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 Layer 127. Specifically, the bottom face of the bottommost bedrock block is at Y coordinate 0. This block is said to be in Layer 0. The top face of the highest block that can be placed is at Y coordinate 128. This block is said to be in Layer 127. The player can press F3 to see what Y coordinate the player's eye is currently at. 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.

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.