Cave



A cave (also known as cavern) is a common terrain feature that generates in the Overworld and the Nether. Caves are usually found underground. They are open spaces of various sizes and shapes that often intersect with each another or with different generated structures, creating vast cave systems. They usually feature plenty of ores and are great places to gather resources, but can be dangerous because of the hostile mobs that spawn in the darkness.

Generation
Caves are underground structures consisting of randomly generated cavities of air, water (in ocean biomes) or lava (at layer 10 and below), hollowing out an area and exposing other blocks generated with the terrain (such as stones and blobs) in the interior. Their structure typically consists of a series of irregular tunnels branching off and winding in other directions, which may connect to the surface, creating natural entrances to the cave. In jungle biomes, vines generate in caves near the surface. Sand often falls into caves generated near the surface of a desert or beach; craters in the sand can alert the player to caves below the surface. Caves cannot cut through red sand nor snow blocks, despite these generating as a surface block in several biomes.

Caves generate at any altitude up to Y-level 128, and may span from the surface all the way to the bedrock at Y-level 5 or -59. They frequently intersect natural structures such as other caves, dungeons, ravines, and mineshafts. Because of low light levels, hostile mobs and bats often spawn in caves deep underground.

Structure
Caves come in two types: carvers and noise caves.

Small cave
Small caves are primarily located close to sea level and are unlikely to be linked to other caves. Because of their relative shallowness, they are unlikely to contain anything rarer than small deposits of basic ores such as coal and iron. Such caves may have multiple entrances that are naturally lit by sunlight or moonlight. These type of caves almost always feature pools of water/lava within, likely caused by the generation of the water itself.

Medium cave


Medium-sized cave systems are commonly found within reach of other, often smaller caves, which are accessible via mining. These caves frequently contain large deposits of basic ores alongside small repositories of rarer materials. Such caves also regularly contain at least minor water or lava flows as well as the presence of dungeons.

Large cave


These are large subterranean systems, found deep within the overworld, often close to bedrock. They hold large deposits of essentially every known type of ore - with rarer materials, such as diamonds and emeralds. Note that emerald ore is exclusively generated in mountains biomes. Such systems contain a number of lakes of all types, as well as the presence of major lava and water flows.

There is little to no difference between small, medium, and large caves other than their size and complexity.

Mega cave
Mega caves are huge spacious caves that are extremely rare to be found. They expose many ores and can potentially expose mineshafts. Unlike large caves, mega caves can range from 20 blocks and above in length. They can also be possibly bigger than a small ravine. Mega caves that generate low enough can form giant lava oceans.

Circular voids


During the terrain generation process, large symmetrical and cylindrical or spherical voids of various sizes can infrequently be created underground, which often merge with other cave systems. These unusual type of caves vary from roughly 1 to 27 blocks in height, and from roughly 13 to 30 blocks in diameter, though larger examples are quite rare. Although not particularly of interest, from a mining perspective, they may appear unnaturally regular in comparison to the surrounding terrain. While the smallest rarely contain many ores, the largest can be quite useful for mining as their sheer surface area rivals that of a large ravine.

Rarely, dungeons or strongholds can be found in these rooms.

Deep pit


These caves have a large hole for an entrance and then spiral down, often cutting into coal and iron deposits. Sometimes, these entrances can go nearly straight down, exposing rarer minerals.

Connected cavern


Connected caverns are large, spacious caverns that is usually the result when multiple small caves merge with each other creating a large, messy, single cave. They are similar to large caves except more messy and spacious, with different layers. These connected caverns usually have waterfalls or lavafalls coming out of the cave ceiling, sometimes even both. They also have different "floor layers", meaning the cave has different stone layers that can be accessed to each other in the same connected cavern, simply by stacking up blocks. Connected caves usually have two to four layers. Usually, small regular cave systems nearby eventually connect to a connected cavern. Caves may connect to a connected cavern from any direction, including from above. Connected caverns are not significantly rare, but can still prove to be a small challenge to find.

Sea-access cave


Sea-access caves are fundamentally underwater entrances to caves connected to the sea. They generate exclusively on ocean biomes. Even when caves usually generate specifically to avoid water, sea-access caves appear regularly, and are quite often small entrances with seagrass, and kelp if they can generate exposed to the sky. Sometimes, pseudo-sea-access caves are formed by gravel blocks collapsing inside a cave. These generate more often as underwater canyons than regular caves.

A player can see them from the surface of the ocean when they generate as an underwater canyon lit by magma blocks on the floor, surrounded by obsidian.

Underwater caves


Underwater caves are completely flooded caves that may have obsidian along their bottoms formed from lava with the water present throughout, and also magma blocks. They generate exclusively on ocean biomes.

Being completely underwater, only the magma blocks provide any air for entities to breathe, since they generate bubble columns. They have often seagrass, but since they don't generate exposed to sky kelp cannot generate, unlike sea-access caves.

Noise caves


Noise caves are generated using noise generator. They come in the form of cheese caves, spaghetti caves, and aquifers.

Cheese, spaghetti, and noodle caves
Cheese caves are pocket areas of the underground that come in various sizes. Spaghetti caves are long, narrow caves that wind their way through the underground and are a bit similar to small or medium original caves. Noodle caves are a thinner and squigglier variant of spaghetti caves. There are also noise pillars inside cave blobs.

When generating noise caves, the game firstly generates a random noise field, and "smudges" it using a mathematical trick called Perlin noise. These processes then results in a 3D noise image. For cheese caves, the black part of noise image becomes stone, and white part becomes air, making it look like a cheese with many blobs. For spaghetti and noodle caves, the edge of black and white part becomes air, making it look like long and thin spaghetti or noodles. Cheese caves offer large and open spaces, while spaghetti and noodle caves provide channels for connection. The three types of caves are combined to form a complete cave system.

By adjusting noise frequency, hollowness (for cheese caves), and thickness (for spaghetti caves, noodle caves, and noise pillars), noise caves can become diverse from each other.

As of Snapshot 21w06a, all noise caves between Y=31 and sea level (Y=63) are completely flooded. This is likely to change before the full 1.18 release.

Aquifers


Aquifers are flooded cave systems used to generate bodies of liquids in noise caves. Aquifers may create underground lakes.

Magma blocks may appear at the bottom of aquifers, creating bubble columns.

Because they are filled with water instead of air, aquifers can be a good place to find ores which generate with reduced or no air exposure. More than one blob of diamonds may spawn in one aquifer.

Glow squids and axolotls often spawn in aquifers. Aquifers under ocean biomes may also have fish mobs spawn in them.

Aquifers below Y=0 may generate filled with lava instead of water.

Water lakes


Found in every part of the world, underground water lakes are the most common type of lake. Water lakes may generate 1–20 blocks below the surface, are often visible from the surface and not particularly difficult to come across, and can generate all the way to bedrock level.

Lava lakes


These are similar to water lakes, and can generate at all layers. Blocks of stone usually generate around these.

Lava oceans


Similarly to how water oceans replace all air blocks below a certain altitude on the surface, when deep enough in a cave (levels 1-10), all blocks that would generate as air instead generate as lava.