Tutorials/Best biomes for homes

One of the most important things to think about when building a shelter here you'll learn about the biomes to build your base in and the pros and cons. The biomes are listed from easiest to hardest to settle in for a new player, based on the desirable/undesirable characteristics mentioned below. Please note that this page is currently under construction.

This guide will judge each biome based on its own merits, i.e. its ability to provide necessary resources preferably without needing to travel elsewhere. For biomes from the Nether or End, this includes assuming the player will not be traveling to the Overworld for supplies, if possible.

Desirability

All biomes have certain characteristics about themselves, which can enhance or dampen the building experience.

Desirable

• Flat — Easy to build on, easy to roam around and easy to fight and/or evade monsters due to the even terrain.

• Has a consistent food source — Provides a reliable source of food whether this is in the form of animals or crops.

• Has trees — Provides an easy and renewable source of wood.
• Has unique block generation — Some blocks only generate in specific biomes, or they generate in great abundance to make those biomes noteworthy. For example, deserts are a great place to gather sand for crafting glass. Nether planks can only be found in warped or crimson forests.

• Has particular generated structures — Villagers can be traded with, and provide farms for the player to use early on. However, they also attract illagers and zombies, both of which will attack the village in raids and zombie sieges. This, in turn, can endanger the player, but also the villagers, which may even get wiped out in these attacks. Other generated structures can be looted for their resources and even converted into homes, although each structure will come with its own dangers.
• Has particular mob spawns — Certain biomes have enhanced spawn rates for mobs, or they can be the only locations where unique ones spawn. For example, in the overworld, swamps are the only overworld biome where slimes, which the player can farm for slime material, can spawn at the surface. Mooshrooms only spawn on Mushroom Islands and its variants. In the Nether, endermen have greatly increased spawn rates in warped forests.

• Scenic — Some biomes are particularly spectacular, whether it is due to personal preference or unique environmental generation that creates memorable areas.

Undesirable

• Crowded — This can make biomes difficult to move around in smoothly, as well as requiring the player to landscape the environment if they intend to build. Biomes that contain an excessively large amount of trees can shelter monsters during the daytime and allow them to resume spawning under the cover of vegetation. Because of this, players can potentially get ambushed by groups of monsters at a time. Biomes that contain a lot of hills and mountains can cause similar ambush situations.

• Flooded — Due to the player's dampened speed in water, it can be difficult to navigate at speeds that you'd get on more land-based biomes. This, in turn, means that escaping dangerous situations and monsters will be harder. It is also difficult to build large farms or structures. Mobs that die in sunlight can survive if they are within the water. Skeletons can shoot the player in the safety of bodies of water while zombies may sink and become drowned.

• No/Few Animals — Some biomes do not spawn animals when generated. Others lack grass, so animals cannot spawn over time.

• Scarce Wood — Some biomes contain few or no trees, forcing the player to resort to alternative methods of obtaining wood.

• Unsteady footing — Mountains and jungles offer a greater chance of falling to one's death and may make it more difficult to build farms or homes on the surface. Hostile mobs can attack the player suddenly and can collect in valleys. Lava flows will be more hazardous due to the terrain, causing it to flow unpredictably.

• Lack of food - In some biomes like deserts, icy biomes, or small islands in the middle of the ocean, it is hard to find food and set up a constant food source.

Overworld

The Overworld is the main dimension in Minecraft and the one the player will spawn into on world creation. It is by far the easiest of the dimensions to live, being the one designed best for living in. It is also the only place you can use a bed, without it exploding. There are many different foods here, and the hostile mobs that spawn are often easier to defeat than those in other dimensions. The player will have an abundance of biomes to choose from, each offering a different pro/con dichotomy for the player to consider.

Plains

The plains is a good biome for a player's first house. The lack of obstruction makes it fairly quick to walk or sprint around. The flat ground makes it easy to create a large house, and villages are common. Horses spawn here, allowing for even faster transportation. There is a lot of tall grass, making it easy to collect seeds and start a wheat farm. This biome has many gullies and short hills. Wood is scarce, but forests are likely nearby.

Pros

• Flat landscape for easy building and traveling.
• Plentiful tall grass for initial seed farms.
• The presence of animals offers much-needed meat, and resources like leather and wool. Compared to other "green biomes" like the forest, the spawn rate of passive mobs is not increased, but the lack of obstruction makes them easier to find and offers more spawning areas that are usually covered with trees.
• Villages that offer great trades, potential chest loot, and maybe a good shelter.
  • Plains villages are also the only villages that can generate large houses, which have 4 beds.
• Horses and Donkeys spawn exclusively here or in the savanna. Horses offer great mobility and combat advantage, while donkeys can be used for extra storage. In Bedrock Edition, this is the only biome where donkeys can spawn.
• The sunflower plains is the only place to find sunflowers.
• The abundant tall grass can sometimes hide you from monsters (or surprise them), even when you're on the move.
• Both water and lava lakes spawn here, often easily identified due to the flat landscape, and can provide plentiful resources for various advanced tasks.
• Fewer trees mean the undead have little protection from sunlight.
• Cornflowers generate here, used for blue dye.
• Bees and bee nests can spawn. This allows for honey farming which brings farming of honey bottles, honeycomb, honey blocks and beehives.
• If you are on a multiplayer server and at your base, the lack of cover makes it hard for an enemy to sneak up to your base.
• Plains villages have large amounts of hay bales, which can be made into bread.
• If you are looking for ores, caves entrances (sometimes ravines) can be easily spotted from the surface.

Cons

• Trees are a bit uncommon, although the plains biome often has forests nearby.
• There are many open caves which can disrupt the flat landscape, and mobs such as zombies can come out of the caves to attack you.
• When in combat the tall grass can often obstruct your melee attacks, while hostile mobs are not blocked by it.
• Skeletons and witches can more easily shoot you down due to the lack of obstruction.
• Tall grass can clutter your inventory with seeds, and can be annoying to clear out when building a large structure.
• Lava lakes generate here, which can easily kill a player or animal and will destroy any items dropped.
• Pillager outposts can generate in the biome, and although it has loot chests, it spawns pillagers infinitely around the structure and can easily kill unarmed players.
• On servers, a base here will be very easy to see and therefore may become a prime target for attack.

Useful Resources

Sunflowers, seeds, meat, lava, horses, donkeys, villages and villagers, hay bales (from villages), cornflowers, pillager outposts, and bees are useful resources found in plains biomes.

Tips

• Consider building your first or permanent house here, with resources you've acquired from other biomes.
• It is highly recommended not to kill villagers or leave them vulnerable to zombies by breaking their houses for wood. Eventually, iron golem farms and fully automatic crop farms will all become possible through villagers. They are also the only renewable source of enchanted diamond tools, weapons and armor.
• Tall grass can be removed quickly by dumping water on the ground to wash it away, although this requires a bucket.
• Build a more hidden house when on servers.

Multiplayer

On multiplayer, the Plains biome has both some heavy pros and some heavy cons. It is very easy to build defenses due to the flat terrain, and it is hard to be ambushed when at your base. However, the base (if at surface level) is easy to see. This means that enemy players/scouts could find a way in. If you settle in a plains biome, it is recommended that you make some tall walls to keep enemies away. Alternatively, you could build above or below a pillager outpost, and the pillagers would act as a natural defense. Before settling in a plains biome for a long time, you will want to have gathered a substantial amount of wood from the nearest trees so that you don't have to go back and forth between your base and a forest.

Forest

The forest has a lot of trees, making it great for getting wood, but it also means that building a house here involves cutting down a couple of trees. Also, this can be a dangerous biome at night for beginners. There are many trees, allowing for mobs to hide from the player, and minimizing combat space, which is especially dangerous for creepers. Also, the forest provides shade, allowing skeletons and zombies to survive in the daytime.

Pros

• Lots of wood, which is a resource both new and experienced players require, due to its being the foundation of many essential crafting recipes.
• The hills makes for good scenery.
• Though normal houses may be hard to build, a treehouse is always a good solution.
• The density and low height of treetops can provide a useful alternative mode of travel, especially at night, since spiders cannot climb past the leaves and other harmful mobs cannot find many ways to follow you - especially since they cannot jump over small gaps between trees. Just don't fall down!
• Has a small chance of being a "flower forest", and in that case, the biome will be filled with exclusive flowers that are great for decoration and dyes. Also, rabbits and bees can spawn.
• Is hidden and harder for players to find or attack you on servers.
• Wolves can spawn, making good companions and bodyguards.
• A plains biome is often nearby.
• The grass color is vibrant and green.

