Taking a look at the new cave generation system in the latest Minecraft Snapshot

Minecraft Snapshot 21w06a dropped last week, introducing a brand new generation system for caves.

One of the long-awaited features and overhauls promised in the Caves & Cliffs update for Minecraft is now available, courtesy of the latest Snapshot.

Minecraft players can now explore entirely new types of caves in the game. There are two new cave features in this update: noise caves and aquifers.

This article showcases how epic caves can now look in Minecraft with the latest snapshot.

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A look at the new cave generation system in the latest Minecraft Snapshot

The entire generation range and build limits in Minecraft have been significantly increased. The range has been expanded by 64 blocks up and down, making the new total range to be 384 blocks.

All underground features, structures and caves can generate up to a depth of y-64.

The noise caves mentioned earlier come in two unique variations: cheese caves and spaghetti caves. Cheese caves come in all sorts of different sizes and shapes, while spaghetti caves feature long squiggly tunnels.

Meanwhile, aquifers have allowed the introduction of underground bodies of water, which can sometimes be gigantic. As of now, they can only be found at depths below y31.

This will be fixed in a future update but right now, players who want to find aquifers will need to head deep underground.

Mineshafts have also been shown some love in this snapshot, as they have received some much-needed updates and alterations. These structures will no longer generate if they would be fully floating in the air and have been adapted for larger caves.

Corridors of mineshafts will also be supported by log pillars, reinforcing the structure and offering a touch of realism.

Pesky floating cobwebs are also set to be a thing of the past.

Minecraft players who want to see these new caves for themselves can do so by installing the latest snapshot.

Java Edition players will just need to open up their Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots under the "Installations" tab. From there, they will be able to download the snapshot.

Note of Caution: Minecraft players will be unable to open up old worlds in this snapshot, as there is currently no upgrade path system that can update older worlds to the new world height system. The updated features are also still in early development, so bugs and issues may be encountered.

Minecraft players can read up on more details regarding the entire snapshot here.