Overview
Dark forest is a canopy biome of dark oak trees so densely packed that the floor never receives enough light for grass to look bright, and that single fact drives everything about it: hostile mobs spawn under the canopy in broad daylight, so walking into one unprepared at noon is as dangerous as being outside at night. Dark oaks grow only in 2x2 clusters, so you need 4 saplings to replant one, and they produce more logs per tree than any other wood. Huge brown and red mushrooms generate on the forest floor along with rose bushes and lily of the valley, and mushroom blocks harvested here are the fastest way to start a mushroom farm. The reason most players come is the woodland mansion: it generates in dark forest and nowhere else, it is the only place evokers spawn outside raids, and evokers are the only source of the totem of undying. The trees also grow close enough together that a full canopy of leaves connects overhead, which is why rain never reaches the floor and why a torch placed on the ground is often the only light for 30 blocks in any direction. Dark forests border birch forest, forest, plains and swamp, and the border is unmistakable — the ground goes dark and the sky disappears behind leaves.
Dark oak logs in bulk, huge mushroom blocks for mushroom farming, and access to the woodland mansion — the only reliable source of totems of undying, and the only place allays generate besides pillager outposts.
Dark Forest sits in the temperate band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.7.
Weather reaches Dark Forest: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
One generated structure can appear here, among them Woodland Mansion.
No mob spawns only in Dark Forest — it draws on the general spawn pool of the Overworld.
Forest biomes are the game's default temperate terrain: trees dense enough to need a path cut through them, grass and flowers on the floor, and passive animals in the clearings. They are where most players build, because wood, food and a flat-enough surface all occur together.
How to get it
Dark forest is uncommon and generates in temperate regions. A woodland explorer map from a cartographer villager costs around 14 emeralds plus a compass and points straight to the mansion inside one.
Tips
- Light the floor as you go or place your torches on the trunks: mobs spawn under the canopy at light level 0 in daylight.
- Dark oak needs a 2x2 block of 4 saplings and clear space; a single sapling will never grow no matter how long you wait.
- Cut from the top down with an axe — dark oak canopies are wide and leave floating leaf blocks that hide skeletons.
- Take a shield and a bucket of milk to a mansion: evokers summon fangs that ignore armour. See every structure and its loot.
Climate and generation
Dark Forest has a base temperature of 0.7, which puts it in the temperate band. Temperature is not a thermometer reading — it is the single number that decides snow versus rain, whether water freezes over, and what colour the grass renders.
Above 0.15 water stays liquid and any precipitation falls as rain.
| Property | Value | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 0.7 | Decides whether rain falls as snow, whether water freezes, and the grass and foliage tint. |
| Precipitation | Yes | Cauldrons fill on their own and farmland stays hydrated during a storm. |
| Dimension | Overworld | Sets which mobs, structures and ores can generate at all. |
| Grass and water tint | #79A6FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #79A6FF
- Structures generating here
- 1
Mobs in Dark Forest
On top of those, the mobs that spawn in open terrain anywhere in the Overworld can appear here too, given the right light level. Mobs that only come from a structure or a spawner — breezes from trial chambers, blazes from fortresses, evokers from mansions — are deliberately not in this list.
Also spawns throughout Overworld
Structures found here
One structure can generate in Dark Forest: Woodland Mansion.
- Woodland Mansion — An enormous three-storey house of dark oak and cobblestone, generated only in dark forests and typically tens of thousands of blocks from spawn, which makes a woodland explorer map from a cartographer villager the practical way to find one.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Dark Forest?
Dark Forest generates in the Overworld. A locate command finds the nearest one instantly; without cheats, exploring in one direction and watching the F3 screen's biome line is the reliable method.
What spawns in Dark Forest?
No mob is exclusive to this biome, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Dark Forest?
Yes — as rain. Cauldrons fill on their own during a storm and farmland stays hydrated.
Related pages
Biomes that generate in the same dimension and, where there are any, in the same climate family as Dark Forest.