Cons

• Somewhat inconvenient to build in unless an area is cleared. (But the player gets a lot of wood in the process)
• Trees obstruct visibility.
• It is difficult to recognize any one section of the forest, which can be bad if you get lost. (Of course, the player can always ascend to the treetops to figure out directions.)
• Passive mobs can be hard to find due to the mass of trees around.
• Hostile mobs are surprisingly prevalent here depending on how dense the forest is. Skeletons can shoot you from around corners, creepers can sneak up from you from behind trees, and undead mobs have plenty of shade to shelter in during the day.
• Hard to run through due to the high amount of trees blocking your path. Also, horse riding here is near impossible, as suffocation in the trees is likely and hard to avoid without carefully traveling at speeds lower than simply sprinting without the horse.
• Fire and lightning strikes are a major issue here as they can potentially start huge forest fires.

Useful Resources

Wood, saplings, lily of the valley, rose bush, lilac, peony, wolves are useful resources found in forest biomes.

Tips

• Consider making this your resource base.
• Be wary of fires. It's far worse here than in every other biome except for the Nether (and maybe the jungle).
• Sometimes getting on top of trees helps. Your visibility of the forest will increase and you will be able to travel faster. It also acts as a temporary shelter during the night if you are desperate; if you break the blocks you used to get up, usually, mobs cannot reach you.
• Never let your guard down! As already stated, a dense enough forest can allow hostile mobs to spawn even in daytime, which can give the player a nasty surprise if they are not careful.
• Make watchtowers and beacons (not the block) in your resource base, clear out all trees and light up the area around them. This helps you to locate the resource base easier, stop hostile mobs from spawning and stop the unwanted forest fire.

Multiplayer

On Multiplayer, the forest is a very good place to build a base. There is an abundance of wood and animals, as well as cover so that your base stays semi-hidden. However, building defenses is very difficult in a forest, because the nearby trees will need to be cleared out. If you wanted to, you could burn some of the trees down, but make sure it doesn't get out of hand or you won't have a forest left! Never leave trees close to the perimeter of your base. It will be very easy for enemies to climb the trees and get over the wall. If doFireTick is off on the server, building a base out of wood might be a good idea, because of its abundance. However, it does not have as much blast resistance as stone or cobblestone.

Savanna

The savanna biome has a similar appearance to the grassland, but it doesn't rain here (except in shattered variants‌), and it contains plateaus for a greater range of building. Abundant trees are never quite as thick as anywhere else, with less vegetation than a swamp to obscure vision. There can be many high mountains, which can be beneficial and problematic. The diversity of views possible offer flat, semi terraced, and sheer vistas.

Pros

• Trees are rather abundant.
• Horses can spawn, except in shattered variants.
• Villages can generate here.
  • Villages here generate melons along with wheat in their farms
  • Also, village butchers can have chests that have loot.
• This is the only biome where acacia trees spawn naturally.
• Llamas can spawn.
• Shattered savanna and its variant:
  • There is also quite a bit of exposed coal ore and stone. Also in Bedrock Edition, rain can occur in shattered biomes.

Cons

• Lack of water makes farms slightly harder to make.
• Grass is very thick in this biome. It can hide spiders, camouflage creepers and is very hard to get rid of without a bucket.
• Pillager outposts can generate here.
• Terrain in shattered savanna can be dangerous, especially near a cliff as the player can take fatal fall damage and monsters can spawn in the darkness under the cliffs.

Useful Resources

Acacia and oak trees, horses, llamas for storage, melons and hay bales in villages, tall grass for seeds, an abundance of animals and pillager outposts are useful resources found in the savanna biome.

Tips

• Water can be found underground, in villages or in lakes.
• You can set up your main base here, since it has lots of resources like wood, stone, and is still flat.
• Acacia wood, which has a unique orange colour and design, is unique to this biome.

Multiplayer

Savannas are one of the best places to build bases. They have less trees than a forest, but more than plains. Plateaus are great as vantage points where you can see the surrounding land, and animals and coal spawn here. The only downside to savannas is that once you have gathered the resources, it's just a hotter variant of the plains biome. For this reason, it's very important to make a tree farm if the savanna is quite small, so that you can keep producing wood sustainably. Shattered savannas are great for both camouflage and height, but building defenses can be very challenging due to the height variation.

Taiga

The taiga is the colder version of the forest. In taiga biomes, only the spruce tree can be found, which is good for spruce-related buildings.

Pros

• Wolves spawn here and can be tamed.
• Rabbits can spawn here.
• Villages can generate here.
  • Village fletchers have chests that can be looted.
  • Pumpkins generate abundantly in taiga villages.
  • Outdoor armories have armor stands equipped with iron armor.
• Only spruce trees are available, giving taigas a less obstructed view of the sky than forests.
• Sweet berry bushes generate here, an abundant source of food.
• Foxes spawn here, and trusted foxes can defend the player.

Cons

• Although rabbits, sheep, and foxes can spawn here, they can be killed by wolves; chickens and rabbits are also targeted by foxes.
• Hostile mobs can hide under trees in the daytime.
• Pillager outposts can generate here.
• Spruce trees require slightly more effort to remove due to their varying heights.

Useful Resources

Wolves, villages and villagers, ferns, wood, rabbits, pumpkins and lanterns (from villages), sweet berry bushes, foxes, pillager outposts are useful resources found in taiga biomes.

Tips

• Villages in the taiga often have strange layouts, so keep in mind there may be distant houses if trying to protect a village.
• You can give trusting foxes weapons, and the fox will deal increased damage as well as any enchantments on the weapon. This is very useful for large fights.

Multiplayer

The taiga is a wonderful all-round biome. The trees provide cover but are not as dense as forests or dark forests, and berries provide a source of food. Villages here generate a lot of pumpkins, and wolves spawn in this biome too. Pillager outposts provide a challenge or can be used as a natural defense for a skybase or underground base. Foxes can also be tamed, which only adds to the benefits of the biome. This biome is not particularly special or "cool", but is a good all-rounder, and is one of the best choices for a beginner to multiplayer.

Mega Taiga

The mega taiga (officially the giant tree taiga) is a variant of the regular taiga which spawns with huge 2x2 trees. These trees have few leaves, but yield lots of wood. The ground here is made up of coarse dirt and dead bushes can be found, giving it a more "dead" feel. There are many ferns and double ferns that may otherwise be rare, as well as podzol, which is a good alternative to mycelium (since mushrooms can be placed on it in the daytime). Mossy cobblestone spawns naturally here, making it unnecessary to use up shears to cut vines, if using mossy cobblestone for building. Like other taiga biomes, wolves can spawn in this biome.‌ Foxes can also spawn.

Pros

• Spawns podzol, which is a fairly hard-to-get resource.
• Comes with abundant mossy cobblestone which can be useful for aesthetic buildings.
• Wolves can be found and tamed here.
• Foxes can be found here.
• Coarse dirt can be found here (although it can also be crafted).
• Plenty of wood to go around.
• Plenty of mushrooms.

Cons

• Trees have relatively few leaves (hence saplings) and can be hard to harvest due to their height and lack of foliage to stand on.
• Other than offering the rare podzol, coarse dirt or moss stone blocks, there is not much that this biome offers in terms of progressing through the game.
• Can house several hostile mobs in the shade of its trees.

Useful Resources

Podzol, mossy cobblestone, ferns, wood, wolf, rabbits and foxes are useful resources found in giant tree taiga biomes.

Tips

• The trees give spruce wood. Since it's possible you may have started out somewhere with oak trees, keep in mind your inventory might become cluttered if you collect different types of wood and their plank variants.
• To cut down these trees, cut into it in a spiral pattern, making a thin spiral staircase all the way to the top. Then destroy the stairs as you go back down
• On the first day, you only really need to cut down the first five or so layers of a single giant spruce.

Multiplayer

In multiplayer, this biome is not as good as a regular taiga due to the lack of horizontal cover. However, it provides almost as much wood as a jungle biome and offers a good opportunity for tree bases. There are also mushrooms, which can be used in mushroom soup.

Swamp

The swamp biome offers flat space (although much of it is flooded), plenty of trees, water, and clay. Swamp huts only generate here, and slimes will spawn aboveground. Mushrooms and huge mushrooms‌ are fairly common, making mushroom stew a good early-game food. Lily pads are common on the water. Fossils spawn 15-24 blocks underground. Blue orchids are exclusive to swamps.

Pros

• The land is flat, making building here easier.
• Slimes, which will drop slimeballs upon death. Slimeballs are used to craft sticky pistons and slime blocks, making this biome useful for redstone-knowledgeable players.
• Blue orchids spawn only in this biome, besides woodland mansions.
• Swamp huts will spawn witches continuously. This allows for witch farming, allowing one to farm redstone, sugar, gunpowder, glowstone, glass bottles, spider eyes and, in some cases, pre-brewed potions.
  • Cauldrons may contain potions in place of water. ‌.
  • Black cats spawn in swamp huts.
  • The hut can also be used as a base once it is adequately lit up.
• Fire does not spread far in this biome due to the large areas of water and spread-out trees.
• It is a good place for fishing because of all its water.
• Fossils have a 1 in 64 chance per chunk to spawn underground and can be a good source of bone meal.
• Huge mushrooms generate here. ‌.
• Zombie villagers spawn here wearing unique clothes and can be cured into swamp villagers.

