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If you have been wondering which is the most powerful mob in the game, you might have to rethink it. No, it’s not the Ender Dragon or even the Wither; it is the Warden found in the Ancient Cities.
These underground ruins are unlike anything else in the game. It's quiet, very quiet, with a mysterious portal sitting right at the center, multiple ruined structures to explore with exceptional loot, and so much more.
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In this guide, we will walk you through everything there is to know about Ancient City, how you can find one, what treasures they hide, how to survive the Warden, and the advanced strategies every explorer should know.
Forget Nether or any other place that scares you the most in Minecraft, Ancient Cities are way scarier. They are massive, ruined structures found exclusively in the Deep Dark biome, which itself is a hostile and eerie underground environment.
You won’t be easily stumbling upon them randomly since they generate deep below the surface, usually around Y-level -51, and always below mountainous or rugged terrain. So if you're serious about finding one, bring Night Vision, wool blocks, and a lot of patience.
The place is built with a haunting aesthetic: dark stone bricks, deepslate, soul fire lanterns that burn blue instead of orange, and patches of sculk blocks crawling across the floors. There are open halls and grand corridors, ancient redstone mechanisms tucked into rooms, and loot chests hidden in different structures.
At the heart of Ancient City, you will find a portal-like structure made of reinforced deepslate, a block you can't even collect in Survival mode. Although no one knows its use of it yet, maybe sometime in the future, this could be a doorway to the void or any other dimension. Before learning more about how it looks, let’s look at the ways you can find these Ancient Cities.
Ancient Cities, as you already know, are found exclusively in the Deep Dark biome, which itself only generates in the lowest parts of the world, usually below Y-level -30, and most reliably around Y -51.
It will require a lot of patience and a ton of digging to be able to find one of these. They are hidden beneath mountainous terrain like windswept hills, groves, or jagged peaks. So if you're hunting without coordinates or cheats, aim for cave systems underneath big mountain ranges.
The question here is, how would you know once you are close to an Ancient City? Well, the most obvious sign would be dead silence around you once you are near the city. You’ll notice something odd: no mobs spawning. That’s because the Deep Dark disables hostile mob spawns by default. It’s quiet. Too quiet.
Another obvious sign is the sculks. These are somewhat bluish blocks spread across the entire Deep Dark biomes and the Ancient City. Now, before you can navigate here, you need to have a few essential gears and tools with you. Let’s check them out in the next section.
Here is a list of everything I would carry if I were to go about exploring the Deep Dark.
1. Night Vision Potions: Ancient Cities are dark, really very dark. Unless you have special eyes, there is no way you can explore the city without some assistance. This is where you will need the Night Vision Potions. It is an absolute must.
2. Elytra and Fireworks: Now, these cities are huge and spread across massive distances. You cannot simply rely on walking the entire time. Hence, you can bring Elytra and some fireworks with you. These will help you fly and cover distances much faster.
3. Wool Blocks/Carpets: This might sound weird, but you need a ton of wool. As many as you can. If you try breaking the sculks, there is always a chance you are going to trigger the sensors. Instead, you can walk on wool blocks or carpets to sneak past them or cover the noise entirely.
4. Sneaking Boots: Apart from the above, you can also enchant your boots with Swift Sneak. This will also help you sneak around and make the least noise without triggering the sensors.
5. Weapons and Tools: You can carry a ranged weapon to keep away the warden if needed. Other than this, make sure you have an axe and a hoe to carry the exclusive blocks back with you, found in the Ancient Cities.
6. Potions: Other than the Night Vision potion, you can carry a Potion of Healing if you get in a fight with the warden.
All the above are essential and just enough for exploring the Ancient City.
Ancient Cities are built differently from any other structures you will come across in the game. It's like stumbling into a forgotten civilization that knew something we don't, and left in a hurry.
Let’s talk about the structures and the entire layout first.
