Spires

The Spires is a cold biome added by Regions Unexplored. It is a rare, icy biome whose defining feature is tall towers of packed ice that rise above snowy ground. Unlike most snowy biomes, it generates lava lakes and spring lava, and its trees, ground and surface layers differ from the vanilla snowy biomes it partly replaces. Spires are a good place to find icy structures and a varied hostile mob spawn table.

Description

The Spires have a pale, cold look. The sky is a cool blue (#7FA1FF), fog is a very light blue (#C0D8FF), and water is a deep blue (#3F76E4). Grass is a muted green (#56AA70) and foliage is a similar green (#56AA62), so the ground is greener than most snowy biomes. The biome's music is the vanilla snowy slopes track.

The surface is snow-covered. Snow layers form on the top of the ground, and the topmost layer is frozen in the same way as in vanilla snowy biomes. A few blocks beneath the surface are packed ice rather than dirt or stone, so digging into the ground in the Spires reveals a layer of ice that does not appear in most other biomes. Snowy flowers and frozen grass patches grow across the ground, and icicles hang from the terrain.

The biome is not uniform. Its tall ice towers stand out against the flatter snowy ground, and the frozen rivers, lakes and caves around them give the biome a cold, broken look.

Generation

Spires replace part of the vanilla overworld biome set. Regions Unexplored places them in the "toggled additions" group: they take the place of Frozen River, Ice Spikes, Snowy Plains, Snowy Taiga and Taiga where the temperature is below -0.45 and the erosion is above 0.6. The biome has a temperature of -2 and a downfall of 0.95, and it precipitates as snow.

Spires are rare. On the live Fear Nightfall server they cover about 0.04% of the land surface. The pack's horror weighting (the 6x biome list in its changes) does not include the Spires, so their share is not raised for horror. Their hostile spawn table nonetheless contains many horror mobs, described below.

Features

The Spires' most distinctive feature is the ice spire, a tree-like tower made of packed ice. Each ice spire has a thick central trunk of packed ice, branch-like arms that reach out in several directions, and ice leaf blobs at the top of each arm. The base has roots of blue ice and packed ice. A smaller version of the ice spire is also generated. The placement rules make up to two ice spires per chunk attempt, and many attempts fail on unsuitable ground.

Spires also have a second tree group, which uses spruce saplings as its placement test, so trees here are conifers. A placement test accepts a spot where a spruce sapling can survive or where snow lies directly below, so the trees sit on snowy ground. Shrubs are also generated.

The Spires' ground has the usual vanilla ores, including coal, iron, copper, gold, lapis lazuli, redstone and diamonds, along with the pack's extra ore features. Underground, the biome contains amethyst geodes, monster rooms and deep monster rooms. Lava lakes appear both on the surface and underground, and the biome also has spring water and spring lava.

Plants include glow lichen, brown and red mushrooms, sugar cane and pumpkin patches, plus the snowy flower and frozen grass patches described above.

Mobs and structures

The Spires' hostile spawn table is long. It is led by spiders, creepers and slimes, followed by zombies and strays. The table also contains many Born in Chaos, Graveyard and Irons Spellbooks mobs. Notable entries include the Revenant, the Slime Golem, the Necromancer, the Nightmare, the Dread Hound, the Spirit of Chaos, the Krampus and the Mutant Enderman, which is rare. Water creatures and fish spawn in the Spires' lakes, and rabbits, bats and glow squid spawn on land and underground.

The Spires list about 188 structures that can generate in them. Icy structures include the Ice Spider Den from Irons Spellbooks and the ice spire structure from Formations Overworld. Horror structures are also present, such as graveyard altars, dead trees and catacombs. The neighbouring Icy Heights biome shares several of the icy structures. The tables below list the full set.

Tips

• Spires are snowy and their hostile spawn table is long. Carry a light source and expect hostile mobs to be common, especially at night.
• The Spires' spawn table is dominated by spiders, creepers and slimes, but it also includes several stronger monsters. Fight in open ground where possible, and avoid long walks through ice caves at night.
• Lava lakes sit inside a snowy biome, so check the ground before walking on it.
• Ice spires make good landmarks because they rise above the rest of the terrain.
• Spires are rare. If the nearby ground is not Spires, use a map or search the edge of a frozen region rather than digging through the snow.

