Minecraft 1.18 Features Available Now in Snapshot Update 21W37A

Minecraft 1.18 is finally here, at least in part, thanks to its first Snapshot Update!

This Snapshot Update introduces some of the upcoming Minecraft 1.18’s biggest features, including a whopping 9 new biomes to try out long before release day.

Here’s everything you need to know about the first Snapshot Update of Minecraft 1.18, update 21W37A.

Release Time

Minecraft 1.18 is available now, so you don’t have to wait to try out these new Minecraft biomes early.

We still don’t have an exact release date for Minecraft 1.18 - but expect plenty more Snapshot Updates before it arrives, meaning more time to test upcoming features long before they’re in-game officially.

DON’T MISS IT: Final MCC 17 Teams Revealed Ahead of Competition

Patch Notes Highlights - Snapshot 21W37A

Minecraft 1.18 has some massive patch notes - so before we dive all the way in, here are the biggest highlights!

• Added 9 new Biomes - including Noise Caves, Dripstone Caves (Underground), Groves, Lofty Peaks, Lush Caves (Underground), Meadows, Snowcapped Peaks, Snowy Slopes, and Stony Peaks.
• Reworked ore distribution and the systems behind larger ore veins
• Expanded overworld generation limits for world-building

DON’T MISS IT: Minecraft Live 2021 Date & Time Revealed

Full Patch Notes - Snapshot 21W37A

While these are the biggest changes, though, they certainly aren’t the only changes - and the full patch notes elaborate on these features and everything in-between.

BLOCKS

• Enchanting Tables now emit a low amount of light
• Using shears on the tip of a Cave Vine, Twisting Vine, Weeping Wine or Kelp now causes it to stop growing

DRIPSTONE CAVES BIOME

• Contains plenty of Pointed Dripstone and Dripstone Block on the floors and ceilings, and small pools of water
• In some places, you’ll find larger stalagmites, stalactites, and columns built from Dripstone Blocks
• Contains extra copper ore

GROVE

• Snowy terrain with big spruce trees and powder snow traps. Might want to wear leather boots!
• Tends to generate on high-altitude terrain beneath mountain peaks or on hilltops.
• Spawns wolfs, rabbits, and foxes.

LARGE ORE VEINS

• Ore veins are large, rare, snake-like underground ore formations
• Copper veins form between y 0 and y 50 and are mixed with Granite
• Iron veins form below y -60 and y -8 and are mixed with Tuff

LOFTY PEAKS

• Dramatic jagged mountain peaks with snow and stone
• Spawns goats

LUSH CAVES BIOME

• Moss covers the floors and ceilings
• Spore Blossoms grow from the ceiling and drip particles
• Contains Clay pools with Dripleaf plants growing out of them
• Contains Azalea Bushes and Flowering Azalea Bushes
• The Azalea Tree loves to have its roots in Lush Caves, so if you find an Azalea Tree (either overground or in a cave) you know there is a Lush Cave beneath you
• Cave Vines with Glow Berries grow from the ceiling and light up the caves

MEADOW BIOME

• Large grassy and flowery biome that tends to generate high up on plateaus or next to large mountain ranges.
• Sometimes contains a lone tall oak or birch tree, often with a bee nest.
• Think Sound of Music!
• Spawns donkeys, rabbits, and sheep.

DON’T MISS IT: Minecraft Dungeons is Coming to Steam

MOB SPAWNING

• Monsters now only spawn in places where the light from blocks is 0 (skylight still prevents spawning like before)
• Fixed an issue where players in multiplayer can face more or far fewer enemies than intended, particularly when other players are flying

NEW ORE DISTRIBUTION

• Changed ore generation to match the new world height, and to add more strategy to mining.
• There is no longer a single y level that is best for all ores, you need to make tradeoffs.
• Iron ore generates below y 72, with a strong bias towards y 16.
• Iron ore also generates above 112, with more iron ore as you go higher.
• Copper ore generates between y 0 and y 96, with a strong bias towards y 48.
• Copper ore generates in larger amounts in the dripstone caves biome.
• Lapis lazuli generates below y 64, with a strong bias towards y 0. However, Lapis below y -32 or above y 32 cannot generate exposed to air. It will either be buried or inside water.
• Coal generates above y 0, with a strong bias towards y 96 and above.
• Coal has reduced air exposure, so you will find more coal buried or underwater than exposed to air.
• Gold generates below y 32, with a strong bias towards y -16.
• Extra gold can (still) be found in badlands biomes.
• Redstone ore generates below y 16. Redstone ore generation gradually increases as you go below y -32 and further down.
• Diamond generates below y 16, with more diamond the lower you go.
• Diamonds have reduced air exposure, so you will find more diamonds buried or underwater than exposed to air.

