In our last lesson, we talked about Minecraft blocks, including their origins and how they are used.
In today’s lesson, we will discuss the different types of Minecraft Biomes and how each type impacts a player’s gaming experience.
Before we dive into the different types of biomes, I want to pass along a parent pro tip related to Minecraft game settings. When creating a new Minecraft world, your child has the ability to make certain selections that will impact how his or her world is created.
In order to become familiar with these settings, I recommend that you look for settings that reference seed generation or world type. One more time. Seed generation or world type. The wording may differ depending on which Minecraft platform and version your child is using.
And if one parent pro tip was not good enough for you, here comes number two. A biome is a community of plants and animals that live in a shared environment. Your child’s Minecraft world can be a catapult to talking about scientific matters related to flora, fauna, temperature, humidity and other important aspects connected to environments. Take advantage of this opportunity.
From a gaming perspective, biomes are individual parts of a Minecraft world that separate these distinct environments.
Minecraft Biomes are generally placed into one of the following five categories:
- Snowy
- Cold
- Lush and Temperate
- Warm and Dry
- Ocean
Snowy Biomes are the coldest of all the biomes with an in-game temperature of -0.5 to 0.05. There is never any rain in a Snowy Biome, only snow, and all exposed water sources are frozen.
Common snowy biomes include the snowy tundra, snowy taiga forest, and snowy taiga mountains.
Like the Snowy Biomes, a Cold Biome, will experience snow, but only at certain height levels. The in-game temperature range of cold biomes is 0.2 to 0.3.
Common cold biomes include mountains, wooded mountains, and flat taiga biomes.
The temperate, lush biomes tend to have light green foliage with the exception of swamps and dark forests that have darker green vegetation. Temperatures in this category of biomes range from 0.5 to 0.95. Rain is a common weather. Temperate biomes are home to a large number of trees, plants, and animal species.
Common lush biomes include plains, forests, swamps, jungles, and rivers.
Warm and dry biomes experience neither rain nor snow. Vegetation in these types of biomes is generally olive in color. The temperature range for these biomes is 1.0 to 2.0.
Common dry and warm biomes include deserts, savannas, badlands, and plateaus.
Ocean biomes are large, open areas within a Minecraft world. The plants and animals who live in ocean biomes are dependent on the assigned temperature of a given ocean biome when the Minecraft world was created. Since land biome generation occurs before the temperature is assigned to an ocean biomes, it is possible to have two biomes next to each other in Minecraft that would not naturally occur side by side. For example, a frozen ocean next to a desert.
Typically there will be multiple biomes in your child’s Minecraft world, unless your child makes changes to settings before starting a new game.
Just like in the real world, the biome a character is in impacts the resources (blocks, plants, and animals) that are available. Don’t expect fish on land or flowers in the ocean. Don’t expect trees in a desert. Let’s be honest, don’t expect much of anything to be in a desert.
Today’s Takeaway: When Minecraft and the Real World Collide
Today, we found another life lesson while talking about Minecraft. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about biomes with your child. As a reminder, a biome is a community of plants and animals that live in a shared environment.
Ask your child the following questions.
Question #1 – What is your favorite biome?
Question #2 – How does the temperature of a biome impact the plants and animals that live there?
Question #3 – How do the different biomes impact your Minecraft experience?
In our next lesson, we will discuss how Minecraft Mobs (non-human game characters) impact your child’s Minecraft experience.
