The naturally generated Minecraft world is filled with different landscapes known as biomes. Every biome has its own unique climate, terrain, plants, and animals. Some biomes are rarer than others and it is possible you may never see some of them in one gameplay unless specifically searching for them.
This guide provides a useful list of all Minecraft biomes in 2023 and will help you find and understand them. Since you will need to visit certain biomes to obtain certain items, it is important to learn more about them!
Plains
Plains are one of the most common biomes and are a good choice for building Minecraft structures like houses. The mostly flat land and lack of trees makes it easy to bring your building materials and start a survival base here. Note that the lack of wood may make it harder to build with logs here.
There is no shortage of animals with cows, pigs, and chickens being very common here. Farming the land for crops is also easier as it is flatter and requires less land terraforming than other Minecraft biomes.
The plains biome can appear with a few different variations, including sunflower plains and wildflower plains.
- Example Minecraft Plains Seed: -1867981665396748227
- Special Animals & Mobs: None.
- Unique Plants: Sunflowers only spawn in “Sunflower Plains”.
- Features: Easy to build on, typically has more flowers (for dyes) and animals overall, little to no trees.
Forest
From the name, it’s easy to guess what this biome might look like. A forest in Minecraft is a green, grassy area filled with trees. They are an excellent source of wood, saplings, and apples before you get your first tree farm running.
Like the plains biome, forests can spawn with some variations as well. Variants include the dark oak forest and the birch forest biomes. These variants are similar to a regular forest, but spawn different types of trees (for example, a birch forest will spawn mostly birch trees instead of oak trees).
The dark oak forest biome is a bit unique in that it is the only biome that you can find woodland mansions and it also contains “mushroom trees”. The mushroom trees can be chopped down as an easy source of mushrooms.
- Example Minecraft Forest Seed: -252568013143274859
- Special Animals & Mobs: Illagers in dark oak forests.
- Unique Plants: Mushroom trees in dark oak forests.
- Features: Woodland mansions spawn naturally in dark oak forests.
Desert
This is a warm, sandy, and somewhat lifeless Minecraft biome. Deserts are one of the best sources of sand and sandstone in the game due to the large amounts of sand located here. You won’t find trees or much water here, but you will find plenty of cacti and some dead bushes.
There are some structures that spawn only in deserts, such as desert pyramids and desert villages.
The desert can be a very dangerous place to wander at night. There are plenty of enemy mobs spawning, very few animals, and few places to hide or take shelter. This makes it a good place to quickly get XP by running around killing enemies.
If you want to live in the desert, it is a good idea to build walls and place torches to slow down mob spawning.
Variations of the desert biome include Desert Hills (more hills) and Desert Lakes (more water).
- Example Minecraft Desert Seed: 1080785586386456630
- Special Animals & Mobs: None.
- Unique Plants: Cactus.
- Features: Desert pyramids, desert villages, fossils, and lots of sand and sandstone. Little to no trees or water.
Taiga
The taiga Minecraft biome is similar to a forest biome, however you will mostly find spruce trees here instead of the more common oak trees. Overall, taiga has a colder temperature and resembles a more northern forest.
Variations of this biome include snowy taigas (colder with snow instead of rain), giant tree taigas (larger spruce trees), taiga hills (more hilly terrain), and taiga mountains (steeper terrain and sometimes some snow at mountain peaks).
- Example Minecraft Taiga Seed: 5438751552775710864
- Special Animals & Mobs: Wolves, foxes.
- Unique Plants: Sweet berry bush.
- Features: Taiga villages, lakes.
Mountains (Extreme Hills)
Like the name suggests, this Minecraft biome is filled with towering, rocky, and snowy mountains. You will be able to find llamas and goats in mountain biomes, with goats only spawning in mountain biomes.
Current variants of the mountain biome include: gravelly mountains/hills (contains gravel on top layers) and wooded mountains (contains more trees). If you are playing after the 1.18 Caves & Cliffs Update, there are even more variants such as meadows and much taller slopes.
Mining deep underground has a few differences in mountain biomes. Emerald ore can only be found underground while in mountain biomes and rarely you will find disguised stone blocks (infested stone) which spawn silverfish enemies when broken.
Some players may want to spawn and fight the Wither inside the protection of a mountain.
- Example Minecraft Mountains Seed: -3152467319571746336
- Special Animals & Mobs: Llamas and goats.
- Unique Plants: None.
- Features: Emerald ore, infested stone.
Jungle
In the jungle biome, you will find lots of tall trees and hanging vines. This is a great location for a cool house up in the trees!
Jungles contain a lot of unique things you won’t see in other Minecraft biomes. This can be frustrating at times since the jungle biome is not very common and can take a while to locate. Unique animals including tameable parrots, pandas, and ocelots only spawn in jungles and plants including cocoa, bamboo, and vines can also be found here.
Sometimes you will also stumble across a jungle temple, which is a structure made of mossy cobblestone and vines. Inside you will find traps that shoot arrows at you as well as some treasure chests.
Jungle variants include: Jungle hills (steeper terrain), jungle edge (transition zone near jungles), bamboo jungle (more bamboo spawns here), and bamboo jungle hills (steeper bamboo jungle).
- Example Minecraft Jungle Seed: 4092849147281775042
- Special Animals & Mobs: Parrots, pandas, ocelots.
- Unique Plants: Bamboo, cocoa, vines, jungle trees.
- Features: Jungle temples.
