Minecraft 1.18 beta replaces old bedrock layer with deepslate

Minecraft 1.18, titled Caves and Cliffs Part 2, is the most significant update fans have seen in the game's decade-long history. It brings the much-awaited caves and sub-mountain biomes.

Introducing caves and mountains was not an easy task. The new world generation features were the main reasons why the Caves and Cliffs update got split. New mountains will generate up to Y 260, whereas caves will reach a depth of Y -59.

Compared to mountains, implementing caves had one big issue, that is, the bedrock layer. Anyway, Minecraft developers have come up with a way to upgrade old worlds to 1.18.

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Minecraft 1.18 update will replace bedrock with deepslate

Problem with bedrock layer

Unbreakable bedrock (Image via Minecraft)

In Minecraft, users can find unbreakable layers of bedrock at the bottom of the Overworld as they approach Y 0. The upcoming 1.18 update will increase the world build limit by 50%. Now, the new depth limit is Y -64.

On hearing this news, most players wondered how they would upgrade older worlds to 1.18. The old areas will have bedrock layers at Y 0, whereas the new chunks will feature bedrock at Y -64.

In over the decade-long history of Minecraft, gamers have received many updates that have impacted the world generation. Every time, they were able to update their worlds to the latest version successfully.

Mojang doesn't want fans to lose their old worlds, and for this, they have come up with a way to fix the bedrock problem.

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Bedrock will get replaced by deepslate

In the recent Minecraft beta, bedrock at y level 0 will get replaced by deepslate. Players can experience this by loading 1.17 or older worlds with experimental Caves and Cliffs features. Under the new deepslate layers, they can discover the new 1.18 cave generation.

It is probably the best way to update older worlds to 1.18. This way, users won't have to travel far distances for the new caves. All loaded chunks will have a hybrid of old and new caves. However, there is a downside to this new world generation feature.

New caves under Y 0 can affect mob farms and decrease their efficiency. Gamers with massive farms will have to mine the chunks again to get maximum mob drops. Because of such problems, Mojang may provide an option for whether to update existing chunks or not.