks and entities behave normally, with a few exceptions:


 * Beyond the X/Z ±30,000,000 mark:
 * Mobs do not spawn at all.
 * Lighting does not update (with exception to sunlight and moonlight).
 * Items may jitter slightly.

Beyond this, most of the unintended behavior of blocks and entities is caused by either the world border (as detailed here), or being sufficiently far from the world origin (see this page). Some odd effects which are attributed to the boundary itself are as follows:


 * Attempting to walk into the boundary will still display a walking animation, walking sounds and cause view bobbing, effects which are not present for walking into the world border or solid walls. Mojang has decided not to fix this issue.
 * Using elytra to fly into the border will cause the flying sound to continue to play at full volume rather than quietly or not at all.
 * Rain particles will always hit the ground at exactly sea level irregardless of the actual shape of terrain beyond 30 million blocks. Mojang have decided to also not fix this.

Indev


In Indev (the release of January 30, 2010), there are many limits that can be experienced when traveling beyond the world limit. If the player teleports to X/Z: 2128 or 300 undecillion in the version of Indev that pushes the player back within the map, the player is pushed from X/Z: 2128 to X/Z: 2,147,483,648 in about 5 minutes. As the player is pushed back, the sun and moon begin to render back in (Most likely at X/Z: 264 or roughly 18.5 quintillion) and then the game crashes at the 32-bit Integer Limit.
 * X/Z ±2,111, Blocks stop rendering.
 * X/Z ±2,560. The sky stops rendering. In earlier versions of Indev, the Sky and Blocks would stop rendering at the same point.
 * Every power of 2 that the player goes, the hitbox of the block that the player is facing becomes more and more distorted and it becomes harder and harder to walk along the axis the player is traveling on.
 * At X/Z ±4,194,304, the player falls through the blocks. However, if the player teleports beyond this point they can still stand on the blocks but cannot move along that axis.
 * At X/Z ±8,388,608, the player can no longer stand on the blocks and falls into the void.
 * The hitbox becomes increasingly more corrupted and distorted until it disappears entirely at X/Z ±2,147,483,648.
 * The farthest distance the player can travel using this method is X/Z: 10128 or roughly 1.28 googols, though the player can go further.

Infdev


On February 27, 2010, version of Infdev, many side effects would occur as the player walked thousands or even millions of blocks away.
 * X/Z ±512 - 1,024: Skybox stops rendering. Clouds stop rendering.
 * X/Z ±2,048: Hitbox begins to subtly lose its shape.
 * X/Z: ±4,096: Footstep sounds play even if the player is not walking.
 * X/Z ±131,072: Chunks begin to shake. This effect doubles for every power of two that the player walked away from the spawn point.
 * X/Z: ±2,097,152: World stops rendering completely at certain angles.
 * X/Z ±16,777,216: Blocks are no longer solid; the player falls and hits a layer of lava.
 * X/Z ±33,554,432: The Far Lands start to generate. They look very different from the normal Far Lands as they are just a giant wall of stone blocks that go from sea level to the height limit.
 * X/Z ±2,147,483,647: Terrain disappears completely. Beyond here, the game crashes.

Fake chunks
As the player journeys even deeper into the Far Lands, the effects worsen to the point where the game is unplayable. At X/Z ±32,000,000, blocks are treated as permanently nonexistent, and do not generate even though they may appear to. When Minecraft generates and loads chunks, it loads an empty version of the terrain, complete with grass, stone and water textures that cannot be walked on. This map generates out to the 32-bit integer limit. The game can load chunks only out to X/Z: ±32,000,000, causing a problem between the noise map and the chunk generator. To fix this problem, Minecraft removes the chunks generated beyond X/Z: >±32,000,000 and generates only the noise map. If the player tries to walk on this map, they fall into the void. This value is hard-coded in the source code of Minecraft, meaning that it cannot be changed without editing the source files. Because chunks technically do not generate beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000, things like trees, falling gravel, falling sand, mobs, grass, and other entities do not generate either. This can make the map relatively stable and crashes can be somewhat rare; however, crashes can happen on low-end computers. In rare cases, if the player performs the "ghost spawn glitch" that worked in versions between Alpha 1.1.0 and Beta 1.7.3, the player can cause trees and plants to generate beyond ±32,000,000. The fake chunks weren't fixed until Release 1.8, and still occurred at X/Z: >±30,000,000. However the framerate was actually much better the further one went because of no entities.

Trivia

 * Traveling from one edge of the world to the opposite edge by powered rail would take 35 days and 10 hours. Building the rails for such a trip would require enough iron and/or gold to fill over  723 double chests, even when packed into blocks, as well as sticks made from enough wood to fill over  135 double chests (as log blocks, not as planks, and excluding the redstone torches). (53 stacks of logs would be required just to make enough chests to hold all the building materials for this rail track.) If already crafted, the rails required would fill  17,361 double chests. If the player had to gather the materials to make all those rails, they would wear out  14,404 diamond pickaxes and  300 diamond axes (on average, about  3,601 diamond pickaxes and  75 diamond axes, both enchanted with Unbreaking 3).
 * Even if one were to amass all these materials, actually laying said track would require the player to travel the entire distance through other means anyway.
 * Factoring in the need for powering the track and assuming the player were to use redstone torches, the player would require 3,529,412 torches for the full track, since a torch can optimally light 17 blocks. That requires 55,148 sticks and bits of redstone dust, which requires 2042 large chests, which requires 128 stacks of log blocks to make the chests (which requires 3 large chests).
 * Traveling from 0,0 to the edge of the world by foot takes around 140 days.
 * It is possible to generate trees and vegetation beyond 30,000,000 by loading a version of Minecraft after Java Edition 1.9, then load a few chunks beyond the world border. Then, close the world and load a version of Minecraft between Beta 1.8 - Release Java Edition 1.6-pre and load the same world. If the players travel to the world barrier, there are a few chunks that generate beyond 30,000,000 that have trees and grass.
 * It is possible to even generate Far Lands chunks using this method. Load a world in release Beta 1.8 - Release 1.6 and teleport to X/Z: 30,000,000. Close the world before the fake chunks generate and load the world in Beta 1.7.3. The Far Lands chunks load and then, the player can load as many chunks as they want. Then close the world and load it in a newer version, and the player has Far Lands chunks in the 30,000,000 block area.
 * Spiders can climb the border, continuing to climb upward indefinitely.