How to find an Ancient City — a guide for Minecraft

How to find an Ancient City — a guide for Minecraft

The Ancient City is the largest underground structure in the Overworld, generating only in the Deep Dark biome at layer Y=-51. The city covers roughly 220×220 blocks, and its guardian is the Warden with 500 HP, which kills a player in full netherite armor in two hits. Further on in the guide there is a walkthrough — how to find the city and get out with loot without activating the monster. 

Preparation 

• Potion of Night Vision — 3-4 of them, 8 minutes each. There is no natural light in the Deep Dark.

• Wool, 2-3 stacks. It muffles vibrations; pack it around sculk sensors and sculk shriekers.

• Bucket of milk — removes the Darkness effect from a shrieker, which limits your vision to 1-2 blocks.

• Bucket of water — for a safe descent from height.

• Iron pickaxe with Efficiency. To mine deepslate faster.

Step 1. Find the right biome on the surface 

The Deep Dark generates only under biomes with low erosion: Jagged Peaks, Stony Peaks or Frozen Peaks, as well as under Snowy Slopes, Groves, Cherry Groves and Meadows. Somewhat more rarely you can come across it under a Savanna Plateau or Badlands. But under oceans, rivers, swamps and deserts — never.

A working marker: a tall mountain with a sharp height drop of 60+ blocks relative to the adjacent lowlands. Start your descent from its foot — less digging. 

the Jagged Peaks mountain biome

Step 2. Descend to Y=-51

The floor of the Ancient City always generates at Y=-51. The Deep Dark itself occurs in the range Y=-1 ... Y=-63. 

Ways to descend:

1. A natural cave in the mountain — the fastest. Descend with a bucket of water or a staircase.

2. A 1×2 shaft with steps from the surface. Full control, but takes longer.

You can tell you are in the Deep Dark right away: a black floor of sculk blocks, zero lighting, and the music changes. 

Step 3. Find the city itself, not an empty biome 

The Deep Dark  — does not yet mean there is a city here. An Ancient City biome may have none at all. So you can use a search method. 

The zigzag method at Y=-51: 

1. Dig a horizontal tunnel 2×2.

2. After 200 blocks turn 90° to the side for 200 blocks.

3. Dig a parallel tunnel back.

4. Repeat until you hit a sculk wall.

The city covers 220×220, so tunnels every 200 blocks will not miss it. F3 shows the biome name ("Deep Dark") and the Y coordinate. 

ancient city

Step 4. /locate, Chunkbase and a ready-made seed

With cheats enabled it is fastest: /locate structure minecraft:ancient_city

Without cheats — the Chunkbase Ancient City Finder site can help. But for that you will need the world seed (/seed in chat, if you have operator rights). 

A ready-made seed (Java 26.1.2).  If you create a world from scratch — you can immediately take a seed where the Ancient City generates right next to spawn. For example:

1606377695512438131 — spawn right above the Ancient City next to a big hole in the ground.

Step 5. Safe navigation inside 

The Warden spawns after the shrieker's 4th activation within a radius of 48 blocks. The warning counter resets after 10 minutes — between trips to the chests you need to take a break. 

Basic rules: 

• You have to sneak the whole time. Sculk sensors do not react to sneaking.

• Do not break blocks needlessly — breaking any block creates a vibration.

• Do not place torches next to sensors. Placing a block = a vibration.

• Do not shoot into the void — an arrow also creates a vibration when it lands.

• Wool around a sensor or a shrieker blocks the whole signal. Better to pack it in than to break it — breaking it activates it.

• If a shrieker has given you Darkness — you need to drink milk, otherwise you may not see the next sensor 2 blocks away.

sculk sensor and sculk shrieker

If the Warden has already spawned: run 20+ blocks in a straight line into a 2×1 tunnel, and wait 60 seconds without contact with it, then it will burrow back down. Fighting is not worth it. 

the Warden appearing 

Conclusion 

The Ancient City is a mandatory stage for long-term survival: the Recovery Compass saves your loot after deaths, and Swift Sneak III shortens the following trips three-to-four times. But if your task is to speedrun the game, this stage is unnecessary — you can reach the Dragon without it. 

The first trip takes 1-2 hours: find the Deep Dark, dig tunnels, carefully loot 4-6 chests. With Swift Sneak III the visits turn into 20-30 minutes.