Ancient Cities inMinecraftare known for their spooky and mysterious vibes. Watched over by the warden, it’s riddled with sculk sensors and shriekers, which makes traversing through for loot difficult. While Ancient Cities themselves are uncommon, they do contain rare and exclusive items that reward those who are adventurous enough to brave the darkness.
Loot in anAncient Citycan range from useful items like leads or name tags, to exclusive items like the Swift Sneak enchantment or echo shards. Whether you’re trying to upgrade your gear, or just want to know if the Deep Dark is worth it, you came to the right place.
Items listed were chosen based on data from the Minecraft Wiki drop table. Drop rates are the same in between Minecraft Java and Bedrock Editions.
10Disc Fragment
Exclusive to Ancient Cities, the disc fragment is a piece of a music disc, and nine fragments can be combined to craft the music disc “5”. Usually, when you’re exploring generated structures like Mine Shafts, music discs come too frequently.
However, “5” is one of the more interesting discs to pop into your jukebox, as it perfectly encompasses the unsettling atmosphere that the Deep Dark biome added to the Overworld. Filled with metallic clangs, warped noises, and a warden roar, it’s worth looting the disc fragments in Ancient Cities to have a listen.
9Bottle O’ Enchanting
As you explore and expand your world,experience farmingbecomes a necessary task on your to-do list. In early-game, however, experience can be hard to come by when you also want to prioritize exploration.
Bottle o’ enchanting can be bought frommaster-level clerics villagers, but that’s not convenient if you’re sneaking through caves and need to repair your armor. Since you might also find diamond hoes and leggings enchanted with mending, it’s helpful to grab any bottles you find nearby.
8Echo Shard
Added in the Wild Update in June 2022, echo shards are a strange-looking item, which on their own are useless, if not pretty to look at. However, using a compass and eight echo shards, you cancraft a recovery compass.
A recovery compass looks similar to a regular compass, except it will lead you back to your most recent death. While map mods are in common use these days, if you’re a player who prefers the vanilla Minecraft experience, this gadget can be item and tool-saving.
8.4%
13 by C418
16.1%
Cat by C418
Minecraft is known for some of the most iconic music in video games, and except for a few songs (like “5” mentioned above), the music of Minecraft is calming and cozy. If you want to add some atmosphere to your builds or simply just want to collect all the music discs in the game, looting generated structures is the easiest way to get them.
23.2%
Sculk Sensor
The sculk block family can either intrigue you or terrify you, depending on the context. Used as a building block or within a farm, these blocks add texture and give experience when broken with a tool not enchanted with silk touch.
So, if you end up in the Deep Dark in the early to mid-game, being able to grab sculk from chests is an ideal way to farm these blocks. The sculk catalyst has a rarer spawn and natural generation chance, creating a greater need for those who play with redstone to explore the depths of the Overworld.
5Enchanted Golden Apple
While you might think it’s easier to find anenchanted golden apple in a Woodland Mansion, it’s easier to find one in an Ancient City. Granting more powerful effects than a golden apple, this item isn’t craftable in standard Minecraft.
In both Java and Bedrock editions, finding an enchanted golden apple has a higher spawn probability in Ancient Cities because of the dreaded warden mob, or as a reward for dodging sculk shriekers. Just make sure you don’t consume one until absolutely needed.
1.2%
Ward Armor Trim
5.0%
Armor trims don’t impact gameplay or strength without theuse of mods, but they can turn your basic-looking armor into an immersive experience. There are 16 armor trim smithing templates found throughout Minecraft’s generated structures, each of which can be customized with certain materials for different coloring.
Piglins aren’t pacified by gold-trim unless the armor piece is gold itself.
If you’re looking to complete your armor trim collection, an Ancient City is the only location you’ll be able to find both the silence armor trim and the ward armor trim. The good news is they can be duplicated with diamonds and their associated block.
3Enchanted Diamond Hoe
With the addition of sculk blocks, diamond and even netherite hoes hold more value. Before, it was merely an achievement bragging right to craft and upgrade a diamond hoe, but now you’re able to find enchanted diamond hoes within the area where you’d need them most.
The hoes inside Ancient City chests will have 80-100% durability, so it’s beneficial to grab a few along the way that you may combine. In terms of enchantment probabilities, they’ll have level 30-50 enchantments, except for Soul Speed and Swift Sneak. Some common enchantments are Mending, Silk Touch, and Efficiency.
2Enchanted Diamond Leggings
With the changes in world generation with the 1.18 update, methods like strip mining have become inefficient. By looting diamond armor from generated structures, you’re taking out the hassle of finding diamonds, crafting them into armor, and enchanting them yourself.
Diamond leggings found in an Ancient City will have level 30-50 enchantments, except for Soul Speed and Swift Sneak, with chances of multiple enchantments. Common enchantments you’ll find on diamond leggings are Mending and Protection; unfortunately, you’ll also find enchantments Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing.
Swift Sneak (any level)
All Other Enchantments (except Soul Speed)
35.9%
Speaking of enchantments, if you prefer to customize your armor or tools with individual books, an Ancient City is an efficient way to findenchanted bookswith minimal resource cost. This is especially beneficial if you don’t want to deal with the cost of villager trading.
Common enchanted books found in Ancient Cities aresome of the best enchantmentslike Looting, Protection, and Feather Falling. Most levels of the enchantments will be low or mid-tier, so it’s smart to collect multiples to combine them later on with an anvil.
