What are all the Minecraft biomes? Biomes are the different areas of Minecraft, across the overworld, Nether, and The End. Each is vast, varied, and full of things you need to survive, from the buried treasures found in the oceans to the exotic loot found in the Deep Dark. As you randomly generate each world, there are never any guarantees about where you’ll find the Minecraft biome you’re looking for, but there are clues to follow if you pay close enough attention.
Each Minecraft biome offers different resources that you may require in your journey, whether that’s to beat the Ender Dragon, or simply to create the best Minecraft house in the land. They also house different creatures, building blocks and materials, NPCs, and even loot. This means that, while finding all of them is rarely essential to your progress, it can make things a bit easier.
All Minecraft overworld Biomes
All the primary Minecraft biomes in the overworld are:
Plains
The plains are one of the most common biomes in Minecraft, and are home to lots of wide open spaces, grass, flowers, farm animals such as sheep, cows, and pigs, and the occasional oak tree. You might also be lucky enough to stumble upon a Minecraft village or two while exploring a plains biome.
The plains biome is probably most appealing for its building options, thanks to the mostly flat land. You can also decorate your Minecraft house with some of the colorful flowers found around the area, and use them to make dyes. Speaking of flowers, one of the variants of the plains biome is the sunflower plains, which is full of the tall yellow flower.
Forest
Forest biomes are, funnily enough, full of trees. The basic forest is specifically home to oak and birch trees. While you can find animals within them, they’re mostly good for farming wood. Forests are also home to many flower variants as well, including tulips of all colors, and two-block peonies and lilac.
Speaking of flowers, there is also a flower forest variant of this biome. You’ll know you’re in one from the masses of flowers across a vast area. while you can find Minecraft bees in most plains and forest biomes, you’re also incredibly likely to find them in flower forests thanks to their love of pretty plants.
Dark Forest
Now we’re getting into the good stuff – or the good wood variants to be precise. Unlike oak or birch forests, dark forests house huge dark oak trees. Dark oak are great for farming wood thanks to their 2×2 trunks, but their wood type also looks great in Minecraft builds owing to its darker brown tone.
Dark forests are also recognizable by huge mushrooms interspersed throughout the trees, making this biome look like something out of a fairytale.
Another key difference between these and normal forests is that this biome is dangerous – more hostile Minecraft mobs can spawn due to the lack of light. That said, it’s always worth taking a stroll through a Dark Forest as they can also spawn a rare woodland mansion, and is the only biome in which they can be found.
Cherry Grove
The Cherry Grove is one of the newer biomes, added in the 1.20 update in 2023. This stunning area is also the first to bring a more colorful tree and wood variant to the overworld with pink Sakura trees aplenty. There are also pretty petals strewn across the ground that can be picked up and placed wherever you want them, even in another biome, so be sure to collect some while you’re there.
Of course the main draws of this biome are its cherry trees and the pink wood variant they drop. That said, they can also provide some stunning backdrops on which to build your base. Most often found high up near mountain biomes, you can frequently find cherry biomes surrounded by snow-topped peaks, making for an incredible view.
Swamp
Normal Minecraft Swamps don’t contain a wood variant as they are also home to oak trees, but they do have long vines growing from them here, which can be obtained with shears. You can also gather lilypads from the green-tinged waters here, so it’s perfect if you’re gathering materials for a more natural or overgrown build – keep your eyes peeled for some beautiful, blue, swamp-exclusive orchids, as well.
Aside from pretty rare flowers and other plants, the swamp is also the only place you might come across a witch hut. These small structures aren’t all that useful, but it’s pretty cool to say you’ve found one. Just be careful the dangerous witch resident isn’t at home.
Finally, swamps are also the only place slime spawn overground. They only appear at night, but if you’re kitted up with armor and weapons, trawling a swamp after dark is a great way to farm Minecraft slime. You can find plenty of clay here, too, thanks to all the shallow water.
Mangrove Swamp
This rare biome always makes us think of that Kiss the Girl scene in The Little Mermaid. Added in the 1.19 The Wild Update in 2022, the Mangrove Swamp is a watery biome with winding tree roots arching across its muddy floor. There are a heap of unique blocks to pick up here, including mud itself, which can be used to produce mud bricks, mangrove wood, which has an interesting purple tint, and hollow Mangrove root blocks.
