Altitude

Altitude is commonly expressed as a number defining the distance in layers above the base of the game environment, which is layer zero (0). Sea Level is recognized as Layer 64, and the top of the game environment is 128. This range of numbers can be expressed in only 8 bits, limits common to many programming languages and applications.

Natural resources and altitude
Landscape features are found at different altitudes, as shown in this graph:



Beware the logarithmic scale: a slight difference in the y coordinate means a large increase in relative frequency of this block type.

See the following table for a textual description of resources by altitude and tools needed to gather them. 1. These points are above the maximum map height, and were extrapolated based on the pattern of (2^n, [2^n]+1 to [2^n]+3, [2^n]+4). Lava, which has been witnessed rarely at the surface seems to break this pattern. 2. Redstone has the same layer and line-size statistics as Diamond, but is generated 8 times per chunk as opposed to 1. 3. Bedrock cannot be manipulated by items within the game world.

Other naturally occurring features appear at different altitudes such as grass, wood, flowers, mushrooms, clay, cobble, sugar cane and Obsidian, but all of these features are random and must appear in conjunction with another block and the proper environment to appear.

Trivia

 * When at the highest level of a map in Beta, the edges of the screen will fade to black, simulating thinning air.