Right at the center, you will find a rectangular portal frame made out of Reinforced Deepslate. This block is unbreakable in survival and can’t be moved or crafted. It’s eerily reminiscent of a Nether or End portal, except it doesn’t do anything, yet.
This portal is the focal point of the entire city. The architecture subtly guides you toward it. Also, a lot of players believe that this particular structure will serve some purpose in the next updates. Until then, you can simply admire the architectural brilliance.
Just below this structure, you will find a hidden Redstone lab that has tripwire hooks, pistons, levers, target blocks, and hidden wiring. They seem like testing chambers for experiments involving sound and redstone. You can find all kinds of Redstone Contraptions here, pretty unique, and so much to learn from.
Apart from this, there are multiple ruined buildings, rooms, and even corridors. Each of these looks like the remains of a once-populated place: broken walls, collapsed ceilings, and partially intact rooms.
Speaking of the corridors and the pathways, they are laid with a mixture of wool blocks and other Deep Slate blocks.
As discussed earlier, Ancient City is the quietest place ever, and you need to keep it that way, fearing the Warden. Hence, these wool-laden corridors are exactly what you need to stay quiet while you explore.
Everything in the city seems designed around sound. The wool paths. The hidden redstone contraptions. The sculk sensors that sit in corners like watching eyes. If you walk, place blocks, or even open a chest too carelessly, you could trigger a sculk shrieker. Do that too many times, and the Warden will rise.
Many players consider this to be the most terrifying mob in the game. You will find no other mobs in the Ancient City except this.
The Warden is a blind, hulking monster that roams the Deep Dark biome, summoned not by spawn eggs or spawners, but by your own carelessness. As mentioned, they do not have any eyes, but their sense of smell and hearing are enough to detect you when you are near. And don’t be fooled, they are immensely strong and can harm you within seconds.
Now, this mob isn’t simply roaming around Deep Dark biomes, they are summoned by the Sculk Shriekers, blocks that activate when too many vibration events occur in quick succession. Whether you are jumping, running, or even opening chests around these blocks, the sensors are triggered.
For example, if you open a chest within eight blocks of the sensors, they are triggered and give off a signal. Now, if there are any Sculk Shriekers within eight blocks of this sensor, it will emit a warning sound to wake up the warden.
However, this only happens after the Shriekers are activated four times, and then only the Warden wakes up.
Let’s look at the reason why this mob is considered the most lethal among anyone you have ever come across.
1. Health: The Warden features 500 HP (that’s 250 hearts), making it even tankier than the Ender Dragon or the Wither.
2. Damage: It can deal up to 16 hearts of damage per hit on Hard Mode, which is insane. You can die within seconds, even if you are wearing a full Netherite armor.
3. Despawn Mechanic: If it hasn’t detected anything for about 60 seconds, the Warden will burrow back underground.
Now, we will look at some of the deadliest attacks done by Warden, and all of these are something you need to stay clear of.
1. Sonic Slam: This is the Melee attack you will face from the warden, and they usually attack you when you are nearby. Now, if you are in the hard mode, this attack will kill you in a single shot.
It can even penetrate your Netherite Armor, and there is no way out of this. Furthermore, it applies a huge knockback when it lands, pushing you away, even though the Warden itself is immune to knockback.
2. Sonic Boom Attack: This is the Warden’s ranged attack, added to stop players from hiding from it by pillar-climbing or hiding behind walls. It has a range of around 20 blocks, so you need to be away from this as far as you can go.
Whether you have a shield or any armor, it will likely go through anything and deal at least 5 heart damage. One fun fact about his attack is that it uses a custom sound-based projectile, making it one of the only attacks in Minecraft that isn’t classified as melee or magic. That’s why you can’t block or deflect it.
3. Psychological Attack: While this may not count as an attack directly, the psychological effect it has on the player makes it a lot more terrifying. For example, the Warden listens to vibrations, walking, block breaking, eating, etc. It also darkens your screen with pulses, building tension. These increase as it locks onto you.
