Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The badlands, called the mesa before Java 1.13, is a hot, dry Overworld biome of red sand and hills of striped terracotta. It never rains here, and it has an extra layer of gold ore high up in the terrain. It is usually a trip: in our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds, the nearest badlands was a median 2,641 blocks from spawn.
| Dimension | Overworld |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Hot, dry regions, usually bordering rivers, desert and the other two badlands biomes |
| How common | 0.8% of the surface in our sample (about 1 block in 130) |
| Distance from spawn | Median 2,641 blocks; within 1,000 blocks in 13% of seeds, within 2,000 in 33% (our sample) |
| Mobs | Armadillos; sheep, pigs, cows and chickens where there is grass; the usual hostile mobs at night |
| Notable blocks | Banded terracotta, red sand, cactus, dead bushes, dry grass, sugar cane by water, gold ore |
| Structures | Badlands mineshafts, ruined portals; no villages |
| Climate | Temperature 2.0, downfall 0; it never rains |
| Biome ID | minecraft:badlands |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.7.2 as Mesa; renamed Badlands in 1.13 |
Is the badlands the same as the mesa?
Yes. Mesa was the biome’s name from Java 1.7.2 until 1.13, when it became Badlands. Mesa (Bryce) became Eroded Badlands in the same update, and the forested Mesa Plateau F became Wooded Badlands Plateau, shortened to Wooded Badlands in 1.18 when the other plateau versions were removed. Java 26.3 has exactly three badlands biomes.
Badlands vs wooded badlands vs eroded badlands
All three share the red sand, the striped terracotta and the extra gold. The difference is the shape of the land and what grows on it.
| Feature | Badlands | Wooded badlands | Eroded badlands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terrain | Terracotta hills and flat-topped mesas | High plateaus capped with grass and coarse dirt | Tall, thin terracotta spires |
| Trees | None | Oaks on the plateau tops | None |
| Wolves | No | Yes, the striped variant | No |
| Abandoned camps (26.3) | No | Yes | No |
| How common (our sample) | 0.8% of the surface | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| Median distance from spawn (our sample) | 2,641 blocks | 2,844 blocks | 2,908 blocks |
| Seeds with none nearby (our sample) | 14 of 300 | 19 of 300 | 27 of 300 |
| Extra gold ore | Same in all three: an extra layer from Y 32 up to Y 256 | ||
The plain badlands is the most common of the three and the closest to spawn. If you want wood, wolves or an abandoned camp, look for the wooded plateaus; if you want the spires, look for eroded badlands. In our sample, 13% of the badlands’ edge touched wooded badlands and 9% touched eroded badlands, so once you find one, the others are often next door.
How to find a badlands
Find a desert first. In our sample, the badlands’ edge touched a river 41% of the time, desert 26%, wooded badlands 13%, eroded badlands 9% and stony shore 3%. So cross the desert, or follow a river through it, until the sand turns red and the hills turn into orange and white stripes.
Plan for distance. Only 13% of seeds in our sample had a badlands within 1,000 blocks of spawn, and 33% within 2,000. Within 5,000 blocks, 87% did. The seeds below skip the walk.
These three Java 26.3 seeds put a badlands within a few hundred blocks of spawn. Each coordinate is inside the biome, checked at block level.
| Seed | Badlands at | From spawn | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
79258455773250850 |
X -74, Z -146 | 193 blocks | Open on the map |
3563325430681470664 |
X -198, Z 198 | 257 blocks | Open on the map |
583157561096932326 |
X 102, Z -118 | 156 blocks | Open on the map |
In a world you already have, type /locate biome minecraft:badlands (cheats on) for the nearest one, or paste your seed into the biome finder to see every badlands around spawn. These are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world.
What the badlands is good for
Terracotta
The hills are solid terracotta in horizontal bands of plain, orange, yellow, brown, red, white and light gray. That is the cheapest way to get colored terracotta in bulk: no clay to smelt and no dye to craft. Any pickaxe mines it. Smelt the colored bands to get glazed terracotta; plain terracotta doesn’t glaze.
Gold
Every badlands biome adds an extra layer of gold ore from Y 32 up to Y 256, far higher than gold normally generates. A lot of it ends up exposed in hillsides and canyon walls, so you can often spot it without digging. Gold ore needs an iron pickaxe or better.
Mineshafts
Mineshafts here are the badlands type, built from dark oak instead of oak, and they generate higher than normal mineshafts. Their corridors often break out of the terrain, so look for dark oak supports and rails in a hillside. Expect cave spiders near the spawner in the cobweb corridors.
Cactus, dry grass and dead bushes
Cactus grows on the red sand, and since Java 1.21.5 some cacti carry a cactus flower, which crafts into pink dye. Short and tall dry grass and dead bushes cover the flats. Breaking a dead bush gives sticks.
Mobs and food
Armadillos are the animal you will actually see. They roll up when something threatens them, and brushing one drops an armadillo scute, which you need for wolf armor. Sheep, pigs, cows and chickens are on the spawn list too, but they only spawn on grass blocks, and grass is rare here, so bring food. There are no trees in the plain badlands; the nearest wood is usually on a wooded badlands plateau.
Weather and water
It never rains or snows here. Water is limited to rivers and the odd spring, though sugar cane grows on the riverbanks, and firefly bushes can generate next to the water. Rivers are also the easiest way through: in our sample they were the badlands’ most common neighbour.
What changed in 2025-26
In Wilderness Bound (Java 26.3, September 2026), abandoned camps were added to many biomes, including wooded badlands. The plain badlands is not on the list.
In Chase the Skies (Java 1.21.6, June 2025), the sand and dry grass ambient sounds were tuned: terracotta no longer triggers sand or wind sounds, and the wind sound now comes from dry grass sitting on two blocks of sand, red sand or terracotta. Dead bushes play their sounds a little more often.
In Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5, March 2025), chickens, cows, pigs and sheep started spawning in badlands biomes. The badlands counts as a warm biome, so pigs, cows and chickens that spawn here are the warm variants, warm chickens lay brown eggs, and sheep spawn with warm-biome wool colors, so brown is the most common. The same drop added short and tall dry grass, cactus flowers, firefly bushes next to water and new ambient sounds for sand, terracotta and dead bushes.
Source: the official 26.3, 1.21.6 and 1.21.5 release notes.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square centered on each world’s spawn. “How common” is the biome’s share of those samples; “distance from spawn” is how far the nearest sample of the biome was, and “none nearby” means no sample of the biome inside that square. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
