Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
Sulfur caves are an underground biome of yellow sulfur and red cinnabar, with bubbling sulfur pools, added in Java Edition 26.2 (Chaos Cubed) in June 2026 and Bedrock Edition 26.30. They are home to the sulfur cube. Look for a sulfur spring on the surface: it marks a sulfur cave below. In our sample they were most common at Y 0, the shallowest depth we checked.
| Dimension | Overworld, underground (also inside hills and mountains) |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Underground, under sulfur springs on the surface |
| How common | 2.7% of a horizontal slice at Y 0, 1.2% at Y -24, 0.1% at Y -52 (our sample) |
| Distance from spawn | Median 428 blocks, measured horizontally; within 1,000 blocks in 84% of seeds (our sample) |
| Mobs | Sulfur cubes and cave spiders, plus the usual underground hostile mobs |
| Notable blocks | Sulfur and cinnabar bands, potent sulfur, sulfur spikes, magma blocks |
| Structures | Mineshafts (with the “Bounce” music disc), trial chambers |
| Biome ID | minecraft:sulfur_caves |
| Added in | Java Edition 26.2 (Chaos Cubed, June 2026); Bedrock Edition 26.30 |
How to find sulfur caves
Start on the surface. Sulfur springs, pools of sulfur, potent sulfur and magma blocks in four sizes from small to extra large, generate above the sulfur caves biome, so a yellow spring on the ground tells you where to dig. Then dig down toward Y 0: in our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds, sulfur caves took up 2.7% of a horizontal slice at Y 0, less than half that at Y -24 (1.2%) and almost nothing at Y -52 (0.1%).
They are rarer than the other cave biomes. At Y 0 in the same sample, lush caves covered 10.4% of the slice and dripstone caves 12.4%, so a sulfur cave is about a quarter as common. They are still close by: the median horizontal distance from spawn to the nearest one was 428 blocks, and 84% of seeds had one within 1,000 blocks.
These three Java 26.3 seeds have sulfur caves near spawn. Each coordinate is inside the biome at Y 0, checked at block level, and the map links open at that depth.
| Seed | Sulfur caves at (X, Y, Z) | From spawn | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
1563540211394508697 |
X -70, Y 0, Z 126 | 144 blocks | Open on the map |
-4468323384740205015 |
X -42, Y 0, Z -34 | 54 blocks | Open on the map |
2546873176684604958 |
X 366, Y 0, Z -262 | 32 blocks | Open on the map |
In your own world, /locate biome minecraft:sulfur_caves (cheats on) returns the nearest one with its Y coordinate. These are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world.
What you find in sulfur caves
Sulfur pools and geysers
The caves are full of water pools with potent sulfur at the bottom. Potent sulfur sends bubbles up through as much as 4 water blocks above it, and with 1 to 4 water blocks on top it puts out a cloud of gas on the surface that gives Nausea, spreading up to 3 blocks across the water. Swim through quickly. Put potent sulfur on top of a magma block or lava, under 1 to 4 water blocks, and it becomes a geyser that launches anything standing above it: in random bursts over magma, or nonstop over lava. Nine sulfur blocks craft one potent sulfur.
Sulfur spikes
Sulfur spikes grow on sulfur blocks as stalactites and stalagmites. Falling stalactites hurt, so don’t mine the ceiling above your head; stalagmites don’t hurt more to land on. A thrown trident breaks them, and four spikes craft back into one sulfur block.
Building blocks
Sulfur and cinnabar each come as a full building set: polished and brick versions, each with slabs, stairs and walls, plus chiseled sulfur and chiseled cinnabar.
Mobs
Sulfur cubes spawn only here, alongside cave spiders and the usual underground hostile mobs. A sulfur cube can swallow a block and turn into a ball you can kick around; see the sulfur cube page.
The “Bounce” music disc
Mineshafts can generate inside sulfur caves, and their chest minecarts have a chance to hold the music disc “Bounce” by fingerspit.
What changed in 2025-26
The whole biome is new. It arrived in Chaos Cubed (Java 26.2, June 2026), along with the sulfur cube, the sulfur and cinnabar block sets, sulfur springs and its own music. If the biome reaches the surface, it keeps all its underground features there. Source: the official Java Edition 26.2 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, because sulfur caves are a cave biome, sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square centered on each world’s spawn in three horizontal slices underground, at Y 0, Y -24 and Y -52. “How common” is the biome’s share of each slice; “distance from spawn” is the horizontal distance to the nearest sulfur caves sample in those slices, ignoring depth. We did not sample above Y 0. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
