Overview
Windswept forest is the wooded version of windswept hills: the same steep, stony terrain with sudden cliffs and overhangs, but with spruce and oak growing over it rather than bare rock. That combination is unusually convenient, because you get wood, stone and exposed ore in the same place — the terrain is broken enough that stone faces and cave mouths are open on the hillsides, and ore veins turn up in them without any tunnelling. Windswept forest counts as a mountain biome, so emerald ore generates in the stone here under the restricted distribution shared by only ten biomes, and it is the most easily accessible of them because the terrain is climbable on foot rather than needing a ladder up a peak. Gravel and coarse dirt patch the slopes. The usual temperate animals spawn in the clearings, wolves generate in the wooded parts, and the height means less of your surroundings is at spawnable light level than on flat ground. The danger is falls: windswept terrain generates sheer drops with tree cover hiding them. It borders windswept hills, windswept gravelly hills, forest, taiga and meadow.
Emerald ore in accessible mountain terrain, exposed stone faces and cave mouths for prospecting, spruce and oak wood, and gravel and coarse dirt from the slopes.
Windswept Forest sits in the cold band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.2.
Weather reaches Windswept Forest: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
2 mobs name Windswept Forest specifically among their spawn biomes: Llama and Wolf.
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
Windswept forest generates as a variant on the edges of windswept hills regions, usually between Y 90 and Y 140. Look for spruce and oak growing on visibly steep, stone-streaked terrain; emerald ore in the stone confirms it is a mountain biome.
Tips
- Emerald generates as single blocks rather than veins, so scan the exposed stone faces before you start tunnelling.
- Watch your footing under the tree cover: windswept terrain hides 20-block drops beneath the canopy.
- Cave mouths on the slopes drop straight into cave systems around Y 40, saving you a staircase.
- Use the ore Y-level tool to decide which band to follow once you are inside the hill.
Climate and generation
Windswept Forest has a base temperature of 0.2, which puts it in the cold 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 | 0.2 | 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 | #7DA2FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #7DA2FF
- Structures generating here
- 0
Mobs in Windswept Forest
Llama and Wolf name Windswept Forest 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
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Windswept Forest?
Windswept 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 Windswept Forest?
Llama and Wolf spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Windswept 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 Windswept Forest.