Cons

• Extremely flooded. It is very hard to attempt to build anything large without reforming the landscape, though building a stilt house may be a solution.
• Depending on equipment and skill level, the extra slimes may be overwhelming.
• Witches can become a problem when near a swamp hut.
• No villages generate here.
• Bringing pets or mobs through the water on leads may lead to them being stuck under a lily pad and drown.
• Water is discolored and not as appealing as water elsewhere.
  • Zombies may end up underwater and sink, turning into drowned. This makes nights in this biome noticeably more dangerous.

Useful Resources

Clay, oak wood, sugar canes, vines, mushrooms, slimeballs, lily pads, blue orchids, witches and their drops, fossils and tridents are useful resources found in swamp biomes.

Tips

• Bridges can be built with lily pads.
• The Depth Strider enchantment is helpful for traveling in water.
• Beware of drowned; underwater visibility is lower in swamp water.
• A boat can easily harvest lily pads; beware of drowned following you and entering your boat.
• By adding a blue orchid to the mushroom stew recipe, you can craft suspicious stew instead, which is more than twice as nourishing and fully restores your saturation meter.

Multiplayer

Swamps are good enough by themselves in a multiplayer setting, but are outclassed by taigas and savannas. They provide trees and food (mushrooms), but also boast many dangers on top of enemy players (slimes, drowned and witches). However, bases in swamps are hard to attack without boats and/or lily pads. Aside from this, farming is easy in swamps due to fossils being a good source of bone meal, and water being plentiful. Clay (and bricks) are not good materials to make a base out of - they are very conspicuous. However, the swamp is both a blessing and a curse for redstone-oriented players: Water can ruin redstone contraptions, but slimeballs are in high supply here.

Snowy Taiga

The snowy taiga is a snowy, cold biome, which can be considered the snowy variant of the spruce forest. Wolves and foxes will spawn here, which can aid the player when tamed. Snow falls instead of rain, and water will eventually turn to ice if exposed to the sun, which disallows sugar cane or infinite water sources outdoors unless near a light source. Snow on top of your shelter can be annoying, and the few leaves on spruce trees can mean fewer saplings.

Pros

• Spruce wood is plentiful here.
• Ice farms and snow farms can be built here and do not need to be built higher than y-95, unlike the mountains.
• Wolves and foxes can be found and tamed here.
• Igloos spawn, which give a brewing stand, golden apple and some Potions of Weakness.
• Berry bushes sometimes generate here.
• Villages can generate here.
  • The buildings are identical to those in a taiga.
• Pillager outposts can generate here.
• Snow golems are easy to mass-produce because of the abundant snow and pumpkins from villages.

Cons

• Farming is inconvenient because water freezes into ice if not protected from freezing by light sources like torches.
• It snows uncontrollably, and can form patches of unwanted snow.
  • Additionally, snow can stack on buildings‌.
• It is rather hard to find sheep here as wolves will kill them.
• Undead mobs can hide under trees and survive during the daytime.
• Pillager outposts can generate here.

Useful Resources

Snow, ice, wood, ferns, igloos, wolves, sweet berries, villages‌ and their loot, pillager outposts and their loot, and foxes are useful resources found in snowy taiga biomes.

Tips

• It is advised to build here only if you do not mind snow on buildings.
• Do not attack wolves, as any other wolves nearby will also come and attack you; also, there is little point in killing them, as they only drop a little experience upon death.
• Tame a lot of wolves, as they offer excellent protection. Zombies and skeletons drop rotten flesh (for feeding them) and bones (for taming them) respectively. Wolves also scare skeletons away.
• To completely chop the tall trees, try to pillar jump or cut it in a spiral staircase.
• Many light sources will melt snow and ice which can be used to keep the player's structures somewhat cleaner.
  • This can also be used to keep irrigation water in farms from freezing, including in village farms.
• You can come to this biome to gather snowballs as weapons against blazes in the Nether.

Multiplayer

This is a good place to live in multiplayer. Both wood and food can be found here. Igloos make decent bases, and the villagers in their basement offer trades. Consider curing the zombie villager to get discounts on its trades, or alternatively take the brewing stand and golden apple. Wolves are good companions found here, and pillager outposts can generate too.

Jungle

Although the jungle may not be the best place to start for new players, it can provide lots of wood, as giant jungle trees are the biggest trees in the game. Also, if the traps are avoided, the jungle pyramid has some loot worth taking. One of the problems with the jungle is that thick bundles of leaves generate on the ground, making it hard to navigate. The trees in a jungle can also have horizontal branches on which mobs can spawn.

Pros

• Massive amounts of wood.
• Jungle temples have loot and redstone in them and can also serve as houses. Be careful of the dispensers that shoot arrows.
• Ocelots spawn naturally. They scare away creepers, which may be hard to notice due to their green texture against the green leaves.
• Grass blocks here are vibrant green.
• Melons and cocoa beans generate here.
• The large jungle trees can be made into treehouses, which are easy to protect. This makes it a great biome for multiplayer bases.
• Parrots spawn naturally. They mimic the noises of nearby mobs, making them useful for detecting hostile mobs.
• Bamboo naturally generates here, great for crafting scaffolding and sticks.
• Pandas can be found here.
• Zombie villagers spawn here wearing unique clothes which can be cured into jungle villagers.

Cons

• Limited space for building on the ground due to the thick tree foliage.
• Falling out of a tree is easy and can be fatal.
• The thick vegetation makes it very difficult to navigate.
• Hostile mobs, especially creepers, can be camouflaged in the green scenery.
• Can generate more lag than other biomes.
• Cannot obtain pufferfish or tropical fish when fishing.‌

Useful Resources

Jungle wood, vines, melons, loot from jungle pyramids, cocoa beans, parrots, ocelots, bamboo, pandas‌ are useful resources found in jungles.

Tips

• This biome is the only place where jungle wood can be found naturally, so have a resource base here.
• Build and travel as much as possible on top of trees for clearer vision and easier navigation.

Multiplayer

Jungles are a very interesting biome to live in. First off, the chances of enemies finding a base is minuscule, particularly if it is concealed. Second, a lot of wood can be harvested, and melons provide a source of food (albeit an inefficient one) as well as being tradable with farmer villagers. Jungle pyramids can be used as ready-made bases. However, there are several downsides. It is very difficult to construct defenses, and you may have to clear out a large area if building on the ground - which will take a lot of time. As well as this, jungles are often large and hard to navigate, so you might need to write down the coordinates of your base. Treebases can be accessed by vines, and can be hidden easily.

Bamboo Jungle

Bamboo jungles share many similarities with regular jungles, except massive amounts of dense bamboo shoots and only giant jungle trees can be found.

Pros

• Loads of bamboo.
• Jungle pyramids have loot in them (they can serve as houses, too). Just be careful of the dispensers that shoot arrows.
• Ocelots spawn naturally. This will scare away creepers, which may be hard to notice due to their green texture and dense amount of foliage.
• Lush beautiful grass.
• Pandas spawn here, which is more common than in regular jungles.‌
  • In Java Edition, the bamboo jungle is the only place where pandas can be found.
• The large jungle trees can be made into treehouses, which are easy to protect.
• One of the biomes where podzol can be found.
• Parrots spawn naturally and can imitate the sound of nearby mobs, useful for detecting hostile mobs.
• Zombie villagers spawn here wearing unique clothes which can be cured into jungle villagers.
• Melon patches can be found, though not as abundant in the regular jungle.

Cons

• Limited space for building due to the massive amount of bamboo.
• Extremely thick vegetation makes it very difficult to navigate.
• Cannot obtain pufferfish or tropical fish when fishing.‌
• Lacks jungle pyramids.‌
• A large amount of bamboo can lead to a frozen computer.
• Clearing multiple stalks of bamboo with a sword for a large building project can cause lag.

Useful Resources

Jungle wood, vines, podzol, loot from jungle pyramids, parrots, ocelots, bamboo, pandas, melons are useful resources found in bamboo jungles.

Multiplayer

Bamboo jungles are not recommended for many reasons. One, they have far less wood than normal jungles. Two, they can be very laggy even if you have a very good device. And three, they are quite difficult to navigate and to build defenses in. Even the bamboo itself has little practical use other than making scaffoldings, sticks, and as a poor fuel source.

Snowy Tundra

This biome is made up of large expanses of flat, snow-covered grass. These contain scattered trees in about the same density as plains biomes, although spruce trees generate instead of oak. There is also a sub-biome consisting of mountains which, while tall, are not as tall as the ones in the mountain biome. This biome can be beautiful, but the cold can make finding a reliable food source difficult.

