List of world generation features in Minecraft 1.18 update

The Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update was announced in 2020 during Minecraft Live. What got fans most excited were the new world generation features.

Sadly, the update was split into two halves, as it was too big to be released at once. The second part of the update that has the new biomes and other terrain generation features was released a few days ago.

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World generation features in Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update

World height increase

In Minecraft 1.17 and older versions, the world height was only 256 blocks. It has now increased by 128 blocks. Therefore, the new build limits upwards and downwards are Y320 and Y-64, respectively.

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New biomes

Lush caves in Minecraft 1.18 (Image via Minecraft)

The Minecraft 1.18 update is most famous for the new cave and mountain biomes it adds to the game. Caves have received two new biomes, the lush and the dripstone caves.

On the other hand, the mountains have received six new biomes: meadows, groves, snowy slopes, jagged peaks, frozen peaks, and stony peaks.

Another cave biome called the Deep Dark was planned to be added with this update but was removed to release Minecraft 1.18 on time. It will come out with the next major update.

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Noise caves and aquifers

Noise cave (Image via henrikkniberg/Twitter)

In Minecraft 1.18, three new cave generations have been added: spaghetti, cheese, and noodles. Altogether, these new cave generations are called noise caves.

Cheese caves are tall caves with quite a few pillars. As players can guess from the name, spaghetti caves are long and thin caves. Lastly, the noodle caves are very similar to spaghetti caves but thinner and squigglier.

Aquifers are cool-looking caves that are completely submerged in water. These are great places for players to explore, as a lot of ore can be found inside them. All noise caves between Y31 and Y63 are generated as aquifers.

Players may find magma blocks at the bottom of aquifers that create bubble columns. Players may also come across more than one diamond vein in an aquifer. Aquifers below Y0 may be generated with lava instead of water.

Overall, ore formation in Minecraft has been tweaked a bit. Players may find longer and rarer ore vein generations.