Far Lands

This page describes content that has been removed and was only present in earlier versions of Minecraft.

 

This bug used to be in the game but has since been fixed.

Far Lands

The Far Lands in Java Edition

Generates in existing chunks	No

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    "title": "Far Lands",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Generates in<br>existing chunks"
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    "invimages": [],
    "images": [
        "Farlands 2.png"
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There is a related tutorial page for this topic!

 

See Tutorial:Far Lands.

The Far Lands^[1] were a terrain generation bug and a hard world boundary that appeared when the noise generators responsible for creating the shape of terrain stopped functioning properly due to an integer overflow. This resulted in massive, spongy walls of terrain appearing around 12,550,821 blocks from the world spawn. They appeared as if they had been pulled and stretched apart, with layers of stone, dirt, and other blocks forming bizarre and fragmented formations.^[2]

The insides of Far Lands were long dark tunnels, featuring sharp edges and extreme landscapes. Mobs might spawn in there, with monsters being the most common. The top and corners of the Far Lands are mostly flat, filled with trees and occasionally villages. Reaching further at 1,004,065,811 blocks, the noise generators would break down again and produce even more stretched terrain, these often being called the "Farther Lands".

The Far Lands were fixed later on Beta 1.8 Pre-release, and an intentional world border was placed more than twice as far as the former hard boundary on Java Edition 1.8, but they still retain a legacy as one of the franchise's most famous glitches, even being referenced in other official games such as Minecraft: Story Mode and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The Far Lands technically still exist in the game, however, they are far beyond the world border.

By edition

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

General information

What the Far Lands are not

Due to many occurrences at high distance being lumped together with each other, confusion often arises as to what is related to or caused by the Far Lands, and what is not. The following is a list of things which are commonly misattributed to being a product, effect or even type of the Far Lands, despite not being so.

Precision loss errors are not caused by the Far Lands

The position where the world appears to render is considerably offset at the point where the Far Lands begin in Java Edition Beta 1.7.3 and earlier, with a magnitude of one block, with the player appearing to be at the edges and corners of blocks at all times.

However, this is purely a floating-point bug, and exists whether or not the Far Lands themselves do. This can be demonstrated by the following:

• Noticing that the precision loss is a gradual change, which increases at each power of 2. This is in stark contrast to the Far Lands, which happen immediately due to integer overflow.
• Backporting a Superflat world (with flat terrain where the Far Lands would be) from 1.1 to Beta 1.7.3, and noticing that the effect persists in said version, proving that it's clearly not linked to terrain. While Far Lands chunks still generate outside of what superflat chunks were generated in 1.1, these still are unrelated.
• Modding the game can be done to either patch out this precision loss issue or the Far Lands individually. This proves their existence to be completely independent.
• Generating the Far Lands in any version between the March 27 and June 18 builds of Infdev inclusive. Whereas the Far Lands clearly generate in these versions, the precision loss bug was first introduced in the June 24th build.

This is also true of every other precision loss bug, especially those which were not fixed in Beta 1.8 and persisted into later versions after the Far Lands were removed in said version, demonstrating that they are two completely different things which are associated with each other due to happening at high distances.

The Stripe Lands are not a type of Far Lands

The Stripe Lands, a mostly Bedrock Edition-exclusive phenomenon which can be seen in Java Edition only through extensive modding, are another example of floating-point precision loss, and are not a terrain bug.

Fake chunks are not caused by the Far Lands

"Fake" chunks at the world boundary are another anomaly that happens at high distances. Occurring considerably past the Far Lands' beginning, they are commonly said to be a "part" or "layer" of the Far Lands. While they are among the interesting effects which can be experienced when moving high distances from the world origin, their occurrence is a distinct phenomenon, and, to an extent, actually intended. This is further reinforced by them being at a rather round number (32 million), rather than the seemingly overall arbitrary 12,550,824 of the Far Lands, or power-of-two values such as 16,777,216 where precision loss worsens.

Hard limits are not caused by the Far Lands

While the Far Lands themselves are technically a hard limit due to arising from integer overflow, they are treated solely as a terrain phenomenon, and the game still functions fine with them. Integer overflows in other cases such as player position are much more dangerous and much harder to reach, and are considered separately.

Types of Far Lands

The Far Lands comprise a very, very wide array of terrain generation bugs. The effects vary depending on which noise generator breaks (for traditional Far Lands, "low noise" and "high noise" are jointly responsible), as well as the player's distance on each axis (the "Edge Far Lands" refer to when noise breaks on only one axis, the "Corner Far Lands" on two, and the "Vertex Far Lands" on three).

Other noise generators are capable of breaking down. Selector noise, a noise generator which determines whether low noise or high noise is used at a given position in the world, breaks down 80 times further than low and high noise by default, giving rise to what is known as the "Farther Lands".

A full list of Java Edition noise generators known to break down and give rise to their own unique effects is as follows. Note that it assumes that the X and Z axes are identical, and ignores the Y axis; in many cases, the Y axis has a different value from the X and Z axes, whereas in other cases the noise generator is entirely 2D.

Walking to the Far Lands

Walking to the Far Lands is the time-consuming challenge involving a terrestrial journey 12.5M blocks out of spawn. The most common version used is b1.7.3 as this is the last version to contain the Far Lands and has the conveniences such as beds that some previous versions don't have.

Over 30 players have attempted the feat legitimately, with about 1/3 completing the journey, 1/3 currently walking (as of October 2023) and 1/3 having gone inactive (including one death, TinfoilChef). The first player to complete the journey (without using the Nether as a means of shortcut) was KilloCrazyMan between 2019-20. Notch awarded him $6,000 through two separate donations. The most famous is the ongoing Far Lands or Bust with KurtJMac, through which he donated over $460,000 to charity in over 10 years.^[3]

Time-wise, the walking (not sprinting) speed is 4.3 blocks per second. Walking for 6 hours per day is equal to 21,600 seconds, giving a travelled distance of 92,880 blocks every day. Walking to the 12.5M Far Lands would take just under 136 days at this pace.

Furthermore, one person, Xelanater, has reached the Nether Far Lands legitimately.^[3]

Trivia

• In Bedrock Edition, the Far Lands were first introduced with the infinite terrain generation in 0.9.0 alpha, and were removed in 1.17.30 (beta 1.17.20.20).

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  What the Far Lands would look like in Java Edition Alpha v1.1.2_01, recreated in Java Edition 1.21.5 using a mod and resource pack.
• 
  The isometric view of the Far Lands in Java Edition Alpha 1.0.15.
• 
  The Far Lands seen in Winter type world in Java Edition Alpha 1.0.4.
• 
  The Far Lands in Java Edition Beta 1.7.3.
• 
  The Far Lands in Java Edition Beta 1.7.3 recreated using mods.
• 
  The Far Lands' edge in Java Edition Infdev.
• 
  The Far Lands on mesa biome in Pocket Edition Alpha.
• 
  The Far Lands in Java Edition 1.17, enabled using mods.
• 
  The Corner Far Lands in Infdev-20100327. The vertical noise scale was equal to the horizontal noise scale.

In other media

Minecraft: Story Mode

• 
  Soren looking at the Far Lands.
• 
  The entrance to The Maze and Ivor's Cottage in the Far Lands.

References

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