Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Windswept Hills Biome in Minecraft: Where It Is and What's There
Windswept hills, once called extreme hills, are cold, rugged hills of grass and stone, sometimes with floating chunks of land. Their grass and leaves are an aqua color. They are the only biomes besides mountain biomes where emerald ore generates, and llamas spawn here.
Where does the windswept hills generate?
They form inland on raised ground where erosion is fairly high, in cold to temperate climates. Forests, plains and flower forests are common neighbours, and the windswept forest and gravelly hills variants often border them.
What is in a windswept hills?
- Exposed stone and ores with patches of grass
- Snow caps and ice above about Y=120
- Oak and spruce trees on Java only (on Bedrock they are only in windswept forests)
- Emerald ore, plus infested stone below sea level
Mobs and structures
Llamas spawn here along with cold animal variants. Dripstone caves often generate underneath when far inland.
How do you find one?
The fastest way to find one in a world with cheats is /locate biome minecraft:windswept_hills, which works on Java and Bedrock (Bedrock uses its own IDs for some biomes, so let tab-complete fill it in). The F3 screen on Java shows the biome you stand in. The search covers a large area but can miss very narrow strips of a biome.
How biomes are placed
Overworld biomes are placed by a few hidden noise values: temperature, humidity, continentalness (how far inland), erosion (how flat) and weirdness. That is why the same neighbours keep showing up together, and why a biome you want is usually found next to its usual partners. Biomes look and work almost the same on Java and Bedrock, with small differences in mobs and structures noted on this page. See all biomes and emeralds.
Tip
Use the high ledges for a lookout base, but watch out for sudden drops in the broken terrain.
Does ArtemisPvP have its own worlds?
Frequently asked questions
Do windswept hills have emeralds?
Yes; apart from mountain biomes, only the windswept biomes have emerald ore.
How do you find a windswept hills?
Use /locate biome minecraft:windswept_hills with cheats on. This is the Java ID; Bedrock uses different IDs for some biomes, so let tab-complete fill it in.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.