Badlands

The Badlands biomes, originally called Mesas, are rare orange deserts comprising low drainage basins between stratified, terracotta plateaus. Rivers cut through plateaus, creating narrow canyons, and abandoned mines poke their way through the earth in search of the biome's ample and frequent veins of gold ore. These are warm biomes, typically bordered by Desert, Savanna and Ocean biomes. The Badlands is one of the most diverse biomes in the game, having a total of six variations.

Description
Landlocked Badlands biomes generate with a thin border biome around its perimeter. The border is a Desert biome for the ordinary Badlands and Badlands Plateau biomes, or it's an Eroded Badlands biome for the "Modified" Badlands variant biomes. These borders will be absent when any of the biome borders an Ocean.

Mineshafts generate at much higher elevations in these biomes, often exposed to fresh air. Their supporting planks and fences are made of dark oak rather than oak. Additionally, gold ore generates up to elevation Y=79 (rather than the normal Y=32) at much higher rates than the rest of the world, making Badlands tunnels excellent sources of gold.

While all Badlands biomes are indeed rich in unique building materials and gold ore, there are no passive mobs, and trees, grass, and water are rare, so food cultivation can be difficult. Trees and grass only appear atop Wooded Badlands Plateaus. Lakes generate infrequently, limiting water sources and making farming potentially troublesome, as with living in a Desert.

Being a dry biome, it never rains, meaning lightning strikes are impossible (although rain still falls and lightning can still strike in any River biomes that cuts through the Badlands). The usual darkening of the sky and hostile mob spawning that accompany thunderstorms still occur during inclement weather.

The colors of specific terracotta strata (bands, layers) in these biomes will be the same throughout all Badlands biomes for any particular world. Stratum colors are determined using only the first 48 bits of the 64-bit world seed on Java and Legacy Console editions. The strata repeat every 64 blocks on the Y-axis, and the elevation of a particular stratum can vary through a biome by as much as 4 blocks. Stratum elevations vary with respect to the X-axis only, neglecting the Z-axis. This means, for example, a layer of white terracotta might generate between the lines (X=200, Y=71) and (X=400, Y=72), being the same for all changes in Z. One may note chunk patterns when strata jump one Y-level at a particular X value. Often, the very top layer of stained terracotta is replaced with regular terracotta, most evidenced on plateau tops. Additionally, the topmost layer of underwater terracotta is always orange in color.

In Bedrock Edition, seeds only have 32 bits, so strata will be completely different, even if using the same seed. Terracotta strata are still the same throughout all Badlands biomes in a given world/seed. The elevation of a particular stratum is randomly varied but no more than a few y-layers.

Variants
There are five variations from the regular Badland biome, for a total of six distinct biomes: Badlands, Badlands Plateau, Modified Badlands Plateau, Wooded Badlands Plateau, Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau, and Eroded Badlands.

Badlands
The ordinary Badlands biome appears to be a drainage basin, with red sand as a topsoil layer and large mounds of terracotta in various colors. The sand and terracotta give way to red sandstone, stone, and ores a few layers down. Cacti and dead bushes dot the sands, and there are occasional ponds here and there.

Badlands Plateau
The Badlands Plateau features large flat-topped hills composed of stratified colors of terracotta. Plateaus have steep edges which rise to within 20-30 blocks above sea level, where they quickly flatten (just like real plateaus). The top of these plateaus typically have scattered dead bushes and occasionally allow for Wooded Badlands Plateaus to generate. Occasional ponds can appear on plateau tops. The sides of the plateau can occasionally reveal caverns and abandoned mineshafts. River biomes that pass through Badlands Plateaus will cut steep grooves in them, giving the appearance of narrow canyons. These can pose a fall damage hazard if the player is not careful.

Modified Badlands Plateau
The Modified Badlands Plateau features smaller plateaus and somewhat harsher terrain than the Badlands Plateau, mimicking large plateaus that have weathered more over time. Eroded Badlands replace the usual thin Desert border this biome variant would share with other biomes. The Modified Badlands Plateau is the second rarest biome in Minecraft, after Modified Jungle Edge.

Wooded Badlands Plateau
The Wooded Badlands Plateau generates atop the regular Badlands Plateau. The uppermost layers of terrain have large patches of grass and coarse dirt, with oak trees growing. Here, the grass and oak leaves take on a dull greenish-brown color, giving it a droughted appearance. This variant is a rare source of wood in the otherwise barren Badlands. The forest begins generating above elevations of roughly Y=82.

Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau
Similar to the Modified Badlands Plateau, the Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau has a weathered appearance and features smaller plateaus with more erratic terrain, allowing for significantly fewer oak trees to grow at the highest layers. Eroded Badlands replace the usual thin Desert border this biome variant would share with other biomes.

Eroded Badlands
The Eroded Badlands features unique formations of terracotta hoodoos, narrow spires that rise up from the red sand floor of the biome's drainage basins. $$, passive mobs can spawn here.

This biome is intended to resemble the famous Bryce Canyon in Utah, USA, which features hoodoos across its landscape.

Trivia

 * Regular mineshafts may still generate deep underground in Badlands biomes, and can even intersect the unique Badlands mineshafts, should they generate close enough to one.