Old Growth Taiga

The giant tree taigas (old growth taigas ) are uncommon cold biomes. There are four variants in the biome family.

Description
Much as the normal taiga can be considered a colder counterpart of the forest biome, the Giant Tree Taigas/Old Growth Taigas can be considered a colder counterpart of the jungle biome. Similarly to jungle and badlands biomes, giant tree taiga biomes generate large in size and are usually surrounded by a normal taiga to separate them from other biomes. Giant tree taigas usually border dark forests and taigas, and they can sometimes border snowy biomes.

As with regular taigas, spruce grows all over the landscape, and most of them are the large 2×2 trees that grow significantly taller than regular spruce. Much of the grass is replaced by large swaths of podzol and coarse dirt. Additionally, rocks made of mossy cobblestone frequently generate on the ground, and dead bushes generate alongside the sweet berry bushes, ferns and tall grass on the ground. Wolves, foxes and rabbits may spawn here, as they can in all taiga variants.

As the climate here is cold, rainfall changes to snowfall above Y=150, though in the giant spruce taiga variant, snowfall forms at Y=120. Because the snowfall line is so high up, snow rarely forms naturally, even in hilly variants. There are overall more trees in giant tree taigas compared to normal taigas, leading to increased foliage density. This makes wood more abundant, though as a large portion of it grows as part of tall 2&times;2 spruce trees, it may be more difficult to obtain. Giant tree taigas are slightly more difficult for survival than regular taigas for this reason, though aren't so bad once acclimated and strategies are used to clear the tall trees; they may offer more unique views compared to regular taigas as well.

Variants
There are a total of four different giant tree taiga biome variants.

Giant Tree Taiga
The standard biome variant, giant tree taiga (or old growth pine taiga) features the typical podzol-covered, fairly flat terrain covered by both large 2x2 and normal-sized spruce trees, with the tall trees being mostly arrow shaped with few leaves at the top, as well as forest rocks. Wolves, foxes and rabbits spawn here.

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Giant Tree Taiga Hills
Like all other hills biomes, giant tree taiga hills feature elevated, hillier terrain compared to the normal giant tree taiga, making the landscape less suitable for shelter. Podzol, coarse dirt, and rocks all still generate on the hills. Wolves, foxes and rabbit spawn here. This biome will be removed in Java Edition 1.18

Giant tree taiga hills use the same mob spawning chances as giant tree taigas.

Giant Spruce Taiga
The giant spruce taiga (or old growth spruce taiga) variant resembles the regular giant taiga at first glance, with the main difference being the shape of the giant trees. The giant trees in giant spruce taigas have leaves surrounding much more of the tree trunk, the larger amounts of leaves increases the chances of saplings dropping when these trees are cut down, leading to easier sustainability. This variant is also slightly colder than the regular biome, which means that snowfall starts around y=120 instead of y=160.

$$, giant spruce taigas use the same mob spawning chances as giant tree taigas for passive and ambient categories. As for the others:

$$, giant spruce taigas use the same mob spawning chances as giant tree taigas.

Giant Spruce Taiga hills
Giant spruce taiga hills is a variant intended to be a more mountainous version of the giant spruce taiga. However, $$, due to a likely error in the way terrain height is calculated, there is no difference in the terrain between giant spruce taiga and giant spruce taiga hills. Specifically, the game uses internal values known as  and   when generating hills biomes, but these values are the same for both giant spruce taiga and giant spruce taiga hills, resulting in no actual difference between the two. This is the only hills biome in the game with this issue. This biome will be removed in Java Edition 1.18

$$, this biome generates as a hillier version of the giant spruce taiga, however, this biome generates the same trees as giant tree taiga hills tree type (not giant spruce tree type) resulting in no actual difference between giant tree taiga hills and giant spruce taiga hills (except in water color).

Giant spruce taiga hills use the same mob spawning chances as giant spruce taigas.

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