Minecraft Beach Biome Guide: Features, Mobs, and Resources

The Beach Biome in Minecraft is one of the most peaceful and useful biomes in the game. While it may not seem as flashy as jungles, mountains, or lush caves, beaches play an important role in survival and exploration. They’re often the first biome players encounter when traveling along coastlines, and they offer valuable resources like sand, turtles, and buried treasure.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the Minecraft Beach Biome — including its features, mobs, and resources, along with tips to make the most out of your seaside adventures.

How to Identify the Beach Biome

The Beach Biome naturally generates between ocean and land biomes such as plains, forests, or deserts. You’ll recognize it by its wide stretches of sand or gravel, gently sloping into the sea.

Key identifiers include:

Blocks: Sand, gravel, sandstone, and occasional clay.
Location: Bordering most ocean biomes.
Climate: Neutral (except snowy variants).
Visuals: Flat terrain, smooth coastline, often dotted with seagrass or turtles.

Variants of the Beach Biome

Not all beaches are the same in Minecraft. There are three main variants:

Variant	Features	Where Found
Beach	Standard sandy shoreline	Along most ocean borders
Stone Shore	Rocky cliffs and stone beaches	Near tall mountain ranges or steep terrain
Snowy Beach	Covered in snow and ice	Near snowy or cold biomes

Each variant changes the look and feel of the coastline, making beaches more diverse than they first appear.

Beach

The standard beach biome variant, Beaches are composed of mostly sand, with some gravel, dirt, and clay patches under the water, similarly to rivers. Like the sand in deserts, sandstone generates underneath it, preventing it from falling into caves below.

Beach terrain is always a smooth descent into the water, though it can vary in steepness depending on the heights of the biomes they border. Turtles can spawn here, as well as buried treasure, shipwrecks and rarely underwater ruins.

Beach worlds generated through the Buffet world type appear as a barren, desert-like landscape of sand with Shipwrecks being the only visible feature in the surface.

Type: Medium/Lush
Rarity: Common
Temperature: 0.8

Structures:

Buried Treasure
Shipwrecks

Blocks:

Water
Sand
Sandstone
Gravel
Dirt
Clay
Sugar cane

Java Edition

Hostile Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Spider	100⁄515	4
Zombie	95⁄515	4
Zombie Villager	5⁄515	1
Skeleton	100⁄515	4
Creeper	100⁄515	4
Slime	100⁄515	4
Enderman	10⁄515	1–4
Witch	5⁄515	1

Passive Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Turtle	5⁄5	2–5

Ambient Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Bat	10⁄10	8

Bedrock Edition

Hostile Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Spider	100⁄495	1
Zombie	95⁄495	2–4
Zombie Villager	5⁄495	2–4
Skeleton	80⁄495	1–2
Creeper	100⁄495	1
Slime	100⁄495	1
Enderman	10⁄495	1–2
Witch	5⁄495	1

Passive Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Turtle	8⁄8	2–6

Stone Shore

The Stone Shore variant generates wherever mountains or wooded mountains biomes border an ocean. They are made entirely of stone, with some gravel patches, and are usually a steep drop into the water below.

Stone shores may generate at high enough elevations to have snow on their peaks. Waterfalls and lavafalls frequently generate on the sides of stone shores. Unlike normal beaches, turtles cannot spawn here.

Buried Treasure can sometimes generate at high altitudes, and can even generate at y-90 ‌[Bedrock Edition only]. The steep drops into the ocean below makes this variant dangerous, especially if the player is unaware of their surroundings.

Should gravelly mountains or gravelly mountains+ border an ocean, a regular beach is generated instead.

Stone shores have the same mob spawning chances as beaches. However, they do not spawn turtles.

Type: Cold
Rarity: Common
Temperature: 0.2

Structures:

Buried Treasure ‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Blocks:

Water
Stone
Gravel

Snowy Beach

The Snowy Beach Biome variant generates wherever snowy tundra, snowy taiga, or any of their variants border an ocean. Snowy beaches are similar to regular beaches terrain-wise, being made mostly of sand, though their landscape is covered entirely in snow layers.