Pros

• Plenty of snow and ice.
• The snowy landscape can be very appealing, especially when near to its mountain sub-biome or other snowy biomes.
• Igloos sometimes generate here and contain the basic necessities for a starting player: a bed, crafting table, and furnace. Furthermore, an igloo has a 50% chance of containing a basement (under the carpet), which can contain rare treasures like a brewing stand and a weakness potion, as well as having a loot chest with basic loot and one golden apple, and cauldron. The player will also find two villagers, one being a zombie villager, locked in cages.
• Snowy villages can generate here.
  • Village shepherd houses generate chests which can be looted.
  • Snowy villages are the only place where sheep, cows and pigs spawn in this biome.
  • Some snowy village houses are made out of packed ice and blue ice.
• In Bedrock Edition, skeletons and strays are the only monsters that can spawn in this biome, so the underground may be safe to explore as the only other mobs that can spawn are zombies from sieges, pillagers from pillager patrols and mobs from mob spawners.
• Rabbits can spawn here.

Cons

• The cold temperature means any exposed water in this biome will freeze without a nearby heat source, making farming difficult without light sources.
• Cows, pigs, and sheep only spawn as part of village generation.
• Polar bears spawn fairly frequently and will attack when approached if there is a nearby cub (otherwise will only attack when hit).
• When it snows, snow layers will be created on any flat, solid blocks, which can be a nuisance.
• Top snow can stack during snowfall.‌
• During the night, strays spawn on the surface. Unlike skeletons, strays shoot arrows of Slowness, which makes it harder to either advance or run away.
• Pillager outposts can generate.

Useful Resources

Snow, ice, igloos (and any rare loot they generate with), snowy villages, pillager outposts, arrows of Slowness from strays, raw salmon and raw cod from polar bears, rabbits and spruce wood from trees are useful resources found in snowy tundra biomes.

Tips

• If low on wood, a snowy or normal taiga biome is usually nearby.
• Polar bears are generally best avoided unless the player needs the raw cod or salmon they drop.
• Light sources keep snow layers from forming on blocks.
• Village farms are usually lit up, providing an easy first farm.

Mountains

The mountains biome is perhaps one of the most spectacular biomes, with arches and stone cliffs, but also one of the most difficult to navigate. In mountains biomes, it is often better to build bases in the mountains, instead of on them. Large surface caves, floating mountains, and overhangs are often found. Snow falls above y-level 95, allowing for snow farms and ice farms in this biome. This biome will be overhauled in the Caves and Cliffs Update.

Pros

• The mountains biome has very scenic views.
• Emerald ores are scattered underground, providing a helpful start for trading with wandering traders if the player cannot find a village. There is also quite a bit of exposed coal ore and stone.
• One of the better biomes to farm ice and snow. The farm must be built over y=95, but most mountains reach far beyond that height.
• Exposed stone makes it easier for beginning players to obtain it, in turn making it easier to upgrade both gear and building materials.
• Lava can be found without having to go down deep into a cavern. Lava pools will commonly spawn on the surface, allowing for easy construction of things that require it (cobblestone generators, nether portals, chicken farms, etc.).
• It is very easy to find and harvest coal, which means logs do not need to be used as charcoal.
• Llamas can spawn here, which are useful for mobile storage.
• Zombie villagers spawn here wearing unique clothes and can be cured into taiga villagers.
• The biome gives a high vantage point, useful on servers and for PvP.

Cons

• Falling can be lethal depending on the height of the fall.
• The vibrant environment of the mountains makes it hard to find a memorable landmark near either the player's base or their dropped items.
• The hilly terrain often provides very little flat ground, making it hard to build structures.
• Sugar cane is rare due to the lack of apparent open lakes.
• There are relatively few trees, which can pose problems for beginning players, unless if the player is in wooded mountains.
• Infested stone (releasing silverfish) are also scattered underground, which can be dangerous for the unprepared.
• Even iron is hard to come by when digging from the tops of mountains, as it only starts generating at sea level.
• While ores can spawn in the cliffs, it can be quite challenging to reach them because they are so high up.
• Gravelly variants have a surface almost completely made out of gravel and nearly no trees at all.

Useful Resources

Cobblestone, snow, ice, stone, emerald ore, coal ore, llamas, gravel, flint, and spruce wood are useful resources found in mountains biomes.

Tips

• In Bedrock Edition, infested stone can be avoided by seeing how long it takes to mine the supposed stone block. If it takes unusually long or takes the same time to mine regardless of what tool is used, it is infested. They can also be mined with a Silk Touch pickaxe if the player has one, because when mined with a Silk Touch pickaxe, they don't release silverfish. Consult the infested block page for more information.
• A critical hit on a silverfish with an iron or better sword, or a stone or better axe^{[Java Edition only]} should kill it in one hit and stop any nearby silverfish from attacking.
• To obtain more wood, gathering saplings or building your house near its wooded variant (like wooded mountains) is advised.
• Watch out for steep cliffs, as falling is possibly the leading cause of death in this biome. Boots enchanted with Feather Falling are strongly advised.
• A snow golem-based snow farm is much better than a weather-based one in both simplicity, efficiency and cost.

Stone Shore

The stone shore biome often occurs where a mountains biome meets the ocean. Therefore, stone shores have many of the advantages and disadvantages of both ocean and mountains biomes. Stone shore, despite being a beach biome variant, is very different from a standard beach biome. It contains many high hills and steep cliffs, and, true to its name, is completely made of stone, sometimes with andesite, diorite or granite as well.

Pros

• In stone shore biomes, both mountains and oceans are usually visible, which makes great scenery.
• Stone shores are completely made up of stone, making it great for aboveground stone mining.
• As stone shores often occur near mountains and oceans, this means that both emeralds and ocean monuments can be available nearby.
• Unlike in mountain biomes, water is easily obtainable from the ocean next to stone shore biomes.
• Similar to mountains, stone shores contain a lot of coal.
• Buried treasure can generate at high elevations here, so digging below sea level is not always required to find them.‌

Cons

• No passive mobs can spawn in this biome, meaning that the player will have to go to another biome to get porkchops, beef, chicken, raw mutton, or rabbit.
• Like in mountain biomes, the heights of stone shores make it difficult to navigate, and provides little level ground for houses.
• There are no trees at all in a stone shore biome, although some dirt patches may generate.

Useful resources

Water, snow, ice, buried treasure, stone and coal ore are useful resources found in stone shores.

Tips

• Building underground can circumvent the issue of no level ground for building.
• Animals can be brought from other biomes and kept here in farms for food.

Dark Forest

This is the only place that dark oak trees can naturally spawn. These thick trees allow players to chop a single tree down for more than half a stack of wood, plus saplings and rarely apples. Also, dark forests will occasionally spawn woodland mansions when sufficiently far away from the world spawn point. However, in addition to all of the problems with living in a regular forest, the area underneath the trees is often dark enough for monsters to spawn even at daytime, making this biome rather dangerous, especially for beginners.

Pros

• Lots of wood: a single tree can yield between half a stack and over a stack of dark oak wood.
• Huge mushrooms naturally spawn among the trees, giving the player a renewable food source.
• The canopy of the forest is safe as mobs do not spawn on the leaf blocks. The player can navigate and travel over the forest quickly as there are little to no obstructions.
• Woodland mansions can spawn here, which can provide shelter and valuable loot from the mobs inside. The mansion can be turned into a base once cleared and looted and is generally easy to find after doing so because of how large and easy to notice a mansion is from far away.

Cons

• Navigation can be difficult.
• Leaves block out most of the sunlight, allowing undead mobs to be active throughout the day. It is usually dark enough on the forest floor to spawn even more monsters at night.
• Trees may hinder construction, and are more time-consuming to chop down.
• Woodland mansions are the only places vindicators and evokers naturally spawn outside of raids. These are some of the most dangerous mobs in the game, with vindicators being able to sprint and hitting extremely hard and evokers summoning vexes, which can travel through blocks and are hard to hit.
  • Consult the Tutorials/Defeating a woodland mansion article for more information about clearing out the mansion.

Useful Resources

Dark oak wood, mushrooms, and totems of undying (found when you kill a evoker found in a woodland mansion and raids) are useful resources found in dark forests.

Tips

• Travel on top of the forest canopy. This allows for unobstructed vision and movement, as mobs do not spawn on leaf blocks.
• Light up frequently used ground to avoid being ambushed by mobs in the daytime.

Badlands

The canyons hold a lot of terracotta. While only a select few variants have some useful trees to start out with, you'll want to come back here to enjoy the scenery. Apart from the scenery, you can also mine out the plentiful terracotta for other projects. Like the desert or mushroom fields, it's best to start out somewhere else and return here when you have gathered some basic materials. You can also find above ground mineshafts in this biome.

Pros

• Good source of gold ores, which can generate above the surface level.
• Plenty of cacti.
• Scenery is great for building here in the natural plateau, and the Eroded Badlands Biomes are very picturesque.
• Surface-level mineshafts generate, which can be a source of wooden planks as well as a good place to find ores and loot.
• There is a lot of terracotta here that players can mine out.
• The only place where red sand can be found, which is useful for red sandstone, glass or TNT.
• You can easily get sticks by breaking the dead bushes without the need to craft them, a good strategy since trees are scarce in this biome.

