Ranking every mountain biome in Minecraft

Minecraft's iconic landscapes and scenic views are among the things that keep players coming back year after year. And the single terrain feature repsonsible for the sights on many of Minecraft's best seeds is the humble mountain. These towers of stone tend to carve up the landscape and biomes in interesting ways that are hard to replicate. They also tend to be filled with resources for survival players.

Mountains are made even better by the different biomes they can be, allowing them to spawn different mobs and inspire totally new building themes. Detailed below are all of the game's mountain biomes ranked from worst to best, along with what makes them better or worse than the competition.

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Minecraft's mountain biomes from worst to best

Universal attributes

Emerald ore is quite a rare sight to behold (Image via Mojang Studios)

It is worth mentioning that all mountain biomes share a few features. These characteristics form the baseline for what a mountain biome is and allow other, more unique features to be compared. For example, after the Wild Update overhauled Minecraft's ore generation, mountain biomes became flush with coal, iron, and even emerald ores.

Additionally, mountain biomes are all unique in that they are the only area in the game outside of strongholds in which silverfish are found. Small pockets of infested blocks can be found in the mountains below sea level, making mining an always potentially dangerous activity.

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7) Jagged Peaks

Jagged peaks make for incredible sights (Image via Mojang Studios)

Jagged peaks are an interesting mountain biome in that they are programmed to generate in taller, pointer peaks, often managing to surpass the game's clouds. In fact, they can generate all the way up until Level 255, essentially the top of the world. Unfortunately, for how awe-inspiring these cliffs can be, they lack any particularly cool or unique content to land them anywhere but seventh.

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6) Frozen Peaks

Frozen peaks make for an incredible way to collect ice (Image via Mojang Studios)

What makes frozen peaks better than two of the other three mountain biomes is the large amount of packed ice available on them. Players can use the silk touch enchantment, one of Minecraft's best, to collect this ice to establish insanely fast nether hub highway networks. These are invaluable for quickly and easily reaching the game's scattered biomes and rare structures, such as elusive woodland mansions.

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5) Grove

Groves are more of a transitional biome, appearing on the sides of mountains (Image via Mojang Studios)

Groves are a biome that exists on the sides and around the bases of mountains. They resemble regular snowy taiga, but instead of a grass block surface, they have snow blocks, dirt, and powder snow. This biome is inhabited by rabbits, foxes, and Minecraft's new snowy wolf variant.

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4) Snowy Slopes

Igloos make snowy slopes worth checking out for villager trading (Image via Mojang Studios)

Snowy slopes are nearly identical to groves, save for a few minor differences. The biggest is that snowy slopes tend to be barren of trees, instead covered in a layer of powder snow. Minecraft's hidden mob, the screaming goat, along with its more boring regular cousins, can be found here. This is the only mountain biome where igloos can spawn, making them invaluable for setting up villager trading.

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3) Stony Peaks

Stony peaks are incredible places to visit early game to mine (Image via Mojang Studios)

Stony peaks have a few interesting and unique quirks that make them great.

The first is the lack of passive mobs, which means players can fill the mob cap inside Minecraft's best farms rather than having many farm animals spawn. Additionally, the lack of snow in this mountain biome makes spotting some of the exposed ores easier, bumping it further up the list. Lastly, the views from stony peaks tend to be among the game's best.

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2) Meadow

Meadows make for incredible building locations (Image via Mojang Studios)

Meadows are a combination of the aesthetics of the plains biome with the view, mobs, and materials of mountain biomes. These gorgeous patches of land tend to be filled with flowers, bees, a few small trees, and passive mobs. The list of animals is quite short, however, as only rabbits, sheep, and donkeys can spawn naturally here.

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1) Cherry Grove

A huge cherry grove is a dream come true to many players (Image via Mojang Studios)

Cherry groves are the game's newest biome, added in Minecraft 1.20 alongside the archeology system, and have instantly become one of the community's favorites. These biomes tend to be small and mostly generate on mountains. They feature a gorgeous new tree from which the biome gets its name: the Cherry tree. These stunning pink trees not only look good but also have a unique particle effect, making them invaluable to builders.