Unless you’ve got a specific idea in mind for a cool mangrove swamp base, this isn’t the best biome to make home: it’s dark, dangerous, and very difficult to traverse. That said, it’s very cool, and we’d certainly recommend seeking one out to have a look around, and perhaps to row your own boat through the weaving vines and roots, just like Ariel and Eric. Surely there’s a Minecraft mod to add singing wildlife…
Jungle
Jungles are full of huge towering trees covered in vines and can be a great place to find unique resources. Along with ocelots, this is the place where you can find cocoa pods and melons, making this biome a useful source of food. Occasionally you can also find jungle temples here too, which are fun little dungeons full of stone and loot.
Taiga
The taiga features yet another type of tree: the spruce. This variant is another dark brown and one of our personal favorite types of wood for building. The taiga comes in a few variants, but the most obvious are normal and snowy. While taiga villages can spawn in either, snowy taiga villages are objectively the best, with berries and campfires surrounding snowy wood cabins. We won’t hear anything to the contrary.
Another completely unique biome, the taiga is also where you can find podzol, a unique type of dirt block. To take any elsewhere, you must have a tool enchanted with Silk Touch or it’ll just turn to normal dirt. Podzol is the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow, but you’ll also find plenty of berries around this biome, and Minecraft foxes and wolves are the major wildlife attraction here.
Snowy Plains
Snowy tundras are covered in snow and ice blocks. These areas are often similar to plains in terms of underlying structure, but everything is a lot colder. Instead of rain, snowy tundras have snow falling, and you’ll often find a spattering of spruce trees and roaming wolves. There’s a variant of this Minecraft biome called the ‘Ice Spikes Plains’, which is covered with spikes of packed ice. A great place to host your Minecraft Christmas.
Ice Spikes
One of the most interesting Minecraft biomes, Ice Spikes are immediately recognizable, even from a distance, from their tall spires of ice. Other than these formulaic pointed structures, there isn’t much the different about ice spikes than other icy biomes, and they’re usually found adjacent to others, so you’ll see polar bears, strays, and other such entities around here.
Desert
It might surprise you to learn that deserts are full of sand and sandstone. Along with things like cacti, you can occasionally find desert wells and desert temples. It’s not the most exciting area in the game, but glass can be made from sand, so if you’re planning on a Minecraft build with windows, it’ll be good to keep an eye out for your nearest desert biome.
Badlands
The badlands are a completely unique, barren, hot biome, home to red sand and terracotta. While these orange deserts were neglected for a long time, the addition of the Minecraft Armadillo in 2024 brought some life to the wasteland.
As well as being a gorgeous sight, badlands are actually an amazing biome to explore. You’ll find that gold ore spawns more generously underground here, as do mineshafts, with the interconnecting passageways taking over most of the area. They’re even accessible from above ground, and you’re likely to find minecart loot chests abandoned on the surface.
Savanna
Savannas can often be found adjacent to either deserts or badlands and is a sort of halfway point between the more vibrant plains and the wastelands. Along with acacia trees, you can also find villages, horses, and even llamas. It also never rains here, which is nice.
Mushroom fields
Mushroom fields are strange islands, usually away from the main landmass of any given world, covered in a variant of dirt called mycelium. You can find giant mushrooms here, along with a mob called a Mooshroom, a cow made of mushrooms that you should protect/destroy at all costs because it is cute/deeply haunting.
Mountains
Mountain areas feature huge stone hills that often conceal hidden caves and can lead to some more spectacular sights in the crafting game. Waterfalls, lava falls, huge cliffs and deep valleys are all fairly commonplace here. This is a great biome to visit for early-game access to ore, as the caves that spawn here are often easy to see from a distance.
Ocean
Surprising absolutely no one, the ocean is a big old mass of water. It’s genuinely huge and is full of aquatic animals, which vary depending on how deep you are and also how warm or cold it is. The deep ocean is a variant that goes much deeper but can also have abandoned mineshafts, ocean monuments, and other opportunities for exploration, provided you can hold your breath for long enough.
We recommend brewing some potions to help with that: while you’re down there, keep an eye out for the infamous Minecraft trident as well!
All underground Minecraft biomes
The Deep Dark
The Deep Dark is the most dangerous and exciting undrground biome – perhaps the most dangerous and exciting biome period. This glittering turquoise biome is identified by the presence of the Sculk family of blocks, so if you see any while mining away, you know you’re in the Deep Dark. This could also be a sign that you’re near an Ancient city, as this is the only place in which they spawn, and they themselves are home to the terrifying Minecraft Warden mob, so there’s a lot going on here.