Cons

• Not much surface-level or near-surface-level stone.
• It is rather hard to find wood here, and while the badlands can have oak trees, relying on the chances of spawning there is not efficient as it only generates in wooded badlands plateau variants.
• Lack of passive mobs and therefore meats and their other products cannot be obtained.
  • In Bedrock Edition, eroded badlands can spawn cows, chickens, pigs and sheep, so it's better to live in these badlands variants.

Useful Resources

Terracotta, dead bushes, red sand, red sandstone‌, cacti, gold, and oak wood from trees in wooded badlands are useful resources found in canyon biomes.

Tips

• Make sure to collect the saplings from the trees in the Wooded Badlands Plateau biome! You want to make sure you will never run out of trees or their saplings.
• Use a mineshaft to get down somewhere you can get stone, ores, and even chest loot from minecarts there.
• Make sure to have another biome close by to get as much food as you can.
• Set up a resource base here for the massive amounts of gold. This biome will provide you enough gold for a lifetime.
• Terracotta is also abundant. Use your resource base for collecting them. Terracotta are awesome for building, and glazed variants are brilliant for decoration.

Desert

Many players prefer to not live in deserts, as they lack grass, wood, and many other vital resources - however, once a player has basic materials, living in a desert can be beneficial. Sand can be obtained in large quantities, and cactus is rare in other biomes. Almost no above-ground water generates here, which poses a problem if spawned deep within these biomes. Also, no passive mobs spawn here other than rabbits. No trees spawn here either. Though not the best biome for the beginner, it is still a nice biome to live in after you've got your initial house set up somewhere else (see Tutorials/Survival in an infinite desert for tips on how to survive in a desert).

Pros

• Good scene, and is an awesome place for large builds (or any kind of builds).
• Desert pyramids spawn here (which contains good loot inside the treasure chests).
• Desert villages spawn here.
  • Village temple have chests, which can be looted.
  • Desert villages are the only place where pig, sheep, and cow can be found in this biome.
• The terrain is generally flat, apart from the hilly variants.
• Rain does not obscure your vision from potential dangers like mobs. It also means no thunderstorms causing any trouble.
• Lots of cactus and dead bushes.
• Lots of sand means you can get lots of sandstone, TNT and glass. Sand and sandstone are quite rare in other biomes.
• The bright sand can make it easier to see in the dark, and the mobs that come with it.
• Undead mobs will have a harder time trying to find shade during the day with the lack of foliage.
• Rabbits spawn here, which offer food since the desert doesn't naturally spawn other animals.
• Fossils spawn underground in this biome like the swampland biome, which can be a good source of bone meal.
• Pillager outposts can generate here, which supply a large amount of dark oak log and birch planks in the desert, and the occasional iron golem. However, the pillagers will be quite a challenge if the player has not yet obtained wood.

Cons

• There is little water (except in desert lakes, a variant of the desert) which causes difficulty in many water-related activities, especially farming. However, villages and desert wells can be good sources of desert water.
• The lack of rain also means you can't boost the time of fishing, and you can't hydrate crops if the desert is lacking any water sources.
• No grass.
• No reliable way to naturally get a lot of wood.
• Sand can suffocate you if it falls on you while mining near the surface.
• Like the plains, you can get shot down by skeletons due to the lack of foliage shielding its shots.
• Husks, a variant of zombies, makes up 80%‌/70%‌ of zombies found there. They give the Hunger effect when hit. Also, husks will not burn in daylight, and can, therefore, be dangerous for players who have trouble during mob fights, or to villagers in desert villages.

Useful Resources

Sand, cactus, dead bushes, sticks, sandstone, sugar cane, melon seeds from melon stems from desert village farms, rabbits, villages, and wood from pillager outposts are useful resources found in desert biomes.

Tips

• Spawning in a desert is a rough time. For newer players, it is recommended to wander to another biome as staying here means accepting a great challenge when it comes to survival.
• Coming to the desert to mass-collect the sand in bulk is a good idea if you need glass or sandstone.
• If you find a desert and expect to need sand in the future, set up a base somewhere more habitable and come back later.

Ice Spikes

Ice spikes is a very interesting biome with its random giant spires of packed ice, which have a very pleasant appearance, but also, like the badlands, lacks resources. This biome is also good for building homes that are more for show than for function. The taller ice spikes can be made into a tower with some work, although, inside, it will be little more than a spiral staircase with a room on top. The smaller ones can also be hollowed out and used to make an igloo. If you decide to live in an ice spikes biome, try to find one that is near a snowy taiga biome, so that you can harvest wood more easily.

Pros

• This is one of the places where you can naturally find packed ice besides the frozen ocean and snowy villages.
• The scene is very beautiful and unique.
• Great source of ice and snow.
• The packed ice can be used as spawn areas for mob grinders, or to craft blue ice.
• A good place for ice-related builds.

Cons

• No wood naturally spawns in the ice spike biome. This is a horrible place for a beginner to build a house because there is no wood, meaning the only way you can successfully live in the biome is if there is a biome with wood nearby that you can harvest wood from.
• The ice spike biome is extremely difficult to farm in. Because the biome is so cold, water will freeze unless protected. This means that you will have to go through extra work to build your farm inside your house or underground. Because of this, no natural sunlight would be there to boost the crop's growth, meaning that you would have to go through extra trouble to provide illumination.
• Biomes that are hot or medium/lush are usually not found near ice spikes, which means that it's harder to gather resources if living in an ice spikes biome.
• There are practically no passive mobs in this biome (aside from occasional rabbits or polar bears), which, coupled with the total lack of plants, as if things weren't bad enough, makes it ever so harder to obtain food.
• Strays can spawn here.

Useful Resources

Packed ice, ice, snow, polar bears, and rabbits are useful resources found in ice spikes biomes.

Mushroom Fields

Despite this biome being far down on the list, it is actually one of the easiest biomes to live in. However, Mushroom fields are very rare and are rarely connected to the "mainland" in any way. The most common reason for players to look for a mushroom fields biome, is the fact that no monsters (except the phantom) naturally spawn here, although spawners will still spawn mobs. It is completely safe for new players, and still great for experienced players. The one mob that does spawn there, mooshrooms, can be "milked" with a bowl to get mushroom stew or with a bucket to get milk, allowing for an infinite food source as long as the player has a bowl. The mycelium is useful for growing mushrooms, and with the exception of the swamp‌ and dark forest biomes, this is the only biome containing giant mushrooms. Normal monster spawning cannot happen at all, meaning that gunpowder is unobtainable but the drops of zombies, spiders, and skeletons are available from spawners, additionally mineshafts still generate and can spawn cave spiders. Trees also don't spawn here, meaning that wood is unavailable unless you find a shipwreck on the mushroom field shore or you bring wood from a nearby island. Make sure to bring saplings with you if you decide to build your house on a mushroom island, if you don't have saplings, wandering traders can still spawn in this biome and may sell saplings, make sure to have emeralds, which you can get from shipwrecks and mineshaft chests, to buy it.

Pros

• Mycelium, on which you can plant mushrooms independently of the light level, like podzol. Contrary to podzol, though, the mycelium will spread like grass, making it easier to obtain in large quantities.
• Red mooshrooms spawn here, and give a reliable infinite food source, as long as you have bowls in stock.
  • In Java and Bedrock editions, when mooshrooms breed, they have a small chance to spawn as brown mooshrooms, which if milked after being fed by flowers will give you suspicious stew that can inflict you with status effects depending on the flower used. Red mooshrooms also transform into brown mooshrooms when struck by lightning and vice versa. If you shear a red mooshroom, it will drop a few mushrooms and turn into a normal cow.
• Small and large mushrooms, both types(red and brown), spawn here, allowing for more mushroom collecting and using the mushroom block as a building material (if you have a Silk Touch shovel).
• No hostile mobs spawn within this biome, which means an overall safer experience.
• Offers an interesting aesthetic to build structures surrounded by huge mushrooms and mooshrooms.

Cons

• Aside from mooshrooms, no other passive mobs spawn which makes obtaining food harder. Although, you can just milk the mooshrooms, which may or may not be enough food.
• No natural light-based mob spawning means creating a mob farm without a spawner is impossible or without transporting animals and breeding them. This means the only ways to obtain drops such as bones, string (to craft bows), or arrows (for use in bows) is to build out over the ocean.
  • Alternatively, if you have a composter, you can convert mushroom into bone meal.
  • Make sure to have loads of emeralds as wandering trader trades are very useful in these biomes.
• The lack of wood, which means no first set of tools or crafting table or anything crafted with cobblestone or wood. No wood also means no bowls, which makes obtaining mushroom stew harder.
  • The only wood source is from shipwrecks which can generate on land in mushroom field shore, although they are quite rare.
• Rarely connected to any other land, and if you spawned here for the first time, you will have a very hard time going to the mainland due to your hunger going down from swimming. You can't make a boat either, because wood is not available in mushroom fields. Unless you somehow swim to the mainland, the biome is connected to other non-ocean biomes (very rare), or you find a shipwreck, wood is inaccessible.
• If you spawn here, you must swim back (or go back) to the mainland (which can sometimes can be thousands of block away), find a shipwreck, or go into the middle of the sea to fight patrols to get emeralds to buy saplings in order to get wood. If the mainland is too far away, you should consider creating another world.
• The whole island is covered in mycelium, which makes it's not a good place for big builds.

