A cave with a zombie inside.
A cave (also known as cavern) is a common terrain feature that generates in the Overworld and the Nether. Caves are usually found underground. They are open spaces of various sizes and shapes that often intersect with each another or with different generated structures, creating vast cave systems. They usually feature plenty of ores and are great places to gather resources, but can be dangerous because of the hostile mobs that spawn in the darkness.
Generation
Caves are underground structures consisting of randomly generated patches of air blocks and lava source blocks (at layer 10 and below), hollowing out an area and exposing other blocks generated with the terrain (such as stones and mineral veins) in the interior. Their structure typically consists of a series of irregular tunnels branching off and winding in other directions, which may connect to the surface, creating natural entrances to the cave. In jungle biomes, vines generate in caves near the surface. Sand often falls into caves generated near the surface of a desert or beach; craters in the sand can alert the player to caves below the surface. Caves cannot cut through red sand nor snow blocks, despite these generating as a surface block in several biomes.[1]
Caves generate at any altitude up to Y-level 128, and may span from the surface all the way to bedrock (Y-level 5). They frequently intersect natural structures such as other caves, dungeons, ravines, and mineshafts. Because of low light levels, hostile mobs and bats often spawn in caves deep underground.
Structure
Caves come in two types: carvers and noise caves.
Carvers
Hollow
A naturally generated hollow.
Hollows are cave-like structures that generate in biomes such as mountains and shattered savanna. They may sometimes intersect with and open into larger cave systems. These are extremely rare on default worlds without customized world option and usually have floors corresponding to the biome (most commonly grass).
Small cave
A small cave entrance generated in tundra biome.
Small caves are primarily located close to sea level and are unlikely to be linked to other caves. Because of their relative shallowness, they are unlikely to contain anything rarer than small deposits of basic ores such as coal and iron. Such caves may have multiple entrances that are naturally lit by sunlight or moonlight. These type of caves almost always feature pools of water/lava within, likely caused by the generation of the water itself.
Medium cave
A medium cave with a skeleton.
Medium-sized cave systems are commonly found within reach of other, often smaller caves, which are accessible via mining. These caves frequently contain large deposits of basic ores alongside small repositories of rarer materials. Such caves also regularly contain at least minor water or lava flows as well as the presence of dungeons.
Large cave
A large cave with Redstone Ore, Iron Ore and Coal Ore.
These are large subterranean systems, found deep within the overworld, often close to bedrock. They hold large deposits of essentially every known type of ore - with rarer materials, such as diamonds and emeralds. Note that emerald ore is exclusively generated in mountains biomes. Such systems contain a number of lakes of all types, as well as the presence of major lava and water flows.
There is little to no difference between small, medium, and large caves other than their size and complexity.
Circular voids
An above-ground circular cave.
During the terrain generation process, large symmetrical and cylindrical or spherical voids of various sizes can infrequently be created underground, which often merge with other cave systems. These unusual type of caves vary from roughly 1 to 27 blocks in height, and from roughly 13 to 30 blocks in diameter, though larger examples are quite rare. Although not particularly of interest, from a mining perspective, they may appear unnaturally regular in comparison to the surrounding terrain. While the smallest rarely contain many ores, the largest can be quite useful for mining as their sheer surface area rivals that of a large ravine.
Rarely, dungeons or strongholds can be found in these rooms.
Deep pit
A deep pit.
These caves have a large hole for an entrance and then spiral down, often cutting into coal and iron deposits. Sometimes, these entrances can go nearly straight down, exposing rarer minerals.
Connected cavern
A medium size connected cavern with two semi-layers. The torches were placed by the player.
Connected caverns are large, spacious caverns that is usually the result when multiple small caves merge with each other creating a large, messy, single cave. They are similar to large caves except more messy and spacious, with different layers. These connected caverns usually have waterfalls or lavafalls coming out of the cave ceiling, sometimes even both. They also have different "floor layers", meaning the cave has different stone layers that can be accessed to each other in the same connected cavern, simply by stacking up blocks. Connected caves usually have two to four layers. Usually, small regular cave systems nearby eventually connect to a connected cavern. Caves may connect to a connected cavern from any direction, including from above. Connected caverns are not significantly rare, but can still prove to be a small challenge to find.
Sea-access cave
An example of a cave connected with the sea.
These caves are connected with and are accessed from the sea. These are fundamentally underwater entrances to caves, and are more often large ravines than actual caves. When lit by magma blocks, they allow the Player to see them from the surface of the ocean.
Since caves usually generate specifically to avoid water, true sea-access caves are rare and most are formed by gravity blocks collapsing inside.
Underwater caves
A water cave, with water flowing inside.
Underwater caves[until JE 1.17] may have obsidian along their bottoms formed from lava with the water present throughout, and also magma blocks.
Being completely underwater, only the magma blocks provide any air (bubbles on by the health bar, when underwater), for entities to breathe. Bubble columns and kelp can be found throughout.
Crack carvers
Crack carvers are deep, long cracks in the ground that are thinner and straighter than canyons and can reach over 90 blocks in depth.
Noise caves
Noise caves come in the form of cheese caves, spaghetti caves, and aquifers.[2]
They are named as such due to being based on noise generators.