Snowy Tundra
Snowy tundra is a cold biome with a northern climate. Here you will find lots of snow, frozen lakes, igloos, and polar bears. Luckily you can’t freeze to death in Minecraft so it’s still a suitable place to live. Building using frozen Minecraft architectures is possible here since ice doesn’t melt as easily.
Variants of this biome include: ice spikes (lots of icy spikes on the land) and snowy mountains (steeper terrain).
- Example Minecraft Snowy Tundra Seed: 6658274070052432062
- Special Animals & Mobs: Polar bears.
- Unique Plants: None.
- Features: Igloos, snowy villages.
Savannah
This biome reminds us of the type of land you would see lions and elephants roaming on, but you won’t find these animals in Minecraft (yet). Instead, wandering llamas, donkeys, and horses can be found here. Savannah is similar to plains, but with acacia trees and overall a more “dry” appearance.
If you want acacia wood, this is the only biome you will find it in!
Variants of the savannah include: savannah plateau (steeper terrain), shattered savannah (more random and steeper terrain), and shattered savannah plateau (a bit smoother than regular shattered savannah).
- Example Minecraft Savannah Seed: 1711206078196630967
- Special Animals & Mobs: Donkeys, horses, and llamas.
- Unique Plants: Acacia trees.
- Features: Savannah villages.
Swamp
A swamp in Minecraft is exactly what you would expect: marshy, wet, mysterious, and overgrown land. This is the biome you will need to find if you are looking for a swamp hut, which is home to the witch mob. Witches can be dangerous, so make sure to bring a strong weapon!
Swamps are a good source of clay in the shallow lakes and can also spawn fossils. Slime is also easier to obtain in this biome, as swamps are the only biome where slime mobs can spawn above-ground.
As with most other Minecraft biomes, the swamp can also spawn in a hill variant that features steeper terrain.
- Example Minecraft Swamp Seed: -6768624293097046129
- Special Animals & Mobs: Witches and slimes.
- Unique Plants: Vines and mushrooms.
- Features: Swamp huts, fossils, and clay.
Beach
A beach biome is often naturally formed when land meets the ocean in Minecraft. There is plenty of sand for making glass and sometimes buried treasure chests can be found under the sand. Rarely, shipwreck structures are found along the water as well.
Turtles can only be found on the beach biome and their shells can be used to brew defensive potions.
When spawning near mountain biomes and ocean biomes, a beach will show up as a “stone shore” instead.
- Example Minecraft Beach Seed: -1912922681955134967
- Special Animals & Mobs: Turtles.
- Unique Plants: None.
- Features: Buried treasure and shipwrecks.
Badlands (Mesa)
The badlands Minecraft biome is fairly rare and it is certainly possible to play for days or weeks and never see one! They are similar to deserts but with terracotta blocks and red sand instead. This biome is particularly useful for mining terracotta and gold ore.
A unique aspect of badland biomes is that mineshaft structures are commonly found at ground-level instead of deep underground. This makes it quite easy to find minecart rails and treasure chests in this biome. Gold ore is also more abundant and you can find them in these mineshafts at higher than normal elevations.
Variants include the badlands plateau (flatter tops of mountains), wooded badlands (more trees), eroded badlands (spikes and valleys carved by wind).
- Example Minecraft Badlands Seed: -5672920752250885707 (badlands nearby the spawn, to the south)
- Special Animals & Mobs: None.
- Unique Plants: Cactus.
- Features: Terracotta and gold ore.
River
Rivers will often form naturally in Minecraft to divide different biomes apart. For example, you may have plains and forest divided by a river biome in the middle. Since river biomes are often small and just contain the river, they are not incredibly unique or large in size.
However, in a river you can still find some useful things and they are a great place to gather fish or build a bridge over. For example, in a river you may find fish like salmon without having to travel to the ocean.
When located near a colder biome like a snowy tundra, the river will be largely frozen and can be easily walked over.
- Example Minecraft River Seed: 2970670897839073195
- Special Animals & Mobs: None.
- Unique Plants: None.
- Features: Clay and fish.
Ocean
Oceans are among the largest Minecraft biomes in the game and have been heavily updated since the original release of the game. Oceans are best travelled by boat and are an easy way to scout for new biomes by exploring the shorelines.
Since oceans were updated, there are now several new types of ocean biomes, including: frozen oceans, deep oceans, cold oceans, lukewarm oceans, and warm oceans. There’s also plenty to explore with hidden treasures, ocean monuments, underwater ruins, and more!
- Example Minecraft Ocean Seed: 5667730586661626731
- Special Animals & Mobs: Dolphins, salmon, and cod in some versions of the game.
- Unique Plants: Kelp and seagrass.
- Features: Underwater ruins, shipwrecks, ocean monuments, and icebergs.
Mushroom Fields (Island)
The mushroom island biome is a very rare Minecraft biome. It is the only biome where you will find mycelium which replaces regular grass blocks you see in other Minecraft biomes. Mycelium is useful as it lets you grow mushrooms at any light level, whereas mushrooms can normally only grow in darker lighting on other blocks.
Mushroom fields is also home to mooshrooms, a type of cow only found in this biome. Mooshrooms act similarly to cows and can be bred. The main difference is that they can produce mushroom stew when used with a bowl and they can be sheared into normal cows to yield mushrooms.
If you’re having trouble finding this biome, it is possible to use Minecraft commands to locate the nearest mushroom field (/locatebiome).
- Example Minecraft Mushroom Fields Seed: -6085998459069210764 (mushroom field is southwest of the spawn point)
- Special Animals & Mobs: Mooshrooms
- Unique Plants: Mushrooms and mushroom trees.
- Features: Mycelium