Minecraft Badlands: The Complete Guide

Over the years, Minecraft has seen several additions to its biomes. Some biomes cover the deep waters to high mountains, all with varying characteristics and features to discover. One of the rare biomes in Minecraft is the Badlands. It’s a warm-colored terrain with layers and layers of Terracotta hills and cliffs.

Unlike common Minecraft biomes where wildlife and vegetation thrive, the Badlands is a place where life is barren. You’ll often find Dead Bushes, Coarse Dirt, and a lot of Terracotta. While it seems like a place you should avoid going to, the Badlands is still pretty great to explore.

There is a variety of uncommon resources you can take home with you for your builds and perhaps discover some treasures within the biome. If you’re considering exploring the Badlands, we’ve got all the information you need about it so you can maximize your trip.

What is the Minecraft Badlands Biome?

Formerly called the “Mesa Biome,” the Badlands is a mountain-like biome in Minecraft characterized by several hills of Terracotta. You’ll find Terracotta in the shades of warm hues such as red, orange, yellow, brown, gray, and white.

You could even compare the Badlands to real-life deserts and canyons, especially with its exclusive Red Sand blocks.

As mentioned earlier, the Badlands Biome is a place thought to have extreme conditions in-game, where you as the player will have a challenging time looking for survival resources such as food and raw materials for crafting. Similarly, you can’t find any passive mobs here. Despite that, the Badlands is quite rich in varying building materials.

Another thing to know about the Badlands is that there is never any rain within the biome. In line with that, lightning strikes never happen in this biome. The only exception to this is whenever bodies of water such as rivers go through the biome wherein they can possibly trigger rain and lightning.

What are the three types of Badlands Biomes?

With that basic information in mind, we can dive deeper into learning about the Badlands Biome. While the Badlands is a biome in itself, it has also some sub-biome variations. You can find that each variation has unique features in terms of how their terrain surface, resources, and visuals.

Ordinary Badlands

First off is the Ordinary Badlands. The standard variant of the biome displays steep Terracota hills and an exposed open area.

It’s said that the regular Badlands has a good density of Gold Ore generation. Despite that though, the openness of this variation puts you more likely at risk of being attacked by hostile mobs during the nighttime. You’ll have to have a lot of Torches, food, and a makeshift shelter when you’re mining through this variation.

Wooded Badlands

Next is the Wooded Badlands. Unlike the mountains of Terracotta blocks, this variation generates a lot of Trees, Coarse Dirt, Red Sand, and Grass Blocks. You have more of an abundance of resources here.

What’s also distinct about this variation is that there’s a good chance of finding Lush Caves beneath it. You’ll be able to get yourself some Azalea Items and Amethyst Items.

Take note, however, that you may mistake the Wooded Badlands for a Savanna Biome. However, what differentiates the Wooded Badlands is that Oak Trees are smaller, and Grass and Oak Leaves have a darker shade of green.

Eroded Badlands

Then for the Eroded Badlands Biome, this is said to be the rarest variation you can find. You’ll recognize this variation by its towering spiral structures called “Hoodoos.” The Hoodoos have sharp mountain peaks that are rooted in the Red Sand ground.

Be careful when attempting to climb up the spires of the Hoodoos since the spires are several blocks high. You can risk injuring your player character or possibly dying in-game. Nonetheless, the view from the top of the Hoodoos of the Eroded Badlands Biome is breathtaking, making the Eroded Badlands a cool variation to look out for.

Previous Badlands Biomes

Besides the main variants, there were some other versions of these in past versions of Minecraft. Back in 2013, the Badlands were teased as “Disco Mountains” by Mojang Studios Lead Creative Designer, Jeb before they became officially part of the game.

Moreover, the Badlands’ old name, the “Mesa Biome” went on for a few years until the Mesa Biome was officially called the “Badlands” in later Minecraft updates.

Badlands Plateau

The Badlands Plateau variant still had many flat hills with Terracotta layers. The idea of the Terracotta cliff wasn’t seen yet in this variant. Additionally, you could sometimes find ponds on the plateau tops.