Useful Resources

Mycelium, mushrooms, mushroom stew, milk, suspicious stew, planks from shipwrecks, loot from dungeon, mineshaft chest and buried treasure in mushroom field shore are useful resources found in mushroom fields biomes.

Tips

• Like the desert, come back here after venturing to the mainland so you can have wood to start your gameplay with.
• You can get dirt blocks to build a bridge to the mainland.
• If you find one of these biomes when in a boat, use the extra space to take a mooshroom with you back to your base. It is also a good idea to note down it's coordinates.
• Make sure to sleep regularly in this biome, because if you forget to sleep for 3 days you will be attacked by a group of phantoms when leaving this biome (even if you just leave for one block).

Ocean / Deep Ocean

Oceans are appealing for players to live in. Oceans spawn in temperature variants, such as warm, lukewarm, normal (basic ocean biome), cold, and frozen. Each one of these (except warm oceans) also have a "deep" variant, allowing for larger underwater structures. All ocean types can contain underwater ruins and shipwrecks, and all deep variants can contain ocean monuments.

Pros

• All variants except for warm oceans contain kelp, which can be used as an underwater "crop" for food.
• While warm oceans lack kelp, they are the only variant to generate coral reefs and sea pickles, which are a spectacle.
• What variant you're in depends on what type of underwater mobs spawn. Warmer variants spawn tropical fish which come in thousands of color combinations, as well as dolphins and pufferfish; Cold (but not frozen variants) will also spawn dolphins as well as cod and salmon; squids spawn in normal and frozen variants.
• Dolphins, when fed fish, will lead the player to a nearby underwater structure chest, likely a shipwreck or underwater ruin. They also provide the player with a Dolphin's Grace effect‌ or instant swimming boost‌ that increases their swimming speed when swimming alongside them.
• Turtles actually only spawn on beaches, but you will generally find them swimming around in the adjacent ocean. They will often head back to their home beach to lay eggs, which can be collected with silk touch or observed until they hatch to harvest scute from baby turtles.
• Both underwater ruins and shipwrecks can contain valuable loot such as crops, books, paper, iron bars and nuggets, gold, and even diamonds and emeralds. However, their most valuable loot is the buried treasure map, which leads to a buried chest in a nearby beach biome. These chests contain more valuable minerals, as well as one heart of the sea, which is the main component to the conduit.
• Drowned, while difficult, can sometimes drop nautilus shells (used for making conduits), or tridents, a weapon that can be used as a sword or thrown. It can also be enhanced with unique enchantments like Channeling, which calls down a lighting strike; riptide, which pulls the player along with the trident as it is thrown; or loyalty, which causes the trident to return to the player once thrown.
• Abundant supply of ink sacs.
• Ocean monuments are found in deep oceans. This is the only source of resources like sponges, also one of place where sea lanterns and prismarine can be found, and can be used to create guardian farms.
• A good, deep source of water for fishing in.
• Fish can be caught with water buckets, allowing for the player to move them to their desired location.
• In factions or anarchy servers, this is the best biome so set up a base. You can build an impenetrable base under the bottom of the ocean or in the monument while nobody knows.

Cons

• The biggest problem with underwater activity is, of course, the lack of oxygen. The player will need to find a method for prolonged underwater living that best suits their needs, be it water breathing potions, air pockets using non-waterloggedable‌ blocks, bubble columns, turtle shell helmets with or without respiration / other helmets with respiration, or the conduit structure.
• If the player wants to build above water, islands are sparse, usually small, and low on resources. Building anything with wood, such as a ship, is difficult due to the lack of trees, although shipwrecks can be dismantled for a good amount of wood.
• Transport in/on oceans can be difficult for early players. A boat or boots with the Frost Walker enchantment are recommended for above water, while underwater, the player can activate the sprint button to begin swimming, and/or can use boots with the Depth Strider enchantment.
• Guardians can be found in ocean monuments, which may be deadly to unprepared players.
• While no mainland/underground mobs will spawn underwater, drowned, a swimming zombie variant, spawn fairly frequently anywhere underwater and in ocean ruins‌. They can occasionally wield tridents, which makes them very dangerous as they can damage the player from a distance.
• Nearby ocean monuments may cause one of the elder guardians to attack you with mining fatigue, preventing you from progressing due to this making early-game resources like coal taking too long to be mined out.

Useful Resources

Water, dolphins, cod, salmon, kelp, sea grass, coral, sea pickles, tridents, treasure map, prismarine shards, prismarine crystals, gold, sponges, wet sponges, ink sacs and magma blocks are useful resources found in oceans and deep oceans.

Tips

• The player can wear boots enchanted with frost walker to quickly transverse the surface of the ocean.

• Unless the player explicitly wants to live underwater, building on a nearby beach may be a better idea if the player is having trouble dealing with air loss or lack of resources.
• While drowned are the only outright hostile mobs, pufferfish can inflict poison damage if you get too close, and dolphins will become hostile if attacked like wolves.
• Build a conduit will solve all the problems of underwater living. A beacon will massively boost the player.

Frozen Ocean/Deep Frozen Ocean

Frozen ocean is an ocean with a surface completely freeze, including deep variants‌. Some resources are different enough than in other ocean biomes.

Pros

• Frozen oceans have icebergs on the surface, composed of ice, packed ice, blue ice, and snow. Blue ice won't melt regardless of biome and is the most slippery version of ice.
  • Medium-sized iceberg (one without water pool or tunnel) can also be used as a starter house in the early game, by digging a hole in it and live inside it.
• On some occasions, a structure such as ocean ruins and shipwreck may generate inside an iceberg, which makes these structures easier to reach without diving underwater.
• Players don't need to worry about being attacked by drowned (especially one armed with a trident) since surface on the frozen ocean is ice.

Cons

• Strays can spawn at night in the frozen ocean and deep frozen ocean, while polar bears spawn during day, which can be dangerous.
• Underwater, these oceans are completely barren with neither kelp nor seagrass.
• While being saved from drowned, unlike other oceans, frozen oceans also spawn regular hostile mobs, such as creepers, zombies, spiders, and witches (skeletons spawn in fewer rate). So strays are not the only hostile mobs found in here.
• In Bedrock Edition, due to the surface in deep frozen ocean completely freezing, ocean monuments are less noticeable until the player gets mining fatigue, especially if the player travels on ice, even when the monument under feet due to surface landscape.
• No dolphins spawn in the frozen ocean biome, which means if ruins or shipwrecks generate underwater, the player should find it manually or by fed dolphin from another ocean biome.

Useful Resources

Water, salmon, blue ice, trident, treasure map, prismarine shards, prismarine crystals, gold, sponge, wet sponge, ink sacs, magma block, cod‌ are useful resources found in deep frozen oceans.

Beach

When it comes to how to live on a beach, it really comes down to how to survive in their adjacent biomes. Beaches themselves are small biomes of barren sand/gravel except for sugar cane, turtle nests, and buried treasure, if you manage to stumble on some when terraforming. Beaches are mainly appealing for players who want to be able to see the ocean or have an above water base for ocean operations.

Pros

• As mentioned above, beaches are good for players who want to see the ocean, but live on land, or have an above-ground base when not exploring the ocean.
• If you live near a turtle nest, turtles will lay eggs, which hatch into babies that drop scute, who grow into an adult and repeat the process. Turtles will remember their nest location meaning that the same area will be the center of turtle activity permanently. Note that the player may need to set up protection for them, as undead mobs will attempt to crush turtle eggs or kill the baby turtles.
• You could stumble upon a buried treasure chest without a map, but it is very unlikely. Additionally, a beach dweller would find little use for a conduit.
• Sugar cane grows adjacent to water, so a beach makes a great natural farm.
• A good amount of sand, or gravel if you live next to a cold biome.
• Sometimes, shipwreck generate on beaches.

Cons

• Hostile mobs are generally no worse here than any other flat, barren biome, but a turtle nest may attract unwanted attention.
• Other cons mainly consist of the cons of your neighboring biomes.

Useful Resources

Turtle eggs, scutes, heart of the sea, sugar cane, sand, gravel and shipwrecks are useful resources found here.

Nether

The Nether contains plenty of valuable resources and is a hospitable place to permanently live , but it is still a dangerous and difficult place to live in. Food is absent in some biomes and hard to come by in others.

In order to set the player's spawn in this dimension, a respawn anchor can be crafted with crying obsidian (obtained from piglin bartering) and glowstone blocks. More glowstone blocks are required to fuel the anchor, with each death taking away one charge, and one glowstone block.

Blackstone, a stone equivalent that generates in patched within netherrack or basalt, can be used to make stone tools and furnaces. It also has its own set of decorative blocks, such as stairs, slabs, etc.

