Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1: Everything you need to know

Mojang has released Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1, featuring new cave and mountain generation. This snapshot focuses on terrain formation and adds new biomes.

Ever since its announcement, mountain biomes have been the talk of the town. The Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Part 2 update will bring five new mountain biomes, as for a long time, mountains have received no changes or updates.

However, this changes with the new mountain biomes in 1.18.

this new minecraft generation truly is something else

— axowatl (@itiswattles) July 13, 2021

The 1.18 update changes the entire overworld generation, which can be seen in the Experimental Snapshot 1.18.

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Everything you need to know about Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1

Features

The 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1 introduces five new mountain biomes to Java Edition. Bedrock Edition players have already experienced these biomes in a previous beta version.

Along with mountain biomes, this Experimental Snapshot adds dripstone caves and lush caves to the natural world generation. Both biomes were already available in 1.17 but can only be generated in a single-biome world.

New mountain biomes (Image via Slicedlime)

The snapshot increases the world build limit by 50%. Previously, the world build limit was 0 to 256 blocks.

As planned for the 1.18 update, the world build limit is from -64 to 320, meaning players can now place blocks up to Y level 320 and Y level -64.

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Changes

The Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot brings major changes to terrain formation. Players will now see "natural variation in terrain shape and elevation," independent of biomes.

They will find deserts, forests, jungles, and other biomes generating on top of new mountains.

This snapshot also changes the conditions for hostile mob spawning. Hostile mobs will now only spawn in complete darkness.

Players won't have to spam torches everywhere to prevent creepers, zombies, and skeletons from spawning. No hostile mobs will spawn within a radius of 15 blocks from a light source of strength 15.

I've always thought Minecraft was too 'torch spammy'.Light level 7 is still pretty bright. This is a cool potential change. pic.twitter.com/NInv0DC1O6

— Mumbo Jumbo (@ThatMumboJumbo) July 14, 2021

Other than these, the 1.18 snapshot also adds waterlogged caves, water, and lava aquifers. Users can also find long ore veins previously shown in the 1.17 snapshots.

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Download Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1

The new mountains with the upcoming update (Image via Mojang)

Downloading the experimental snapshot is pretty different than other snapshots. Players will have to download a zip file then install it manually. They cannot find Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1 under the snapshot section of the Minecraft launcher.

Gamers must note that this snapshot is experimental, and any new changes or features may change in future releases. They may also experience immense lag while playing this snapshot, thus needing performance improvements.