Why excessive exploration can be problematic in Minecraft

Minecraft has a vast world that is begging to be explored by players who spawn in it for the first time. Different biomes with unique blocks can be discovered, various kinds of mobs can be interacted with, and entirely new dimensions can be found. The near-endless map of the sandbox game has always been luring, but exploration itself can make finding new features difficult.

In essence, the more players roam around and explore, the more difficult it will become for them to find new features in an old world.

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How explorers can have a hard time finding new features in Minecraft updates

New features are generated in new chunks

New features in Minecraft updates always generate in new chunks (Image via Mojang Studios)

Minecraft loads its map section by section. These sections are called chunks, and the game contains a chunk-rendering engine that progressively generates them as players move forward. These chunks generate biomes, blocks, items, mobs, etc., that they can interact with.

Once a chunk is generated, it can only be loaded and unloaded from the game's memory, but it cannot be fully deleted. This is because the player has already explored that region. Once generated, it can only be modified by the player by breaking or adding blocks.

Even after 15 years, Mojang Studios continues to add new features to the vanilla version of the game. Whenever the developers release a new Minecraft update, fresh features do get added. However, they are not the easiest to find, especially in old worlds.

Since old worlds could have loads of pre-generated chunks, they will not generate new features like blocks, structures, mobs, items, etc. This method was implemented to prevent new features from affecting pre-generated chunks that players had already explored or modified.

Hence, if someone has an extremely old world where they have explored massive amounts of chunks in all four directions, they will have an extremely hard time finding new features from updates. This is because they will have to travel far and wide to generate brand-new chunks in which the additions will pop up.

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Minecraft new updates automatically encourage players to start a brand-new world

Players need to create a new world to find new features much sooner (Image via Mojang Studios)

Minecraft players have always loved to create a new world and progress through its underlying storyline all over again. On the other hand, there are still many who want to continue in their old worlds, where they have already established themselves.

However, due to the aforementioned mechanics, fresh updates can indirectly and unintentionally force players to make new worlds in order to find the added features.