A river biome.
A river is a common biome. Rivers can serve as borders between various other biomes, and usually lead to oceans, although they can also form loops.
Description[]
Rivers are thin, lengthy biomes that frequently generate across the world. They typically serve as a division between two different biomes, but can also split a single biome in two. They are filled with water up to sea level, though rivers may run dry in certain areas due to higher than usual elevation. Exposed grass in rivers takes on a bluish-green hue and oak trees can rarely generate along with spare grass. Riverbeds consist of dirt, sand, gravel, and clay, and are one of the few places where clay generates, alongside lakes, swamp marshes, ocean hilltops, and lush caves. Seagrass generates atop the riverbed, and sugar cane occasionally generates on the riverbank. Neither passive nor hostile[BE only] mobs (except drowned) spawn within river biomes themselves, but frequently wander into them from the surrounding biomes if they can spawn there. Drowned can spawn underwater, as can salmon and squid. Rivers can vary a lot in width and depth, in generally flat areas rivers are usually around 10 blocks deep but in mountainous regions rivers can reach over 30 blocks in depth which is comparable to deep oceans. Rivers in mountains ranges can for fjords or be replaced by another biome forming a saddle valley. Sometimes rivers can also generate as lakes with small islands.
When generated between two high-elevation areas, such as mountains and hills, river biomes may pose a fall damage hazard, and deep rivers can also spawn drowned frequently, but are otherwise mostly harmless.
Variants[]
There are two different river biomes.
River[]
| Type |
Aquatic |
|---|---|
| Rarity |
Common |
| Temperature |
0.5 |
| Structures | |
| Blocks | |
| Grass color |
|
| Foliage color |
|
| Water color |
The standard river variant. Salmon and squid may spawn here. This is the third most common biome in the game, only behind plains and forest. The grass color is turquoise green, similar to the meadow and birch forest biomes. Vegetation is sparse, with occasional oak trees.
| Mob | Spawn chance | Group size |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile category | ||
| Spider | 100⁄616.25 | 4 |
| Zombie | 95⁄616.25 | 4 |
| Drowned | 100⁄616.25 | 1 |
| Zombie Villager | 5⁄616.25 | 1 |
| Skeleton | 100⁄616.25 | 4 |
| Creeper | 100⁄616.25 | 4 |
| Slime[note 1] | 100⁄616.25 | 4 |
| Enderman | 10⁄616.25 | 1–4 |
| Witch | 5⁄616.25 | 1 |
| Spider Jockey | 1⁄616.25 | 1 |
| Chicken Jockey | 0.25⁄616.25 | 1 |
| Water creature category | ||
| Squid | 2⁄2 | 1–4 |
| Ambient category | ||
| Bat | 10⁄10 | 8 |
| Underground water creature category | ||
| Glow Squid | 10⁄10 | 2–4 |
| Water ambient category | ||
| Salmon | 5⁄5 | 1–5 |
- ↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.
In Bedrock Edition:
| Mob | Spawn chance | Group size |
|---|---|---|
| Water category | ||
| Salmon | 16⁄16 | 3–5 |
| Passive category | ||
| Squid | 8⁄8 | 2–4 |
| Hostile category | ||
| Drowned | 5⁄5 | 2–4 |
Frozen River[]
| Type |
Aquatic/Snowy |
|---|---|
| Rarity |
Uncommon |
| Temperature |
0.0 |
| Blocks | |
| Grass color |
|
| Foliage color |
|
| Water color |
Frozen Rivers replace regular rivers in regions with snowy biomes. As the name implies, the top layer of water is entirely frozen, though below the ice is the usual sand, gravel, dirt, and clay, though seagrass does not generate on the riverbed. While sugar cane can generate alongside a frozen riverbank, it quickly uproots itself after generation due to the water being frozen. Oak trees can still generate here if this biome generates on land, despite being a snowy biome.
In Bedrock Edition, along with salmon and drowned, strays, rabbits, and polar bears can spawn in frozen rivers. No other hostile mobs can spawn, even underground.
