What are 3D biomes in Minecraft's 1.18 update?

Minecraft's live 1.18 update, otherwise known as Caves & Cliffs Part 2, has made significant changes to terrain and biome generation. It has even included aspects of 3D biome creation.

So what exactly are 3D biomes and how do they fit into Minecraft as a whole? Put plainly, 3D biomes are a generation phenomena, where multiple biomes can essentially be generated on top of each other.

This has already been observed in Minecraft 1.18 largely in cave biomes, where underground biomes such as lush caves can generate immediately over dripstone caves, making a mash-up of biomes that are either thinly separated or not separated at all.

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Minecraft: The impact of 3D biomes

Several new implementations have come to Minecraft 1.18, but 3D biomes haven't gotten much of the spotlight (Image via Mojang)

Although caves and other biomes have had their blending improved in many facets in Minecraft 1.18, 3D biomes are still very much possible thanks to the way that the game generates worlds. Thanks to 3D biome generation, it won't be crazy for players to imagine multiple biomes stacked atop each other vertically. This will likely be easier to see underground, as generation above-ground retains much more room to work with.

Regardless, Minecraft players that stumble upon a 3D biome will likely have plenty of resources available to them. For example, if a lush cave and dripstone cave biome are combined via 3D biome generation, players will be able to recover resources from both biomes without much effort. That means plenty of dripstone, spore blossoms, and dripleaf without having to find separate biomes. This can be a highly effective way to collect materials and save transit time.

With Minecraft forecasting future world generation changes in updates such as 2022's The Wild Update, it may be possible that 3D biome creation may even be expanded upon further.

So far, Mojang has been quiet on the topic, but it's a fun thing for the community to speculate on during the lead-up to the game's next major content update. Likewise, the modding community have likely already taken steps to improve 3D biome generation on their own accord, and it may not be a bad call for players to take a look into modding sites for recent updates.

3D biomes are quite new to Minecraft, but there is plenty of room to expand on them in future versions of the game.