Ancient Cities: Find and Raid the Deep Dark

Where ancient cities generate

Ancient cities exist only in the deep dark, a cave biome that forms deep underground where the terrain above is high and the ground is old: under mountain ranges and plateaus rather than under oceans or flat plains. The city itself is centred at Y -51, a huge rectangular layout of deepslate streets around a central frame of reinforced deepslate that looks like a portal and is not one.

Java tries one city per region of 24×24 chunks with an 8-chunk separation and keeps the attempt only if the deep dark is there, so cities are dense where mountains are and absent elsewhere. Seed 123456789 on 26.3 has five within 2,000 blocks of spawn; seed -1234567890123 has none in the same radius. The ancient city finder runs the same placement and biome checks and matched the official Java server at every marker in testing.

On Bedrock, cities use Bedrock's own 24-chunk placement. About nine in ten of the map's Bedrock markers were confirmed in-game and 99% of real cities are shown, so the finder marks them Approximate there: expect the odd empty marker, never a missing city.

The nearest cities on the test seeds

Seed 8675309123456789 is the lucky one: it spawns at 0, 0 and has an ancient city 250 blocks away at 224, 112, with a second at 880, -160. Seed 123456789 has cities at -688, 432 and -656, -592, both about 900 blocks from its spawn at 64, -48. Seed 0 makes you work for it, with the nearest at 800, 1264, some 1,500 blocks out. On Bedrock, seed 6942069420694206 has a city at -312, -1032.

The marker is the city's centre. Cities are large, roughly 200 blocks across, so once you are within the deep dark near the marker you are already on the outskirts. Dig a staircase down at the coordinates and stop around Y -40 to look for sculk before you break into a street from above.

Sculk, shriekers and the Warden

The deep dark is covered in sculk. Sculk sensors hear vibrations, meaning footsteps, blocks breaking, projectiles landing, and pass a signal to any sculk shrieker nearby. A shrieker that is triggered adds a warning level; at the fourth warning within a short time it summons a Warden from the ground. The Warden is blind, hunts by sound and smell, has more health than the Ender dragon and hits hard enough to kill a player in netherite armour in a few blows. It is not a boss to fight; it is an alarm to avoid setting off.

• Sneak everywhere. Sneaking makes no vibrations. Swift Sneak on your leggings, found only in city chests, makes sneaking tolerable.
• Wool silences. Sensors do not hear through wool blocks and wool carpet. Carpet a path, or place wool around a sensor.
• Break shriekers. A shrieker that has not yet summoned a Warden can be mined; naturally generated ones can summon, placed ones cannot.
• Throw things. Snowballs, arrows and eggs landing far away trigger sensors there and distract the Warden toward the sound.
• If the Warden comes: retreat quietly, do not fight. It digs back into the ground after a minute without detecting anything.

The Only Ancient City Guide You’ll Ever Need (50 Tips)12 min

Loot you cannot get anywhere else

Ancient city chests hold Swift Sneak enchanted books, the only source in the game, and echo shards, which craft a recovery compass that points to where you last died. They also hold more enchanted golden apples than any other structure, disc fragments that combine into the music disc 5, soul torches and lanterns, sculk and sculk catalysts, candles, compasses, and books with Mending or other enchantments.

Chests sit in the small deepslate buildings along the streets and in the ice box, a chamber of packed ice beside the centre. Open everything with a torch at hand; the city is dark and its lighting is soul fire. The centre also hides a redstone laboratory under the main structure, reached through the floor behind the frame, with a redstone contraption and more chests.

A raid plan that works

1. Read the city's coordinates from the finder and travel through the Nether if it is more than 1,000 blocks away.
2. Bring wool or carpet, a bucket of water, food, a shield, Swift Sneak if you already have it, and nothing you would mind losing.
3. Dig down at the marker to about Y -40, open a one-block window into the cavern and look before you drop.
4. Carpet your route along one street at a time; loot the buildings on both sides and return to the carpet.
5. Set a marker on the map for the entrance staircase and for any shrieker you had to leave alone.
6. Leave the way you came. The deep dark has no natural exits upward and the surface is 100 blocks above you.

If a Warden appears, drop to a crouch, back away along the carpet and wait for it to burrow. Most deaths in cities come from running, which makes noise, into a second shrieker.

Cities and the rest of your world

Deep dark often sits under the same mountain ranges where the cave finder shows huge cheese caves, and large caves that cut into a city give you a natural entrance and a quick exit. Diamonds are plentiful at the city's depth too: Y -51 is close to the best diamond level, so a trip that fails as a raid can still pay as a mine.

Once looted, a city makes a striking base. Light it fully, break every shrieker, and the sculk stops being a threat; the central frame and the long streets are a ready-made build site that nobody else on the server will stumble into.