Me and my friends always manage to get back into Minecraft around this time every year, but I’ve been particularly excited about our new venture because of the game’s new Lush Cave biomes. However, after a few hours of looking for one in various seeds, we couldn’t find any. Oh, there’s dripstone as far as the eye can see, but I’ve yet to see a single cave filled with plants. I’m starting to think they might not exist. Defeated, I took to the internet to find a good seed. Scorned by the Lush Caves, I decided to forgo them entirely, and instead tried to find the biggest cave I could. Fortunately, Ollie had the exact thing I was looking for in his guide to the best Minecraft seeds - a giant cavern. You spawn in it and everything! Here’s what it looks like (before we started building): Aaaand here’s what it looks like now: We made most of the pyramid out of deepslate, though the tippy top is made from amethyst. The wood inside is made from spruce, because no other types of trees spawned even remotely nearby. We’ve made an underground farm and everything. It’s a modest build, not exactly the sort of incredible Buckingham Palace replica you might see on the Minecraft subreddit, but we’re very proud of it. There’s some work left to be done too - in particular we want to pretty up the support beams to make the pyramid look more floaty. It’s mostly been a lovely place to set up. Admittedly, Ollie’s mention of the tundra outside of the cavern in his guide was one of the main reasons I wanted to use this seed. It feels proper Christmassy when we leave to explore the chilly biome, and sometimes snow even makes its way to the top of our cavern home, too. But, and this is a big but, I have now learned how horrific it is to try and build underground when the only things that spawn above you are polar bears and ice. They look delightful, and the baby bears are adorable (when their parents aren’t attacking you). What isn’t mentioned in that guide, however, is that the nearest biome that isn’t snow and death is almost 2000 blocks away. That’s about a two day journey on foot. And on that journey, are pockets of snow that basically act like quicksand, dragging you under when you least expect, freezing you to death. Reader, I tried to be better. I tried to be a helpful builder, gathering supplies for my friends and offering to explore outside. Then two of us ventured out, 2000 blocks away, until we finally managed to spot a grassy, snow-free biome ahead. Just as a village started to appear on the horizon, we died to a creeper. I lost our diamond pickaxe. We respawned in the icy darkness. And just like that, I’m done with Minecraft for another year.