Dripstone Caves
The Caves and Cliffs update of 2021 completely overhauled the underground cave system, making them larger and more incredible, while adding two cave biomes: Dripstone Caves and Lush Caves.
The star of Dripstone Caves are the Dripstone stalagmites and stalactites hanging from the ceiling and rising from the floor. Not only do they look cool, they also deal damage when they fall onto entities or entities fall onto them (yourself and mobs included), so they can make for pretty interesting traps and treacherous adventures.
Lush Caves
Incredible lush caves can be among the most stunning views you’ll come across in Minecraft, all while underground. In contrast to the dark and gloomy caves elsewhere, glow berries hang from the ceiling of Lush Caves, lighting the area, while the more dim Glow Lichen adds a more subtle glow.
Speaking of glowing things, you might even be lucky enough to find some Glow Squid in these flora-filled caves, as well as Minecraft axalotl, tropical fish, flowering azalea, and dripleaves. The whole are is also likey to be covered in pretty, atmospheric particles as well, dripping from spore blossoms growing above your head.
Despite all of this perhaps the most interesting thing about these caves is that you can locate them from above ground. Azalea oak trees with pink flowering leaves can appear in any biome, and are an indicator that their roots are set in a lush cave beneath your feet.
Minecraft Nether biomes
Another huge update that added a bunch of biomes was the Nether update of 2020. This update transformed the barren hellish landscape of netherrack into a beautiful and varied realm – but it’s still pretty hellish.
Crimson Forest
The Nether was already a pretty red-heavy realm, and the Crimson Forest takes that one step further with nether wart, crimson trees, and weeping crimson vines. Almost everything you can see here is a bright shade of red, lit by orange-tinted Shroomlights.
You can find plenty of Piglins to trade with here, but you might also come across plenty of Hoglins, too, and these can charge at you and deal serious damage. Piglins themselves aren’t safe either, as they’ll attack unless you’re wearing something gold – sadly Hoglins aren’t distracted the same way and attack regardless.
Warped Forest
The Picturesque turquoise alternative to the Crimson Forest, the Warped Forest features aqua-tinted nylium and fungus. Be careful as you take in your surroundings, though – instead of Hoglins, the Warped Forest is home to Endermen, and looking around casually could accidentally rile them up. It does, however, make it the perfect place to farm some of their eyes.
Nether Wastes
The Nether Wastes are essentially the old Nether. Filled with netherrack and lava, these biomes are home to most Nether mobs, including Pigmen, Skeletons, and Ghasts.
Soul Sand Valley
Of course every biome in the Nether is dangerous, but we’d take extra care when venturing into a Soul Sand Valley. Skeletons reside here more than any other mob, so you need to be aware of ranged attacks coming from every side. What’s more, you’re slowed down significantly on soul sand, so it’s harder to get away once one locks onto you.
This gray and gloomy biome is instantly recognizable from the dull soul sand and bright-blue flames, but you can also find large fossils here, perfect for farming plenty of bonemeal.
Basalt Delta
If you’re wondering why we haven’t mentioned those adorable-but-deadly Magma Cubes yet, don’t worry, they’re all here in the Basalt Delta.
Probably the most difficult Nether terrain to cross, Basalt Deltas are full of jagged mounds of basalt. The uneven ground isn’t the thing to be aware of here, as small, one-block wells of lava are also common, and one wrong step could spell your doom. That’s if a Magma Cube doesn’t get you first.
How to know which biome you’re in
On Java Edition on PC, there is a simple way to know which biome you’re currently in: press F3. This keybind opens a menu with all sorts of information, including your current coordinates, light level, and which block you’re looking at. On the right-hand side, as shown in the image above, you can also see exactly which biome you’re in.
Minecraft biome finder
Looking for a particular biome in your Minecraft seed? You can use the Minecraft biome finder command to locate the nearest instance of each biome. Simply type /locate biome [biome name] into the chat window, and you’ll be given the biome’s coordinates, which you can use to teleport yourself there (or walk, of course).
If you search for a biome that is not present in your current dimension or can’t be found nearby, the game tells you it “could not find [biome] in reasonable distance.”
That’s everything you need to know about Minecraft Biomes. We tend to see brand-new biomes or variants alongside major updates to one of the best PC games, so we’ll keep adding to this guide as we hear more information about upcoming features. For Minecraft tips, make sure you check out the best Minecraft skins so you can dress your best no matter the location.