Badlands

The badlands are uncommon warm biomes, featuring mounds of terracotta, coming in various colors. There are six different variants of the badlands biome.

Description
Badlands biomes feature large mounds of terracotta, in layers of various colors; specifically, red, orange, yellow, white, light gray, brown, and regular terracotta may all naturally generate. These mounds rise up from a layer of red sand, and are about 10-15 blocks thick, giving way to typical stone variants below that. Cactus and dead bushes generate frequently across the landscape, similarly to deserts. Badlands biomes generate in warm regions and in areas with low erosion, which means that they usually generate in areas with plateaus and sometimes even mountain peaks.

Mineshafts generate at much higher elevations in these biomes, often exposed to fresh air. Their supporting planks and fences are made of dark oak rather than oak. Additionally, gold ore generates up to elevation Y=255 (rather than the normal Y=32), and at much higher rates than the rest of the world, making badlands tunnels excellent sources of gold.

While all badlands biomes are rich in unique building materials and gold ore, there are no passive mobs. Furthermore, trees, grass, and water are uncommon, so food cultivation can be difficult. Trees and grass appear only atop wooded badlands plateaus. Lakes generate infrequently, limiting water sources and making farming potentially troublesome, as with living in a desert.

Being a dry biome, it never rains, meaning lightning strikes are impossible. The exceptions are the rivers that cut through the badlands, where it can still rain and cast lightning. The usual darkening of the sky and hostile mob spawning that accompany thunderstorms still occurs during inclement weather.

Terracotta generation
The colors of specific terracotta strata (bands, layers) in these biomes are the same throughout all badlands biomes for any particular world. This means, for example, a layer of white terracotta might generate between the lines (X=200, Y=71) and (X=400, Y=72), being the same for all changes in Z. One may note chunk patterns when strata jump one Y-level at a particular X value. Often, the topmost layer of stained terracotta is replaced by regular terracotta, most often on plateau tops. Additionally, the topmost layer of terracotta below Y level 63 is always orange in color.

$$, seeds have 32 bits, so strata are completely different compared to Java Edition, even if using the same equivalent seed number. Terracotta strata are still the same throughout all badlands biomes in a given world/seed. The elevation of a particular stratum is randomly varied but no more than a few y-layers.

Variants
There are two variations from the regular badlands biome, for a total of three distinct biomes.

Badlands
The ordinary badlands biome has red sand as a topsoil layer and large mounds of terracotta in various colors. The sand and terracotta give way to stone and ores a few layers down. Cacti and dead bushes dot the sands, and there are occasional ponds here and there.

$$ :

$$ :

Wooded badlands
The wooded badlands generates groves of trees at high altitudes. The uppermost layers of terrain have large patches of grass and coarse dirt, with oak trees growing on them. Here, the grass and oak leaves take on a dull greenish-brown color darker than that of the Savanna biome, giving it a droughted appearance; additionally, all naturally generated trees are small variants. This variant is a rare source of wood in the otherwise barren badlands. The forest begins generating above elevations of roughly Y=100. This variant generates at higher humidity values compared to the default badlands, which means that it can often be found bordering jungles or having lush caves underground.

Wooded badlands plateaus use the same mob spawning chances as badlands.

Eroded badlands
The eroded badlands features unique formations of terracotta hoodoos, narrow spires that rise up from the red sand floor of the biome's drainage basins. $$, passive mobs can spawn here. This biome is intended to resemble the famous Bryce Canyon in Utah, USA, which features hoodoos across its landscape.

$$, eroded badlands use the same mob spawning chances as badlands.

$$, eroded badlands use the same mob spawning chances as badlands for hostile categories. As for the others:

Removed/unused biomes
These biomes were removed in Java Edition 1.18 and become unused in Bedrock Edition 1.18.0 as they were just terrain variations of the badlands and are no longer needed due to the changes made to the terrain generation. Those may still generate if use add-on in Bedrock Edition

Badlands plateau
The badlands plateau used to generate flat-topped hills composed of terracotta that generated within the regular badlands biome.

Badlands plateaus had the same mob spawning chances as badlands.

Modified badlands plateau
The modified badlands plateau featured smaller plateaus and somewhat harsher terrain than the Badlands Plateau, mimicking large plateaus that have weathered more over time. Eroded badlands replaced the usual thin Desert border this biome variant would share with other biomes. The Modified Badlands Plateau is the second rarest biome in Minecraft, after Modified Jungle Edge, and is present in about 20% of the badlands biomes, and almost always (98% chance) comes with an eroded badlands bordering the edges and modified wooded badlands plateaus surrounding it at the center.

Modified badlands plateaus use the same mob spawning chances as badlands.

It was the second rarest biome before 1.18.

Modified wooded badlands plateau
Similar to the modified badlands plateau, the modified wooded badlands plateau has a weathered appearance and features smaller plateaus with more erratic terrain, allowing for significantly fewer oak trees to grow at the highest layers. Eroded badlands replace the usual thin Desert border this biome variant would share with other biomes, the biome is present in 1/3 of all badlands biomes and an eroded badlands is nearly always (98%) present at the edges of this biome.

Modified wooded badlands plateaus use the same mob spawning chances as badlands.

ID




Trivia

 * Regular oak mineshafts do not generate in the badlands biomes, but they can generate into one if a neighboring biome generates the mineshaft.
 * Although dark oak mineshafts generate in badlands, dark oaks do not grow in this biome.
 * Eroded badlands continue to generate terrain in the "nothingness" part of the Far Lands. Other badlands biomes are an ocean down to bedrock layer, like most biomes.