Cheese caves
Cheese caves are pocket areas of the underground that come in various sizes.[3]
Spaghetti caves
The start of a spaghetti cave.
Spaghetti caves are long, narrow caves that wind their way through the underground.
Aquifer
An aquifer, taking the form of a fully flooded cave.
Aquifers are flooded cave systems used to generate bodies of water in noise caves. All noise caves between Y=31 and sea level (Y=63) are completely flooded.[4] Aquifers may create underground lakes.[2]
Magma blocks may appear at the bottom of aquifers, creating bubble columns.[2]
Aquifers have a large amount of ores in them, more than normal.[verify] Or, because they are generally large, they expose a relatively-large amount, proportionately. More than one vein of diamonds may spawn in one aquifer. This being possibly more-likely before 1.17 snapshot 21w08a.
Underground lakes
Water lakes
An underground water lake.
Found in every part of the world, underground water lakes are the most common type of lake. Water lakes may generate 1–20 blocks below the surface, are often visible from the surface and not particularly difficult to come across, and can generate all the way to bedrock level.
Lava lakes
These are similar to water lakes, and can generate at all layers. Blocks of stone usually generate around these.
Lava oceans
Example of an underground lava ocean.
Similarly to how water oceans replace all air blocks below a certain altitude on the surface, when deep enough in a cave (levels 1-10), all blocks that would generate as air instead generate as lava.
These are similar to the Nether's lava ocean(s), which tend to be endless. Without interruption even by solid blocks.
History
| Java Edition pre-Classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cave game tech test | Development on "Cave Game" started; caverns are showcased. | ||||
| Java Edition Classic | |||||
| 0.0.3a | Added caves. | ||||
| August 25, 2009 | Caves are shown to be longer and more narrow. | ||||
| It was demonstrated that bigger caves are located deeper underground. | |||||
| 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST | Added the above cave changes. | ||||
| Java Edition Indev | |||||
| 0.31 | 20100122 | Caves are no longer filled with water as often. | |||
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||
| Minecraft Infdev | 20100227-1 | Removed caves. | |||
| 20100325 | Caves were reimplemented. | ||||
| 20100327 | Removed caves again. | ||||
| 20100616 | Again reimplemented caves.[is this the correct version?] | ||||
| Caves are now clustered instead of random.[is this the correct version?] | |||||
| Caves have 1–5 exits, enabling multiple escapes. | |||||
| Caves are now so clustered that a cave could be described as "Swiss cheese". | |||||
| More water and lava springs generate in caves. | |||||
| Tunnels have a wider variety of thickness.[is this the correct version?] | |||||
| 20100617-2 | Gravel and dirt can now be found in caves.[is this the correct version?] | ||||
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
| v1.0.3 | Caves now have ambient noises such as moans and train whistles. | ||||
| v1.2.6 | Pools of water and lava can now be found in caves. | ||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.2 | Ores can now be found more often on the walls of caves. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w38a | Bats added, and are the only passive mob to spawn in dark caves. | |||
| 12w38b | New cave sounds added. | ||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | Cave generation tweaked, making caves less dense and interconnected.[5][6] | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Caves now generate with granite, diorite, and andesite below Y:80, in a similar abundance to gravel or dirt. | |||
| 14w20a | Caves now generate on the surface of desert, mesa, mega taiga and mushroom biomes. | ||||
| 14w32a | Caves surfacing in mesa biomes now generate with red sandstone rather than sandstone. | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Caves no longer generate with sandstone in the ceiling, when they surface through sand of any type. The sand instead shows unstable sand particles, until it is disturbed. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w08a | Caves and ravines can now generate underwater. | |||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| October 3, 2020 | Aquifers and noise caves are revealed at Minecraft Live 2020. | ||||
| 1.17 | 21w06a | Revamped cave generation by adding cheese caves, spaghetti caves, and flooded aquifer caves. | |||
| Removed flooded carver caves, as they are replaced by aquifers. | |||||
| Caves can now generate down to Y=-60. | |||||
| 21w07a | Noise caves and aquifers appear less often as if caves that are below the Y level of 0 will now be made with grimstone | ||||
| 21w08a | Added crack carvers. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Added caves. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.20.1 | Caves can now generate underwater. | |||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.57 | Added ambient cave sounds. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added caves. |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added caves. | ||||
| 1.3.12 | Improved visibility in caves. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Cave" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Caves often intersect other generated structures.
- In deserts, husks spawn in caves because zombies do not spawn commonly in the desert.
Gallery
Unusually repetitive cave generation seen in spectator mode.
See also
- Ambience, which are sounds that can be heard around and within dark caves.
- A guide to exploring caverns
References
- ↑ MC-16132
- ↑ a b c "Minecraft Snapshot 21w06a" – Minecraft.net, February 10, 2021
- ↑ https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1364265702861987841?s=19
- ↑ "We added noise caves, changed world height, and added aquifers (local water levels). Summarized in this pic. Note that the underground biomes don't generate quite yet. Try it, give us feedback!" – @henrikkniberg on X, February 10, 2021
- ↑ "It seems that the underground is no longer swiss cheese anymore." – Minecraft Forum, September 17, 2013.
- ↑ de:Datei:Höhlenverteilung 13w36a.gif

































