- Mineshafts are underground structures in Minecraft that are primarily made of oak wood in most biomes and dark oak wood in badlands.
- You will find cave spider spawners, as well as rails and minecart chests that hold loot, such as bread, torches, redstone dust, and diamonds.
- To find a mineshaft, you can either explore the underground areas of the overworld or by using the "locate" command.
If you are exploring the underground portion of the Overworld, there is quite a high chance of you stumbling upon an abandoned mineshaft. This is a pretty old structure that has become one of the main symbols of Minecraft. In this guide, we walk you through everything you need to know about mineshafts in Minecraft, from their generation and appearance to the dangers and treasures you’ll find in them.
What are Mineshafts in Minecraft?
Mineshafts are underground structures that were added back in the 1.8 update. They are meant to present old and abandoned tunnels, which were used a long time ago for excavating precious ores.
Structure
The structure of mineshafts consists of long corridors intersecting with each other. They can also be connected via staircases. They include oak planks for the flooring and arches with some oak fences as supports.
Also, you will find intersections with oak planks as pillars, behind which a potential threat can hide. If the mineshaft tunnels are generated in a huge open cave, where the mineshaft floor doesn’t reach the cave floor, the whole mineshaft corridor will be supported by pillars of oak logs, connecting two floors. Moreover, in these locations, you’ll find plenty of chains, “holding up” the structure.
The description above applies to most mineshafts in your world, but not to all. As there is a variant of mineshafts in the badlands biome with dark oak wood instead of the regular oak wood. Moreover, those generate most of the time on the surface, so they are easily visible.
Furthermore, since mineshafts are abandoned for a long time in Minecraft lore, you’ll see a lot of cobwebs everywhere, to signify the presence of eight-legged creatures. Workers most likely used minecarts to export the goodies from the caves to the surface.
Thus, you’ll also find rails on the floor that randomly get cut off. Most importantly, in mineshafts, you’ll find minecarts with chests that will reward you for your trouble.
Mobs and Spawners
Talking about creatures found in mineshafts, all hostile mobs have a chance to spawn there since they appear underground in dark places. That’s why you should always be careful at intersections because a creeper could sneak up on you and blow up. However, there is a very unique mob that spawns exclusively in this structure, and that’s the cave spider.
These mobs in Minecraft are a variant of normal spiders but smaller and inflict poison effect when they hit you. The poison cannot kill you but can leave you at only half a heart if you do not heal on time. After that, any damage can finish you off, so make sure to eat immediately. They don’t spawn naturally, but only from a monster spawner when a player is nearby.
Those spawners are always enclosed in a dense cocoon of cobwebs. Those warn the player and stop them from disabling the spawner. Besides the cave spider spawners, you could stumble upon other spawners too, as they could have been naturally generated as part of the surrounding caves.
How to Find Mineshafts in Minecraft
Mineshafts are rather common and are generated in any Overworld biome in Minecraft. You can find them mostly underground on different Y levels. In addition, they can even appear close to each other, resulting in gigantic corridor systems. You are very likely to come across this structure while exploring caves or creating branch mines.
If you’re keen on finding it, it won’t be difficult at all. When it comes to mineshafts in the badlands biome, they are almost 100% of the time exposed on the surface. Furthermore, you can use in-game commands to locate this structure quickly. Press T on your keyboard, type in one of the following commands and press Enter.
/locate structure minecraft:mineshaft/locate structure minecraft:mineshaft_mesaAll the Loot in Minecraft’s Mineshaft
Mineshafts don’t possess any unique piece of loot that other structures don’t. However, you have a chance to find some amazing, rare, and useful items in those chest minecarts. The following table includes all the possible items or blocks found in the mineshafts and the likeliness of you finding them.
Loot Chance Rails 78.4% Torch 65.7% Name Tag 42.3% Glow Berries 38.7% Bread 38.7% Golden Apple 28.2% Coal 27.3% Beetroot Seeds 27.3% Melon Seeds 27.3% Pumpkin Seeds 27.3% Iron Ingot 27.3% Activator Rail 27.1% Detector Rail 27.1% Powered Rail 27.1% Lapis Lazuli 14.5% Redstone Dust 14.5% Gold Ingot 14.5% Enchanted Book 14.1% Diamond 8.9% Iron Pickaxe 7.0% Enchanted Golden Apple 1.4%
With that, you are ready to venture into the dark tunnels and corridors of Minecraft mineshafts in search of spawners, cobwebs, and chest loot. You could even turn it into a base of some sort, or at least make a rail track where you will ride your minecart to useful locations.
So, what do you think? What are your plans for these abandoned structures? Tell us down below!
The easiest way to find a mineshaft is just through exploring the caves underground. They are common big structures that stand out thanks to the bright oak planks.
Yes. The location of minecart chests is random and sometimes a whole mineshaft can generate without one.
Yes, mineshafts can be generated on any Y level.
