With the addition of the Ancient City in Minecraft 1.19, players now have a massive, dangerous structure to explore. Ancient Cities are located deep underground and are full of hidden treasures. However, they are also home to one of Minecraft’s most powerful mobs: the Warden. This guide will help you find an Ancient City in Minecraft, what you can find within it and the essential items you should bring.
How to Find an Ancient City in Minecraft
Ancient Cities are exclusive to the Deep Dark biome, which only spawns in specific locations. The Key to find an Ancient City in Minecraft is understanding that the Deep Dark biome generates in areas with low erosion. Practically, this means you’ll almost always find it beneath mountain biomes.
To start your search, head to the largest mountain peaks and valleys. Enter a cave in the area, and as you descend, watch your surroundings. If you continue downward while staying beneath the mountain, the typical stone terrain will begin to transform into skulk blocks, which is a sure sign you’ve reached the Deep Dark biome. From there, it goes down even further—Ancient cities generate in incredibly low levels in the world, around Y-level -50.
Ancient Cities will never appear higher or lower than this level, so once you’ve hit the right depth, keep exploring. If you’re lucky, you might find multiple Ancient Cities clustered together, especially if you’re in a large mountain range. These cities often generate close to each other, with no natural barriers in between. You may find one or even up to four Ancient Cities in one expansive area.
Ancient City Structure and Generation
The central monument of the Ancient City has a distinctive structure that looks like a massive portal or the head of a Warden. Directly beneath this monument is a hidden redstone room, which can be accessed by finding secret redstone doors activated by skulk sensors or by breaking into the area.
Inside the Redstone room, players can learn about basic Redstone mechanics. It introduces various logic gates and redstone circuits, such as an AND gate in action, how a target block can power pistons, how Redstone blocks activate lanterns, and how a lectern powers redstone lamps. Each city can generate slightly different redstone setups, some with more complex configurations than others, all found directly beneath the central portal-like structure.
If you have trouble finding the redstone room, you can dig down blocks in front of the portal-like shape to reveal it.
In addition to regular treasure rooms, you may come across the Icebox Room, which includes blocks of ice and a chest with loot. Despite its educational elements, the Ancient City is far from peaceful, as the Warden remains a constant threat, summoned by skulk shriekers when triggered three times.
When a naturally generated sculk shrieker is activated, it adds 1 to the “warning” level, alerting the warden. When a player’s warning level reaches 4, the sculk shrieker will try to spawn a warden after it stops shrieking.
Ancient City Loot
In the Ancient Cities, there are two main types of loot you can find. The first is a general mix of various items, which can include things like soul torches, leads, candles, coal, skulk blocks, and amethyst shards. However, be cautious when opening these chests, as wardens can sometimes spawn. Other chests may contain rarer items such as the “Other Side” music disc, skulk catalysts, potions of regeneration, bones, and disc fragments, which are unique to this area.
The disc fragments can be crafted into a special music disc, the only new one in the 1.19 update. It’s similar to the eerie 11 music disc and holds its own mysterious story. In addition to disc fragments, you can also find the rare Swift Sneak enchantment books here, which is the only place in the game to acquire them. Other notable loot includes enchanted diamond leggings, echo shards, diamond horse armor, glow berries, bottles of enchanting, name tags, and even enchanted diamond hoes.
Echo shards are especially useful, as they can be combined with a compass to craft a Recovery Compass. This compass points to the location where you last died, which can be a lifesaver in the dangerous depths of the Ancient City.
One unique chest type is found in the Icebox structure, which contains loot like packed ice, baked potatoes, golden carrots, and suspicious stew. This area serves as a supply restock room, although the reason for the ice storage remains a mystery, much like the unexplained connection between pillagers and wool stored here, as well as in Woodland Mansions.
And of course, you have a 8.4% chance in finding the Enchanted Golden Apple. Meaning, the ancient city is the best place in Minecraft to get notch apples!
What You Need to Bring
To successfully raid an Ancient City, preparation is key. Here’s a list of items to bring:
- Wool Blocks: Surround Shriekers and Sensors with wool to silence them.
- Projectiles: You could use arrows, but I would generally suggest eggs as they can spawn a chicken that can distract the Warden.
- Potions: Bring some potions of Instant Health and Swiftness Potions. You can either use Speed II or Speed I, whichever you prefer.
- Milk Buckets: Useful for removing status effects.
- Storage: Bring Shulker Boxes and an Ender Chest.
- Bed: Set your spawn point.
- Elytra and Fireworks: Essential for quick escapes from the Warden.
- Tools: A Fortune Hoe and a Pickaxe.
- Bow: A Bow with Power V and Spectral Arrows, or standard arrows if you’re on Bedrock.
- Night Vision Potions: These are important for seeing the entire Ancient City, as it’s very dark.
Make sure to bring as many of these items as possible, set your spawn point before entering, and never raid the Ancient City without Elytra. The most important thing when raiding the Ancient City is to go very slowly.
Dealing with the Warden
Alerting any Shriekers is almost inevitable, so you will most likely face a Warden. To avoid dying, use Elytra to fly away from it. Glide up and away, keeping a distance of over 20 blocks to prevent direct attacks. The Warden can track you from a long distance, but if you stay more than 20 blocks away, you’ll be safe. You can safely fly around the Ancient City, and the Warden will eventually despawn after 60 seconds if it wasn’t triggered by anything specific. Return to the area once it’s gone and continue raiding.
If you find a dangerous area with many Shriekers, try to destroy as many as possible before the Warden appears. After the Warden spawns, finish destroying the Shriekers and fly out before it becomes too dangerous. Getting a bit of distance from the Warden is usually sufficient, but be cautious as it can detect you if you’re too close. Walking on wool blocks can help avoid detection by Skulk Sensors.
Locating Ancient Cities Using Commands
If you have cheats enabled, use the /locate command to find an Ancient City:
- /locate structure minecraft:ancient_city
This will provide the coordinates of the nearest Ancient City. You can teleport there with a separate command if needed.