A rare ore, ancient debris, generates hidden within the terrain (not exposed to air). This ore, when smelted into netherite scrap and combined with gold ingots, can be turned into netherite ingots. With a Smithing Table, they can use these ingots to upgrade any diamond gear to the most powerful toolset tier available.

Three notable structures generate in the Nether, those being nether fortresses, bastion remnants, and ruined portals. Nether fortresses offer useful loot such as nether warts and blaze rods for brewing, saddles for striders, iron/gold ingots, obsidian, and diamonds. Wither skeletons can drop their skulls, which can be used in conjunction with soul sand/soil to summon the wither. Bastion remnants offer an abundance of blackstone, chains, and gold blocks, as well as a variety of gold and (rarely) netherite related items. The pigstep music disc can also be obtained here. Ruined portals are incomplete nether portals often accompanied by crying obsidian, a gold block or two, and likely a chest containing some gold and a flint and steel to ignite the portal, if the player has enough obsidian to restore it.

Useful Resources

Netherrack, blackstone, nether quartz ore, nether gold ore, glowstone, soul sand, lava (for smelting), mushrooms, nether fortress loot, bastion remnant loot, ruined portal loot, ghast tears, gunpowder, magma cream, ender pearls, rotten flesh and striders are items, blocks, and entities can that be found throughout the Nether in all or most biomes.

General Hazards

The most immediate problem is the monsters which spawn, generally regardless of light level. Bases can be floored with transparent or partial blocks to prevent spawns inside the base. Depending on the nearby biomes, various other measures will also be needed: For Endermen, avoid building with blocks they can pick up, and make sure that low ceilings are available for shelter. For Ghasts, enclose the base completely to prevent them from getting line-of-sight on a player. Avoiding fragile blocks on the exterior can forestall problems when working near the base. Piglins can be deterred by placing soul fire (including the torches, lanterns, or campfires) as a perimeter, and pacified by wearing a piece of gold armor. (Note that they can open doors!) Hoglins can be deterred with warped fungus, and cannot pass through one-block-wide gaps. Zombified Piglins are a particular nuisance, because of the hazard of accidentally aggravating them; they can also knock on doors (and in Hard difficulty, break them) even while still neutral. However, most of the general base-defense techniques (not lava or fire) will work against them. Magma cubes are especially dangerous -- in areas where they can spawn, spawnproofing and a solid perimeter are a must, and low ceilings can alt least keep the largest cubes out.

The longer-term problem is the difficulty of farming: All dirt must be imported, and crops must be farmed "dry". However, trees and large mushrooms can be farmed normally (given dirt), and large fungi can provide "wood". Hoglins or imported animals can provide meat.

Warped Forest

The easiest of the new biomes introduced to settle down in is the warped forest. This is a fairly crowded forest of blue warped fungi trees, which provide a blue-tinted wood that can be used in place of Overworld wood types to make a crafting station, sticks, tools, etc. Endermen are the only hostile mob to spawn in this biome, and combat can be avoided if players are careful to not look near their eyes. Bringing a carved pumpkin to protect yourself from endermen is also reccomended.

Pros

• It is the least hostile Nether biome.
• Wood can be obtained from blue warped fungi trees, a necessary material for long term survival.
• Nether fortresses cannot generate in a warped forest biome (although they can generate into one if a neighboring biome generates the fortress), meaning blazes, wither skeletons, and normal skeletons will likely not be encountered.
• As with all Nether biomes, striders spawn in the lava lakes in this biome. For the player's safety, this is the best biome to house them in.
• The warped fungi found in this biome can be used to ward off hoglins in the crimson forest.
• Twisting vines are a flora that grows upward-similarly to kelp-that can be climbed like a ladder. Unlike ladders, they do not require a support block to be placed (aside from the block the bottom vine is placed on), meaning they are excellent for scaling cliffs or reaching higher levels of the Nether.
• Thanks to the increased spawning of Endermen in this biome compared to the rest of the Nether, this biome makes an efficient place to gather ender pearls.

Cons

• Due to endermen and striders being the only mobs to spawn here, food cannot be obtained from killing mobs. No crops can be obtained here either, meaning the only option for food is for players to venture to another biome to forage/hunt.
• Bastions can generate in this biome, meaning piglins may be a threat if the forest the player settles in happens to have one.

Useful Resources

Warped stems, warped fungi, twisting vines and ender pearls are useful resources found in the warped forest.

Crimson Forest

The crimson forest is a red counterpart to the warped forest, with more dangerous mobs inhabiting it. While this makes surviving mobs harder than in the warped forest, the crimson forest offers food options that the warped forest cannot. It is up to the player to decide which of the two biomes is more desirable. Piglins inhabit this biome, meaning the player will need to equip at least one piece of gold armor to prevent them from attacking on sight. Piglins also become angered whenever opening a chest or mining nether gold ore within their line of sight, so the player may want to enclose their chests in a windowless room to prevent piglin attacks.

Pros

• Wood can be obtained from red crimson fungi trees, a necessary material for long term survival.
• If the player has gold armor to wear and gold ingots to spare, piglins can be bartered with for many useful items. See Bartering for more information on what items can be obtained.
• Hoglins, while dangerous hostile mobs, are a renewable source of pork if farmed. They can be bred with crimson fungi, although the player must take care to build a safe farm area for themselves.
• The weeping vines in this biome are the crimson forest equivalent of the warped forest's twisting vines. Unlike the twisting vines, weeping vines grow downward from the underside of a block, instead of upward. This makes them more suited for creating a safe way down a cliff or ceiling, if used carefully.

Cons

• As stated previously, piglins and hoglins are potential threats, especially hoglins who cannot be pacified with gold like piglins. However, they can be warded off with warped fungi. If the player does not have gold to pacify piglins, they can similarly be warded off with soul fire related items.
• Bastion remnants and nether fortresses can generate in this biome, potentially making the forest much more dangerous.
• Mining gold ore or opening a chest near piglins will cause them to become hostile towards the player, whether or not they are wearing gold armor or have soul related items nearby.

Useful Resources

Crimson stems, crimson fungi, weeping vines, hoglins and bartering loot are useful resources found in the crimson forest.

Basalt Deltas

Basalt deltas are a unique biome in the Nether, as netherrack rarely generates within it (aside from structures). Instead, basalt and blackstone make up most of the terrain. Small lava pools are dotted around the biome, and magma cubes spawn much more commonly here than elsewhere, with the rare ghast being the only other naturally spawning mob.

Pros

• Blackstone, a necessary block for making furnaces and stone tools, is in abundance here.
• Basalt makes for a unique building block.
• An abundance of magma cubes means plenty of magma cream to be gathered, which can be used in brewing to make fire resistance potions. Considering the fire and lava immunity this potion gives, it can be very worthwhile to brew these potions considering the Nether's general terrain.
• Ores generate at double the rate here than in any other biome, and they can be easy to spot due to using a netherrack based texture contrasting against the basalt/blackstone.

Cons

• This biome is very uneven, has many sharp cliffs, and contains very common pools of lava and magma blocks, making flattening the terrain to construct buildings difficult.

• The frequent lava pools are a constant threat, and the jagged terrain can make them hard to spot beyond ridges or in small holes.
• There is no food to be found in this biome. The player will need to bring food from another biome.
• Magma cubes, while slow, are a dangerous mob due to their large hitbox to deal damage with when they leap onto the player, as well as their ability to split into smaller and weaker, but numerous, duplicates upon death.

Useful Resources

Basalt, blackstone and magma creams are useful resources found in basalt deltas.

Nether Wastes

The nether wastes is a biome that is a barren netherrack cavern with little to offer in terms of survival.

Pros

• If the player has gold armor to wear and gold ingots to trade, the nether wastes is a safer alternative for piglin bartering than the crimson forest, as hoglins are absent from this biome.
• It ties with the soul sand valley as the biome with the most open skyline, and this biome is much safer than the soul sand valley.
• The previous point also allows for plenty of space for the player to built.

Cons

• There is no food to be found in this biome, aside from what can be obtained from piglin bartering. The player may need to bring food from another biome.
• Piglins and ghasts can cause trouble for players who are unprepared. Zombified piglins also spawn here commonly, although they are neutral and will only attack if they are attacked by the player.

Useful Resources

Bartering loot are useful resources found nether wastes.

Soul Sand Valley

Soul sand valleys are by far the most trying biome to live in amongst the Nether biomes. The biome is coated in a floor of soul sand, making traversing slow. Skeletons and ghasts spawn frequently here, which when combined with the slowing nature of soul sand, can be very dangerous to the player. Soul fire is present in this biome, and occurs whenever soul sand or soil is set on fire. It deals double the damage of normal fire, but using soul sand/soil in certain crafting recipes can allow the player to craft soul fire variants of useful blocks, such as soul torches and soul campfires.

