Soul Sand Valley vs Basalt Deltas in Minecraft: How different are the two biomes?

Biomes are different terrains that generate independently in every Minecraft world. The types of plants, trees, and animals also depend on the biome they spawn in. Biomes are an essential part of Minecraft, and they make the game more diverse.

Soul Sand Valley and Basalt Deltas are Nether biomes added to the game with the Minecraft 1.16 Nether update. Both of them contributed to making the Nether scarier.

Differences between Minecraft's Soul Sand Valley and Basalt Deltas

Blocks

The name of these biomes says it all for what blocks are generated there. Basalt Deltas are full of basalt, blackstone, and magma blocks. Soul Sand and Soul's soil blocks can be found in abundance with gravel on the coastlines of the Soul Sand Valley biome.

Apart from these blocks, both biomes generate some of the other blocks like netherracks in small quantities.

Exploring the Basalt Deltas is a lot harder as it is full of lava pools of different sizes. If the player is not careful, falling in lava will most likely be how they will travel back to the overworld.

Color and plants

Both Soul Sand Valley and Basalt Delta follow a dark theme that adds up to the spookiness of these biomes. A unique fog appears in both of them that makes them more intimidating.

The fog that appears in the soul sand valley is cyan, and the air particles are gray. The fog seen in the Basalt Delta is dull lilac and has ash particles.

The only vegetation seen in the Soul Sand Valley are crimson roots and red and brown mushrooms. Only mushrooms grow in the Basalt Delta biome. Players might come across more plants on the border of both of these biomes.

Structures

If the player is looking to explore some Nether structures, Soul Sand Valley is the place to go as bastions, ruined portals, nether fortresses, and fossils can be found there. Basalt Deltas alone have rarely spawned ruined portals and nether fortresses.

Mobs

A skeleton and a magma cube (Image via Minecraft)

Only three mobs can be found in the Basalt Deltas: ghasts, magma cubes, and striders. Skeletons, ghasts, endermen, and striders naturally spawn in the Soul Sand Valley. Ghasts are a lot more common in the soul sand valley than Basalt Deltas.