Windswept Gravelly Hills biome in Minecraft
Windswept Gravelly Hills are a variant of the Windswept Hills where the slopes are covered with wide patches of gravel, mixed with grass and bare stone. They share the emerald ore, the infested stone and the Llamas of the other windswept biomes, but their loose ground is a hazard of its own.
/execute in minecraft:overworld run tp @s -5432 115 -1368 140 25Climate
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Temperature
- 0.2
- Downfall
- 0.3
- Weather
- Rain
How to find Windswept Gravelly Hills
/locate biome minecraft:windswept_gravelly_hillsMap by Chunkbase, shown as a companion to this guide. Without your seed, it shows an example world. Results depend on the edition and version you pick.
Windswept Gravelly Hills in numbers
- Share of the world
- 0.1%of the Overworld surface
- Rarity rank
- 2 / 521 = the rarest
- Distance from spawn
- ~2,650 blocksmedian, 1,000 worlds
- Within 1,000 blocks
- 11.4%of worlds
- Spawn biome
- 0.2%of worlds start here
Windswept Hills11.7%
// 1,000 random seeds, normal world. Java 26.2 world generation computed with cubiomes, plus the 26.3 Dappled Forest rule. Estimates, not exact 26.3 values.
/execute in minecraft:overworld run tp @s -5448 78 -1400 140 0Mobs in the Windswept Gravelly Hills
Structures in the Windswept Gravelly Hills
Hills of gravel
Gravel is everywhere: on the surface, in thick layers below it, and in patches next to bare stone and grass. The rest of the landscape matches the Windswept Hills: steep slopes, rare spruces and oaks, a few bushes and flowers, and snow on the highest summits. Llamas graze here with the usual farm animals in their cold variant.
Gravel, flint and arrows
The upside of all this gravel is flint. Mining gravel sometimes drops flint instead of the block itself, and it is the key ingredient of arrows, flint and steel and fletching tables. A shovel digs gravel fast.
The biome also shares the ores of the windswept group: emerald ore in very small veins in the stone, and infested stone below Y 63, which releases a Silverfish when you break it.
Digging without getting buried
Gravel falls when nothing supports it. Dig into a slope from below and the whole column can collapse onto you, or slide into a cave you just opened. A few rules keep you safe:
- Never mine the block above your head in a gravel area.
- Break the lowest block of a gravel column and place a torch in the gap at once: every block that falls onto the torch breaks and drops as an item.
- If gravel lands on you, dig your way out sideways right away, you take damage while buried.
Gravel also hides cave openings: a slope that looks solid can be a thin crust over a drop. Test the ground ahead of you when you walk the slopes at night.
✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026
Windswept Gravelly Hills — FAQ
How do you get flint quickly in the Windswept Gravelly Hills?
Dig gravel with a shovel: each block has a chance to drop flint instead of gravel. With so much gravel on the surface, you can gather a stack of flint in a few minutes.
How do you clear a gravel column safely?
Break the lowest block and place a torch in the gap right away. The gravel that falls onto the torch breaks and drops as items instead of burying you.
Which mobs spawn in the Windswept Gravelly Hills?
Sheep, Pig, Chicken, Cow, Llama, Spider, Skeleton, Creeper, Slime, Zombie, Enderman, Zombie Villager, Witch, Bat and Glow Squid.
Which structures generate in the Windswept Gravelly Hills?
Mineshaft, Ruined Portal, Stronghold and Trial Chambers.
How do you find the Windswept Gravelly Hills?
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:windswept_gravelly_hills gives the coordinates of the nearest one. Without cheats, a seed map of your world shows where it is.