In Java Edition, frozen rivers use the same mob spawning chances as rivers for water and ambient categories. As for the others:
| Mob | Spawn chance | Group size |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile category | ||
| Spider | 100⁄517.25 | 4 |
| Zombie | 95⁄517.25 | 4 |
| Drowned | 1⁄517.25 | 1 |
| Zombie Villager | 5⁄517.25 | 1 |
| Skeleton | 100⁄517.25 | 4 |
| Creeper | 100⁄517.25 | 4 |
| Slime[note 1] | 100⁄517.25 | 4 |
| Enderman | 10⁄517.25 | 1–4 |
| Witch | 5⁄517.25 | 1 |
| Spider Jockey | 1⁄517.25 | 1 |
| Chicken Jockey | 0.25⁄517.25 | 1 |
- ↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.
In Bedrock Edition, frozen rivers use the same mob spawning chances as rivers for water categories. As for the others:
| Mob | Spawn chance | Group size |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile category | ||
| Drowned | 5⁄125 | 2–4 |
| Stray | 96⁄125 | 1–2 |
| Skeleton | 24⁄125 | 1–2 |
| Passive category | ||
| Squid | 8⁄13 | 2–4 |
| Rabbit[note 1] | 4⁄13 | 2–3 |
| Polar Bear | 1⁄13 | 1–2 |
- ↑ 80% of spawned rabbits are white and 20% are black and white.
Data values[]
ID[]
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| River | river | biome.minecraft.river |
| Frozen River | frozen_river | biome.minecraft.frozen_river |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID |
|---|---|---|
| [No displayed name] | river | 7 |
| [No displayed name] | frozen_river | 11 |
History[]
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 18, 2011 | Notch tweeted a screenshot of a revamped river biome. | ||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Added rivers as a separate biome. Previously, were generated as part of the terrain generation algorithm. | |||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease | Added frozen river. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w08b | Added salmon, which spawn in rivers. | |||
| 18w11a | Added drowneds, which spawn in rivers. | ||||
| 18w14a | Seagrass now generates in rivers. | ||||
| 18w16a | The ID of frozen river has been changed from FrozenRiver to Frozen River. | ||||
| 1.13.1 | 18w31a | Squids now only spawn in oceans and rivers, making them slightly more common in rivers, as there are fewer places elsewhere for them to spawn. | |||
| 1.18 | experimental snapshot 4 | River biomes are less likely to form a steep, dry river gorge in mountainous terrain. Instead, they either carve a fjord through it, or they raise the terrain to form a valley. | |||
| Rivers that go through swamps tend to be more shallow. | |||||
| experimental snapshot 5 | Rivers are less likely to be super deep or get choked off in flat areas. | ||||
| Rivers tend to get shallow and merge with swamps instead of carving through them. | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.1.0 | Added biomes, including rivers. | ||||
| v0.13.0 | build 1 | Added rabbits, which can spawn in frozen rivers. | |||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Added strays, which spawn in frozen river biomes. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Added polar bears, which can spawn in frozen rivers. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.13.8 | Added drowned, which spawn in river biomes. | |||
| beta 1.2.14.2 | Added salmon, which spawn in rivers. | ||||
| Rivers now generate with seagrass. | |||||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.9 | Squid can now spawn in rivers. | |||
The first image of a river released by Notch.
Trivia[]
- Lakes can technically still generate in the waters of rivers and frozen rivers, when either are used as buffet worlds. This can be more clearly seen in frozen river worlds, as holes in the ice.
- Regular rivers can still generate cutting through frozen rivers.
- Both types of rivers override ravines at or close to the surface level, causing the ravine to be abruptly cut off by a wall of stone. However, if the ravine is long enough, it may continue on the other side of the river.
- Oddly, ravines can generate underground in river biomes without being cut off.
Gallery[]
A river near two forests.
A narrow river.
A frozen river in a cold biome.
Rivers splitting and cutting through a taiga.
A river running through a desert.
A river running between a forest and windswept hills, with a sunset in the background.
A river in Java Edition 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1.
A river that failed to generate properly due to a nearby mountain.
A circular river surrounding a small plains biome.
A river running through a swamp.
A big river.
