List of changes revealed in Minecraft 1.18 experimental snapshots so far

The Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update will come out later this year. As of now, Mojang has released five experimental snapshots of version 1.18 for Java Edition. The normal 1.18 snapshot will come out in September. Once it does, players can download it directly from their Minecraft launcher.

Until then, players can try out the experimental snapshots and report any glitches or bugs they find. It can be installed by downloading the snapshot from their official website and moving it to the application data folder of Minecraft.

Minecraft 1.18 experimental snapshots: List of changes

Changes introduced in Experimental Snapshot 1

Increased world height and depth.
Added five new mountain sub biomes: lofty peaks, snowcapped peaks, grove, meadow, and snowy slopes.
Added new noise cave generation: cheese, spaghetti, and noodle caves.
Lush caves and dripstone cave biomes now generate naturally.
Introduced new ore generation. Ore veins have been made larger.
Monsters can only spawn in complete darkness.

Changes made in Experimental Snapshot 2 compared to the previous Snapshot

Biome placement has been made smoother and less noisy.
Cloud height raised from 128 to 192.
Beaches have been made wider.
Sheep in Minecraft can spawn in the meadows biome.
Blue orchid does not spawn in meadows anymore.
Tweaked swamp biome generation to make them generate properly.
Missing biomes (Ice Spikes and Eroded Badlands) have been added.
The heights of some peaks have been increased.
Monsters can now spawn in new mountain biomes.
Emeralds generate in the mountain biomes.
Ore veins are made slightly larger, and they generate more frequently.
Zombie, Skeleton, Spider, and Cave-Spider spawners now spawn mobs up to block-light level 11. A new "CustomSpawnRule" tag has been added that allows the players to decide the "BlockLightLimit" for spawners.

Changes made in Experimental Snapshot 3 compared to the previous Snapshot

Peak biomes and meadows have been tweaked. They are less likely to generate in flat lowland areas.
Tweaked beach biome.
Snowy slopes and snowcapped peaks no longer place dirt under the mountain.
Changes have been made to the badlands biome in Minecraft to make them generate in flat areas next to plateaus.
Aquifers can now generate deeper and connect to cave systems further down.
Structures have been added to the mountains.
A new mountain biome called the Stony peaks has been added.
Grass can no longer generate underwater.
Spawn rates of mobs are no longer higher in low terrain. Similarly, the spawn rate does not go down in higher terrains.
Goat spawning has been fixed.

Changes made in Experimental Snapshot 4 compared to the previous Snapshot

Desert temples and jungle temples have been tweaked.
Snowy slopes mountain biome has been made less dirty.
Extreme hills terrain has been made less extreme.
Changes have been made to biome placement. The risk of harsh collisions between biomes has been reduced.
Iron ore in Minecraft generates a lot more often now.
Swamp biome placement has been tweaked.
Dripstone caves now have bigger copper blobs.
Stone shores can sometimes generate layers of gravel, diorite, andesite, or granite.
Stony peaks biome sometimes generates layers of calcite, gravel, andesite, or diorite.

Changes made in Experimental Snapshot 5 compared to the previous Snapshot

Mountains in some places have jagged peaks.
Mountain peaks in Minecraft have been made slightly larger on average.
Sadly, fossils with diamonds will no longer generate above deepslate level.
Changes to swamp biome generation have been made.
Cave carvers can carve through red sand and calcite, so those blocks aren't left hanging in the air.
Dripstone cave biome place stone surface instead of grass surface when leaking out of cave entrances.
Badlands have been made slightly smaller.
Shattered terrain and shattered savanna biomes have been reduced.
Small lakes no longer generate in dry and hot biomes like deserts.