Far Lands

This page describes content that was previously removed from the game but has been re-added in development versions for Java Edition.

The Far Lands can be generated in vanilla bounds by using the ENABLE_FARLANDS debug property. They only generate in the Nether and The End. However, they are incorrect and mis-leading due to everything being float-casted in 26.3.

This page describes content that has been removed from Bedrock Edition.

The Far Lands are no longer reachable in vanilla bounds since 1.17.30, and are only accessible through modifying the game.

The far lands,^[1]^[2] also spelled farlands^[3]^[4] are a terrain generation bug and a hard world boundary that appear when noise generators responsible for terrain shape malfunction due to integer overflow. It typically results in massive, spongy walls of terrain. They retain a legacy as one of the franchise's most famous glitches, and have been referenced in official games such as Minecraft: Story Mode and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The insides of the Far Lands consist of long dark tunnels, with sharp edges and extreme landscapes. The top and corners of the Far Lands are mostly flat, filled with trees and other generated structures.

The Far Lands were fixed in Beta 1.8 Pre-release in Java Edition, and 1.17.30 in Bedrock Edition. They no longer generate in the vanilla game without the use of mods or the ENABLE_FARLANDS debug property (except in the Overworld due to other terrain generation bugs caused by said debug property). An intentional world border was placed more than twice as far as the former boundary in Java Edition 1.8.

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. While they occur far away from the spawn, they are not considered "Far Lands" and are just an artifact of rendering issues and block hitbox calculations at large distances.

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 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.

Noise generator	Breaks down at... (32-bit)	Version range		Notes
Noise generator	Breaks down at... (32-bit)	First	Last	Notes
Low noise	12,550,824	inf-20100327	present^[a]	Jointly responsible for the Far Lands
High noise	12,550,824	inf-20100327	present^[a]	Jointly responsible for the Far Lands
Selector noise	1,004,065,924	inf-20100327	present^[a]	Responsible for the Farther Lands
Depth noise	42,949,673		present^[a]	Causes the terrain to rise up several blocks. "Stretching effects" are rare. Impossible to see unless made to start before low and high noise overflow.
Scale noise	7,662,742,722		Beta 1.7.3	Superseded by biome-based terrain height in Beta 1.8.
Classic world noise	33,554,432		inf-20100325	Causes the famous "stone wall" of Infdev.
Island carver noise	933,688,542		in-20100223	Used to create Floating maps in Indev. Due to their limited world size, this breaks far beyond what can generate.
Soil depth	34,359,738,368		present^[a]	Causes large regions of exposed stone in earlier versions, or gravel in later versions.
Sand beaches	68,719,476,736		Beta 1.7.3	Determines whether beaches use sand or not. In the Nether, this controls soul sand.
Gravel beaches	68,719,476,736		Beta 1.7.3	Determines whether beaches use gravel or not. Also exists in the Nether for gravel.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Does not overflow within vanilla bounds unless the ENABLE_FARLANDS debug property is enabled

Walking to the Far Lands

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 +120 journeys to the Far Lands have been tracked as of 2026,^[5] with approximately ¹⁄₆ completed, ¹⁄₃ currently in progress, and about ¹⁄₂ inactive/abandoned (including one real life death, TinfoilChef).^[6]

The first player to complete the journey (without using the Nether as a means of shortcut) was KilloCrazyMan in June 2020.^[7] Notch awarded him $6,000 through two separate donations, as a result of the feat.^[8] The most widely 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.^[9] KurtJMac completed his journey to the Far Lands on October 4, 2025.^[10] In May 2, 2026, KurtJMac was featured in a short documentary video on Minecraft's YouTube channel.^[11]

6 journeys to the Nether Far Lands have been tracked, with Xelanater being the first to complete in June 2022,^[12] and ¹⁄₂ completed, while ¹⁄₂ are currently in progress.^[5]

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.