Discover ways to locate dungeons in Minecraft.
In Minecraft, exploration is a core mechanic that allows players to locate new biomes, search for loot, and gain experience points. While exploring, you will discover many new locations, including a dungeon.
Locating dungeons in the game is pretty rewarding as these often contain valuable loot, multiple mobs, and extensive tunnels leading to deeper caverns underground.
Although these aren’t as rare of a structure as woodland mansions and underwater temples, they are still worth exploring. You can roughly spend part of your playthrough without encountering a single dungeon. Like other structures in the game, it is considered a treasure location, which makes locating these quite tricky.
Here are all the ways you can find dungeons in Minecraft.
What is a Dungeon in Minecraft?
Before everything else, we need to learn what dungeons are and what they look like. In Minecraft, it is also known as a “monster room,” which means that it is a structure that fosters multiple hostile mobs inside. As a monster room, it contains one monster spawner—a cage-like block designed to repeatedly spawn a single type of hostile mob.
Note that dungeons only generate in the Overworld, so don’t expect to find these in the Nether or the End.
Dungeons look like small rooms with a single monster spawner in the center. It is often made up of cobblestone walls and mossy cobblestone floors. The monster spawner has a chance of spawning either zombies, skeletons, or spiders. Aside from the monster spawner, dungeons may contain up to two loot chests.
Understanding how Minecraft dungeons generate
Like any other structure in Minecraft, dungeons are generated based on the algorithm during world generation. Every chunk creates up to 8 attempts to generate a single monster room. Each attempt at generation will consider many criteria that will affect the room’s location and size. For example, the location should have a solid surface area to generate the entire structure.
The game will successfully generate the dungeon in that area when the location fits all the criteria. The monster spawners and the chests may come along with it.
Obtainable Loot from Minecraft dungeons
While dungeon chests are not guaranteed to spawn per location, they are still pretty rewarding when they do. A monster room chest contains various items—junk items and rare treasures. Some of the treasure items that you can obtain here are:
- Name tag
- Saddle
- Music discs
- Enchanted books
- Diamond horse armor
- Enchanted golden apple
How to find a Dungeon in Minecraft?
Once you understand how the game’s generation algorithm works, it’s time to set out on a journey to locate one.
Related: 5 Quickest Ways To Travel in Minecraft 1.19
You need to consider the game’s criteria to generate structures when searching for them. One of these is that dungeons have solid ceilings. This means you will likely find them deep inside caves or large mountains.
The best way to start is by searching for an opening to a cave from the surface. Once inside, look for any surface built with cobblestones or mossy cobblestones. This is a dead giveaway, as cobblestones in a cave normally only appear when connected to a structure or when a player places them.
You may also try finding them by entering a large cavern or cave system. Since dungeons contain at least one entrance, going through tunnels might also help.
Another trick is to locate abandoned mineshafts, as dungeons often generate next to or connected to them. Mineshafts also contain loot, which you can collect along the way.
If you notice an unusually large group of hostile mobs coming from a tunnel, this often indicates a dungeon at the end. Since they contain monster spawners, a horde of zombies or a group of skeletons may very well be another hint.
Another giveaway is if you spot an unusual amount of cobwebs. Cobwebs do not normally generate inside caves, even when spiders are inside. So, finding a pile of cobwebs means you are most likely near a dungeon or mineshaft.
There is no specific way to locate dungeons in a regular playthrough unless you use cheats. So, keeping these valuable tips in mind makes it easier to find one than searching blindly.
