Minecraft would become quite mundane with just biomes for the player to explore. Similar to how the game creates chunks upon chunks of different landforms, certain regions also have the chance of generating a structure or building. These can range from villages with houses and roads, to fortresses consisting of tall bridges and towers. To explain it simply, different types of buildings are generated with the terrain to represent something man-made.
The types of structures and buildings that generate vary widely depending on the biome they’re found in. Each one serves its own practical purpose to the player. Some, like villages, allow players to trade with villagers and stock up on food. Others, like jungle temples, present an Indiana Jones-type challenge to the player with a reward at the end.
It’s important to note the rarity of such elements of Minecraft. While the game features dozens of structures and buildings that incite the player to explore, they can be difficult to find. Very rarely will a player spawn right next to a village, or anywhere near a stronghold. Some of these take immense patience to locate and explore. However, the items and potential that can be unlocked from some of these structures is well worth the effort it takes to reach them.
List of All Minecraft Structures
Structure
Location (biome)
Purpose/interesting characteristics
Abandoned Mineshaft
Underground
Contains chests with ores, as well as useful materials spread throughout its tunnels. They are typically common underground and can generally be found cutting through other cave systems. Mineshafts are constructed of long tunnels with broken up railroad tracks and sometimes make locating ores and other cave systems easier.
Stronghold
Underground
The only place where a portal to the End dimension can be found. They are immensely rare and only found deep underground, able to be located only by right clicking eyes of ender, which navigate the player to them. Inside, there contains a number of monster spawners and rooms ranging from libraries, hallways, fountains and dungeons.
Dungeon
Underground
Contains two chests with useful loot and a mob spawner. Dungeons are very small and rare, found only underground. Chests can contain anything from bones to golden apples, even records.
Desert Well
Desert
A very rare sight in a desert, containing a few blocks of water within a small sandstone structure.
Fossil
Underground
Generated for aesthetic reasons only; meant to be a fossil of ancient, extinct creatures.
Village
Plains, Ice plains, Desert, Taiga, Savanna
One of the most common surface level structures, found in numerous biomes and home to several NPC villagers that the player can trade items with. May contain many buildings that have crafting tables, working farms, furnaces and chests. Sizes of villages (and the buildings in each) vary widely.
Desert Temple
Desert
A pyramid-like structure found exclusively in deserts, which constitutes of two towers and a more wide, central region inside. The player may loot a number of chests that are located in a deep pit in the center of the pyramid, but must be careful to not detonate the TNT at the bottom in order to do so.
Jungle Temple
Jungle
A generally small structure that is difficult to locate in the dense reaches of the jungle biome. It contains narrow corridors the player must navigate, and traps they must avoid such as trip wires and flying arrows. At the end the player will find a chest with generally uncommon loot, once they can flick a series of levers in the correct order. Jungle temples are a good source of redstone-type blocks.
Witch Hut
Swamp
A generally rare and small building found only in swamps, which has the chance of spawning a witch. Most include a chest and some potions; while this is a very small building, it can be difficult for under equipped players to defeat the witch that spawns near it.
Ocean Monument
Deep Ocean
A large monument generated entirely underground, with numerous water filled rooms protected by ocean guardians and elder guardians. They may include chests and a treasure chamber, which has 8 gold blocks encompassed in dark prismarine.
Igloo
Snowy Biomes
Mainly for aesthetic reasons, these structures spawn in snowy biomes. They have a chance of generating with a hidden basement, which is located under a carpet and contains a villager/zombie villager locked up. There may also be a chest.
Woodland Mansion
Roofed Forest
A large structure that includes several rooms of mobs for killing and chests for looting.
Nether Fortress
The Nether
Houses several mob spawners (particularly blazes), and rooms where the player can collect nether warts.
Bastion Remnant
The Nether
This structure is the home of the Piglins and Piglin Brutes. It houses multiple loot chests and tons of golden blocks.
Ruined Portal
The Nether and the Overworld
This is a naturally generated Nether Portal which spawns in both the Nether and the Overworld. It contains some decoration and a loot chest around it.
Obsidian Pillar
The End
The End generates with numerous obsidian pillars of varying heights. On top of each is an ender crystal, which must be destroyed for the Ender Dragon’s health to stop regenerating.
End Fountain
The End
The end fountain, also known as an exit portal, is the player’s way to exit the End without dying. It is indestructible, as it’s made of bedrock, and results in the game’s credits being played once the player jumps into it.
End Gateway Portal
The End
This bedrock structure generates once the player kills the Ender Dragon. It emits beacons that allow the player to teleport to outer islands of the End.
End City
The End
Tall, tree-like structures that generate on the outer islands of the End, which contain mobs such as shulkers, as well as chests with particularly valuable loot.
End Ship
The End
Structures resembling a pirate ship that may generate outside of End cities. They contain immensely valuable loot, including an elytra and a dragon’s head.
Locating Structures
Although it’s just luck if the game generates a building or a structure, sometimes it’s up to the player’s own resourcefulness and intelligence to locate one. Below is a list of the structures that, although generate naturally, require extra steps to uncover. Additionally, we include the materials needed to make sure you can get to them.
