How to Find Buried Treasure in Minecraft

Minecraft is all about exploration, and sometimes a few adventures can reward you with the best hidden loot. So, if you’re wondering how to find buried treasure in Minecraft, you’ve come to the right place. Some of these buried chests contain amazing loot, while others can provide nothing even when you drop into the dangerous dripstone caves. Similar to pirating in the open sea with a boat, Minecraft offers a treasure map, sunken ships, and rare loot in this side quest.

In fact, buried treasures are the only source for finding the heart of the sea, used to gain superpower-like abilities. Additionally, unlike most other stuff, the treasure functions similarly in both Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions. But first, you need to learn how to make a boat in Minecraft before jumping into this side quest. With that said, from a shipwreck to the treasure itself, we will cover the whole process of how to find buried treasure in Minecraft.

Quick Answer: How to Find Buried Treasure in Minecraft

Before we loot the treasure, we have to find the map that leads to it. And even before that, we need to focus on getting to a Shipwreck. Don’t be overwhelmed, though, as we will go over each step in detail. Here are the quickest steps to find a buried treasure in the game:

• Find a Shipwreck in Minecraft and look for the map chest inside.
• Take the map and travel toward the red ‘X’ direction as it appears on the map.
• Once there, dig down to get the buried treasure chest.

Due to the uniqueness of Minecraft worlds, some steps might take longer than usual. But because of these rewards, learning how to find buried treasure in Minecraft is one of the most useful exploration skills in the game.

What is a Buried Treasure?

Buried treasure is a loot chest in Minecraft with many rare items. From food items to tools and minerals, it has several things that can help you survive in the game. If you are planning to create a Conduit in Minecraft, you will need this chest. It is the only source of the Heart of the Sea. Creating a conduit with it will give you Minecraft beacon-like powers, but focus on underwater mobs.

How to Get a Buried Treasure Map?

A buried treasure is usually found on the ocean floor or buried under the beach. But you will need a buried treasure map to locate it. You can only find the map at two rare locations. The first one is the underwater ruin, which has less than a 50% chance of having the map.

The second location is the shipwrecks, which, at times, contain a map chest. If there’s a map chest, there will surely be a buried treasure map in it. For our tutorial, due to the higher spawn rate of map chests, we will focus on the shipwrecks instead of the underwater ruins.

Find a Shipwreck

As you can tell from the name, shipwrecks are damaged ship-like structures that spawn in the overworld. Unlike villages, shipwrecks are rarely generated structures. You can find them under the ocean, floating on the ocean surface, and sitting on the beaches.

So, you will have to visit all oceanic Minecraft biomes until you find a shipwreck. Looking underwater is the safest bet, as that’s where you will most commonly find it. If the shipwreck is underwater, it will look something like the screenshot below.

Yeah, some ocean biomes in Minecraft can limit your visibility, so using the Potion of Night Vision is a great workaround for finding these underwater structures. As a structure, the shipwreck is entirely made out of wood. Much like a real ship, it can have decks, masts, cabins, and even trap doors in it.

But most of the time, you won’t find a complete ship as a shipwreck. Most of them are missing either their front, rear, or other random parts. As mentioned earlier, finding a shipwreck in any condition is a good deal in itself. But then, you also need to hope that it has a buried treasure map on board.

Find a Map Chest

A shipwreck can have three chests at most. But only one of them will be a map chest. The map chests are located in the lower section of the shipwrecks. That means you will have to break some parts of the shipwreck before reaching the chest.

Once you find a map chest, you should look for a Buried Treasure Map in it. Every map chest in every edition of the game has it. Other than that, you can commonly find paper, feathers, and books in it. On rare occasions, you will also find a clock, a compass, or a regular map in the chests. You can place the buried treasure map in your inventory and exit the shipwreck to start the search.

How to Follow a Buried Treasure Map in Minecraft

The next step in learning how to always find buried treasure in Minecraft requires reading the map. Once you have the buried treasure map, make sure to place it in your active inventory – the bottom-most line in your inventory. This way, it will be visible throughout the game and accessible with ease. Then, scroll to it till your player has equipped it. You can then look at it. If you have used maps in-game before, it will look somewhat similar to this.

In terms of directions, the top of the map is North and the bottom is South. Meanwhile, the left side is West and the right side is East. A white circular mark will indicate your current position on the map. And finally, the red cross or the X on the map is where the treasure is buried. To make it work, you first need to understand the directions and your position in the Minecraft world.

How To Always Find Buried Treasure in Minecraft Using a Map

If you’re searching for the quickest tip on how to always find buried treasure in Minecraft Java and Bedrock, here are the steps that you should be following:

• With the treasure map open, check the area where you are on your map, and you will understand your geographical position.
• As you can see, my current location on the following map is South-East. That is the opposite of the X mark. So, I need to move North-Wast to get to the mark.

• Next, we need to check which direction our player is facing. On the Minecraft Java Edition, you can quickly press the F3 key to open up the information panel. On the left side, you will see the direction your player is facing.
• If you are playing the Bedrock edition, you will have to manually try moving in random directions or use the sunrise/ sunset to determine the correct movement. Even in Minecraft, the sun rises from the East and sets in the West.

• Next, once you know the direction you are facing in your Minecraft world, you need to move towards the ideal direction. In my case, the buried treasure is present in the North-West direction.
• So, I will move North first and West next once I am close to the mark. If you move in the correct direction, your map should look like the screenshot below after traveling some distance. Also, if you are close enough, you will start seeing the world forming on the map.

• Next, after you finish traveling in one direction and coming parallel to the X, it’s time to move towards it. Now, you need to move in the next direction, which is ideally towards the X.
• In my case, it is the West direction. If your player indicator has been close to the edge until now, you will start seeing it move towards the main part of the map.
• Keep moving until you are right on top of the X from every direction. The X should completely cover your player Indicator.

Dig and Loot the Buried Treasure Chest

Now, if you are lucky, you will find the buried treasure right below the “X” mark on the map. But most players have to dig the whole area around the X to find the buried treasure in Minecraft. It’s mostly buried in beaches, but sometimes you might also find it under the ocean floor. Usually, it is covered by either sand or gravel blocks. It can also have a stone on top of it in case of spawning into an underwater hill.

On opening the chest, you will see a ton of loot. The heart of the sea is always in a buried treasure. But you can also find a lot of other items, including armors and cooked salmon, to iron ingots and emeralds.

Now that you know how to find a buried treasure in Minecraft, you can take your ocean quests on a completely different level. And the best way to start one is with one of our best Minecraft seeds. These seeds spawn you on a survival island, offering you the perfect opportunity to look for buried treasures and go on sea adventures.

The treasure hunt in Minecraft is a fun adventure, but it is also time-consuming. So, don’t waste another moment and get exploring! And do share your experience with us in the comments below!