Overview
Swamp is shallow murky-green water spread across low flat ground, with oak trees draped in vines, lily pads on the surface, dead bushes and enough clay in the shallows to keep a brick project going for a long time. Two things make it worth finding. Slimes spawn here on the surface at night between roughly Y 50 and Y 70, and the spawn rate depends on the moon phase, peaking at full moon — that is the only way to get slimeballs without hunting a slime chunk deep underground, and slimeballs are what sticky pistons, leads and magma cream are made from. Witch huts generate in swamps and nowhere else: a small stilted shack with a cauldron, a crafting table and a witch, which is the natural place to build a witch farm for redstone, glowstone dust and gunpowder. Blue orchids grow here, the only source of light blue dye from a flower. Frogs spawn in swamps and eat small magma cubes to produce froglights. Mushrooms grow across the dark floor. Swamp water is the only place you can catch fish while standing on a lily pad. It borders forest, plains, jungle and mangrove swamp.
Slimeballs from surface slimes for sticky pistons and leads, witch huts for a witch farm, clay in the shallows, blue orchids for light blue dye, lily pads, and vines for mossy blocks.
Swamp sits in the warm band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.8.
Weather reaches Swamp: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
2 generated structures can appear here, among them Swamp Hut (Witch Hut) and Fossil.
6 mobs name Swamp specifically among their spawn biomes: Bogged, Cat, Drowned, Frog and 2 more.
Swamp biomes are shallow water, dark-oak-like canopy, clay under the water and slimes at night on a full moon. Witches have a hut here, and mangrove swamps add mud, mangrove wood and frogs.
How to get it
Swamps generate in low, wet temperate lowlands, often beside forest or plains. Slimes appear on the surface at night between Y 50 and Y 70, so wait for a full moon rather than digging for a slime chunk.
Tips
- Slime spawn rate peaks at full moon and falls to zero at new moon, so check the moon before planning a swamp night.
- Build the witch farm platform at least 24 blocks from the hut so witches spawn inside it rather than around you.
- Lily pads let you place a boat and a fishing spot anywhere on the water without building a jetty.
- Vines placed on cobblestone convert it to mossy cobblestone over time, or craft 1 vine plus cobblestone directly.
Climate and generation
Swamp has a base temperature of 0.8, which puts it in the warm 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 | 0.8 | 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 | #78A7FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #78A7FF
- Structures generating here
- 2
Mobs in Swamp
Bogged, Cat, Drowned, Frog, Slime, and Tadpole name Swamp specifically as a spawn biome, so this is where you go to find them.
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
2 structures can generate in Swamp: Swamp Hut (Witch Hut) and Fossil.
- Swamp Hut (Witch Hut) — A small stilted shack of spruce planks standing over swamp water, registered internally as the swamp hut and known to everyone as the witch hut.
- Fossil — A buried skeleton of bone blocks shaped like a spine, rib cage or skull, occasionally with coal ore mixed in.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Swamp?
Swamp 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 Swamp?
Bogged, Cat, Drowned, Frog, Slime and 1 more spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Swamp?
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 Swamp.
