Mountains

Mountains are eleven cold, snowy and temperate biomes divided into two subcategories: extreme hills and mountain peaks. The extreme hills subcategory contains five biome variants, with one (two ) being unused, and the mountain peaks subcategory contains six biome variants.

Description
Mountain biomes feature steep terrain and reach higher elevations than any other biome in the game other than the shattered savanna biomes. The grass and leaves are an aqua color. The surface can be grassy, rocky and gravelly, snowy or icy, with many blobs and veins of ores and those are the only biomes where emerald ore is found. The cliffs of the common extreme hills biome generally peak at roughly Y-level 140, but peaks go higher, so they could be a good place to find iron ore abundantly. There are stony areas below the sea level where infested blocks with silverfish can be generated, even below the deepslate layer.

Mountain biomes have some unusual features and formations compared to other biomes due to the terrain generation algorithm. Floating blocks and even small floating islands are common, as are overhangs and large waterfalls (occasionally, even springs and lavafalls). This can create some impressive views at times. These oddities may be magnified in shattered savannas.

Survival in mountain biomes can be challenging to beginners, due to the heights often risking heavy fall damage and higher elevations bringing snow and ice, but can be fairly easy once the player has acclimated to the area and found or made a flat-enough space for shelter. Llamas can also serve as useful pack animals when tamed. Water must be protected by light or a roof to prevent it from freezing when above the snowfall line, however, and the player must be aware of their surroundings to avoid falling off steep cliffs, especially when fighting hostile mobs. Care should also be taken when mining in mountain biomes, due to infested stone occasionally generating; the player might get swarmed with silverfish if they're not prepared.

Water buckets can be used to climb mountains, by dumping the water onto a higher ledge and climbing up to the ledge. The player can safely collect the water into the bucket and repeat the procedure until the player is on top of the mountain. Water can also be used to collect snowballs from the mountains if snow generates there.

Extreme hills
These mountainous biomes mostly generate within clusters of temperate and cold biomes, commonly found next to taiga, forest, and plains. Oak trees occasionally generate in place of some spruce trees.



The exact height at which rain ends and snow starts is randomized between Y levels 91 and 98. More specifically, the lowest possible snow layer should form at Y level 91, and the lowest height at which snow always forms is Y level 98. Llamas can spawn here.

Extreme Hills
The extreme hills biome is the normal mountain variant. This biome features the standard stony and grassy terrain, with a bit of tall grass and sporadically generated oak and spruce trees. As the climate is cold, rainfall changes to snowfall above approximately Y-level 92 where stacked snow layers form on blocks above that point, along with water freezing into ice. They are one of the two places where llamas can spawn, the other place being savanna biomes.

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Wooded Mountains
The wooded mountains generate groves of oak and spruce trees. This variant does not feature the stony terrain so that the tall grass and trees can generate more often. This biome also generates standalone as a thick separation when a desert is bordering a snowy tundra or snowy taiga biome.

While the increased wood supply can be useful, the risk of fatal fall damage still exists, especially if this variant generates on the edge of a mountain range and border a river or another low-elevation biome.

Wooded mountains use the same mob spawning chances as extreme hills.

Gravelly Hills
The rare gravelly hills variant replaces the top few layers of stone and grass with gravel across its landscape.

Due to the gravel replacing most of the grass, trees generate far less often, making this variant relatively barren.

Players should be careful when surfacing from underground in this biome, as the top layers of gravel can pose a suffocation hazard.

Gravelly mountains use the same mob spawning chances as extreme hills.

Gravelly Mountains+
Gravelly mountains+, also referred to as modified gravelly mountains in code, is a rare variant of the wooded mountains biome that has the exact same features as the regular gravelly mountains, making this biome almost indistinct from the former. The peaks are still covered in gravel, large valleys often generate among the peaks and the trees are still quite sparse in this biome, making this a difficult biome for survival, due to its barrenness being combined with steep terrain. Differently however, it can rarely generate standalone as a thick separation when a desert lakes biome is bordering a snowy taiga or tundra. It will be removed in Java Edition 1.18.

Gravelly mountains+ use the same mob spawning chances as extreme hills.

Mountain Edge
The mountain edge variant is a currently unused variant. Similarly to the jungle edge biome, it was a technical biome intended to provide a smooth transition from other biomes to the mountains. It is similar to the taiga hills biome, but with a few oak trees. The terrain was gentler and not as steep as the normal mountains, with oak and spruce trees growing. This biome was phased out in the Java Edition 1.7.2 update development and does not generates naturally, though can still be seen using the Buffet world option or addons.

Mountain edges use the same mob spawning chances as extreme hills.

Mountain Peaks
There are six additional height-dependent sub-biomes which make up an uncommon and cliffy mountains biome, where goats spawn in some of them. These several biomes can occupy the same X and Z coordinates, varying only along the Y level, and are cold (in the case of meadows) or snow-covered. Coal, iron, and emerald ores can be found at higher altitude than other biomes. These new mountains generate with either plains, deserts, forests, jungles, any oceans, or snowy tundra as base biomes, which result being connected or even completely surrounded by those biomes. They can generate pillager outposts, with the meadow also being able to generate villages.

Meadow
The meadow features an almost flat field filled with patches of flowers and turquoise-green grass or double tall grass, where sheep, donkey, and rabbits spawn. All small flowers generate except blue orchids, tulips, lilies of the valley, or wither roses. Oak and birch trees, pillager outposts, and villages can generate in this biome. Those trees often have bee nests. Meadow villages are plains villages. Meadows usually generate in plateaus or in the lower slopes of small mountains, mainly next to plains and other temperate biomes.

Grove
The grove creates a forest of spruce trees on the slopes of a mountain, the water will freeze into ice and the surface is covered with snow, snow blocks, dirt, and a lot of powder snow. Rabbits, wolves and foxes can spawn in this biome even though grass blocks are not going to generate. This biome generates next to forested biomes such as dark forests and taigas, and will generate at lower heights if next to a snowy taiga.

Snowy Slopes
The snowy slopes feature steep terrain leading up to the peak biomes and is covered in snow, three layers of snow blocks and powder snow. Goats spawn in this biome alongside rabbits. This is the only mountain biome where igloos can generate. This biome usually genereates next to plains biomes and can generate at lower heights if near a snowy tundra.

Lofty Peaks
The lofty peaks is one of the three peak biomes, which will only generate on the top of the mountains if they are tall enough to generate it. This biome generates in regions with snowy, cold and temperate biomes and is more likely to generate in taller and more jagged peaks that often pass the clouds and peak at y=256. It is covered by a single layer of snow blocks or layers with stone underneath often exposing ores such as coal, iron and emerald. Only goats spawn in this biome.

Snowcapped Peaks
The snowcapped peaks are covered by snow, snow blocks, with glaciers of packed ice and occasional blobs of ice. Only goats can spawn in this biome. This biome usually generates in smaller and smoother hills near snowy, cold and temperate biomes, but it can sometimes generate in taller peaks but unlike lofty peaks it doesn't generate in jagged peaks.

Stony Peaks
The stony peaks is a warmer variation of the lofty and snowcapped peaks biomes and generates when a mountain peak is in a region with warmer biomes such as savannas, and jungles and it will not generate snowy slopes or groves in the lower areas of the mountain, unless there's a colder biome near the mountain. It is mostly covered by stone with strips of calcite. The grass in this biome has a light green color slightly more vibrant than the plains grass color, reminding the foliage tint of a forest. Only goats spawn in this biome.

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