Pros

• Nether fossil structures generate frequently here, allowing for the harvesting of a large quantity of bone blocks for building or bone/bonemeal related purposed.
• Soul sand and soul soil are abundant, meaning it is a good place to gather them for nether wart farming or soul fire-related blocks.
• Basalt also generates in this biome in stalactite formations.

Cons

• Skeletons and ghasts spawn here in droves. This combined with soul sand to slow the player down, it can be very dangerous to live in this biome.
• There is no food to be found in this biome. The player will need to bring food from another biome.

Useful Resources

Bone blocks, soul sand, soul soil, basalt, bones, arrows, ghast tears, gunpowder are useful resources found in soul sand valleys.

The End

This dimension would not be advisable for beginner players, but for players who want an advanced challenge, the End could serve as a home after the final boss is defeated. The End dimension is made up of two different areas: the center island where the final boss is fought; and the outer islands that begin generating 1000 blocks from the center. The center island is a somewhat small landmass that is made up of end stone, obsidian and bedrock. The outer islands feature many endstone islands, chorus plants, and valuable end cities. Should the player chose to live solely in this biome without important items from the Overworld (as if they had spawned into the world for the first time), the center island is uninhabitable on its own merits; it offers no food or resources to collect. The outer islands must be reached in order to obtain the necessary resources. Note that the player will need to kill the final boss before the challenge begins, as it will likely kill an item-less player in a few seconds.

Central Island

This is the location the player will first encounter when entering the End, and is the location of the ender dragon boss. For long-term survival, the Ender Dragon will have to be defeated, as the boss will destroy any blocks other than end stone, obsidian or indestructible blocks like bedrock.

Pros

• Plenty of ender pearls. Ender pearls could be easily farmed.
• The island is a large, flat, open space, meaning there is plenty of room for building. Although, the obsidian pillars would be a nightmare to remove if desired, as their size and the mining time of obsidian would make the project very tedious.
• The sole portal back to the Overworld is located here, as well as all the portals to the outer islands created by killing ender dragons.
• This is also the place where the player will consistently spawn within the End from the Overworld, so making the area safe is recommended.

Cons

• There is no food to be found on the center island. Chorus fruits only generate on the outer islands. The player will have to bring food from another biome/dimension.
• If the ender dragon were to be re-summoned, it would likely cause severe damage to any structures the player had built.

Useful Resources

Endstone, obsidian, the exit portal, end gateway portals, the dragon egg and ender pearls are useful resources found on the central island.

Outer Islands

The outer islands of the End are more sustainable than the central island, but they are still a harrowing challenge. The biome consists of large endstone islands that are usually separated by gaps dozens of blocks wide. Ender pearls or bridges can be used to cross these gaps, but be wary of angering endermen, as they can teleport onto the bridge and easily knock the player off.

Pros

• Plenty of ender pearls. Ender pearls could be easily farmed.
• Plenty of chorus plants can be collected, which, while serving as a sufficient food source, will randomly teleport the player when eaten.
• An end city can provide some of the tools the player had been lacking, including enchanted iron/diamond tools and armor. The most valuable loot is the elytra, found on the flying ships in an end city. This item can make traversing the vast chasms between islands much easier. Also, the cities can be renovated or deconstructed for their unique building blocks, some of the only ones the player can obtain.
• Given that both chests and shulker shells can be obtained in end cities, the player can create shulker boxes for mobile storage needs.

Cons

• Living in this biome without items from the Overworld is brutal.
• To get to the outer islands, the player must either bridge to them, use a flying machine, or kill the ender dragon and get into the end gateway, either by using an ender pearl or placing water and swimming into the gateway.
• The player may end up falling into the Void, meaning the player will lose all their items and experience. This danger is especially high on bridges that are 1 block wide or have no railing.
• Once the outer islands are reached, the player will need to head to an end city for tools. These structures are quite dangerous due to the shulker mobs scattered about. Given that the only thing the player will be armed with at this point is ender pearls and chorus fruit, the challenge comes with making it to the chests at the top of the towers/the end ship without being able to efficiently kill shulkers. While the towers are designed so that all areas can be reached by foot, albeit requiring parkour while under attack from shulkers, with the exception of the ship, the shulker bullets will prove difficult to avoid. A few ideas include using the shulker's bullets to your advantage to levitate upward, although it requires the consumption of chorus fruit to keep your health up, which may teleport you back down a few blocks. You could use the chorus fruit as well, in hopes that it progressively teleports you upward. The best strategy is likely using ender pearls, although you will need many, which requires a lot of bare-handed enderman farming.
• Crossing to other islands can be achieved by either: throwing ender pearls or making bridges of chorus plant blocks. Once the player loots an end city, they could build block bridges or use elytra.
• Endermen are everywhere and deadly to an unarmed player, so keep your head down and avoid eye contact.
• The player will likely be using a lot of ender pearls, which can occasionally spawn endermites. While weak, they attract enderman which can teleport or walk in front of the player's vision.

Useful Resources

Endstone, purpur, shulker shells, shulker boxes, ender pearls, end city loot, elytra, chorus fruit, chorus flowers and ender chests are useful resources found on the outer islands.

Other

While not technically biomes, these areas offer different base building experiences than any biome and may be desirable to some players.

Sky

Building high above the surface can be challenging, as there is a constant danger of falling, and the player will need to set up farms to sustain themselves without taking trips to the surface. However, building a skybase can allow the player lots of creative freedom without any land to get in their way.

• The vast areas between islands in the End is similar to living in the sky in the Overworld, with the added Con of it naturally being very dark at all times and endermen spawning frequently.

Pros

• At this height, the player will not have much difficulty lighting up their sky base, the only place where hostile mobs could spawn and attack. Phantoms are the sole exception, spawning in the air regardless of light level, but they can be avoided by sleeping frequently.
• Depending on your render distance and height, you may be able to see the surface which provides a nice aerial view.
• With no land obstructions, the player can exercise complete creative freedom, and have plenty of space for any structure.
• A sky base is perfect for factions or anarchy servers. With only mild protection, it could be impenetrable.

Cons

• There are absolutely no natural resources in the sky (with the exception of snowfall creating snow layers in some biome's skies, and rainfall filling cauldrons with water in some other's). The player will need to make cargo trips from the surface during building their sky base to bring up necessary resources and farmables.
• Constant danger of falling off if not careful, likely at a height that will kill the player.
• Unless the player intents to live on their sky base 100%, a way of getting up and down to the surface is necessary, such as a very long ladder.

Underground

As an opposite to the sky, the underground may require the player to spend lots of time mining out space for structures. Any room or cave near the player's base will need to be lit up sufficiently to prevent mob spawning, however, a wandering trader along with two trader llamas can also spawn underground. However, the player would be living right next to a vast amount of resources such as iron, diamond, and more. While likely less desirable than living on the surface, living in the underground can provide a unique survival experience.

Pros

• Immediate access to the underground's vast mining resources.
• Plenty of stone, dirt, ores, etc.
• A cave, especially one that is big and/or opens up at the surface, can be transformed into an improvised home.
• The player may find structures like strongholds or mineshafts suitable to easily change into a home.
• Due to their trades, wandering traders that spawn underground can serve as underground shops for useful resources that would otherwise require the player to go to the surface.
• Perfect for a secret base/room.

Cons

• Many hazards such as hostile mobs in the dark, lava lakes, loose gravel that can create cave-ins, dungeons and other structures.
• Lots of mining may need to be done to clear out an area for a desired structure.
• Many resources needed for ongoing survival such as wood and foods will require the player either first bring them from the surface, or find a structure such as mineshafts or strongholds that provide such things, wandering trader may also solve the problem as long as the player has a large quantity of emeralds.

Useful Resources

Stone, dirt, gravel, andesite, diorite, granite, iron, gold, redstone, lapis lazuli, diamonds, emeralds, obsidian, dungeon/mineshaft/stronghold loot and mob farming opportunities are useful resources found here.

Gallery

Overworld

• 

  Plains biome.

• 

  Forest biome.

• 

  Savanna biome.

• 

  Birch forest biome.

• 

  Taiga biome.

• 

  Mega Taiga biome.

• 

  Swamp biome.

• 

  Snowy Taiga biome.

• 

  Jungle biome.

• 

  Bamboo Jungle biome.

• 

  Snowy Tundra biome.

• 

  Mountains biome.

• 

  Stone Shore biome.

• 

  Dark Forest biome.

• 

  Badlands biome.

• 

  Desert biome.

• 

  Ice Spikes biome.

• 

  Mushroom Fields biome.

• 

  Ocean/Deep Ocean biomes.

• 

  Frozen Ocean/Deep Frozen Ocean biomes.

• 

  Beach biome.

Nether

• 

  Warped Forest biome.

• 

  Crimson Forest biome.

• 

  Basalt Deltas biome.

• 

  Nether Wastes biome.

• 

  Soul Sand Valley biome.

The End

• 

  Cantral Island biome.

• 

  Outer Islands biome.

Other

• 

  In the sky, high above the ground.

• 

  Large cave systems underground.