Minecraft 1.18 Snapshot 21w40a brings bigger biomes

Mojang has started releasing snapshots for Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Part 2 updates. Developers have recently released the fourth snapshot for the upcoming 1.18 update.

The second part of Caves and Cliffs will rework most of the Overworld generation, especially underground caves and mountains. Minecraft 1.18 update will feature noise caves, new biomes, tweaks to world generation and more. After testing the new world generation in experimental snapshots, developers moved it to regular snapshots.

Mojang has been making tweaks and fixes in recent releases based on feedback from players. Snapshot 21w40a has brought the much-demanded huge biomes to Minecraft.

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The arrival of bigger biomes with Minecraft 1.18 Snapshot 21w40a brings other possibilities

In Minecraft, players can already find pretty massive biomes, but that's primarily due to random world generation. Developers have now "doubled the size of most biomes on average."

Minecrafters will discover many vast biomes in the 1.18 update. Many players wanted large biomes to generate more frequently as the transitions were too random and out of place at times. With this increase in size, biomes will be more spread out and connect with other biomes better.

In Snapshot 21w40a, Minecraft developers have also revealed the new names for some biomes:

• Shattered savanna to Windswept savanna
• Lofty peaks to Jagged peaks
• Stone shore to Stony shore
• Jungle edge to Sparse jungle
• Tall birch forest to Old growth birch forest
• Giant tree taiga to Old growth pine taiga
• Giant spruce taiga to Old growth spruce taiga
• Wooded mountains to Windswept forest
• Gravelly hills to Windswept gravelly hills
• Snowcapped peaks to Frozen peaks
• Extreme hills to Windswept hills

The addition of huge biomes also opens the door to future updates. In Minecraft 1.18, developers are adding many new sub-mountain biomes. Similarly, Mojang may introduce new sub-biomes for other geographical areas. At Minecraft Live 2021, Mojang will announce the next Minecraft update, and many fans are hoping it will be a biome update.

The new larger biomes will usually generate far from each other. This is another main reason why 1.17 seeds won't be the same in 1.18. Players won't get to see the same old world generation due to the elevation in the general terrain's height.

Minecraft developer Henrik Kniberg said:

Biomes that are heavily tied to terrain shape (such as the peak biomes) still occupy the same amount of space as before. While terrain-independent biomes like forest are larger and more spread apart.

These new massive biomes are going to make the Caves and Cliffs Part 2 update even better. They probably won't be as big as biomes in Large Biomes world type, but they are still an excellent addition to regular Minecraft worlds.