Now, the real question is how you can eventually defeat, or let’s say avoid, the warden from killing you. Well, truly speaking, you’re not meant to fight the Warden. In fact, Mojang themselves have said: "Avoid, don't engage."
So, here are a few things you can do if you accidentally summon the warden:
1. Sneak All The Time: If it hasn’t been said enough already, you must know that sneaking around is the best thing you can do in the Ancient City. Use Shift like your life depends on it. Walking alerts sensors. Sneaking doesn’t.
2. Wool Blocks Sound: You might have seen wool blocks spread across the corridors; this is because wool can block sound even while you are walking on it. Apart from this, you can use wool blocks by yourself to walk around the Sculk Shriekers and sensors.
3. Dig or Climb If Needed: If the warden wakes up and there is no way to run, simply dig or even climb up at least 20 blocks so that the warden’s ranged attack cannot reach you.
4. Fly Away: The best thing you can do to stay clear of the warden and not get killed is run as far as possible, or even better, use Elytra to fly away in any direction. This will give the warden enough chances to cool down, and you will be safe.
Above all, you should simply try to avoid the Shriekers and not trigger them at any cost. This will eventually save you time and resources.
This is what you are here for: the loot chests. These are spread across the entire Ancient City and may not be that hard to find once you know exactly where to look for them.
Furthermore, there are some of the best loots you can find in this game, and are listed below.
These are not all the items you might find, but a few of the many. Furthermore, it is important to understand that there isn’t a 100% chance that you will get these in your first or third visit, instead, it might take some time and multiple visits to get the rarest of the rare items such as Swift Sneak.
Let’s talk about the different locations you can find these loot chests.
1. Ice Box: You might come across a structure in the Ancient City with multiple ice blocks. Once you go below this structure through a trapdoor, you might find a loot chest. Here you might get Snowballs, Packed Ice, Baked Potato, Golden Carrot, and Suspicious Stew.
2. Central Portal: Next, we have the center of the Ancient City, where you have the portal. Now, you may or may not have the loot chest here. It depends on your luck. If you get the chest, it always has a Golden Apple, which you already know is highly valuable.
3. Barracks: This is where you will find two chests. The items here are pretty common, such as the bones, potions, etc. However, if you get lucky, you might find an enchanted book,
4. Chambers: This has a single chest and contains similar loot chests as the Barracks. There are multiple variations of the structure these chambers are designed, so it might look different.
5. Sauna or Pool Area: Sauna has a structure that contains two water bodies, or you can say a pool area. This area has the most loot chests and some of the best in the entire Ancient City.
6. Tall Ruins: Lastly, you have the Tall Ruins. You might come across at least four variations of this, and each has at least one chest, and some might have even two.
Before we end the quest to the Ancient City, here are some tips you can check out that might help out.
As we discussed earlier, you need to bring as much wool as you get. It blocks vibration signals from Skulk Sensors and Shriekers, letting you move freely without summoning the Warden.
You can lay down wool carpets around chests or pressure plates before interacting with anything. Similarly, you can also use wool blocks to build silent walkways or seal off noisy entrances.
Instead of spawning directly to your base, you can lay down your bed near the entry point of the Ancient City. This way, even if you die fighting with the warden, you will always spawn back at the Ancient city gates.
Or you can even place the bed outside the city gates, around the caves. In case the warden is nearby the gates, you might get into serious trouble. Choose wisely!
We all know by now that Ancient City is massive. It is pretty easy to get lost while exploring different parts of this place. This is why you need to mark the entry point using cobblestones or any other blocks that you can see from far away, and always get back to it once you are done with the place.
Many may not be doing this, but you can. You already know that the Warden is blind but can sense your movement and even smell. This is where you can use snowballs to throw them off track and save yourself.
You can carry it with you in your inventory, or there are multiple snowballs available in the loot chests in the Ancient City itself.
And that is all. These are simply the tip of the iceberg. While you explore the Ancient City, you might learn your way through and navigate accordingly. As long as you do not summon the warden, it's easy.
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