River

River

Type	Medium/Lush
Rarity	Very common
Temperature	0.5
Blocks	Water Grass Block Dirt Clay Sand Gravel Sugar cane Seagrass
Data value	dec: 7 hex: 7 bin: 111
Biome ID	river

The River biome is a common technical biome. It serves as a border between various other biomes, and usually leads to an ocean biome, though can occasionally form a circle. It has only one variant.

Description

Rivers are thin, lengthy biomes that frequently generate across the world. They typically serve as a division between two different biomes, but can occasionally split a single biome in two. They are filled with water up to sea level, though rivers may run dry in certain areas due to higher than usual elevation. Exposed grass in river biomes takes on a bluish-green hue. Riverbeds consist of dirt, sand, gravel, and clay, and are the only places where clay generates aside from lakes, swamp marshes and ocean hilltops. Seagrass generates atop the riverbed, and sugar cane occasionally generates on the riverbank. Passive mobs cannot spawn within river biomes themselves, but frequently wander into them from the surrounding biomes if they can spawn there. Hostile mobs can spawn within rivers, however, and drowned can spawn underwater, as can salmon.

When generated between two high-elevation biomes, such as mountains and hills, river biomes may pose a fall damage hazard, but are otherwise mostly harmless.

If this biome is used to generate a buffet world, it will look like a shallow ocean, of no more than 10 blocks deep, with mostly sand, dirt, clay and gravel floor and infrequent grassy islands that rarely contain oak trees and, more rarely, pumpkins.

Variants

River biomes only have one variant, for a total of two different river biomes, not counting Mushroom Field Shore, that is the River variant corresponding only to the Mushroom Fields biome.

Frozen River

Frozen River

Type	Snowy
Rarity	Uncommon
Temperature	0.0
Blocks	Ice Water Grass Block Dirt Clay Sand Gravel Seagrass
Data value	dec: 11 hex: B bin: 1011
Biome ID	frozen_river

Frozen Rivers replace regular rivers, and only generate within snowy tundra biomes. As the name implies, the top layer of water is entirely frozen, though below the ice is the usual sand, gravel, and clay. While sugar cane can generate alongside a frozen riverbank, it quickly uproots itself after generation due to the water being frozen. Along with drowned, strays can spawn in frozen rivers.

Note that frozen rivers can only cut through snowy tundra, not its variants; if a river generates separating the snowy tundra from one of its variants or any other biome, it will only be partially frozen.

History

Alpha
1.2					Added true biomes, including rivers.
Beta
August 18, 2011					Notch tweeted a screenshot of a revamped river biome.
Official release
1.13			18w16a		Cleaned up several biome names, mainly by adding missing spaces and changing "Biome M" for "Mutated Biome".
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0					Added biomes, including rivers.

Gallery

• 

  A river separating a desert and a forest.

• 

  Rivers splitting and cutting through forests and wooded hills.

• 

  A river cutting through multiple uncommon biomes.

See also

• Beach
• Ocean