The latest Minecraft experimental snapshot brings underwater ravines

A new experimental snapshot makes the Minecraft worlds feel more complete

What you need to know

• 1.18 'Caves and Cliffs Update' Part Two is expected to bring sweeping changes and feature additions to Minecraft later this year.
• Mojang Studios is busy testing a lot of these changes through early betas and snapshots, including experimental snapshots.
• Minecraft: Java Edition 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 6 is now available, and includes a ton of world-generation features over the last snapshot.
• This includes the return of underwater ravines and dry swamps, "cavier" ocean floors, and plenty of other tweaks and updates.

Minecraft is a truly excellent game in its current state, but Mojang Studios has never been known to rest on its laurels, as they constantly strive to improve their global phenomenon with new updates and additions. The next stop for Minecraft is 1.18 Caves and Cliffs Update Part Two, which will feature a massive list of changes to Minecraft's world generation, biomes, mining, and much more. The update is gargantuan in its scale, so it needs plenty of early testing and feedback from the Minecraft community to make happen.

Minecraft: Java Edition 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 6 is now available, and follows a growing line of experimental snapshots for Minecraft's legacy PC version. These snapshots require a lot more work to test than regular snapshots, and come with their own set of risks, but players can get an extremely early look at the ever-changing world generation arriving with the second half of the Caves and Cliffs Update. This snapshot follows the earlier 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 5 with lots of additional tweaks and alterations.

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The full changelog for Minecraft: Java Edition 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 6 includes:

Changes

• Tweaked placement of the new mountain biomes so they match the mountain terrain and temperature better. Grove and snowy slopes are less likely to generate on mountain peaks. In cold climates grove and snowy slopes tend to start much lower down, while in temperate and hot climates they tend to start higher up
• Tweaked biome placement to reduce the risk of cold microbiomes, such as a small splotch of snowy tundra in the middle of a forest (birdpoop microbiomes). It can still happen, but not as often
• Fixed an accidental change from last snapshot that made lush caves smaller and more fragmented. Now they should be about as common as in snapshot 4 again
• Giant tree taiga and giant spruce taiga no longer count as cold climates from a biome placement perspective. So these biomes are less likely to mixed in with snowy biomes. This caused a small reshuffle of other biomes to maintain the overall balance
• Slightly reduced the number of water springs
• Slightly increased underwater magma, to increase the chance of finding air when diving in aquifers
• Cavier ocean floors! Aquifers under oceans / rivers are more likely to link to the underground. This means you are more likely to find cave openings on ocean floors that actually lead somewhere instead of being cut off. One consequence of this is that caves at y0-40 below oceans are more likely to be flooded. If you dive into an underground lake you might end up inside one of those flooded caves and pop out at the bottom of an ocean
• Underwater ravines are back. Cave carvers can now carve through sand and gravel on ocean floors, so underwater ravines and caves will no longer be hidden under a layer of gravel or sand. As opposed to MC 1.17, we no longer use a specific carver for underwater ravines, we just use normal noise caves and carvers but on ocean floors. So the underwater ravines won't look exactly the same as in 1.17, but we get a lot more natural variation. Magma may still generate inside them, as with all flooded caves
• Horses, Mules, and Donkeys now follow players holding golden carrots, golden apples, and enchanted golden apples. Makes it easier to get your horse across that deep river! Similarly, llamas follow hay bales
• Swamps can now generate in dry areas. They couldn't in last snapshot, which seemed to make sense, but it turned out that sometimes a very small area will be drier than the surrounding area, causing microbiome issues like small spots of desert in the middle of a swamp. Swamps should be less fragmented now, and they appreciate that

Installation

1. Download this zip file
2. Unpack the folder into your "versions" folder of your local Minecraft application data folder
   • Windows: Press Win + R and type %appdata%\.minecraft and press Ok
   • Mac OS X: In Finder, in the Go menu, select "Go to Folder" and enter ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft
   • Linux: ~/.minecraft or /home/<your username>/.minecraft/
3. Create a new launch configuration in the launcher and select the pending 1.18_experimental-snapshot-6.zip version
4. Start the game and the remaining files will be downloaded
5. Play in a new world! This version is not compatible with other snapshots!
6. Submit feedback on this site

Changes from 1.17

• New world height and depth
• New mountain biomes (lofty peaks, snowcapped peaks, grove, meadow, and snowy slopes)
• New cave generation (cheese, spaghetti, and noodle caves)
• Local water levels and lava levels in the underground
• New cave biomes generate naturally underground and inside mountains (lush caves, dripstone caves)
• Natural variation in terrain shape and elevation, independently from biomes. For example, forests and deserts could form up on a hill without needing a special biome just for that
• New ore distribution
• Large ore veins
• Integrated mountains, caves, and cave entrances
• Monsters will only spawn in complete darkness