Windswept Hills

1.8 Biomes Mountain — Windswept hills biomes.

Windswept hills are very uncommon biomes that mainly generate in hilly terrain. There are three variants in the biome family.‌

Description[]

Windswept hills generate in areas with high erosion, high PV and high continentalness, which means that the terrain is usually flat, but sometimes hilly and shattered. The cliffs of the windswept hills generally peak at roughly Y-level 140. Above Y=120±8, rainfall changes to snowfall, and the hills becomes snow-capped, along with water freezing into ice.

The grass and leaves are an aqua color. These are the only biomes, besides mountain biomes, where emerald ore is found. Like mountains, infested blocks with silverfish can be generated underground below the sea level. Oak trees and spruce trees occasionally generate here, with a bit of grass, poppies‌^{[Java Edition only]} and dandelions on the ground. Llamas can spawn in these biomes.

Survival in windswept hills can be challenging to beginners, due to the heights often risking heavy fall damage and higher elevations bringing snow and ice, but can be fairly easy once the player has acclimated to the area and found or made a flat-enough space for shelter. Llamas can also serve as useful pack animals when tamed. Water must be protected by light or a roof to prevent it from freezing when above the snowfall line, however, and the player must be aware of their surroundings to avoid falling off steep cliffs, especially when fighting hostile mobs. Care should also be taken when mining in windswept hills, due to infested stone occasionally generating; the player might get swarmed with silverfish if they're not prepared.

The following mobs are naturally spawned here：

In *Java Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Skeleton	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₅₁₅	4
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₅₁₅	4
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₅₁₅	1–4
Witch	⁵⁄₅₁₅	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₅₁₅	1
Ambient category
Bat	1	8
Creature category
Sheep	¹²⁄₄₅	4
Chicken	¹⁰⁄₄₅	4
Pig	¹⁰⁄₄₅	4
Cow	⁸⁄₄₅	4
Llama	⁵⁄₄₅	4–6
Underground water creature category
Glow Squid	1	4–6

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

In *Bedrock Edition*
Mob	Spawn weight	Group size
Monster category
Creeper	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Slime^{[note 1]}	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Spider	¹⁰⁰⁄₄₉₅	1
Zombie	⁹⁵⁄₄₉₅	2–4
Skeleton	⁸⁰⁄₄₉₅	1–2
Enderman	¹⁰⁄₄₉₅	1–2
Witch	⁵⁄₄₉₅	1
Zombie Villager	⁵⁄₄₉₅	2–4
Creature category
Sheep	¹²⁄₅₅	2–3
Chicken	¹⁰⁄₅₅	2–4
Glow Squid	¹⁰⁄₅₅	2–4
Pig	¹⁰⁄₅₅	1–3
Cow	⁸⁄₅₅	2–3
Llama	⁵⁄₅₅	4–6
Ambient category
Bat	1	2

↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

Variants[]

Windswept Hills[]

The windswept hills biome is the regular variant, which has sporadical oak and spruce trees. This biome features the stony and grassy terrain surface.

Windswept Forest[]

The windswept forest variant lacks stony terrain surface. The tall grass and trees generate more often, forming sparse forests. While the increased wood supply can be useful, the risk of fatal fall damage still exists, especially if this variant generates on the edge of a tall hill. This variant generates in areas with high humidity, which means it is usually surrounded by forested biomes like taigas and birch forests.

Windswept Gravelly Hills[]

The windswept gravelly hills variant has sporadical oak and spruce trees. This biome replaces the top few layers of stone, grass block and dirt with gravel across its landscape. Due to the gravel replacing most of the grass, trees generate far less often, making this variant relatively barren. Players should be careful when surfacing from underground in this biome, as the top layers of gravel can pose a suffocation hazard. This variant generates in lower humidity values, mainly next to plains and snowy plains.

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Windswept Hills	`windswept_hills`	`biome.minecraft.windswept_hills`
Windswept Forest	`windswept_forest`	`biome.minecraft.windswept_forest`
Windswept Gravelly Hills	`windswept_gravelly_hills`	`biome.minecraft.windswept_gravelly_hills`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID
[No displayed name]	`extreme_hills`	`3`
[No displayed name]	`extreme_hills_plus_trees`	`34`
[No displayed name]	`extreme_hills_mutated`	`131`

History[]

Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Added the Extreme Hills biome. Mountains and hills could still generate prior to this, but they were random parts of the terrain and not considered their own biome.
Java Edition
1.1		12w01a			Added Extreme Hills Edge biome. it was implemented as a smooth transition between the unpredictable extreme hills terrain and the largely flat terrain of the various other biomes in this world generator.
1.1		12w01a			Reduced the height of Extreme Hills.
1.7.2		13w36a			Extreme hills variants added, along with many other biomes.
					The extreme hills edge biome no longer generates naturally and include spruce trees and a bit of stony patches.
					Spruce trees and snow layers now generate in extreme hills.
					The surface now contains large stone, dirt and gravel patches.
1.13		18w16a			"Extreme Hills M" has been renamed to "Mutated Extreme Hills".
		18w16a			"Extreme Hills+ M" has been renamed to "Mutated Extreme Hills+".
		18w19a			"Extreme Hills" has been renamed to "Mountains".
					"Extreme Hills Edge" has been renamed to "Mountain Edge".
					"Extreme Hills+" has been renamed to "Wooded Mountains".
					"Mutated Extreme Hills" has been renamed to "Gravelly Mountains".
					"Mutated Extreme Hills+" has been renamed to "Gravelly Mountains+".
		pre5			The ID `extreme_hills` has been changed to `mountains`.
					The ID `smaller_extreme_hills` has been changed to `mountain_edge`.
					The ID `extreme_hills_with_trees` has been changed to `wooded_mountains`.
					The ID `mutated_extreme_hills` has been changed to `gravelly_mountains`.
					The ID `mutated_extreme_hills_with_trees` has been changed to `modified_gravelly_mountains`.
September 28, 2019					During MINECON Live 2019, the mountains won the community biome vote; additions were improved terrain generation, powder snow, and goats.
October 3, 2020					The Caves & Cliffs update was announced at Minecraft Live 2020, showing a sneak peek at goats and the new mountain generation.
March 5, 2021					It is announced that the biome renamed to mountains in 1.13 may be renamed back to Extreme Hills.
1.17		21w13a			Goats now spawn in the old "mountains" biome, a placeholder until the new mountains are added.
1.18		Experimental Snapshot 1			Removed Gravelly Mountains+.
		Experimental Snapshot 1			Goats no longer spawn in the old "mountains" biome.
		experimental snapshot 2			Old "mountains" have been renamed back to "extreme hills", and "gravelly mountains" into "gravelly hills".
		experimental snapshot 4			Increased the extremity of terrain in extreme hills.
		21w40a			"Extreme Hills" has been renamed to "Windswept Hills".
					"Wooded Mountains" has been renamed to "Windswept Forest".
					"Gravelly Hills" has been renamed to "Windswept Gravelly Hills".
					The ID `extreme_hills` has been changed to `windswept_hills`.
					The ID `wooded_mountains` has been changed to `windswept_forest`.
					The ID `gravelly_hills` has been changed to `windswept_gravelly_hills`.
					The gravelly mountains+ and mountain edge biomes have been removed.
1.20		23w17a			"A Familiar Room" can now be played in windswept hills, windswept forest, and windswept gravelly hills.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0					Added biomes, with small cliffs generating within them.
v0.9.0		build 1			Added a proper extreme hills biome, along with many other biomes.
v0.9.0		build 1			Only pine trees now generate (not oak trees as well) in extreme hills. The trees are found only in the wooded variant.
v0.9.5					Added extreme hills+ variant.
v0.11.0		build 1			Added extreme hills m and extreme hills+ m variants.
v0.11.0		build 10			The amount of gravel in extreme hills m biomes has been increased.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		?			Added snow layers to extreme hills.
Caves & Cliffs (experimental)		beta 1.16.200.52			Added goats, which currently spawn in extreme hills as a placeholder.
		beta 1.16.220.50			Goats no longer spawn in the extreme hills biome.
		beta 1.17.30.23			Gravelly mountains+ no longer generate naturally.
		beta 1.17.40.20			The windswept hills variants became rarer.
Legacy Console Edition
TU5	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added Extreme Hills biome.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	1.0.1	Added Extreme Hills variant biomes.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Windswept Hills" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Another view of a windswept hill biome.
Windswept hills as seen from above.
An example of an overhang generated within windswept hills.
A stacked windswept hills biome.
A floating island generated above some windswept hills.
Windswept hills and a windswept forest shown side by side.
Another view of windswept gravelly hills biome.
Huge cliffside generated in windswept hill biome.
River running between a forest and a windswept hills biome with a sunset in the background.
A tree which generated under a cliff in a windswept hills biome.
A large floating cliff in windswept hill biome. Check the image for seed and coordinates.
Windswept hills.
Windswept gravelly hills.
Trees growing in a windswept forest biome.
Small An ocean biome, completely enclosed by the windswept hills.
Windswept gravelly hills cliffside.
Heart-shaped hole in a windswept hills cliff.
Large chunk of floating windswept hills creating some sort of skybridge.
A ruined portal in a windswept hills biome.
Exposed andesite, diorite and granite in a windswept hills biome.
Gravelly windswept hills.
An extremely narrow windswept hills biome.
Windswept hills next to a lake.
Clear weather in windswept hills.
Rain and snow in windswept hills.
A windswept hill divided in half.