Minecraft 1.19 update ore distribution explained

Minecraft 1.19 is the latest update to the blocky masterpiece by Mojang that is Minecraft. The highly anticipated update brought many changes to the game when it was released on June 7.

One of the most talked-about features was the addition of new mobs like frogs, tadpoles, and the allay, a blue-colored bat-like mob that, when “befriended, takes an item from players and tries to duplicate it using resources from its surroundings.

However, one of the most impactful changes came from the newly added Deep Dark biome, due to which there was a minor impact on Minecraft 1.19’s ore distribution as well. What was this supposedly minor impact? Let’s find out.

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Minecraft 1.19: How did The Wild Update affect ore generation?

Ore generation in Minecraft1.18/1.19 (Image via Mojang)

When Minecraft 1.18 was released in November 2021, it brought one of the greatest changes to the game in years. The world generation and ore distribution of the game was completely revamped, and an entirely new terrain generating system was adopted. While the pre-1.18 caves were similar and somewhat boring at times, the new caves turned out to be awe-inspiring and beautiful.

This was directly connected to the ore distribution as well since the height of the in-game world had grown by 64 blocks on both the positive and negative axes. Each ore had new Y levels at which they could be found, which subsequently meant new Y levels for the most amount of each ore.

To answer the question “How did The Wild Update affect ore generation?”: it technically changed nothing. Not on the ore generation and availability part, anyway. The “impactful” change mentioned above came from the addition of the Deep Dark biome, usually found in the deepest parts of the overworld cave system.

The Deep Dark has some exclusive blocks that are made from one unique material: sculk. The sculk sensor is a block that responds to vibrations in its proximity. This can be the sound of a player walking or placing a block or even the sound of a mob passing through.

However, when enough sculk sensors are triggered, they get loud enough to trigger a block known as the sculk shrieker. The sculk shrieker block emits a shrill, high-pitched noise that, after a few repetitions, tends to summon the single most terrifying entity in the game (aside from our favorite ghoul, Herobrine), the Warden.

The Warden is the impactful change mentioned above. Wardens are blind and therefore rely on senses like smelling and hearing to locate sources of the noises around them (echolocation).

The Warden is a mob not to be trifled with as it can kill players with full netherite armor in just two hits. The fact that players must sneak around the Warden makes the Deep Dark an immensely dangerous biome to mine in, which is what many players will be doing when they get caught by it due to ores like diamond, redstone, and lapis lazuli generating miles down the surface.