This page documents a major update currently being worked on.
Therefore, not all official feature names or items are mentioned.
1.18[2], the second release of Caves & Cliffs, is an upcoming major update to Java Edition set to release in late 2021.[1] It was first announced alongside the release of the 1.17 snapshot 21w15a.[3]
Planned additions
- Height dependent generation.
- Revamped, featuring some new small spruce trees on the slopes and ice and packed ice above the peaks.
- Contain goats, rabbits, snow blocks, snow layers and powder snow.
- Iron ore, emerald ore and coal ore are found in abundance.
- Emerald ore no longer generates in veins of only one.
- Can generate up to Y = 256.
- New sub biomes Lofty Peaks, Snow Capped Peaks, Snowy Slopes, Mountain Grove, and Mountain Meadow.
- Completely overhauled.
- Now stretch down to Y = -59.
- The cavern now generates in 2 layers of different stone bases depending on the depth.
- Biomes inside of caves introduced such as dripstone caves.
- Contain aquifers, bodies of water with different heights, independent of sea level (Y=63).
- Improved old caves to blend in with the new generations of caves better.[4]
- New carver called crack carver, which appears as a fissure on the ground, like ravines but narrower and can go very deep.[5]
- New noise caves, coming in 2 forms, cheese and spaghetti.
- The original caves still exist, mixing with the noise caves.
- Cheese caves have large stone towers stretching from the bottom of the cave to the top.
- Spaghetti caves are long, thin caves that have small aquifers and are more similar to original caves.
Biomes
- Deep dark biome
- New biome at the "deepest depths of the world".
- Wardens can spawn here.
- Contains sculk blocks and sculk sensors.
- Contains deepslate.
- Likely generates within the deepslate layer between -1 Y and -64 Y.
- May contain candles.
- General
- Dripstone Caves
A dripstone caves biome.
- Contains pointed dripstone and dripstone blocks.
A lush caves biome.
- Contain cave plants and moss.
- Moss covers the ceilings and floors.
- Clay pools generate inside.
- Come in 5 sub-biomes:
- Mountain Meadow
- The lowest layer of a mountain.
- Contain flowers and sweet berry bushes.
- Mountain Grove
- The second lowest layer of a mountain.
- Covered in snow, snow blocks and powder snow, and is filled with spruce trees.
- Rabbits spawn in this biome.
- Snowy Slopes
- Lofty Peaks
- The highest layer of a mountain, and will only generate if the mountain is high enough.
- Generates if the surrounding biomes are too warm for snow capped peaks.
- Covered in snow and ice.
- Snow Capped Peaks
- The highest layer of a mountain, and will only generate if the mountain is high enough.
- Generates if the surrounding biomes are too cold for lofty peaks.
- Covered in snow, snow blocks, powder snow, ice and packed ice.
- Mountain Meadow
Gameplay
- Dimming of light[unofficial name]
- While in the deep dark cave biome, the ambient lighting occasionally dims temporarily, limiting the player's visibility. This serves as a warning that the warden is nearby.[6]
Planned changes
World generation
- More extreme and smooth terrain.
- Likely change to the generation of alternate stone types, to make them appear in larger but less numerous deposits.[7]
- Possibly seen in a screenshot tweeted by Henrik Kniberg,[8] in which diorite appears to generate in a long and flat horizontal strip, rather than a small unevenly shaped patch.
- Ore generation has further rebalancing and influences the surrounding stone.
- The fossils in the deepest part of the underground generate with Deepslate Diamond Ore instead of Coal Ore.
- Try to generate fully encased in stone at low y-levels.
References
- ↑ a b "A Caves & Cliffs announcement" – Minecraft.net, April 14, 2021
- ↑ "Yes" – @henrikkniberg on X, April 15, 2021, in reply to a tweet asking if Bedrock will also be split into 1.17 and 1.18
- ↑ "Minecraft Snapshot 21w15a" – Minecraft.net, April 14, 2021
- ↑ "Oh forgot to mention in the changelog* we also added some more variation to the old cave carvers (width, heigh, floor cutoff, etc). Just to make them blend in a bit better with the noise caves instead of being instantly recognizable." – @henrikkniberg on X, February 25, 2021
- ↑ "There it is. The crack carver. Watch your step, they can go REALLY deep!" – @henrikkniberg on X, February 25, 2021
- ↑ "The mechanical purpose is to warn you that the Warden is nearby. You should get ready if you start to see pure darkness like that..." – @kingbdogz on X, October 4, 2020
- ↑ "Lol been prototyping that today actually! Thx for the pic though very useful." – @henrikkniberg on X, October 8, 2020
- ↑ "Sometimes weird things happen when messing around with world generation. The villagers up there look mighty confused :) #devbloopers" – @henrikkniberg on X, October 22, 2020