Snowy Plains

Snowy plains are flat, white fields of snow with only a few spruce trees. Water freezes, food is scarce and strays roam at night. Still, this biome holds igloos and snowy villages. Use this snowy plains finder to locate the closest frozen field in your seed. The map above centres on the nearest snowy plains and marks each patch with a biome icon around it.

Where snowy plains generate

Snowy plains appear in the coldest temperature band. The land is usually flat, and the air is fairly dry. If the climate gets a bit more humid, snowy taiga takes over instead.

You will often see frozen rivers, snowy taigas and ice spikes nearby. Groves and snowy slopes can rise at the edges. Snowy plains are fairly common, and they often form large connected regions in cold parts of the map.

What you find in snowy plains

Snow layers cover grass blocks, and any exposed water turns to ice. Trees are rare and always spruce. Sugar cane, pumpkins and some flowers can still generate.

• Animals: rabbits and polar bears. Most farm animals do not spawn here.
• Hostile mobs: strays often spawn in place of skeletons and shoot slowness arrows.
• Structures: igloos, snowy villages built from spruce, and pillager outposts.

Some igloos hide a basement with a zombie villager, a cleric and a brewing stand. So it is worth checking under the carpet.

How to find snowy plains in your world

The map does the searching for you. Type the seed and choose your edition. The view flies to the nearest snowy plains and marks it with a biome icon. Then open the list on the left to see more locations, and click one to jump to it.

In game, F3 shows minecraft:snowy_plains in the biome line. Large flat white areas with no trees are the clue. If you want to teleport, use /tp @s X 100 Z with the coordinates from the map.

Surviving in the snowy plains biome

Snowy plains are a hard place to start. Wood is limited, and you cannot rely on cows or pigs for food. Therefore, bring food or hunt rabbits. A snowy village solves most of these problems, because it has beds, crops and trades.

The biome also has benefits. Snow is everywhere, so you can make snow golems and snow blocks. Also, ice is easy to collect for ice roads and storage. Polar bears are neutral, but adults attack if you get close to their cubs. So keep your distance.

At night, strays are the main danger. Their slowness arrows make other mobs harder to escape.

Igloos and snowy villages

Igloos are small snow-block domes with a bed, a crafting table and a furnace. They make a handy shelter on your first night in the cold. Some igloos have a trapdoor under the carpet. A ladder leads down to a basement with a chest, a brewing stand and two cells. One cell holds a villager, and the other holds a zombie villager.

The basement is a great chance to practise curing. Throw a splash potion of weakness at the zombie villager, then feed it a golden apple. After a few minutes it turns back into a villager.

Snowy villages are built mostly from spruce wood and snow blocks. They work like other villages, so you can trade and breed villagers. Because food is scarce in this biome, a village farm is extra valuable.

Snowy plains version history

The biome was first called ice plains. Java 1.9 added igloos, and Java 1.10 added polar bears and strays. In 1.13 it became snowy tundra. Java 1.14 brought snowy villages. Finally, 1.18 renamed it to snowy plains.

Snowy Plains FAQ