Windswept Hills

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Windswept Hills

Windswept Hills.png: Infobox image for Minecraft biome 'Windswept Hills'

Windswept Hills Vibrant Visuals.png: Infobox image for Minecraft biome 'Windswept Hills'

Windswept hills or extreme hills are cold mountainous biomes with shattered terrain covered by grass blocks and stone. Windswept hills generate in areas with high erosion close to swamps, often bordering their wooded and gravelly variants.

Generation

Windswept hills generate as mountains in high PV and continentalness, but at far higher erosion. Because of this, the terrain is usually elevated but flat, sometimes hilly and shattered. They generally peak at Y-level 140. Despite windswept hill biomes being highland biomes, deep dark doesn't generate under windswept hills biomes.

Windswept hills generate at medium to the lowest temperature zones at medium humidity. They commonly border windswept forests and windswept gravelly hills as well as windswept savannas at higher temperatures. Large ranges of windswept hills often surround swamps with flatland biomes on the other side, including plains, most forests, taigas, and snowy plains.

Description

In windswept hills, the grass and leaves are an aqua color. These are the only biomes, besides mountain biomes, where emerald ore is found. Like mountains, infested blocks with silverfish can be generated underground below the sea level.

The ground consists of many exposed stone blocks and ores, with some patches of grass blocks in between. Above Y=120±8, rainfall changes to snowfall, and the hills becomes snow-capped, along with water freezing into ice.

In Java Edition, oak and spruce trees generate occasionally, while these are exclusive to the windswept forest in Bedrock Edition. Bushes generate on the sparse grasslands, and llamas can spawn here together with cold animal variants.

With Vibrant Visuals, windswept hills use default environmental settings with a coolish color grading, making the biome appear colder blue. They use cold sunlight, which appears slightly brighter at dusk and dawn.

Mobs

The following mobs naturally spawn here:

In Java Edition
MobSpawn weightGroup size
Monster category
Creeper100⁄5154
Skeleton100⁄5154
Slime[note 1]100⁄5154
Spider100⁄5154
Zombie95⁄5154
Enderman10⁄5151–4
Witch5⁄5151
Zombie Villager5⁄5151
Creature category
Sheep12⁄454
Cold Chicken10⁄454
Cold Pig10⁄454
Cold Cow8⁄454
Llama5⁄454–6
Underground water creature category
Glow Squid14–6
Ambient category
Bat18
  1. ↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.
In Bedrock Edition
MobSpawn weightGroup size
Monster category
Creeper1001
Slime[note 1]1001
Spider1001
Zombie952–4
Skeleton801–2
Enderman101–2
Witch51
Zombie Villager52–4
Creature category
Sheep122–3
Cold Chicken102–4
Glow Squid102–4
Cold Pig101–3
Cold Cow82–3
Llama54–6
Ambient category
Bat12
  1. ↑ Spawn attempt succeeds only in slime chunks.

Sounds

Music

These music tracks play while the player is in windswept hills:

In Creative mode, the following tracks can play:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

NameIdentifier Translation key
BiomeSprite windswept-hills.png: Sprite image for windswept-hills in Minecraft Windswept Hillswindswept_hills biome.minecraft.windswept_hills

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID
BiomeSprite windswept-hills.png: Sprite image for windswept-hills in Minecraft [No displayed name]extreme_hills3

Achievements

IconAchievementIn-game descriptionActual requirements (if different)Gamerscore earnedTrophy type (PS)
PS4Other
Adventuring TimeDiscover 17 biomes.Visit any 17 biomes. Does not have to be in a single world.40Silver

Advancements

IconAdvancementIn-game descriptionActual requirements (if different)
Adventuring TimeDiscover every biome The advancement is only for Overworld biomes. Other biomes may also be visited, but are ignored for this advancement.

History

Announcement

September 28, 2019During MINECON Live 2019, the mountains won the community biome vote; additions were improved terrain generation, powder snow, and goats.
October 3, 2020The Caves & Cliffs update was announced at Minecraft Live 2020, showing a sneak peek at goats and the new mountain generation.
March 5, 2021It is announced that the biome renamed to mountains in 1.13 may be renamed back to Extreme Hills.

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.8Pre-releaseAdded extreme hills. Mountains and hills could still generate prior to this, but they were random parts of the terrain and not considered their own biome.
Java Edition
1.112w01aReduced the height of extreme hills.
1.7.213w36aSpruce trees and snow layers now generate in extreme hills.
The surface now contains large stone, dirt and gravel patches.
Extreme hills are now required for the new "Adventuring Time" achievement.
1.1318w19a"Extreme Hills" has been renamed to "Mountains".
pre5The ID extreme_hills has been changed to mountains.
1.1721w13aGoats now spawn in mountains, a placeholder until the new mountains are added.
1.18Experimental Snapshot 1Due to the new terrain generator, mountains have become much less common.
Goats no longer spawn in mountains.
experimental snapshot 2"Mountains" have been renamed back to "Extreme Hills".
The ID mountains has been changed back to extreme_hills.
experimental snapshot 4Increased the extremity of terrain in extreme hills.
21w37aRenamed "Extreme Hills" back to "Mountains".
The ID extreme_hills has been changed back to mountains.
Prior to the removal of numerical biome IDs, this biome's numerical ID was 3.
21w40a"Mountains" has been renamed to "Windswept Hills".
The ID mountains has been changed to windswept_hills.
1.2023w17a"A Familiar Room" may now be played in windswept hills.
1.21.525w02aPigs that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.
25w05aAdded bushes, which can generate in windswept hills.
Cows that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.
25w06aChickens that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0build 1Added a proper extreme hills biome, along with many other biomes. Mountains and hills could still generate prior to this, but they were random parts of the terrain and not considered their own biome.
Only pine trees now generate (not oak trees as well) in extreme hills. The trees are found only in the wooded variant.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0beta 1.2.0.2Added snow layers to extreme hills.
1.16.200
Experiment
Caves and Cliffs
beta 1.16.200.52Added goats, which currently spawn in extreme hills as a placeholder.
1.16.220
Experiment
Caves and Cliffs
beta 1.16.220.50Goats no longer spawn in the extreme hills biome.
1.18.0?Snowfall now occurs above Y=120±8 instead of 90±8. This change causes most snow to melt in old terrain.
1.21.60
Experiment
Drop 1 2025
Preview 1.21.60.25Pigs that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.
1.21.70
Experiment
Drop 1 2025
Preview 1.21.70.20Added bushes, which can generate in windswept hills.
Cows that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.
Preview 1.21.70.22Chickens that spawn in windswept hills are now the cold variant.
1.21.90Preview 1.21.90.26Added coolish color grading and cold lighting to windswept hills with Vibrant Visuals.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360Xbox OnePS3PS4PS VitaWii USwitch
TU5CU11.001.001.00Patch 11.0.1Added Extreme Hills biome.
TU31CU191.221.221.22Patch 3Added Extreme Hills variant biomes.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Added extreme hills.

Issues

Issues relating to "Windswept Hills" or "Extreme Hills" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Screenshots

Historical screenshots

Development images

See also

Sources