Monster

Creature

Ambient

Underground Water Creature

Water Creature

Water Ambient

Structures (188)

Igloo, Mineshaft, Ruined Portal, Stronghold, Trail Ruins, Trial Chambers, Village Snowy, Spruce House Large 1, Spruce House Medium 1, Spruce House Small 1, Spruce House Small 2, Spruce House Small 3, Prison Large 1, Prison Small 1, Skeleton Dungeon, Small Dungeon, Spider Dungeon, Zombie Dungeon, Mineshaft Ice, Mineshaft Spruce Snowy, Mineshaft Spruce, Stronghold, Catacombs, Village Christmas, Village Christmas, Village Christmas, Shrine Combat Tier 1, Shrine Combat Tier 2, Shrine Combat Tier 3, Shrine Combat Tier 4, Shrine Combat Tier 5, Shrine Tower, Undead Crypt, Dark Tower Plain, Bunker, Deepslate Camp, Ruin Town, Wild Ruin, Underground House, Mausoleum, Campsite, Firewell, Hobbit Hole, Igloo, Log Shelter, Small House, Tiny House, Wagon, Copper Spire, Ice Spire, Meteor, Stone Ore Spikes, Fountain, Graveyard, Small Statue, Stone Tower, Tower Remnant, Well, Witch Tower, Dead Tree, Altar, Large Graveyard, Small Grave, Ice Spider Den, Village Snowy Igloo, Village Snowy Igloo, Village Snowy Igloo, Illager Hideout, Impaled Icebreaker, Infernal Pumpkin, Lone Citadel, Village Snowy, Campsite, Fire Camp, Horse Campsite, Mine With Campsite, Barn, Duck, Haystack, Horse Pen, Shed, Wheat Grain Bin, Windmill, Wooden Wheat Farm, Floating Islands, Large Floating Island, Azelea House, Deepslate House, Diorite And Deepslate House, House, Lil House, Medium Igloo 1, Medium Igloo 2, Small Igloo, Snowy Dog Hut, Tall House, Warped House, Small Oak Lantern, Blue Stall, Cart, Cartographer Tower, Large Cart 1, Large Cart 2, Orange Stall, Pink Stall, Red Stall, Castle Ruins, Crystal, Log Ruin, Ruined Beacon, Small Ruin, Statue Ruins, Stone Pillars, Arena, Calcite House, Castle Ruin, Castle Tower, Diorite House, Large Tower, Nether Portal, Small Deepslate House, Small Oak House, Small Tower, Spruce Huts, White House, Frozen Pond, Leaf Hollow, Small Pond, Taiga, Tree 1, Tree 2, Tree 3, Tree 4, Tree 5, Tree 6, Tree 7, Tree 8, Volcano, Diorite Tower, Large Warped Tower, Dead Tree Oak, Tree Monument, Bench, Cathedral, Gallows, Lamp Chest, Mushroom Pond, Paths, Pile, Railway, Small Oak Pond, Snowy Fossil, Sunzi Gate, Villager Statue, Rare Well, Small Copper Well, Small Tower Well, Small Well, Snowy Well, Stone Fountain, Well, Mountain Tower, Illager Camp, Pillager Outpost Snowy Plains, Pillager Outpost Snowy Taiga, Pillager Outpost Snowy, Pillager Outpost, Pillager Outpost, Remnant Big Remnant 2, Remnant Big Remnant 3, Remnant Big Remnant, Remnant Bridge Remnant, Remnant Medium Remnant 2, Remnant Medium Remnant, Remnant Miner Hut, Remnant School Remnant, Rubble Taiga, Stray Fort, Taiga Outpost, Pillager Lookout, Taiga, Tavern Snowy, Grave Memesus, Grave Petasi, Grave Rotborne, Village Snowy Taiga, Taiga, Road Sign