Stronghold
This is one of the (if not the) most difficult structures to locate. For a world with more surface area than planet Earth, only having 128 strongholds that generate deep underground makes it seem nearly impossible to locate. Luckily, eyes of ender are what give the player a shot at finding one. When the player right clicks an eye of ender, it flies out of their hand and into the air in the direction of the nearest stronghold. This process is repeated until eventually, the eye of ender will fly towards the ground, at which point the player knows there is a stronghold somewhere beneath the surface. Unfortunately, this process is tedious, and may require multiple stacks of eyes of ender, which can be crafted using an ender pearl and blaze powder.
Tips: Bring at least two stacks of eyes of ender, and have a good pickaxe, as you’ll be digging down to nearly bedrock level. Make sure you have 12 eyes of ender set aside to insert into the End portal, which allows you to travel to the End. Good armor and weapons are always necessary. And be cautious of the mob spawners in the strongholds, or you’ll be spooked.
End Cities and End Ships
Defeating the ender dragon can be an immensely daunting task. If you’re going to the End to get your hands on some of the valuable loot found in End cities and ships, and you don’t wish to kill the ender dragon first, then we hope you have a lot of spare blocks on hand. Killing the ender dragon spawns an end gateway portal, which takes the player to other islands in the End with ease. The player can get around this, though, by building a bridge of blocks out until they reach an island. However, this may require stretching over 1,000 blocks to accomplish.
Tips: If you opt out of killing the ender dragon first, you better come to the End loaded with stacks upon stacks of other blocks so that you can effectively bridge to surrounding islands. You might also want to bring protection against the ender dragon, so wear some durable armor. As you bridge, it may be a good idea to build a tunnel around yourself, as the ender dragon frequently flies by and may throw you into the void. If you do kill the ender dragon first, use an ender pearl to teleport yourself up to the floating gateway that spawns once it dies. Oh, and there will be a lot of endermen. Don’t look at them. Maybe wear a pumpkin on your head to be safe, if you don’t mind a good chunk of your vision being blocked.
Nether Fortresses
Although it may go without saying, the player must reach the Nether before they can hope to find one of these rare structures. To do this, a nether portal needs to be constructed out of obsidian and a flint and steel.
Tips: There’s a lot of lava in the Nether, be careful and stay clear of it when searching for/climbing up a nether fortress. Also, make sure to be well equipped before entering one, as the blazes that spawn inside are strong and may be difficult to kill. An iron or diamond sword is a must, and a bow is always a bonus.
Ocean Monument
If you happen to even locate one of these under the vast oceans of Minecraft, you might find yourself wondering how you’ll even get down there to explore it. Well, this may take a while, because naturally, you move slower in water. Even moreso, you’ll have to breath under it. So, it’s necessary to get a few potions of water breathing before exploring the monument.
Tips: Bring a few extra potions of water breathing, as well as a few potions of night vision for clarity underwater. Additionally, a sword and some armor is a must, as there are several guardians and elder guardians that surround the ocean monument and attack players who come into sight, dealing 6 damage on normal difficulty.
A (long) word on villages and how they function
As stated before, villages can be found in a number of biomes, and pose much value to the player: they have different buildings that can be used as a home; they contain chests that can be looted; they also generate with a number of farms, which can be used to harvest crops like wheat, melon and carrots. However, the way villages function differs than that of any other structure in Minecraft, mainly due to the NPCs that spawn in them.
NPC stands for Non Player Character, and is used to represent an artificially controlled entity in a game. In this case, the villagers found in Minecraft are NPCs because they are entities controlled by code. They are generally referred to as NPCs instead of mobs because they are peaceful, and serve a larger purpose than just to attack or be killed.
That being said, villagers are rather odd compared to other entities because they are programmed to be almost human-like. A village itself can be looked at as a fully functioning system, completely independent of the player. The villagers even spawn with their own professions, defined by the clothes it wears: farmer, librarian, priest, blacksmith, butcher, and nitwit.
Villagers walk about outside and keep themselves busy during the daytime, but scurry indoors once the sun sets, or else they will be attacked by zombies and other creatures. Hostile mobs will proceed to break down the doors to reach the villagers. In larger villages, an iron golem may spawn that can protect the village.
During the day, villagers do a number of activities: walk around aimlessly, go indoors and outdoors, socialize with other villagers, and tend to the nearby crops. They will even sometimes go out of their way to pick up items.
Villagers are also programmed to have a sense of emotion. They will feed each other if they see another is low on food, and will even breed if the village population is too low, spawning a baby villager who eventually grows up. Plus, it is possible for a villager to positively or negatively perceive the player depending on how they are treated, which can impact their willingness to trade.
One of the most common uses of villagers to the player, though, is their trading system. Emeralds are generally the currency used when trading items.
Thus, villages (although some may be small) are actually very complex and functioning systems. There are several mechanics that go into making this structure so elaborate and unique, all of which can be immensely valuable to the player if they so happen to come across one.
