1.18 Main Features RANKED!

1.18 is coming TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!! But for those of you who play the snapshots avidly, the majority of this update is nothing new. In fact, we've essentially been playtesting these features since July. It's taken months of iteration after iteration to get this update right. And as this update changes basically the fabric of the world we play in entirely, no update was more important to get right than this one.

In an update with zero new blocks, zero new mobs, and zero new items, it can be quite hard to define what counts as a feature in this update. At first, this was going to be a top 10, but I realised if you count all the main features of the update, it only comes to 19 by my count. Therefore, I'll be ranking ALL of the features from worst to best!

19 - Snowy Slopes Biome

I don't dislike the Snowy Slopes Biome, but of all the new biomes in the world, the Snowy Slopes is by far the blandest biome. It's exactly what it says on the tin. Snowy slopes. These form the sides of mountains, and they are snowy. The occasional goat spawns. Again, I don't hate this biome or even dislike it... but something's got to come last.

18 - Noodle Caves

Noodlier than a certain babe I've been talking to! But honestly these can be a bit of a pain to navigate. While I do like the idea of really claustrophobic, narrow, and twisty caves, they sort of give me horrifying flashbacks of driving on British country lanes.

17 - Grove Biome

It's the Snowy Slopes, but with trees. Still a nice biome though.

16 - Hostile Mob Change

This may be a little controversial, putting one of the most fundamentally-requested features so low on the list. And while I am in general in favour of this change, I do feel it has made Survival a little TOO easy. I did a rant on this subject a while ago, and I feel that Minecraft, although easy, was never meant to be a very hard game to begin with. But this change actually does, in my opinion, make the game a little TOO EASY. Challenge has definitely been lost from the caves because of this. But I have to give this change points for the world of good it's done for builds!! It's just I'm more of an adventurer.

15 - New Music

I like the new tracks in this update. It's just, they've not been in the game long enough yet to feel like they really fit, especially when up against the tracks that have been woven into the very fabric of Minecraft's existence for an eighth of a century. I'm sure I'll learn to love them in time though!

14 - Spaghetti Caves

The less noodly noodle caves are certainly a lot of fun to traverse! They are what you'd expect from a Minecraft spelunking experience, but are a lot grander in scale than the old caves. I do like how they often have a slanting appearance, giving the impression of descending down into the depths. Also, damn, were these cave system names thought up at 11:45am or something? Because they sure were hungry!

13 - Stony Peaks Biome

A good 100 or more y-levels up from the Spaghetti Caves, we have the Stony Peaks. These are mountain peaks that do not contain any snow or goats at all, and they occur when mountain peaks generate near warm biomes. It's definitely a really good thing they chose to add this biome last minute, as snow right next to deserts is always and was always jarring. But this does mean it's also the blandest of the peak biomes. What I do love, however, is the strips of calcite you find running through this biome! Definitely a great call to have calcite be found in abundance SOMEWHERE in the world that isn't a geode!

12 - AquifIers

Heading back below, the aquifIIIIIIIIIIIer is basically Minecraft's flooded cave. They can be filled with water or lava. While many see the water ones as a pain to traverse and the lava ones a straight-up death trap, I do feel these flooded caves are rather underappreciated. Firstly, swimming through them is joyous, as it is very much NOT like swimming in the ocean. You are surrounded by stone, and the flooded caves even come with a unique mob: the cuGlow Squid. Not to mention you can find more diamonds in these caves. If you are prepared, these caves are definitely worth exploring, even just for the thrill of cave diving!

11 - Frozen Peaks Biome

Back upwards again (this rant is turning into a bit of a yo-yo!), we have the Frozen Peaks. These are the mountain peaks that contain ice instead of snow. I would put these higher on the list if these peaks themselves went higher. But they have a propensity to not generate very high. But this is just nitpicking now. We may only be 10th out of 18, but these are some SERIOUSLY amazing features already. It just shows how good this is going to get.

10 - Ore Redistribution

With all this shaking up of the world, even the ore distribution itself was shaken up. I may actually do a whole rant on the 1.18 ore distribution, and do I think they got it right? But let's just say I am very glad they did change the ore distribution, and didn't just go the route of having the ores generate at the same level down to the new bedrock, as they did in the very first snapshot with an extended underground.

9 - Ore Veins

You find one of these, and you are set for LIFE. At least, on grounds of Iron and Copper. Copper Ore veins make a lot of sense, as Copper is alas primarily (and really only) a building block. But also, finding an Iron Ore Vein will mean you will never need to build an iron farm again! I've always said that if you need to farm minerals with exploits, it's not very good game design. This could be a fix to that (but still no fix for the Librarian Exploit GRRR!). Also, just finding an ore vein in your world, and I have found a couple now, is quite exhilerating. I just want to mine and mine for hours! Beats strip mining that's for sure.

8 - Meadow Biome

This was quite an unexpected new biome to see in a Caves & Cliffs update, but surprisingly this biome does count as a "Cliffs" biome. It's basically a cooler plains biome you see at higher groud. And let me just say this biome is beautiful and mystical. The flower pattern is so pretty! Every Meadow has a different pattern of flowers, and it is just so cool to be up here and have a great view of the world below. Makes climbing up onto a Meadow very rewarding indeed. Also, the Donkey FINALLY has its own biome to call home!!!

