Biomes

A **biome** is a region in a world with distinct geographical features, flora, temperatures, humidity ratings, and sky, water, grass and foliage colors. Biomes separate every generated world into different environments, such as forests, deserts and taigas.

## Temperature

Biomes have a temperature value that determines if the water freezes or if it snows or rains. The required temperature values for snow and rain are less than 0.15 for snow and above 0.15 for rain. The temperature drops 0.00166666... units (1⁄600) per meter above the default sea level (Y=64), but does not change below sea level. The temperature and rainfall values of a biome are used when determining the colors of a small selection of blocks: grass, grass blocks, some leaves, vines, sugar cane. Blocks such as mossy cobblestone, mossy stone bricks, moss, dripleaves, glow berries and the stems of flowers are not affected by biome coloration. The water color is affected by biome coloration but it's not based on temperature and instead is set by a color code, and the water color of each biomes varies between versions. Most biomes have unique water colors.

These values can be used to determine the heights that snow generates at in different biomes. For example, windswept hills begin to generate snow at around y=120, due to their highland climate, as their temperature value is 0.2, the temperature affects only the transition from rain to snowfall. All the biomes in vanilla with a temperature above 0.95 (and by extent, all the dry biomes) are hardcoded to never have precipitation at any height or temperature. For example, savannas do not experience rain or snow due to their dryness. If a biome with a temperature above 0.95 is edited to allow precipitation through a data pack or mod, it simply behaves like a normal rainy biome.

Biomes are split into 5 categories based on their temperature: snowy, cold, temperate/lush, dry/warm and neutral.

They are almost always separated during terrain generation to prevent biomes with huge temperature differences being placed side-by-side (such as a snowy taiga next to a desert), and to allow biomes with similar temperatures to be placed next to each other more often (such as forests and plains).

### Sky and fog

The sky colors are not directly determined by the temperature and rainfall values but instead are determined by a color code. However, the sky color that is set for each biome is mostly based on the temperature values, which means that warmer biomes have brighter skies and colder biomes have slightly purplish skies

## List of Biomes

There are 48 Overworld biomes, 5 Nether biomes, 1 End biome, and 30 unused, with a total of 84. Biomes can be distinguished by the grass, and leaf colors (water color also differ between biomes in the biome, along with the types of blocks present (e.g. types of trees or other plants like cacti, sand coverage in deserts)). Biomes are pseudo-randomly generated using the map seed.

### Overworld

#### Snowy biomes

these biomes, it always snows instead of rains and no matter the height; all sources of water exposed to the sky quickly freeze. The foliage and grass have a dull aqua green color.

* Snowy Plains
* Ice Spikes
* Snowy Taiga
* Snowy Beach
* Grove
* Snowy Slopes
* Jagged Peaks
* Frozen Peaks

#### Cold biomes

In these biomes, it begins to snow above y=120 in windswept hills and stony shore, above y=160 in taiga and old growth spruce taiga, and above y=200 in old growth pine taiga. Otherwise, it rains. Foliage and grass are turquoise green in thsese biomes.

* Windswept Hills
* Windswept Gravely Hills
* Windswept Forest
* Taiga
* Old Growth Pine Taiga
* Old Growth Spruce Taiga
* Stony Shore

#### Temperate biomes

In these verdant biomes, it begins snowing over the 256 block height limit, meaning snow does not generate naturally. Otherwise, it rains. The foliage and grass colors vary a lot in these biomes, with rivers and birch forests having a more dull shade of green, forests have a more vibrant shade of green, plains have a lighter shade of green, jungles and mushroom fields have a very lush shade of green and swamps and dark forests have unique dark shades of green.

* Plains
* Sunflower Plains
* Forest
* Flower Forest
* Birch Forest
* Old Growth Birch Forest
* Dark Forest
* Swamp
* Jungle
* Sparse Jungle
* Bamboo Jungle
* Beach
* Mushroom Fields
* Meadow
* Stony Peaks

#### Warm biomes

In these biomes, it neither rains nor snows at all, but the sky still turns overcast during inclement weather. The foliage and grass is an olive tone, except badlands biomes, which have brown grass and the sky color is much brighter specially in deserts and badlands. Additionally, a snow golem spawned or brought into one of these biomes melts (takes heat damage) unless it has the Fire Resistance effect.

* Desert
* Savanna
* Savanna Plateau
* Windswept Savanna
* Badlands
* Wooded Badlands
* Eroded Badlands

#### Aquatic biomes

These biomes are used for the generation of bodies of water such as rivers and oceans. Oceans are large, open biomes made entirely of water going up to y=63, with underwater relief on the sea floor, such as small mountains and plains, usually including gravel. Oceans typically extend under 3,000 blocks in any direction; around 60% of the Overworld's surface is covered in ocean. Small islands with infrequent vegetation can be found in oceans. Passive mobs sometimes can spawn on these islands, as hostiles can. Squid spawn frequently in the water. Underwater cave entrances can be found frequently at the bottom of the ocean.

* River
* Frozen River
* Warm Ocean
* Lukewarm Ocean
* Deep Lukewarm Ocean
* Ocean
* Deep Ocean
* Cold Ocean
* Deep Cold Ocean
* Frozen Ocean
* Deep Frozen Ocean

#### Cave biomes

These biomes generates inside caves. Their placement are 3D, compared to other Overworld biomes, which use 2D. They're mostly found underground but can sometimes leak out of cave entrances at any height.

* Dripstone caves
* Lush caves

### The Nether

The Nether is considered a different dimension. It is a hellish place and all biomes in this dimension are dry and it is not possible to place water in these biomes, though ice can still be placed. Additionally, packed ice and blue ice never melt in the nether, as with the other non-freezing biomes.

* Nether Wastes
* Soul Sand Valley
* Crimson Forest
* Warped Forest
* Basalt Deltas

### The End

The End is considered a different dimension.

* The End

## Trivia

* The term biome is analogous to its scientific usage: in real life, a biome is climatically and geographically defined by distinctive communities of plants, animals and soil organisms supported by similar climatic conditions. They are often referred to as ecosystems.
* Most biomes in the Overworld are based on real world counterparts. Dark forests or swamps parallel real world biomes except for the addition of giant mushrooms, which don't exist in reality. Biomes in the nether and the end don't exist either.
* It is possible for biomes to be a single block in size.