Reason: This page should include only stuff generated as base terrain (e.g. floating islands, oceans, end islands); as far as im aware the other things on this page count as decorators or whatever 1.16.2 calls them
This page lists generated terrain features that are created in a Minecraft world.
Overworld[]
Hills[]
Hills can contain extreme slopes, cliffs and caves containing emerald ore. On an amplified world, hills are extremely common in all biomes except oceans.
A Windswept Hills biome.
A large overhang occasionally found in Windswept Hills biomes.
A Windswept Hills overhang with a floating island.
Mountains[]
Mountains are high elevation terrain that has jagged peaks and higher land. They also contain emerald ore, but the higher it gets, the more emerald ore generates there.
Cliffs[]
Cliffs are steep vertical slopes that can sometimes generate beside an ocean or a big lake.
A frozen cliff.
Fjord[]
Fjords happen when rivers cut through high-medium elevation terrain and thus, creating a fjord. Rivers are deeper here than usual.
A badlands fjord.
Floating island[]
Floating islands are structures that float in mid-air. Floating islands are normally just small chunks of floating dirt and stone found near cliffs, but on rare occasions they can be large structures that even have springs and trees on them. Floating islands are most frequently found in windswept hills biomes and their variants, as well windswept savannas.
A small floating island.
It is rarer to see large floating islands, especially those with natural features such as trees.
A cluster of large floating islands.
A small but tall floating "island", with water flowing down from it.
Floating island in a forest biome few some trees growing on it.
Hollows[]
Hollows are the opposite of floating islands. They look like caves, but they have nothing to do with cave generation (although they may intersect with them). When there are many overhangs, they close together and create a hollow. They have exactly the same floor as the terrain above, depending on the biome that they are located in, unlike caves. Hollows have no specific floor. Grass blocks can generate inside too and survive without light. When they generate under the sea level, they are filled with water. They are extremely rare in the default world. Can be found far more commonly in certain customized worlds.
A hollow in a default world.
Another hollow.
Hill[]
Hills are randomly generated pieces of land on the map. Like stairs, hills are always traversable to their lowest point by virtue of the algorithm that generates them; there is almost always a place on each level from where the next level can be accessed, meaning that the player can climb a hill one level at a time until they reach the top. Cases where this is not true are rare.
A randomly-generated hill with some und in the bad and biome. S.
Surface[]
Surface layer[]
The uppermost layers of the terrain are converted to a biome-dependent material: usually grass blocks and dirt, or sand in deserts and beaches. Podzol is found in giant tree taiga, mycelium in mushroom field biomes, and red sand is found in the badlands biome. Sandstone is generated under the sand.
Basin[]
Occasionally, instead of being converted to dirt or sand, the top layer is stripped away, leaving a 'basin' of bare stone. They occur more often in forests or plains and occasionally contain water. Commonly, minerals can be found in these, generally coal ore and iron ore. If generated in a Badlands biome, gold ore can also be seen.
A naturally generated basin landform.
A desert basin.
A basin in a taiga biome.
A snow-covered tundra basin.
Hoodoo[]
Hoodoos are tall spike-like structures found in badlands, consisting of six colors of terracotta. While this structure is found exclusively in eroded badlands, all badlands biomes actually have this structure, but set to false except for eroded badlands and can occasionally pass altitude layer 100.
Hoodoos in an eroded badlands biome.
Hoodoos in a Mesa Bryce biome in an older version of Minecraft.
Liquid bodies[]
Lava lake[]
Large lake[]
Since water generates on the surface of the world below y=63, land it covers can turn into large lakes. These lakes are often quite shallow, and are never more than a few blocks deep. Large lakes generate pockets of sand, gravel, and clay on the lake floor, also known as disks. When large lakes generate near the shore they can turn into small bays. Unlike rivers, there is no seagrass on the lake bed.
A regular lake next to a large lake.
A large lake meets a river.
Big water lake generated in forest biome.
Coral reef[]
Coral reefs are structures that consist of corals, coral fans, coral blocks and sea pickles. In Bedrock Edition, the coral reefs can also consist of dead corals, dead coral fans and dead coral blocks.