The water surrounding snowy beaches freezes into ice due to the cold temperatures. Turtles cannot spawn here, but rabbits can ‌[Bedrock only].

Shipwrecks and buried treasure may still generate in this variant.

Snowy beaches have the same mob spawning chances as beaches. However, they do not spawn turtles.

In Bedrock Edition, snowy beaches use the same mob spawning chances as beaches for hostile and ambient categories, and villagers wear the snowy outfit.

Passive Category

Mob	Spawn Chance	Group Size
Rabbit	4⁄4	2–3

Type: Snowy/Icy
Rarity: Uncommon
Temperature: 0.05

Structures:

Shipwrecks
Buried Treasure

Blocks:

Water
Snow
Ice
Sand
Sandstone
Gravel
Dirt
Clay

Natural Features & Resources

The Beach Biome is resource-rich, especially for early- and mid-game survival:

Sand – Essential for glass, TNT, and concrete.
Gravel & Clay – Useful for concrete powder and bricks.
Seagrass & Kelp – Food for turtles, and kelp is a renewable fuel.
Turtle Eggs – Spawn naturally when turtles lay eggs on sand.
Access to Ocean Structures – Shipwrecks, ocean ruins, and buried treasure often generate close to beaches.

If you’re lucky, you might find a buried treasure chest marked by a map found in nearby shipwrecks, containing rare loot like Heart of the Sea or diamonds.

Mobs That Spawn in the Beach Biome

The Beach Biome doesn’t have a huge variety of mobs, but the few that spawn here are quite unique.

Mob	Spawn Type	Notes
Turtles	Passive	Spawn and lay eggs only on beaches. Drops scutes when grown.
Wandering Trader	Neutral (random)	May appear on beaches like in other biomes.
Drowned	Hostile	Come from the ocean at night or from underwater ruins.
Husks	Hostile (rare)	Appear only on desert-adjacent beaches.

👉 Tip: If you want to breed turtles, beaches are the only place to find them naturally.

Gameplay Tips for Beach Biomes

Building Bases – Beaches provide flat terrain and easy access to the ocean, making them great for seaside houses, fishing huts, or docks.
Turtle Farming – Collect scutes from baby turtles growing up to craft a turtle shell helmet, which grants water breathing.
Sand Mining – Large beaches provide plenty of sand for glass and concrete without needing to dig into deserts.
Treasure Hunting – Explore nearby oceans for shipwrecks and maps that lead to buried treasure.
Be Wary of Drowned – At night, drowned mobs can crawl out of the ocean, making beaches more dangerous than they appear.

Differences Between Java and Bedrock Editions

While beaches look very similar across editions, there are a few subtle differences:

Mob Spawns – Slight variations in turtle spawn rates between editions.
Generation – Some coastal terrain can differ due to world generation mechanics.
Structures – Placement of shipwrecks and ocean ruins may vary.

Overall, the core features remain consistent, making beaches easy to recognize no matter which edition you play.

Best Uses for the Beach Biome

The Beach Biome is more than just a pretty view — it’s functional too:

Survival: Stock up on sand, turtles, and food from fishing.
Exploration: Launch ocean voyages from beaches to find coral reefs, monuments, and treasure.
Building: Beaches provide perfect flat ground for beach houses, docks, piers, and ocean bases.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do turtles spawn naturally on beaches?
Yes, turtles only spawn naturally on beaches and nowhere else.

Can you move turtle eggs to another beach?
Yes, turtle eggs can be collected with a silk touch tool and placed on another beach.

What is the rarest feature of the beach biome?
Buried treasure chests containing the Heart of the Sea are considered the rarest finds.

Do villages generate on beaches?
No, villages do not spawn directly on beaches, though they can appear nearby if plains or desert biomes are close.