Minecraft Wiki
Advertisement
Biomes Example

A very old image of biomes work-in-progress, you can clearly see that biome grass colors have not been implemented at this point. "To the right of the player is a Taiga (mostly over the ocean), to the left is either a Forest, or Woods, I can’t remember. In the distance is probably tundra." -Notch

File:Biomes Graph.jpg

The biomes graph from Notch.

BiomesGraph

The graph above recreated.

According to Wikipedia, biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems.

In Minecraft, from the Halloween Update onwards, this means different areas with different heights, temperatures, humidity ratings and foliage colors are created.

Before the Halloween update, when a map was generated it got a theme of either Snowy or Grassy. After this update, a single world includes all themes in a logical fashion determined by the biomes graph.

A demonstration can be viewed here.

Pre-Update Saves

Worlds generated prior to the update remained unchanged save for alterration of the grass color. This "biome" is called Shrubland. However, any new chunks generated (by the player moving outside of the pre-biome world's generated bounds) do generate biomes, just as The Nether is generated when you first enter it using a portal.

Biome Types

Grasscolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the grass at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

Foliagecolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the leaf blocks at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

Watercolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the water at certain temperatures and rainfalls. (This was found in the source and not yet implemented into the game.)

Biome types may be easily distinguished by the differentiating grass and leaf colors in conjunction with the kind of blocks present, like cacti in deserts and pine trees in tundras. They are randomly created during the generation of the world and are affected by the seeds.

There were 13 biome types in 1.7; 10 in the overworld, 1 in the nether, and 2 unused ones that are in the code but aren't encountered in normal play.

A fourteenth, unnamed biome, which include the upcoming huge mushrooms, was added to the overworld in 1.8, along with a true swampland biome, mountain biome and ocean biome. Biomes are often separated by a river. Notch has stated that a new rainforest biome (or changes to the current one), snowy biomes, as well as volcanoes (either as a biome or natural feature) are a possibility, but they have probably not been added yet.

Biome Characteristics Image
Mixed Forest A biome with many trees and a fair amount of tall grass. Birch trees can be found in this biome. 1.8 Biomes MixedForest
Pine Forest A biome with many pine/spruce trees and dull grey-blue grass. Wolves are also found on this biome more commonly than others. Since snowy biomes currently do not exist in Beta 1.8, pre-1.8 snowy biomes are considered pine forest biomes in 1.8. File:1.8 Biomes PineForest.png
Swamp A flat biome with swamp-like trees with vines and shallow pools of clay, sand and dirt. Mushrooms are also moderately common in swamps. Trees can sometimes spawn in the water in this biome. File:1.8 Biomes Swamp.png
Mountain A highly mountainous biome with dull grey-blue grass, added in the 1.8 Adventure Update. Prior to this update, mountains were found in all type of biomes, but now are very rare outside this type of land. 1.8 Biomes Mountain
Desert A very flat biome consisting mostly of sand, dead shrubs and cacti No rain occurs in this biome. Sugarcane can be found sometimes next to pools of water. File:1.8 Biomes Desert.png
Grassland A very flat biome with a very large amount of tall grass (more than in any other type of land). The occasional trees do exist, though very rarely. 1.8 Biomes Grassland
Ocean A very big, flat open biome made entirely of water, with underwater reliefs like small mountains and plains. They can reach up to 30 blocks deep and the occasional island may exist. Accesses to underground ravines can be found at the bottom of the ocean, as well as abandoned mine shafts (whose upper parts are mostly flooded due to the proximity of the ocean). File:1.8 Biomes Ocean.png
Mushroom (Planned) Mushroom Biomes appear as a kind of land with purple sloppy grass on dirt blocks. It seems similar to most terrain but Huge Mushrooms will be found in these biomes naturally and will spawn a new mob called Mooshroom. Mushroom cow

Biome Screen-shots

The above screenshots were made by editing code in Minecraft's java files, creating worlds made up of only one Biome. This was done consecutively with each Biome type and their screen-shots are collated here. The original topic is on the Minecraft forum, here.

Example of Biomes

Ingame example of Biomes (Unedited Code)

Difficulty

It can be difficult to play if one starts in the middle of a biome with no trees, such as the desert, ocean, savanna, or tundra.

Trivia

Oceanbiome

A screenshot of the Ocean biome in Minecraft 1.8 Pre-release v2

  • Notch has added new biomes in 1.8, including a Swamp Biome[1], a Mountain Biome (called "Extreme Hills" in the code), an Ocean biome, and a Plains Biome.
  • Biomes have also been expanded in size in the 1.8 update.

References

Advertisement