Lush Caves

A lush cave is a temperate Overworld cave biome that is found underground below azalea trees and also occasionally below Bamboo Jungles in Bedrock Edition. It has unique fauna and flora.

Description[]

Lush caves generate underground at any altitude. They favor generating underneath biomes with high humidity values, which makes them most commonly found beneath swamp, dark forests, jungles, old growth taigas, wooded badlands and sometimes windswept forests. Dark forests, old growth taigas and bamboo jungles, in particular, are almost guaranteed to have lush caves generate below them, unless the lush caves are overwritten by dripstone caves. It is not possible for lush caves to generate beneath forests and grassland biomes like plains and savanna as they are not humid enough. Lush caves can sometimes generate beneath oceans and deserts, and are the only one of the three underground biomes capable of generating beneath oceans.

Azalea trees generate on any empty space above a lush cave, with roots consisting of rooted dirt and hanging roots that generate down until reaching the lush cave. This is most common at the surface, but they can sometimes generate inside caves if there is enough room.

Underground, moss and ores covers the floors and ceilings, along with moss carpets, grass and azalea bushes on the floors. On the ceiling, vines and cave vines with glow berries grow down and light up the caves, and spore blossoms grow from the ceiling and drip water particles. A lush cave contains springs and shallow lakes with clay where dripleaf plants grow out of them. Sometimes these lakes generate dry.

Players cannot spawn in a lush caves biome during the world generation.

Bats, glow squid, tropical fish, and axolotls are the only passive mobs that spawn, with the latter being exclusive to the biome. While hostile mobs can spawn throughout the biome, many areas have a light level greater than 0 due to the pervasive glow berries. Most hostile mobs are therefore found in large caverns more than 10 blocks high and near borders with other cave biomes.

Lush caves contain copious amount of clay, around a few thousand blocks.

The following mobs can naturally spawn here：

In *Java Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Skeleton	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₅₁₅	4
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₅₁₅	1–4
Witch	⁵⁄₅₁₅	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₅₁₅	1
Water ambient category
Tropical Fish	1	8
Underground water creature category
Glow Squid	1	4–6
Axolotl category
Axolotl	1	4–6
Ambient category
Bat	1	8

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

In *Bedrock Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₄₉₅	2–4
Skeleton	⁸⁰⁄₄₉₅	1–2
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₄₉₅	1–2
Witch	⁵⁄₄₉₅	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₄₉₅	2–4
Creature category
Glow Squid	1	2–4
Water creature category
Tropical Fish^{[note 2]}	⁷⁵⁄₁₁₀	3–5
Tropical Fish^{[note 2]}	²⁵⁄₁₁₀	1–3
Axolotl	¹⁰⁄₁₁₀	4–6

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.
↑ ^a ^b Tropical fish are spawned twice.

Sounds[]

Music[]

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

Filename in Minecraft	Gameplay	Soundtrack Title	Soundtrack	Weight
piano3.ogg	The Overworld	"Mice on Venus"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 11	2
calm1.ogg	The Overworld	"Minecraft"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 8	2
calm2.ogg	The Overworld	"Clark"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 14	2
calm3.ogg	The Overworld	"Sweden"	Minecraft - Volume Alpha No. 18	2
left_to_bloom.ogg	Lush Caves, Meadow, Cherry Grove, the Overworld, and Menu screen	"Left to Bloom"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 4	4
one_more_day.ogg	Lush Caves, Meadow, Snowy Slopes, Frozen Peaks, the Overworld, and Menu screen	"One More Day"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 6	2
floating_dream.ogg	Lush Caves, Jagged Peaks, and the Overworld	"Floating Dream"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 8	2
an_ordinary_day.ogg	Lush Caves, Snowy Slopes, and Dripstone Caves	"An ordinary day"	Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 10	2
aerie.ogg	Lush Caves, Forest, Dark Forest, Birch Forest, Jungle, Swamp, Old Growth Taiga	"Aerie"	Minecraft: The Wild Update (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 2	1
firebugs.ogg	Lush Caves, Forest, Dark Forest, Birch Forest, Jungle, Swamp, Old Growth Taiga	"Firebugs"	Minecraft: The Wild Update (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 1	1
labyrinthine.ogg	Lush Caves, Forest, Dark Forest, Birch Forest, Jungle, Swamp, Old Growth Taiga	"Labyrinthine"	Minecraft: The Wild Update (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 3	1
echo_in_the_wind.ogg	Badlands, Cherry Grove, Flower Forest, Lush Caves, and Main menu	"Echo in the Wind"	Minecraft: Trails & Tales (Original Game Soundtrack) No. 1

