Snowy Plains

The Snowy Tundra biome (known as the Ice Plains biome before 1.13) is an uncommon snowy biome. It has a total of three variations. These variants, along with the Frozen River and Frozen Ocean biomes, are the only places where polar bears and strays can spawn.

Description
The tundra is a vast, relatively flat plain, covered almost entirely with snow layers. Spruce trees, tall grass, dandelions, and poppies generate infrequently, breaking the snow layers. The exposed grass and leaves take on a dark green color. Lakes generate somewhat frequently, though freeze over soon after generation due to the temperature if not exposed to light; thus, any sugar canes that generate alongside these lakes will uproot themselves shortly after. Lava lakes that generate within the tundra melt the snow layers around them.

River biomes that cut through tundra tend to be partially frozen, if not fully frozen in the case of the variant Frozen River biome.

Unique to Snowy Tundra, along with Snowy Taiga, are generated igloos. Igloos can be especially difficult to spot in the tundra, due to the snow blocks camouflaging among the snow layers. Villages that generate in the tundra are made of spruce wood, like their taiga variants, and are covered in snow layers. Also unique to the tundra, along with frozen rivers and oceans, are the rare polar bear mobs and strays, variants of skeletons that shoot arrows of Slowness.

Survival in the tundra can be quite difficult due to the general sparseness of the biome and near-total lack of passive mobs. Infrequent spruce trees are the only source of wood in this biome, and maintaining water sources can be tough due to water in this biome freezing into ice, if it is not protected by light or a roof. Strays often spawning in place of skeletons can make dealing with hostile mobs even more difficult, due to their slowness arrows, and aggravating polar bears (or even coming near one, if accompanied by cubs) can lead to fatal consequences if unprepared. As the tundra is a cold biome, it snows rather than rains, and thus lightning never strikes in this biome or its variants.

Variants
Along with the regular tundra, there are two variants of the biome, for a total of three different tundra variations.

Snowy Mountains
Biome ID: 13

These hills are rather taller than most other hill biomes in the game, with heights comparable to the Mountains biome, though with less erratic terrain generation. Neither igloos or villages generate in this biome, though polar bears and strays still spawn. Caves frequently generate on the sides of the mountains.

This biome was known as Ice Mountains before 1.13.

Ice Spikes
Biome ID: 140

This rare variant features large numbers of packed ice spikes across its landscape. Additionally, all grass blocks are replaced with snow blocks, and "lakes" of packed ice generate as well. The spikes come in two sizes; a short, wide spike, and a tall, thin spike. The short spikes generate much more often than the tall spikes. Short spikes are about 10-20 blocks tall, while tall spikes can be over 50 blocks tall. Prior to 1.13, this biome was the only source of packed ice in the game. Neither igloos nor villages generate in this biome, though polar bears and strays still spawn.

In addition to the ice spikes, the terrain in this biome is more erratic than the regular tundra, comparable to the snowy mountains. Snow layers can still form atop the snow blocks, making them seem taller than they actually are. Players may camp out atop the ice spikes during nighttime and avoid most hostile mobs.

This biome was known as Ice Plains Spikes before 1.13.