How to make a flat world in Minecraft

Minecraft players sometimes want a wide-open sandbox to build in with no terrain. Fortunately, Mojang has made the ability to create a flat and open world easier than ever.

Creating a superflat world in Minecraft can quickly be done offline via the world creation menu. From there, users can dive right into their world and get started. This can be accomplished on both Java and Bedrock Editions, so there are no discrepancies to worry about between versions.

Below, Minecraft gamers can find a quick guide on how to start up a flat world for their building and crafting purposes.

Minecraft: Starting a superflat world on each edition

The sun rises on a superflat world (Image via Mojang)

Due to the various interfaces between Minecraft's editions, creating a superflat world can be slightly different for a player. Furthermore, Java Edition users possess the ability to customize their flat worlds, whereas Bedrock Edition gamers don't in most circumstances.

Regardless, creating a standard superflat world should only take a few moments in singleplayer, allowing them to skip the extensive tweaking and get right to their world.

Creating superflat world in Java

Select singleplayer from the main menu, then click Create New World.
Navigate to More World Options.
Click the World Type button until Superflat is highlighted.
Below the button, players can customize their world to their liking before saving changes.
Make additional adjustments such as game mode, enabling cheats, etc. When finished, click Create New World.

Creating superflat world in Bedrock

Press the Play button on the main menu.
Select Create New from the world's list.
Press Create New World.
On the right-side window, press the world type dropdown menu and select Flat.
Make any additional adjustments, head to the left-side window, and press Create.

That's all there is to it when creating a flat or superflat world. However, server administrators have a different path to creating a flat world that requires a bit of nuance and knowledge of game files.

Specifically, users will want to enter their world's server.properties file and edit it with their text editor before changing the "level-type" line from "default" to "flat" without quotations.

For Java Edition gamers, several presets are available to customize the superflat world. Depending on the preset, they can set the superflat world to particular terrain or weather settings, such as creating a flat desert, snowy biome, or even a world made primarily of water.

Sadly, Bedrock Edition players are missing out on these presets, but they may be added in future updates if Mojang makes it so.

It's also worth noting that Bedrock Edition users are set to Creative Mode by default when spawning into a flat world. This is due to survival not being particularly viable in the vanilla build of the game since the only real resources are those from mob drops.

However, there is a player-defined game mode known as "Superflat Survival," where gamers use cheats to enable survival once they have spawned into a flat world in Bedrock.