Cave tours are a great pastime in Minecraft and a place to find all sorts of important resources. But besides iron, diamonds, and a lot of stone, you will also discover some unique biomes underground! On one side, you will encounter densely vegetated, lush caves where you can also find rare animals. On the other side, you can find impressive dripstone caves, which are not without danger. Today, we will take a closer look at these two underground biomes, where you can find them, and what you can do with them.
Lush Caves: Find Axolotls and Natural Treasures
Lush caves are one of the most beautiful biomes you can find in Minecraft. They consist mainly of clay blocks that form various terraces, where you can find small ponds. Additionally, lush caves, as their name suggests, are densely vegetated. Besides grasses, you will also find many unique blocks like moss, vines, drip leaves, spore blossoms, and glow berries here.
How to find lush caves: Lush caves can be recognized from the surface because they are marked by an azalea tree. These trees have pink flowers. If you dig down, you will most likely find a lush cave underneath. You can also look for openings nearby. Azalea trees and their corresponding lush caves are only generated in humid and warm biomes. These include particularly jungles, bamboo jungles, giant tree taigas, dark forests, or wooded badlands plateaus. So, keep an eye out for these biomes and the corresponding azalea trees!
Unique characteristics of lush caves:
- Tropical fish predominantly spawn in the water pools.
- The only place where you can find Axolotls.
- Glow squids also spawn in larger ponds.
- Plenty of moss!
- One of the best sources for abundant clay.
- Large and small drip leaves.
- Spore blossoms that grow on the ceiling.
- Glow berries, which you can use as both a food source and a light source.
Breeding and Using Axolotls
The cute Axolotls are probably the reason you want to visit this biome. These aquatic creatures can only be found in lush caves and make for a great pet that you can bring back to your base. They are not only cute but also help you in combat!
Axolotls come in five colors: pink, brown, yellow, cyan, and blue. The rare blue Axolotls cannot be found in the wild but must be bred. They have only a 1 in 1200 (0.083%) chance of spawning, making them one of the rarest things you can own in Minecraft! Its coloration is also a small Easter egg referencing the Pokémon Mudkip from the third generation. You can breed Axolotls by capturing two in a bucket, placing them in a water basin, and feeding them tropical fish from another bucket. You should definitely keep them in water, as they will die on land after just five minutes.
There are practical reasons (besides the obvious cuteness!) to have many Axolotls. In water, they attack almost everything that crosses their path. This allows you to create an automatic fish farm by sectioning off a portion of a river or ocean where many fish spawn. Axolotls also attack drowned and guardians and can even heal themselves! They play dead for a few seconds and then attack again. The more Axolotls you have, the faster they can regenerate as a group. They can also heal you if you help them in battle. All in all, Axolotls are extremely useful … and cute!
Dripstone Caves: Utilizing Copper and Traps
Now, let’s take a look at the other cave area you can find in Minecraft: dripstone caves, which also exist in real life and are impressively represented in Minecraft. They are often huge caves with stalactites and stalagmites that make navigation difficult and can even cause damage!
How to find dripstone caves: The generation of dripstone caves is linked to the “continentality” of your world. The further land is from an ocean, the more likely a dripstone cave is to occur. The overlying biome does not matter.
Unique characteristics of dripstone caves:
- A large number of dripstone blocks that have formed into huge columns and make for great decorative blocks.
- Plenty of pointed dripstone that you can use for various farms.
- Large copper deposits!
- Glow squids also spawn in the underwater pools here.
- Mineshafts can be wonderfully found here and sometimes generate directly through a dripstone cave.
- Watch out for drowned zombies.
Applications of Dripstones
Dripstone itself can be used for many different things when mined with a pickaxe. You can even multiply and grow them by placing them below a dripstone block with water above. This gives you practically unlimited dripstones. Water then drips from the dripstones below, forming larger stalactites and stalagmites.
Another application is an automatic lava farm. The principle is similar, but you use a dripstone on any block with a full lava source above it. Below, you place your cauldron to slowly collect the dripping lava. Later, you can scoop up the lava with a bucket.
You can also use dripstones to create clay! We have already written a detailed article on this (Automatic Clay Farm in Minecraft: Guide for Clay, Bricks, and Ceramics) . The mechanic is similar, except this time, water is extracted from mud blocks through the dripstones below.
In the end, you can also use dripstone for traps because the pointed ends deal damage. This applies to both falling stalactites and stalagmites growing from the ground. You can use both in various monster traps and create really cool designs!
Conclusion
The new caves in Minecraft generate exciting biomes that provide you with all sorts of unique things. In lush caves, you find not only beautiful natural blocks but also cute Axolotls that you can use in underwater combat. There is even an extremely rare color that can only be obtained through breeding! In contrast, dripstone caves are perfect for various farms, such as renewable lava or converting mud into clay. You can rent your own Minecraft server with us and embark on a quest for these underground biomes with your friends.