Large structures[]
Small structures[]
- Bee nests: Generate on a small amount of oak and birch trees in various biomes, containing three bees.
- Blob: Blobs of a certain type of ore or mineral.
- Disks: Small circular patches of clay, sand, and gravel found underwater.
- Ore vein: A long streak of ore and rock.
- Spring: A water or lava source block that generates on the side of a hill, cave or ravine.
- Random patch: naturally generating clusters of plants or fungi such as grass, ferns and flowers.
- Forest rock: Boulder made entirely of mossy cobblestone found in giant tree taiga.
- Ice spike: tall spires made of packed ice found in the ice spikes biome.
- Iceberg: hill-like ice structures made out of ice, blue ice, packed ice, and snow found in frozen ocean.
- Dripstone cluster: Stalagnate composed entirely of dripstone blocks.
- Amethyst geode: Geodes of amethyst also consist of calcite and smooth basalt as outer layer found underground.
- Leaf clay: clay patches with dripleaves found in lush caves, has dry and pool variant, pool variant looks like a pond.
The Nether[]
Lava sea[]
Lava seas are found at and below level 31 in the Nether. They make a large portion of the Nether and are extremely common. They can stretch for hundreds of blocks in any direction, and are usually bordered by netherrack, or occasionally soul sand, gravel and/or magma blocks. Striders can spawn in lava seas.
Unlike with Overworld oceans, lava seas are not handled as a biome.[1]
A few ghasts swimming in a lava sea.
Nether basins[]
In the nether, basins generate the same size and shape as they do in the Overworld. Unlike their Overworld counterparts, however, Nether basins replace the ground with netherrack instead of stone. Nether basins can also expose ores, mainly nether quartz ore and nether gold ore.
Notably, basins generate independent of the y-coordinate; if a basin generates in an overhang in the Nether, an identical basin is guaranteed to generate at the exact same x and z coordinates on the ground below such an overhang.
A basin generated in a crimson forest biome, exposing nether quartz ore.
A basin in a warped forest.
A large basin in a nether wastes biome.
For the following structures, please click on the links.
Basalt columns[]
Deltas[]
Glowstone blobs[]
Basalt pillars[]
Blobs[]
Springs[]
Hidden lava[]
The End[]
Central island[]
The center of the End is a large, asteroid-like island composed entirely of end stone, floating in the void. At a distance of 1000 blocks away, an endless expanse of more islands begins, away from the main island. These consist of large islands, about the size of the main island, and smaller ones, which are usually thin and small.
Central island with a lone enderman.
Outer island[]
The outer end islands are found 1000 blocks away from the central island. They vary in size from large islands to smaller "mini islands". Generated structures such as End cities and End ships spawn here, along with chorus trees and basins. The player can be taken to the end islands through the End gateway.
Outer islands with chorus trees.
End Spike[]
End spikes are generated structures that are made of obsidian.
Obsidian platform[]
The obsidian platform is a square of obsidian that generates when a player enters the End.
Exit portal[]
A portal that takes you back to the Overworld.
End gateway[]
End basins[]
Basins in the End generate as they would in the Overworld and the Nether, with the exception being that they never expose any ores. End basins may generate on both the central island and outer islands, and chorus trees may occasionally take root in them.
Basin generated on the main island of the End.
A large basin generated on an outer End island.
Technical details[]
Features are generated for a given chunk after the terrain has been formed. The chunk format includes a tag called TerrainPopulated that indicates whether features whose point of origin is in that chunk have been generated. If it is false or missing, they generate again. Feature generation is based on what is already in the chunk, so (for example) flagging a chunk that has already been populated for repopulation approximately doubles the amount of ore in it.
When features are generated, they can spill over into neighboring chunks that have been previously generated. Thus, a tree at the edge of the generated world (and probably visible only via external tools) may be overwritten by a lake before the player reaches it. It is also theoretically possible for two worlds generated with the same seed, from the same version of Minecraft, to differ slightly depending on the players' travel routes, because the chunk generation order may determine which of two conflicting features overwrite or suppress the other.
