Ore generation changes in Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update: Everything you need to know

The Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update Part 2 will be released this year, and Mojang has announced many upcoming features. World height generation is also being changed, and once the update has been released, mountains will be a lot taller, and caves will be a lot deeper.

This feature will be great as three new cave biomes are coming in the update. Apart from the biomes, players will also get to see three new types of noise cave generations named cheese, spaghetti, and noodle.

I get a lot of questions about how the new Minecraft noise caves work, and why we call them silly things like Cheese caves and Spaghetti caves. Here's an attempt to summarize it in a picture, hope it makes some kind of sense :) pic.twitter.com/fFeNvmAqjx

— Henrik Kniberg (@henrikkniberg) February 23, 2021

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New ore generation changes in Minecraft 1.18

Naturally generated iron ores found in lush caves in the experimental snapshot 2 (Image via Minecraft)

The new world build height in the upcoming update will be Y level 320 upwards and -64 downwards. Because of this, caves will generate till Y level -59. The new world heights will affect how ores are generated underground, and the chances of players finding lots of diamonds at Y15 may not be the same.

Based on what has been observed in Minecraft 1.18 experimental snapshot 2, ore veins will have a higher number of ores and are expected to generate a lot more frequently in version 1.18. This change is being made because of how hard mining will become due to new cave biomes that generate very frequently.

Players will also get to see some rare ore formations. Iron, emerald, and coal ores will generate a lot more in mountain biomes, and if players get lucky, they might find emerald ores in blobs of more than one.

Like version 1.17, the deepslate variants of certain ores can still be found in the deepslate layer. Deepslate blocks will replace stone blocks and generate in all negative layers.

As Mojang had initially intended, mining for resources in caves is once again going to be a lot harder.

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When will Minecraft 1.18 snapshots with new ore generations come out?

Note: we most likely won't be shipping any more snapshots over the next few weeks (unless we really messed something up), since most of the team is on vacation or about to go on vacation. Enjoy playing with experimental snapshot 2 in the meantime, and keep the feedback coming!

— Henrik Kniberg (@henrikkniberg) July 20, 2021

No exact date has been revealed for the release of normal snapshots. But Mojang has announced that a 1.18 snapshot should be released somewhere around September if nothing goes wrong.

For now, gamers can test some of the upcoming features in beta versions or experimental snapshots of the game.