Dripstone Caves

The dripstone caves biome is an Overworld cave biome filled with clusters and pillars of pointed dripstone and dripstone blocks.

Description[]

Dripstone caves generate underground at any altitude. They favor generating beneath areas with high continentalness values, which means they are usually found far inland, and are essentially never found under ocean biomes or bordering a coast.

Dripstone blocks and pointed dripstone both hanging as stalactites and growing from the ground as stalagmites, small water wells of 1×1 blocks are generated in the ground. They mostly appear like regular caves, except with patches of dripstone blocks and pointed dripstone. Large dripstone clusters structures generate occasionally inside ravines. This biome also generates larger copper ore blobs compared to other biomes. In Java Edition, drowned are able to spawn in aquifers.

When exposed to the surface, the surface is made entirely out of stone with occasional patches of dripstone.

The following mobs are naturally spawned here：

In *Java Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Underground water creature category
Glow Squid	1	4–6
Ambient category
Bat	1	8
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₆₁₀	4
Skeleton	¹⁰⁰⁄₆₁₀	4
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₆₁₀	4
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₆₁₀	4
Drowned	⁹⁵⁄₆₁₀	4
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₆₁₀	4
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₆₁₀	1–4
Witch	⁵⁄₆₁₀	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₆₁₀	1

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

In *Bedrock Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₉₅	1
Drowned	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₉₅	2–4
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₉₅	1
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₉₅	1
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₅₉₅	2–4
Skeleton	⁸⁰⁄₅₉₅	1–2
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₅₉₅	1–2
Witch	⁵⁄₅₉₅	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₅₉₅	2–4
Creature category
Glow Squid	1	2–4

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

Sounds[]

Music[]

These music tracks play while the player is in the Dripstone Caves.

Filename in Minecraft	Gameplay	Soundtrack Title	Soundtrack	Weight
hal1.ogg	The Overworld	"Subwoofer Lullaby"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 3	1
hal4.ogg	The Overworld	"Danny"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 21	1
nuance1.ogg	The Overworld	"Key"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 1	1
nuance2.ogg	The Overworld	"Oxygène"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 9	1
wending.ogg	Dripstone Caves, Grove, Jagged Peaks, Stony Peaks, and Menu screen	"Wending"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 4	2
infinite_amethyst.ogg	Dripstone Caves, Grove, and Menu screen	"Infinite Amethyst"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 5	1
an_ordinary_day.ogg	Dripstone Caves, Snowy Slopes, and Menu screen	"An Ordinary Day"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 10	1

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Dripstone Caves	`dripstone_caves`	`biome.minecraft.dripstone_caves`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID
[No displayed name]	`dripstone_caves`	`188`

History[]

Java Edition
October 3, 2020		The dripstone caves biome is shown at Minecraft Live 2020.
1.17	20w49a	Added the dripstone caves.
1.17	21w03a	`dripstone_caves` display name is now Dripstone Caves instead of Dripstone caves.^[2]
March 22, 2021		Henrik Kniberg shows the natural generation of dripstone caves.
1.18	Experimental Snapshot 1	Dripstone caves now generate naturally.
	experimental snapshot 4	Larger blobs of copper ore now generate in dripstone caves.
	experimental snapshot 5	Dripstone caves now place stone instead of grass blocks when they leak out of cave entrances.
	21w39a	Drowned are now able to spawn in aquifers inside dripstone caves.
	21w39a	Zombies no longer spawn in dripstone caves.
	21w40a	Zombies once again spawn in dripstone caves.
Bedrock Edition
Caves & Cliffs (experimental)	beta 1.16.220.50	Added the dripstone caves. They don't naturally generate yet and are only accessible through add-ons.
	beta 1.17.0.50	Dripstone caves now generate throughout the Overworld behind experimental gameplay toggle.
	beta 1.17.20.22	Dripstone caves can now generate below Y=0 to Y=-64.
	beta 1.17.40.21	Dripstone caves now place stone instead of grass blocks when they leak out of cave entrances.
1.18.0	beta 1.18.0.20	Dripstone caves can now generate naturally by default, and no longer have to be enabled with experimental gameplay toggle.
1.18.0	beta 1.18.0.20	Larger blobs of copper ore now generate in dripstone caves.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Dripstone Caves" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

The Sơn Đoòng cave in Vietnam was of particular inspiration when coming up with the features of dripstone caves.^[3]

Gallery[]

A large cavern below y=0 in the Dripstone Caves biome. With multiple dripstone clusters.
A spaghetti dripstone cave between the regular stone and deepslate layer.
A dripstone cave intersecting a lush cave.
Dripstone caves as seen in Minecraft Live 2020.
A mineshaft in a dripstone cave.
Mineshaft in a dripstone cave.
Stalactite in a dripstone cave.
Pillars in a dripstone cave.
Lavafall in a dripstone cave.
Efe looking down into an exposed dripstone cave.
An open dripstone cave within a plateau of forest and taiga biomes.
A very dark dripstone cave.
Kai in a dripstone cave, lightened by a torch, as seen from above.
Ari emerging from a dripstone cave as the sun sets.
Steve falling through a dripstone cave.^[4]