History[]
| Java Edition pre-Classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cave game tech test | Development on "Cave Game" started; caverns added. | ||||
| Java Edition Classic | |||||
| 0.0.12a | Added ocean around map. | ||||
| 0.0.14a | Added trees. At this point they were simply stumps covered with a thin leaf layer. | ||||
| 0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 1) | Trees have a new shape. | ||||
| August 25, 2009 | Video uploaded showing changed cavern generation; longer and narrower caverns, and bigger caves the deeper you travel. | ||||
| Surface lava lakes shown to be possible but unlikely, despite existing as early as 0.0.12a_03. | |||||
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||
| 20100227-1 | Temporarily removed caves, trees and ores to test basic infinite world functionality. | ||||
| 20100320 | Re-added trees and ores. | ||||
| 20100325 | Re-added caves. | ||||
| Redid mineral blobs | |||||
| 20100327 | Caves are removed again. | ||||
| 20100616 | Caves are now again implemented. | ||||
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
| v1.0.1 | Caves can now be far bigger and more expansive. | ||||
| v1.2.0 | preview | Added the Nether but not all Nether-related generated structures. | |||
| v1.2.6 | Added small lakes and rare lava pools, both on the surface and randomly in caves. | ||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Added huge mushrooms. | |||
| Added river biomes and vast oceans. | |||||
| Sand and gravel beaches removed due to the changes in the terrain generation algorithm. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 | Added the End and End-related main island generated structures, including the End island, the obsidian platform, the end spikes and the exit portal. | |||
| 1.1 | 12w01a | Sand beaches have made a return, but the way they look and generate are not the same as before. | |||
| 1.2.1 | 12w07a | The generation of beaches has been greatly improved. | |||
| 1.6.1 | 13w17a | Water oases no longer generate in deserts. | |||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | Gravel beaches have been returned to the terrain. | |||
| Mountains now generate as part of the "M" biome variants. | |||||
| The desert oases appear in the desert M biome. | |||||
| Moss stone boulders were added. | |||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Added the outer islands of the End. | |||
| Added chorus trees. | |||||
| Added the end gateway portal. | |||||
| 1.13 | 18w08a | Caves and canyons can now generate underwater. | |||
| Frozen Ocean have made a return, but without customized, they look and generate, but are not the same unused. | |||||
| 18w10d | Added coral reefs. | ||||
| 18w15a | Added icebergs. | ||||
| 1.16 | 20w06a | Added basalt pillars. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.1.0 | Added sand and gravel beaches, oceans, frozen oceans, cliffs, mountains, basins, blobs, springs, and trees. | ||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Added caves, lava pools, rivers, huge mushrooms, moss stone boulders, ice patches, and ice spikes. | |||
| Frozen oceans no longer generate. | |||||
| Removed gravel beaches. | |||||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | Added the Nether, along with lava oceans, glowstone clusters, soul sand beaches, hidden lava, gravel beaches, and nether quartz blobs. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Added the End and End-related generated structures, including the End islands, the obsidian platform, the obsidian towers, the end fountain, end cities, end gateways, and chorus trees. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.2.0 | beta 1.2.0.2 | Added ravines. | |||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.14.2 | Added icebergs. | |||
| Added coral reefs. | |||||
| Ravines can now generate underwater. | |||||
| Frozen oceans have made a return, but the way they look and generate are not the same as before. | |||||
| beta 1.2.20.1 | Caves can now generate underwater. | ||||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.51 | Added basalt pillars. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU5 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added ravines. |
| Sand and gravel beaches removed due to the changes in the terrain generation algorithm. | |||||
| TU9 | Added the End along with End-related structures such as the End island, the obsidian platform, the obsidian towers, and the end fountain. | ||||
| Sand beaches have made a return, but the way they look and generate is not the same as before. | |||||
| TU19 | CU7 | 1.12 | Water oases no longer generate in deserts. | ||
| TU69 | 1.76 | Patch 38 | Added coral reefs and underwater caves and ravines. | ||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 1.7.10 | Added chorus trees. | ||||
