Scenic Seeds
Seeds with dramatic landscapes, towering mountains, and open vistas.
Canyon River Gorge-1618472320328398994
Badlands terrain generates a spectacular canyon with layered terracotta walls. A river runs through the canyon floor and exposed gold ore veins line the walls. Feels like a Minecraft Grand Canyon.
Badlandsnormal
Cliffside Waterfall2052046759
A dramatic waterfall cascades from a massive cliff overhang into a lush cave pool far below. The cliff creates a floating island illusion from certain angles, making for spectacular screenshots.
Windswept HillsnormalDesert River Oasis1548213
A river carves through a vast desert, creating a green oasis strip along its banks. Acacia trees line the water's edge. Eroded badlands bluffs border the desert to the east, providing terracotta for building.
Desertnormal
Dripstone Cathedral5190058391498849
Enter a coastal cave to discover a cathedral-sized dripstone cavern stretching hundreds of blocks. Massive stalactites and stalagmites create pillars connecting floor to ceiling. An underground waterfall adds atmosphere.
Stony Shorenormal
Flower Forest Meadow4579131783975981927
A flower forest stretches across rolling hills with fourteen kinds of flowers generating naturally. Bee nests hang from birch and oak trees throughout. A river meanders through fields of color.
Flower ForesteasyFrozen Peaks Mirror Lake35029481298401
A perfectly still frozen lake sits cradled between towering frozen peaks. At sunset the ice creates mirror-like reflections of the surrounding mountains. Goats leap between the snow-covered ridges.
Frozen PeakshardLush Cave Paradise-1642362108214
An azalea tree at spawn marks the entrance to one of the largest lush cave systems. Descend through roots to find a glowing underground paradise with lakes, glow berries, and axolotl colonies.
ForesteasyMountain Lake Valley-1225692392429662921
A crystal-clear lake fills a valley between jagged peaks. Meadow flowers blanket the shores and a waterfall pours down the mountainside into the lake. Goats hop along the ridgelines above.
Meadownormal
Savanna Sky Plateau-6901475981289999
Windswept savanna terrain generates extreme elevation changes with plateaus reaching into the clouds. Acacia trees cling to impossible cliff faces and natural arches span between formations.
Windswept SavannahardHow Minecraft builds its biggest landscapes
Since 1.18 the Overworld runs from Y=-64 to Y=319, and terrain uses a lot of that room. Natural ground stops around Y=256, reached by the tallest jagged and frozen peaks and the highest badlands, which still leaves 63 blocks to build on above any summit. In Java the clouds float at about Y=192, so a mountain much taller than that pokes right through them.
The climate decides which peaks you get. Jagged and frozen peaks form in cold to medium climates, the frozen ones made of ice and packed ice under snow, while stony peaks take the warmer spots and show bare stone with strips of calcite. Goats spawn in groups of two or three on jagged peaks, frozen peaks and snowy slopes. Lower down, meadows and cherry groves cover the slopes and plateaus, and the meadow is the one mountain biome where a village can start, always in the plains style.
For wild shapes nothing beats a windswept savanna. It forms where erosion and weirdness are both high in a mild to hot climate, and it breaks the ground into steep cliffs, huge overhangs, floating islands and falls of water and lava. It is rare, and neither villages nor pillager outposts generate in it. Windswept hills are the colder relative: mostly flat on top, usually no higher than about Y=140, and the only place outside the mountains with emerald ore.
Badlands paint their hills in bands of terracotta in red, orange, yellow, white, light gray, brown and plain. They take the hottest climate and climb all the way into the mountains, and their rivers either cut deep gorges or leave the valleys nearly dry. Wooded badlands grow small oak trees on grassy plateaus, and eroded badlands push up tall terracotta pillars called hoodoos.
Some of the best views are underground. Lush caves form under humid biomes such as jungles, dark forests and old growth taigas, and an azalea tree on the surface, with rooted dirt and hanging roots running down from it, marks one below. Axolotls spawn nowhere else. Dripstone caves need land far from the ocean, so they almost never turn up along a coast. The deep dark lies lowest, under mountains, and it is the only biome with ancient cities.
Never entered a seed before? How to use Minecraft seeds covers both editions.
Questions about scenic seeds
How high can mountains get in Minecraft?
Natural terrain stops around Y=256, in jagged and frozen peaks and the highest badlands. The build limit is Y=319, so you can stack 63 more blocks on the tallest summit. Windswept hills stay much lower and usually top out near Y=140.
Where do the waterfalls on cliffs come from?
From springs. A spring is a single water or lava block the game sets into a wall of stone, dirt, snow or packed ice with one open side, and in Java it tries 25 water springs per chunk anywhere below Y=192. You run into them most on the sides of cliffs and inside caves, which is why steep ground like a windswept savanna or a jagged peak shows so many waterfalls. Lava springs work the same way and often start forest fires.
How do I find a cherry grove or a meadow with a command?
With cheats on, type /locate biome minecraft:cherry_grove or /locate biome minecraft:meadow in Java, or /locate biome cherry_grove in Bedrock. Both biomes sit on mountain slopes and plateaus, so if you can see jagged or frozen peaks, the ground below them is a good place to look first.
What does an azalea tree on the surface mean?
That a lush cave lies below it. The tree's roots, rooted dirt with hanging roots underneath, run straight down until they reach the cave, so digging next to them is the quickest way in. Down there you find moss, azalea bushes and cave vines with glow berries.
Will a scenic seed look the same in Bedrock?
The shape of the land will. Java and Bedrock generate the same mountains, rivers and biomes from one seed, so a landscape carries over. Trees, structures and other decorations are placed differently, and Bedrock's Vibrant Visuals changes the fog, the sky and the lighting, so screenshots from the two editions won't match exactly.