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
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 that different areas with varying heights, temperatures, humidity ratings and foliage colors are created.
Before the Halloween update, when a map was generated it had either a Snowy or Grassy theme. But after the update, a single world includes all themes in a logical fashion determined from the biomes graph.
A demonstration can be viewed here.
Pre-Update Saves
Worlds generated prior to the update remained unchanged except for changes in grass color. This "biome" is known as Shrubland. However, any new chunks generated (by the player moving outside of the pre-biome world's generated bounds) do generate biomes, similar to the Nether being generated when you first enter it from a portal.
Biome Types
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 pine forests. They are randomly created during the generation of the world and are affected by the starting seed.
There were 13 biome types in 1.7: 10 in the overworld, 1 in the Nether, and 2 other unused ones that are in the code but aren't encountered in normal play.
A fourteenth biome, which includes 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 | Description | Features | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | A biome with many trees and a fair amount of tall grass. Birch trees can be found in this biome. | Oak and Birch Trees, Grass, Flowers, Tall Grass |
|
| Taiga | A biome with many pine/spruce trees and dull grey-blue grass. Wolves are also found on this biome more commonly than others. | Pine Trees, Grass, Flowers, Wolves, Tall Grass | File:1.8 Biomes PineForest.png |
| Swampland | A flat biome with swamp-like trees with vines and shallow pools of clay, sand and dirt. The water, grass, leaves, vines and trees are much darker. The water can have floating lily pads. Mushrooms are also moderately common in swamps. There is a green-ish colour in the water. Trees can sometimes spawn in the water in this biome. Also, in the 1.9 pre-release, there is a bug that causes one-block high waterfalls that randomly generate in swamp rivers. | Oak Trees, Grass, Vines, Lily Pads, Clay, Mushrooms |
|
| Extreme Hills | A highly mountainous biome with dull grey-blue grass and few trees, added in the 1.8 Adventure Update. Prior to this update, mountains were found in all types of biomes, but now are very rare outside this type of land. | Oak Trees, Grass |
|
| 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. | Sand, Cacti, Dead Bushes, Sandstone, Sugar Cane | File:1.8 Biomes Desert.png |
| Plains | A relatively flat biome with rolling hills and a large amount of tall grass (more than in any other type of land). The occasional tree does exist, although very rarely. | Tall Grass, Grass, Oak Trees |
|
| Ocean | A very big, flat open biome made entirely of water, with underwater reliefs such as small mountains and plains and usually includes sand and clay at its bottom. Ocean biomes can go down to 30 blocks deep and the occasional island may exist, as a small version of other biome types. Entrances to underground ravines can be also 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). Oceans can be larger than ten thousand blocks wide and long. | Water, Sand, Clay | File:1.8 Biomes Ocean.png |
| Tundra Planned for Beta 1.9 | A relatively flat biome covered in snow. Lakes and rivers are mostly frozen over and trees (only regular types are spawned) are scarce. Sugar canes do spawn in this biome, but are destroyed and dropped when the chunks load because of the ice that spreads over open water sources. | Snow, Snowfall, Oak Trees, Ice, Sugar Cane |
|
| Mushroom Island Planned for Beta 1.9 | This biome consists of flat landscapes and high hills, and has Mycelium instead of grass as its common surface block. It is the only biome where Huge Mushrooms can spawn and grow naturally, where mushrooms grow in full sunlight, and where Mooshrooms spawn. No other types of mobs (including hostile mobs at night) can naturally spawn on this biome. | Mushrooms, Huge Mushrooms, Mycelium, Mooshrooms | File:2011-09-22 19.58.28.png |
Biome Screen-shots
The above screenshots were made by editing code in Minecraft's java files and creating worlds made of only one Biome. This was done consecutively with each Biome type and screenshots of each world are collated here. The original topic is on the Minecraft forum, here.
History
- Biomes were added in Alpha 1.2.0, also known as the Halloween Update.
- In Beta 1.8, biomes got an overhaul, removing some biomes and others replaced with nine fractal-based biomes - some old, some new.
Difficulty
It can be difficult to play and gather sufficient resources if one starts in the middle of a biome with no trees, such as the desert, ocean, savanna, or tundra.
There have been multiple reports of players spawning on a tiny island in the middle of a vast ocean with no trees for several Minecraft days in any direction. [citation needed]
Gallery
References