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Lush Caves	`lush_caves`	`biome.minecraft.lush_caves`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID
[No displayed name]	`lush_caves`	`187`

History[]

Java Edition
October 3, 2020		The lush caves biome is shown at Minecraft Live 2020.
November 27, 2020		Agnes Larsson shows a prototype of lush caves in which calcite can be seen.
March 9, 2021		Agnes Larsson tweaked some values for the lush caves.
1.17	21w10a	Added the lush caves. Ambient cave noises are not played in this biome yet.
	21w10a	Currently the biome is accessible only in buffet or custom world type.
	21w11a	Reduced the amount of floating water in lush caves.
March 22, 2021		Henrik Kniberg shows the natural generation of lush caves.
1.18	Experimental Snapshot 1	Lush caves now generate naturally.
	experimental snapshot 2	Lush caves are now slightly smaller and slightly less common.
	experimental snapshot 5	Lush cave biomes were unintentionally made smaller and more fragmented.^[1]
	experimental snapshot 6	Lush cave generation has been fixed.
	21w40a	Tropical fish now spawn in lush caves.
1.20	23w17a	"A Familiar Room" and "Echo in the Wind" can now be played in lush caves.
Bedrock Edition
Caves & Cliffs (experimental)	beta 1.16.220.52	Added the lush caves. They do not naturally generate yet and are accessible only through add-ons.
	beta 1.16.230.52	Vines now generate in lush caves.
	beta 1.17.0.50	Lush caves now generate throughout the Overworld behind experimental gameplay toggle.
	beta 1.17.20.22	Lush caves can now generate below Y=0 to Y=-64.
	beta 1.17.40.20	Vines now generate inside of lush caves instead of above them on the surface.^[2]
1.18.0	beta 1.18.0.20	Lush caves can now generate naturally by default, and no longer have to be enabled with experimental gameplay toggle.
1.18.0	beta 1.18.0.21	Tropical fish now spawn in lush caves.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

The Swedish painter John Bauer was one of the main inspirations behind the design and idea of the lush caves biome, specifically Bauer's 'Oskuldens Vandring' (Innocent's Journey) painting.^[3]
A seed in the seed selecter(bedrock edition)bamboo forest has a beautiful lush cave somewhere.

Gallery[]

Azalea trees on the surface, indicating the location of the lush caves.
Entrance of a lush cave, as seen from the side of a mountain.
A large generation of a lush caves with an aquifer and some springs behind.
A dripstone cave intersecting a lush cave. An amethyst geode is visible in the background.
An exposed lush cave in the jagged peaks biome.
The exposed lush cave from inside the cave.
A small lush cave, similar to the old cave generation, with a creeper.
Lush cave.
Tree growing next to a waterfall in lush cave.
A lush caves biome inside a mineshaft.
A lava lake in a lush caves biome.
Glow vines in a lush cave.
A lush cave inside a huge ocean cave entrance.
A waterfall in a lush cave.
A dark lush cave.
X ray view of lush caves.
A lavafall in a lush cave.
A lush cave mountain in an old growth taiga.
Vegetation in a lush cave.
Waterfalls in a lush cave.
Sunny fighting a spider and baby zombie in a lush cave.