Desert

The desert is a common warm biome. It is among the first biomes added to the game. It has three variations total.

Description
Desert biomes are usually vast, quite barren, and lifeless, with the only vegetation being cacti and dead bushes. The only passive mobs that may spawn here are rabbits, villagers, and cats,[ as of 1.14] with the latter two only appearing in desert villages. The terrain is flat and the surface is made entirely of sand, with sandstone generating underneath the sand to prevent it from falling into caves below. Water ponds will not generate in deserts aside from the Desert Lakes variant, though lava ponds may still generate. Deserts make up for their barrenness by featuring a relatively large number of structures, such as villages, desert temples, fossils, and desert wells. Villages and desert temples may offer refuge and valuable loot, desert wells may serve as a rare source of water, and fossils can provide large numbers of bone blocks and bone meal, or simply a neat archaeological find.

Deserts are usually found next to other warm biomes, such as savannas and badlands. Deserts may also generate as a thin border around badlands biomes should they generate freestanding.

Despite the structures, survival in deserts can still be very difficult if one does not bring their own resources, as the desert has virtually no resources of its own. Wood logs are unobtainable here, though dead bushes provide a source of sticks. Finding water sources can prove to be quite challenging, as the only desert water sources are villages, desert wells, rivers, and the uncommon Desert Lakes variant. At night, most zombies that spawn in deserts and variants are replaced by husks, variants of zombies that inflict the Hunger effect and do not burn in the sun, making fighting hostile mobs more difficult as well.

Variants
Deserts have two variants, for a total of three different desert biomes.

Desert Hills
Desert Hills variants feature hillier terrain, just like all other hills biomes in the game. Desert hills can reach slightly higher elevations than other hills, and are comprised mostly of sand and sandstone like the rest of the desert. No structures other than fossils may generate within the hills, making this variant overall more difficult. Players should be careful digging up sand in the hills, as it may generate unsupported and cause all other unsupported sand blocks near it to fall if dug up. Desert hills will not generate if their base desert is a thin border around a badlands biome.

Desert Lakes
The uncommon Desert Lakes variant features oases of water across its landscape, making this variant a potentially valuable source of water. The terrain is slightly rougher and hiller than the base desert biome, though not as much as the desert hills. No structures other than fossils may generate here, like the desert hills.