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The choice of a biome to live in is one of the most important early game decisions Minecraft players will need to make. And with so many biomes available in the Overworld and the Nether, it's by no means an easy decision to make. Builders in particular, who want an aesthetically pleasing area, will struggle with this.
That's why this list has compiled all of the primary biome types and ranked them by their pros and cons. These biomes include their sub biomes, which usually are just terrain variants of the same biome archetype. The End biomes have not been considered for the list. For those wondering where to start their first Minecraft base, here are all the biomes in Minecraft ranked according to their pros and cons.
21 Basalt Delta
Pros:
- Easy to farm Magma Cream
Cons:
- Hard to navigate
- Too much lava
- No food or wood
- Hard to build in
- Few structures spawn here
This Nether biome is perhaps the worst choice in the game. There's not much to see here, other than basalt, lava, and Magma Cubes that will attack the player on sight. It's easily the worst biome in the game right now, and also the worst Nether spawn.
20 Soul Sand Valley
Pros:
- Easy to farm skeletons
- Bone blocks drop bone meal
Cons:
- Soul sand makes it hard to navigate
- Dangerous due to skeletons
- No food or wood
Soul Sand Valleys might look impressive, but they're a pretty dead biome without any major resources. There are bone blocks around, certainly, which makes it a great place to come and farm bone meal. Otherwise, this is a terrible biome to live in.
19 Nether Wastes
Pros:
- Structures spawn commonly here
- Great for mining gold, quartz, and Netherite
Cons:
- Lots of hostile mobs spawn here
- Terrain is unpredictable
- No food or wood
The classic Nether biome, the Nether Wastes are an okay Nether spawn, but a horrible place to live in. All sorts of mobs spawn here, not just Zombie Pigmen, but also Piglins, Skeletons, and such. Their redeeming quality is the fact that they're the easiest biome to mine in.
18 Crimson Forest
Pros:
- Great for trading with Piglins
- Great for farming Hoglins for food
- Structures spawn here
- Wood in abundance
Cons:
- Dangerous without any gold armor
- Hoglins can gang up on players easily
- Unlivable due to abundance of mobs
Impressive visually, the Crimson Forest is a highly dangerous biome to live in. Sure, there's a lot of trading to be made with Piglins, and Hoglins provide a steady source of food in the Nether, but there are just too many mobs for it to be a good biome for long-term base building.
17 Warped Forest
Pros:
- Fewer mobs spawn here
- Great for farming Endermen
- Wood readily available
Cons:
- No source of food
- Still in the Nether, so beds can't be used
The Warped Forest is also visually quite stunning and is actually the safest Nether biome due to the fact that it doesn't spawn Piglins or Hoglins. Both mobs seem to avoid this place like the plague. Endermen, on the other hand, call this their Nether home.
16 Ice Spikes
Pros:
- Visually stunning biome
- Polar bears and rabbits can be found here
Cons:
- Hard to navigate
- Difficult to build in
- No structures spawn here
- No easy food sources
Ice Spikes are an impressive sight, but as a cold biome, it's among the worst. It's very hard to build here, and there's barely any food to be found nearby. Wood is also practically nonexistent here, and let's not even talk about how difficult it is to navigate this biome.
15 Desert
Pros:
- Villages and pyramids spawn here
- Easy to navigate
- Easy to build in
Cons:
- Very little food, wood, and water
- Visually bland
- No weather changes
- Mobs seem to spawn more abundantly due to flat ground
The flatness of a desert biome might sound appealing, but it's a very barren biome with no versatility or weather changes. In short, it's a lot of the same, which gets really boring after a while. Plus, finding animals for food and getting wood here is practically impossible.
14 Badlands
Pros:
- Easy place to find gold abundantly
- Mineshafts spawn at a higher elevation
- Terracotta and colorful sand are abundantly available
Cons:
- No reliable food sources
- Not enough trees
- Villages don't spawn here
Looking for gold? Badlands is the best biome for finding gold in Minecraft. It spawns mineshafts at the surface level as well, so they're quite nice for exploration and mining. However, living and building here is a bad idea due to the lack of food and wood.
13 Snowy Mountains
Pros:
- Goats and rabbits spawn here
- Igloos sometimes spawn here
- Visually stunning, with good visibility
- Emerald, coal, and copper are readily available
Cons:
- Fewer trees
- No easy sources of food
- Other structures are rare
Mountains are a loved biome among Minecraft players, but never pick a snowy mountain if food and wood are important resources. These snowy peaks and their variants barely spawn any passive mobs that are useful for food, and trees are usually located on the low ground, which can make farming for them annoying.
12 Snowy Plains
Pros:
- Easy visibility
- Easy to build in
- Villages, igloos, and pillager outposts can spawn here
Cons:
- Few easy sources of food
- Almost no trees
- Difficult to farm in
Snowy plains are another barren biome in Minecraft. There are barely any trees or passive mobs ideal for food farming, so survival in a biome like this is quite difficult. Only an igloo, village, or pillager outpost will make a snowy plains biome valuable.