NOISE CAVES AND AQUIFERS

• Noise caves are a new way of generating caves, providing more natural variety. They can get really huge sometimes!
• Noise caves come in three flavors:
• Cheese caves. Like the holes in swiss cheese. These often form caverns of various size
• Spaghetti caves. Long squiggly tunnels, sometimes wide like tagliatelle
• Noodle caves. Thinner, squigglier, and more claustrophobic variant of spaghetti caves
• No, they aren’t loud. The “noise” part of noise caves is a technical term and has nothing to do with sound
• The old cave carvers and canyons still generate, combining with the noise caves to form interesting cave systems
• As with carvers, when noise caves intersect the surface they form cave entrances
• An aquifer is an area with local water level, independent of sea level.
• Aquifers are used during world generation to generate bodies of water inside noise caves.
• This sometimes results in large underground lakes! They can also form inside mountains and on the surface.
• Aquifers below y0 will sometimes be lava aquifers instead of water aquifers
• Magma Blocks sometimes generates at the bottom of underground bodies of water
• Underwater cave carvers and underwater canyons have been removed, since aquifers are used to generate water in caves instead

OPTIONS

• Added an accessibility option to stop the sky flashing during thunderstorms
• Included an option to specify the audio device used by the game
• Added “Toggle Sprint” and “Toggle Sneak” to the Controls settings
• Moved Keybinds out to their own settings screen, accessible from Controls

SNOWCAPPED PEAKS

• Smooth mountain peaks with ice and snow
• Spawns goats and yeti. No actually just goats.

SNOWY SLOPES

• Very snowy terrain that can hide powder snow traps. Might want to wear leather boots!
• Tends to generate on high-altitude terrain beneath mountain peaks or on hilltops.
• Spawns rabbits and goats.

STONY PEAKS

• Stony mountain peaks that may be jagged or smooth
• Spawns goats
• Contains strips of calcite sometimes

WORLD GENERATION

• Generation range and build limits have been expanded by 64 blocks up and 64 blocks down, to a total range of 384 blocks
• Underground features, structures, and caves generate all the way down to y-64
• Exception: Diorite and Granite and Andesite and Dirt don’t generate below y0
• Tweaked size and positioning of Diorite, Andesite & Granite generation
• Dripstone clusters can no longer be found in normal caves, only in dripstone caves biome
• Starting from y0 and below deepslate gradually replaces all stone
• Deepslate blobs no longer generate above y0
• The terrain shape and elevation varies dramatically, independently from biomes. For example, forests and deserts could form up on a hill without needing a special biome just for that
• Less diorite/granite/andesite generates above y 60
• Strips of gravel can generate in stony shores
• Swamp trees can grow in water 2 blocks deep (instead of just 1 block deep)

CHANGES IN 21W37A

• Illagers (Vindicator, Pillager, Evoker) no longer attack baby villagers
• Axolotls now only spawn in lush caves
• Axolotls now have their own, separate, mob cap
• Raised the cloud level from 128 to 192

TECHNICAL CHANGES IN 21W37A

• Replaced the clientbound chunk update network packet with another one which additionally contains light update data. A separate light update packet still exists and is sent when a light update happens without chunk update.
• View distance now causes chunks to load cylindrically around players instead of in a square
• Information about the world generation noise is now displayed on the debug screen
• Added illageralt, rune-like font from Minecraft Dungeons (currently only usable via commands)
• Added startup option --jfrProfile and command jfr to start profiling with Java FlightRecorder as well as a few custom events.
• Loot table functions set_contents and set_loot_table now require type field with valid block entity type
• Worlds last saved before Minecraft 1.2 (“pre-anvil”) no longer can be opened directly
• Data pack format has been increased to 8
• New video setting “Priority updates”.
• Removed length limits for scoreboard, score holder and team names
• Mob spawners can now override light checks for spawning