Altitude

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Please update this page to reflect recent updates or newly available information.
**Reason:** The rarity of blocks in the Overworld in 1.18 has changed.

**Altitude** is a measurement of vertical distance, or distance along the *Y*-axis.

## Definition

Altitude is defined as "*the height of anything above a given planetary reference plane, especially above sea level on earth.*"

In *Minecraft*, altitude is often expressed as the bottom face of a block layer, where the lowest block that can be placed is at layer -64 and has a *Y*-coordinate of −64. For instance, sea level is at layer 62, while clouds appear at layer 191).

This is not to be confused with altitude when otherwise expressed as the top face of a block layer, where the lowest block that can be placed is at layer -63 and has a *Y*-coordinate of -63. For example, sea level is at layer 63, while clouds appear at layer 192. This is akin to calling the ground level story the "first floor" (top face of a block layer), rather than the "ground floor" (bottom face of a block layer). The player can press `F3` to see the *Y*-coordinate of the top face of a block they are on top of.

Altitude expressed as the bottom face of a block layer is most useful for identifying the position of blocks, such as when using `/fill` to replace block(s). Expressing altitude as the top face of a block layer is more useful for identifying the position of entities, such as when using `/tp` to teleport or `/summon` to spawn an entity/entities. For instance, the topmost block of water in an ocean biome has a *Y*-coordinate of 62; in a frozen ocean biome, ice replaces water at sea level, and the lowest height where terrestrial mobs will spawn is at layer 63.

## Natural resources and altitude

Features in the landscape of the Overworld are found at different altitudes, as shown in the graph below for Java Edition 1.20.2.

*Note that these charts utilize the logarithmic scale, which means a slight difference in the Y-coordinate represents a large change in the relative frequency of a block type. Also note that normal and deepslate ore variants have been combined in the chart. Interactive versions of these graphs containing all blocks can be found here.*

### The Nether

A similar graph, showing the distribution of blocks unique to the Nether (Java Edition 1.20.2):

### The End

A similar graph, showing the distribution of blocks unique to the End (Java Edition 1.20.2):

## Issues

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

## Trivia

* The highest possible altitude the player can legitimately climb to is *Y* = 320, although explosions, elytra launchers, piston slime block bounces, and Riptide tridents can all propel the player far beyond this limit.
* In *Java Edition*, mushrooms can appear on the Nether's bedrock ceiling.
* Block generation and player construction below and above the build limits can be achieved only through modifying the dimension properties, or mods, such as the Cubic Chunks mod.
* The reasoning behind Custom worlds having height limits of ±2032 rather than ±2048 (a binary number notated as 211) is because the lighting system still applies 16 blocks above and below the world, but the *Y*-coordinates of blocks (which are also used in the lighting calculation) are stored internally using only 12 bits. Therefore, having limits of ±2048 would prevent the lighting system from functioning correctly.

## Gallery

* Bedrock floor generating as low as *Y* = −2048 in a Custom world with decreased **min\_y**.
* Lowest placeable temporary block in a Custom world, at which point the game was unplayable.

## See also

* Chunk
* Void
* Amplified

## References

1. ↑ *Dictionary.com Unabridged*, "altitude", accessed April 10, 2016
2. ↑ MC-74776 – "Player unable to turn when at Y: Infinity" resolved as "Won't Fix"
3. ↑ a b c d e f g https://gist.github.com/tryashtar/2a22bd04394275fefb6b49c348758fd6
4. ↑ MC-194878
5. ↑ MC-1381
6. ↑ MC-194878
7. ↑ https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-212347?focusedCommentId=911611&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#comment-911611