7 - World Blending

You(singular) know, I never thought I would ever see the day chunk edges would be religated to Minecraft's history books. I always assumed chunk edges after updates would always be a thing we would have to deal with when you upgraded your world from an old version to a new version where terrain changes had occurred. This update ACTUALLY sought a fix for this, and although it was one hell of a technical feat, they DID IT!! It may not be 10000% perfect, but the way old and new worlds blend now is incredibly seamless!!

6 - Jagged Peaks Biome

When mountains reach well above the clouds in jagged formations, we end up with some of the most extreme and insane terrain in all of Minecraft! The Jagged Peaks biome has the potential to reach the very limit of Minecraft's terrain generation at y256. These biomes are snowy, littered with emeralds, iron, and goats, and will reward the player with one of the best views in all of Minecraft! When you see one of these in your Minecraft world and you're anything like me, you HAVE to climb it and challenge yourself to see how fast you can do it without simply pillaring up. Certainly a really great biome. But it does feel like something is missing, like some sort of enemy to fight up there. Maybe an icy wizard that hurls Ice Clouds or something??? Nah even the green man knows that's a silly idea.

5 - Lush Caves Biome

On the other end of the y-levels, we are heading to the home of the water lizard. The Lush Caves is certainly a really cool biome to explore! It is inviting, with its glowing cave vines and pools of water. It looks like it could be on the Overworld, but it's not. That green stuff isn't grass, it's MOSS! Add to that the swirling spore particles, its unique lineup of flora featuring Azaleas and the quirky Dripleaf, and its very own and interesting mob, the Lush Caves is certainly fun to explore!

4 - Dripstone Caves Biome

It may be a bit controversial to some, me putting the Dripstone Caves above the Lush Caves, but honestly, this biome blows me away more than the lush caves every time I see it. Maybe it's my lust for danger in Minecraft, and unlike the Lush Caves, the sight of this cave certainly invokes the feeling of danger. The total opposite vibe you get from the Lush Caves biome, this one looks like a giant mouth full of teeth ready to bite you with one wrong step. To me, this biome is just as beautiful if not more than the Lush Caves. And it may not have its own unique mob, but that's okay. Now in reality, the biome is a lot safer than it seems, but I still feel a thrill when I find one of these.

3 - Mega Caves

I've covered the Spaghetti Caves, and the AB Caves... but there is one other cave type I have not discussed. What separates the caves from the CAVES is the Mega Cave. Mega Caves are caves that are truly BREATHTAKING in size. And I mean, these things can be absolutely HUGE!!! The only thing better than a lush cave or a dripstone cave, is when one of these caves appears as a MEGA CAVE. Mega Caves are an extreme-sized of a "cheese cave" (again, 11:45am?!) where the cavern size is really, REALLY BIG. I am hungry for adventure in Minecraft, and these Mega Caves are exactly that for me. They are almost like a second Nether in a way, because of how freaking MASSIVE these things are, their towering pillars, their big drops and lava pools... and they're EVEN BETTER when they come with a biome, too! I STILL gawp when I see a Mega Cave. The sheer magnitude of their size sends all the best shivers down my spine!

All these features so far have been absolutely incredible. But none of these would have been possible at all without the top 2 features on this list. These are the features that made almost everything you have seen on this list possible. And for that, I have to rank them highest.

2 - New Terrain Generator

We cannot forget that 1.18 hasn't just brought us soaring cliffs and death-defying caves. It has actually changed the terrain generator ENTIRELY. This update has brought with it the 4th generation of Minecraft's terrain, and the first new generation since 1.7! The terrain in this update has FINALLY become more like beta, wherein the shape of the terrain is generated before the biome, rather than the way it's been since Beta 1.8 where the biome generates first determining terrain shape. I watched Henrik's hour-long video explaining how this new generator (which has SEVEN dimensions!) works, and I am just blown away by how much work this must have been. This update was delayed, because they wanted to get this right. And boy did they! To me, the new terrain as a whole is the defining feature of 1.18. The better beaches, the flatter swamps, the hillier terrain in general, the mountains, the terrain is so much less predictable than it was, and I absolutely adore this update for this!

But. 

Not even this would have been possible without the number 1 feature. NONE of this would have been possible without the number 1 feature. Not even the new terrain generator.

I think it goes without saying that the BEST thing in 1.18 is......

1 - TELEMETRY!!!

Lol jk. The REAL number 1 feature of 1.18 is.........

1 - Increased World Height

When I first joined the 21w06a snapshot, the first thing I did was pillar straight up. "They didn't!" I said, as I placed a block at y=257 for the very first time. This update increased the world height both up AND down, making room for the whole shabang: the taller mountains, the deeper underground, the bigger caves, the hillier terrain, the sky-scraping jagged peaks... all of it! An increase in Minecraft's world height, and in particular, a deeper underground, may just have been one of the biggest and most requested features of all time. I can't even express how grateful and delighted I am that Mojang actually increased the world height again! If they hadn't, this update would have only been a FRACTION as impressive as it turned out to be! THIS is what has shaped the next generation of Minecraft. 

I also think the decision to increase the height to 384 and not 512 was the best, since a world height of 512 really isn't all that necessary, and it would cause a lot of unnecessary performance issues. The 384 world height gives a LOT of extra breathing room without compromising performance (too much). All-in-all, THIS was the most fundamental change of the update that made room for everything above!

Final Word

All in all, this has got to be one of the best updates of all time. And even the features right at the bottom of the list were not bad. I don't think ANY feature in this update is bad or one that I really don't like. And even though we didn't get all the promised features for this update, I still hope it goes down in Minecraft history as one of the best, if not THE best, Minecraft update of all time.