Landmarks & structures
Find taverns, ruins, sea villages, rebuilt temples, deep cities, and other places worth a detour.
A watchtower on the ridge may be a quick climb; the dark shape under the water may need a whole afternoon. The world has small stops, inhabited places, and large ruins, often with different designs in different regions. Look closely before digging in: some structures are scenery, some have supplies, and others are defended.
Structures generate as new land is explored. An old village or temple will keep the shape it had when its chunk first appeared. You can use the terrain guide to plan the journey between finds.
Stops on the road
| Look for | What you might find | How to approach it |
|---|---|---|
| Taverns, hamlets, camps, and farmsteads | A roof for the night, a few supplies, or people to trade with | Check rooms, barrels, and nearby paths before moving on. |
| Watchtowers, firetowers, lighthouses, and guideposts | A view over the next stretch of land | Climb in daylight; a tower is a landmark even when its rooms are bare. |
| Ruins, chapels, graveyards, and old manors | Hidden rooms, pots, or small chests | Search below the floor and behind walls when a ruin looks deeper than it first seems. |
| Forts, castles, illager camps, and outposts | Defended rooms and more valuable stores | Watch for patrols and bring a way out before opening a narrow door. |
A trip can also turn up mushroom houses, cabins, igloos, desert shrines, badlands pyramids, a lone citadel, or a settlement tucked into dark forest. Farther out are uncommon island villages, sunken cities, and strange towers. Their names tell you where to start looking, but no single route guarantees a find.
Charts, quests, and hidden trades
Some taverns have a cartographer who sells a quest chart after you trade with them. More experienced chart traders offer harder destinations. Use a chart in its matching dimension to unfold it into a map; a Nether chart will not open in the Overworld. Keep a compass and emeralds if you mean to seek one out.
Some ruins also have a reason to bring a villager home alive. A novice librarian in places such as desert or jungle ruins, a lone citadel, a Nether keep, or an End castle can offer a book tied to that place. You may need to cure a zombie villager there first. Check the site before you clear every room.
Familiar landmarks with new layouts
| Landmark | Where to search | Expect |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient City | Deep dark | A much larger sculk-filled city with distinct rooms. Move quietly and leave an escape route. |
| Desert and Jungle Temples | Desert or jungle | Reworked temple layouts. Check the floor and walls before reaching for a chest. |
| Ocean Monument | Deep ocean | An expanded guardian stronghold. Bring water-breathing supplies and a route to air. |
| Woodland Mansion | Dark forest | New rooms and hidden spaces among the illagers. Bring food and spare gear. |
| Stronghold | Deep underground | A changed route to the End portal, with branching rooms worth checking. |
| Pillager Outpost and Swamp Hut | Their usual biomes | Rebuilt forms, plus other camps and witch homes elsewhere in the world. |
| Nether Fortress | Nether | A larger fort to explore for blaze rods and other supplies. See the Nether field guide. |
Maps and eyes can still help you find the familiar structure types, but a map cannot tell you which rooms generated inside. Search as you go, and do not count on a single chest being in the old vanilla spot.
Under the ground and water
Mineshafts take on the materials around them: look for different timber in forests, dark stone deep down, and altered tunnels in lush or dripstone caves. Underground cabins, old refineries, crypts, cave chambers, and trial dungeons give miners other reasons to keep a spare pick and torches. Some ruins are built for digging rather than a straight walk through a doorway.
Some sites end in a named fight. A spider queen can guard a cave nest, an ancient guardian waits in a water trial, and a freezing breeze can turn another trial into a harder fight. Illager barracks have a captain. If you see an arena or a sealed chamber, finish scouting the exits before starting the encounter.
At sea, look for broken ships, underwater ruins, fossils, and drowned towns. Ocean villages may stand above the water, while other finds sit on the seabed. A water-breathing potion and a boat make a better starting kit than a full inventory of loot. On shore, ruined portals can appear in many forms, including designs tied to cave terrain and the Nether side.
The End also has castles, lighthouses, ships, towers, and wrecks beyond the usual cities. Plan an End expedition before you chase a distant silhouette over the void.
Trial chambers are vanilla underground, with one change: their vaults reopen for you every hour. See Trial chambers.
If a place looks good enough to make home, check the building and claiming rules before changing it.
Last updated on