On November 30, 2021, Mojang released a new update to the minecraft experience. Minecraft, one of the biggest video games ever, has always been recognized for its free-play and open-world interface. In this update, the game had its largest adjustment to one of the game’s core elements: world generation. Along with other unprecedented changes, Mojang had to increase the world size, resulting in breathtaking mountains and cave systems. 

First, other than the size, what are the changes in the actual caves and cliffs? Well, there’s a lot more greenery and space in the caves! Now, when you go mining, you will find a whole new world (along with your valuable ores)! Additionally, Mojang has changed the mineshafts. For example, mineshafts didn’t have chains or wood logs before 1.18. Now, they’ve added to the size and detail of these generated structures. There are also glow berries that grow from the ceiling, which can be mostly found in lush caves.

Along with these features, there are also new ore distributions. Before 1.18, emerald ore used to be more common the lower you go in the mountain biomes, and the perfect Y level (player height) to find diamonds was 11. And mining was limited, with Y level 0 being the deepest point you can mine down to and Y level 256 being the max height. However, in the 1.18 update, players are now able to mine down to Y -64 and build up to Y 320. Emerald ore is now more abundant the higher you go (in the mountain biomes only), and the new best Y level to find diamonds is -54. Ores are also less exposed to air, meaning strip mining would be one of the most efficient ways to find ores. Lastly, the bedrock generation is now dependent on the world seed; before 1.18, every seed had the same bedrock generation. 

Those were some of the many features added in the cave part of the update, but now let’s focus more on the terrain, and everything happening above ground. First, there have been changes with the biomes. Among others, Mojang removed the rarest biome in the game, the modified jungle edge. They also added 2 new cave biomes and 6 new mountain biomes. 

Pillager outposts, structures that spawn Pillagers, will generate in all of these biomes. Their counterpart, villages, are now more spread out and rarer than before. There are a lot of minor texture updates, including all the doors (except crimson and warped), item/glow frames, all signs, and both campfires.. 

The update also brought 4 new advancements: Caves & Cliffs, Feels like home, Sound of Music, and Star Trader. For the “Caves &

Cliffs” advancement, you have to fall from max build height to the very bottom in the overworld. For the “Feels like Home” advancement, you have to take a strider on lava for more than 50 blocks in the overworld. For the “Star Trader” Advancement, you have to trade with a villager at max build height, which is Y level 320. And for the last achievement, “Sound of Music”, you have to play music with a jukebox in a meadow biome, which is one of the new 6 biomes in Minecraft 1.18.

To top it all off, there is one new item in the game: the new music disc, “Otherside”, by Lena Raine. They have a 2.5% chance to be in a specific stronghold (A stronghold is a structure deep underground used to go to the end and fight one of the boss mobs, the Ender Dragon) chest or a 3.1% chance to be in a dungeon chest (A dungeon is a structure with a mob spawner (Zombie 50% of the time, Skeleton 25% of the time, and Spider 25% of the time), and contains 0-2 chests. They normally spawn underground).

Do you like these new changes? Which update was your favorite from Mojang? What would be something you would like to add to 1.18? Regardless, this update has completely revamped the Minecraft experience. Have fun exploring the new caves and colossal cliffs!