When are deep dark caves coming to Minecraft?

Minecraft players old and new are aware of how deep they can dig into their worlds. The announcement by Mojang this summer of an upcoming deep dark cave biome was very exciting for the community, as it brings a whole new biome bored deep within the world, featuring plenty of new features that felt almost alien.

At the time, the deep dark biome was being aimed for release alongside Minecraft's huge Caves & Cliffs update. Part 1 brought along many new biomes, blocks, items, and mobs, and the deep dark biome was meant in a way to be the ultimate extension of this content.

However, during the Minecraft Live 2021 stream, the game's development team at Mojang announced that the deep dark biome would be pushed back to 2022 with the 1.9 update, also known as The Wild Update.

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Minecraft: What to expect from the deep dark in The Wild Update

Deep dark caves are moving back to 2022, but there are still a few things that we know about them (Image via Mojang).

While the Minecraft community may not see much of the deep dark biome for the rest of the year, there's still plenty that has already been revealed. Furthermore, the closer The Wild Update's release approaches, the more Mojang and Microsoft are likely to show.

Additionally, some Minecraft players have used experimental gameplay toggles and specific builds of the game to interact with the deep dark biome's blocks and some of its items despite not having full access to the biome itself.

The deep dark biome in Minecraft has increased in scope over time, explaining why it was pushed back. The biome has progressed from a sculk-ridden cave biome deep underground to one capable of containing entire ruined cities within its confines.

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The deep dark contains no reservoirs of water or lava, unlike higher layers underground, which can often sport lava pools or running water. Deep dark biomes currently aim to be placed in the deepslate layers between Y=-1 and Y=-64 elevation levels, making them even lower than where bedrock was previously set.

However, with the introduction of this biome, Minecraft's bedrock layers will not be placed underneath the layers of the deep dark where they appear.

Aside from spawning directly from spawners, the deep dark won't spawn standard mobs. However, the new mini-boss mob known as the Warden patrols the deep dark and its city structures, devoid of its ability to see but capable of hearing entities or feeling the vibrations of those that make too much commotion across sculk.

The Warden can also smell entities that get too close, so players will want to exercise caution when the foreboding creature is in their midst.

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Sculk is likely the most significant new part of the upcoming biome, a fungal growth that can cause many different things. Sculk itself is capable of carrying sounds and vibrations across its coverage as well as being able to sense redstone currents.

Blocks such as sculk shriekers make loud noises when disturbed by entities and create a pulsing darkness effect for a short time, and setting off sculk shriekers too often can even summon the Warden to a user's location.

In the event mobs die in the deep dark near blocks known as sculk catalysts, the catalyst can grow sculk at the location of their death, with the size depending on how much XP the mob would've dropped.

With the deep dark biome and its shadowy, loot-filled cities on the horizon for 2022, Minecraft gamers have a ton to look forward to when The Wild Update goes live. The deep dark will undoubtedly take spelunking underground to an entirely new level that users have yet to experience.

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