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.
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 are nine biomes in Minecraft 1.0.
| Biome | Description | Features | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest (Oak/Birch 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 (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. As of 1.8, it is most likely to spawn in one of there biomes. | 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 (Mountains) | 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. More underground cave systems are present here than any other biome. | Oak Trees, Grass |
|
| Desert | A very flat biome consisting mostly of sand, dead shrubs and cacti. No rain occurs in this biome. Sugar Cane can be found sometimes next to pools of water. Villages spawn mostly in this biome. | 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. Gulleys are also quite common in this biome. | Tall Grass, Grass, Oak Trees |
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| 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:2011-06-26 12.21.28.png |
| Tundra | 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 |
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| Mushroom Island | This biome consists of flat landscapes and high hills, has Mycelium instead of grass as its common surface block, and tends to appear as islands far from the spawn of a map and any significant landmass, however it is the spawn point in the seed 'lost' for Minecraft 1.0. It is the only biome where Huge Mushrooms can spawn and grow naturally, where mushrooms grow in full sunlight, and where Mooshrooms spawn. No mobs other than Mooshrooms (including hostile mobs at night) spawn in this biome.
It's actually composed of two different "biomes" - the shoreline, which is flat, and the mainland, which is more hilly. Contrary to popular belief, trees can be grown in this biome, but not next to Mycelium which will take over the dirt square from the seedling and un-plant the seedling. A player can create a Mycelium-free zone with cobble and grow a tree in the middle of it on freshly placed dirt. It is advised to collect wood (and seedlings) before settling here. |
Mushrooms, Huge Mushrooms, Mycelium, Mooshrooms | File:2011-10-23 20.08.27.png |
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, savanna, tundra, and especially the ocean.
There have been multiple reports of players spawning on tiny islands in the middle of a vast ocean with no trees for several Minecraft days in any direction. It appears that these desert islands generate in the Ocean biome, where animals cannot spawn (on the water); sometimes the island spawns with no trees so players have to delete the world and start again, swim great distances to a landmass, or search for nearby underwater openings into abandoned mineshafts to acquire wood. This is not quite as bad a problem if one starts the map in Creative Mode since the player is able to fly, make a boat, or plant trees. It is still undetermined whether this feature is a bug or not (Notch didn't say it was a bug, but the community seems to think it is).
Gallery
See also
References