Other things to know about this former variant was there were some ravine-like structures within the Badlands Plateau. If you weren’t careful enough, you would take major fall damage from falling into one.

Modified Badlands Plateaus

For the Modified Badlands Plateaus, this was a one step up from the previous Badlands Plateau.

There are more layers of Terracotta, mimicking the Ordinary Badlands in present Minecraft.

Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau

Then for the Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau, these have extreme structures resembling canyons. You can find some Oak Trees growing on the topmost layer of this variant.

Another thing to know about this former variation is that the plateaus were significantly smaller. The Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau had more open space and big canyon-like walls.

What can you find in the Badlands Biome?

While each of the Badlands Biome variants brings unique features, they all share common treasures you can find. From numerous blocks of Gold Ore to seemingly endless Mineshafts, the Badlands doesn’t end on top of its surface.

Resources

There are a variety of resources you can gather and loot in the Badlands. One of them is Terracotta. It’s the Badlands’ primary block. You’ll find Terracotta in different colors. You can even dye them when you take them back home, using them for your decorative builds.

Then we have Gold Ore. As mentioned earlier, Gold Ore has a high generation rate in the Badlands. It’s easily found too since it spawns near the surface.

Besides Gold Ore, you can also find Red Sand if you’re looking for a source of Glass Blocks and other similar items. It has a distinct color perfect for rustic builds.

Other than that, you can also find Cactus, Dead Bushes, and Sugar Cane generated across the biome. The Badlands have a similar structure to deserts which is why you can find these resources too.

Structures

In terms of Badlands structures, you’ll often come across Caves and Ravines. This is commonly seen in the Wooded and Eroded Badlands variants.

Ravines can let you access deeper areas of the Badlands to find more resources. But dropping down onto these is quite dangerous due to the block height and the mobs spawning within dark ravines and caves.

Aside from the caves and ravines, you may also find an Abandoned Badlands Mineshaft.

Here, you’ll find a lot of rails that you could use in your village or community town. Mineshafts also have some valuable loot in Minecart Chests such as Coal, Iron, Enchanted Books, Name Tags, and even Golden Apples.

Mobs

While the resources and loot in Minecraft seem very tempting, you shouldn’t forget about your safety when traversing the Badlands. You’ll find that no passive mobs spawn in the Badlands. Mainly, you’ll encounter Armadillos and Bats as non-hostile creatures in this biome.

On the other hand, for Monsters, you can pretty much face any type of Monster mob in the Badlands. From Creepers to Skeletons, Slimes, and even Witches, all the hostile mobs will spawn across the Badlands.

How do you find a Badlands biome in Minecraft?

At this point, you’re well-equipped with enough knowledge of the Badlands. Looking for the Badlands Biomes isn’t exactly a walk in the park since it’s one of the rare biomes in the game.

The Badlands will generate nearby dry or warm biomes such as deserts and savannas. On rare occasions, they have a chance to spawn nearby oceans. You’ll often find a neighboring biome with every Badlands generation.

The key to successfully finding a Badlands Biome is locating these dry or warm biomes. These will lead you to the Badlands across their borders. Whether it may be plains, forests, or jungles, there’s a chance you can find the Badlands around these areas.

Another good sign of finding the Badlands is finding Terracotta across Red Sand flats. There’s a higher chance of finding these when traveling across deserts.

Alternatively, if you’re an operator on your Minecraft server or are in Creative mode, you can use a command to locate the Badlands Biomes.

Simply use the “/locate” command to do this. You’ll find a series of succeeding strings of categories that will narrow down your search. The full command is “/locate biome minecraft:badlands.”

Upon entering the command, the result will return to you the coordinates of the nearest Badlands and then you can click on it to automatically teleport there. Just be sure you keep note of your original coordinates to teleport back.

Overall, when roaming the Badlands, be sure to stock up on food, weapons, and tools especially if you plan to go through Abandoned Mineshafts within the biome. You’ll be more at risk of fighting against mobs when in this biome. But the rewards for your hardships will be worth it for its abundant resources.