Far Lands

This article is about the world generation bug. For the region in Minecraft: Story Mode, see MCSM:Far Lands. For other uses, see Distance effects.

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. Notice that they still technically exist, just far beyond the world border.

Far Lands

The Far Lands in Java Edition

Generates in existing chunks	No

There is a related tutorial page for this topic!

 

See Tutorial:Far Lands.

The far lands,^[1][2] also spelled farlands^[3] was a terrain generation bug and a hard world boundary that appeared when noise generators responsible for terrain shape malfunctioned due to integer overflow. It resulted in massive, spongy walls of terrain appearing around 12,550,821 blocks from the world spawn. The far lands looked like regular terrain that was pulled and stretched apart, with layers of stone, dirt, and other blocks forming fragmented formations.

The insides of the Far Lands were long dark tunnels, with sharp edges and extreme landscapes. The top and corners of the Far Lands were mostly flat, filled with trees and occasionally villages ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}. At around 1,004,065,811 blocks from spawn, the noise generation further broke down and produced even more stretched terrain, often being called the "Farther Lands".

The Far Lands were fixed in 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. The Far Lands retain a legacy as one of the franchise's most famous glitches, and are referenced in official games such as Minecraft: Story Mode and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Using a Big Integer mod, it is possible to remove the hard world border so that a player can travel outwards indefinitely. This allows for a version of the Far Lands to be seen at 1.8 septillion blocks out.

These Far Lands look different from the solid wall at 12,550,824. Biome blending begins to break down, stretching the terrain. Further out, elevation begins to break down too, making the terrain solid.

The Far Lands do not disintegrate into the Fringe Lands and then into a bedrock ocean like they would pre-1.14; instead the terrain completely stops generating at extreme large distances, and a infinite ocean of water/lava generates. Due to how 1.18 changed terrain, bedrock disappears along with the terrain due to bedrock being a part of world generation instead of being a separate layer like water/lava, this is why the Nether Far Lands roof generates with layers of bedrock missing.

The End Far Lands are affected by the End ring glitch generating in slices.

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 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. But it is far lands because its far away from spawn.

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.

The Far Lands comprise a 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 is a time-consuming challenge involving a terrestrial journey c. 12.5 million blocks out of the world spawn. The most common version used among players is Beta 1.7.3, as it is the last version to contain the Far Lands and has the conveniences such as beds that other previous versions do not have.

Over +35 players have attempted the feat legitimately as of 2024,^[4] with about ¹⁄₃ having completed the journey, ¹⁄₂ currently in progress, and ¹⁄₆ having gone inactive (including one real life death, TinfoilChef).^[5]

The first player to complete the journey (without using the Nether as a means of shortcut) was KilloCrazyMan in June 2020.^[6] Notch awarded him $6,000 through two separate donations, as a result of the feat.^[7] The most widenly known example comes from KurtJMac's Far Lands or Bust series, through which he helped raise over $530,000 USD for charity over the course of 14 years.^[8] KurtJMac completed his journey to the Far Lands on October 4, 2025.^[9] In May 2, 2026, KurtJMac was featured in a short documentary video on Minecraft's YouTube channel.^[10]

3 players have attempted walking to the Nether Far Lands legitimately, with Xelanater being the first to have completed the journey in June 2022,^[11] and about ²⁄₃ having succeeded, while ¹⁄₃ having gone inactive.^[4]

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 traveled distance of 92,880 blocks every day. Walking to the 12.5 million Far Lands would take just under 136 days at this rate.

• 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).
• The Far Lands are referenced as a splash, which reads "One does not simply walk to the Far Lands".
• In A Minecraft Movie DLC, a painting can be found in the Mansion Stealth minigame depicting the Far Lands.

• 
  The isometric view of the Far Lands in Java Edition Alpha v1.0.15
• 
  The Far Lands seen in Winter type world in Java Edition Alpha v1.0.4
• 
  The Far Lands in Java Edition Beta 1.7.3
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  The Far Lands' edge in Java Edition Infdev
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  The Far Lands on mesa biome in Pocket Edition Alpha
• 
  The corner Far Lands in Infdev-20100327. The vertical noise scale was equal to the horizontal noise scale.
• 
  A view of the Far Lands
• 
  When near the Far Lands, the game starts to get laggy
• 
  Edge Far Lands in Java Edition 1.20.1 at 1.8 septillion blocks
• 
  Corner Farlands at 1.8 septillion blocks
• 
  Far Lands in Java Edition 1.21.8 using ultimate scaler mod
• 
  The Nether roof Far Lands in 1.21.8
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  The Nether Far Lands in 1.21.8
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  The End Far Lands at 1.8 septillion blocks (End ring glitch is present).
• 
  End Far Lands in 1.21.8
• 
  Endless ocean at extreme large distances
• 
  Bedrockless water/lava ocean at extreme large distances

These screenshots are made using mods or any other means that would not be possible in the vanilla game.

• 
  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 Far Lands in Java Edition Beta 1.7.3, recreated using mods.
• 
  The Far Lands in Java Edition 1.17, enabled using mods.
• 
  The Sky and Edge Far Lands colliding, discovered using mods. The terrain changes because there are now 2 axises overflowing.

• 
  The Farlander in what appears to be the Far Lands.
• 
  Soren looking at the Far Lands in Minecraft: Story Mode.
• 
  The entrance to The Maze and Ivor's Cottage in the Far Lands.

This was a featured article from May 11, 2026 – May 17, 2026.

 

See Minecraft Wiki:Featured articles for more information.