Minecraft is a game about exploration and building, with hints of RPG adventure elements sprinkled here and there. As you venture out into the world, there's no telling what sort of secrets and loot you'll find. From dungeons to mineshafts to other dimensions only accessible by mysterious portals, Minecraft is stocked full of exciting chances to find some quality loot that is actually much more uncommon than you'd imagine.
If you're on the search for some particularly juicy items, this list of the rarest Minecraft items, including the Heart of the Sea, will definitely help you plan your next exploration trip better.
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Updated May 10th, 2021 by Anastasia Maillot: Although the 1.17 update hasn't come out yet, there's still quite a few treasures in Minecraft that are rare and worth going out to find or craft. Many of these are some of the most powerful items in the game, which can significantly improve your quality of life surviving the wilds.
Some of these additional items need to actually be crafted in order to get maximum value out of them, which is why they're even more valuable since they require quite a few rare resources. These items are rare in their own way, and always a treat to find during your adventures.
15 Music Discs
Music discs are something that might make players sigh in exasperation, but they're actually quite underrated as collection items. Each disc is rarer than the other, and only two discs can be found in dungeon loot. The rest are random drops from Creepers, when they're shot by a Skeleton.
There's also Pigstep, a special music disc exclusively found in Bastions, guarded by Piglins and Piglin Brutes. Some discs have bizarre music, while others are actually quite uplifting and nice. Their utility is mostly related to redstone wiring, which can be used to make elaborate doorbells or music players. To know more about music discs, check out our dedicated guide on them.
14 Banner Pattern
Banners are mostly there for decoration, but if you're dedicated to making your base look even nicer, you might want to try and get your hands on some of the cooler patterns. While most patterns like the Creeper Charge require rare items like a mob head to make, others can be found in the wild or traded for with a villager.
The Snout Pattern for example is found inside Bastion loot chests in the Nether. Cartographers will typically sell a Globe pattern for a few emeralds once they're leveled up, so you really have to work for some of the rarer, more unique patterns. On the bright side, they definitely look good.
13 Golden Apple
Golden apples aren't extremely rare compared to their Enchanted counterpart, but they're among the best foods in the game. They can make a huge difference during a fight, as they give the player two additional hearts and 5 seconds of health regeneration. Have one in a pinch, and it might just save your life.
Golden apples are found in a variety of places, including mineshafts, Bastion remnants, desert temples, dungeons, igloos, strongholds, underwater ruins, woodland mansions and in ruined portal chests.
12 Beacon
Beacons are a major endgame item that need to be crafted from another rare item: the Nether Star, dropped by the Wither once he's defeated. Beacons are powerful blocks that provide an area of effect once placed down and surrounded by full ore blocks. They're fantastic to plop in the middle of a Minecraft base for extra protection.
Beacons are somewhat complex blocks and there's a lot that goes into getting enough resources for one, as well as actually setting up one. To find out how to make one and use one, head over to our dedicated full beacon guide.
11 Dragon Egg
The Ender Dragon is by far the most daunting enemy in the game. Her egg allows players to summon the dragon again and continuously farm her for experience points if they so wish. It also generates a new portal to the End Islands whenever she's defeated again.
To summon her again, you'll need End Crystals placed around the central End island fountain. In order to actually pick up the egg, right click on it once when it appears on the fountain, and once it appears on the ground, dig two blocks underneath it, place down a torch and then break the block directly under the egg to make it fall on the torch.
10 Enchanted Books
While you can definitely just craft a book and then use the enchantment table to enchant it with a random effect, you can also find enchanted books out in the wilds. Some of the best places to look for them are mineshafts and desert temples.
However, if you're a bit low on time and can't leave your base's vicinity for some reason, there's also a slim chance that you might end up finding some while you're fishing. The better your fishing rod's enchantment is (Luck of the Sea III being the best one for looting), the more likely you are to find some.
9 Dragon's Breath
Many newer Minecraft players might not be aware of this, but if you take a peek into your achievements you'll get a nice hint as to this being an actual thing. Next time you're fighting the Ender Dragon take a bottle with you and acquire some of his purple breath.
Dragon's Breath is an item that will allow you to brew lingering potions, which means that the effects will linger over time. Moreover, if you do manage to catch some Dragon's Breath, you'll also get that nice achievement at the end of it, so make sure you try this next time if you haven't already.
8 Bottle O' Enchanting
The Bottle O' Enchanting is a special kind of potion that can't be consumed. Instead, this enchanted looking vial needs to be tossed at your own feet so you can collect the XP points that come out. While one bottle only contains about 3-11 points and won't necessarily make massive progress for you, they're a nice handy thing to have around if you stumble upon them.
They are most often found in pillager outposts, and occasionally in the treasure chests of shipwrecks.
7 End Crystal
After you've defeated the Ender Dragon, you can actually beat him again provided that you have the right items at hand. If you have four Ender Crystals and place them around the portal facing the pillar in the middle of the Ender Dragon's spawning area, you'll be able to spawn the dragon once more.
These crystals don't actually spawn as they are but must be crafted out of glass, an Eye of the Ender, as well as a Ghast Tear. Given that it requires two relatively difficult to obtain items, the Ender Crystal itself is a pretty uncommon object and a big advantage to have in order to respawn the dragon once again.
6 Heart Of The Sea
If you've ever dreamed of making your base underwater, you actually can. However, the process of actually getting everything to build a Conduit is not the easiest. The first thing you'll need is a Heart of the Sea, a blue orb that is found in buried treasure chests relatively often.
After you have the heart, you'll need to arrange eight Nautilus Shells around it to craft a Conduit. To then power it, you'll be needing any type of prismarine blocks found in ocean temples. All of these items being so rare and hard to find, the Conduit is one of the best items in the game as it provides better vision and the ability to breathe underwater in an area of effect.
5 Nether Star
You may have seen some players build large pyramids with diamond and gold blocks, paired with a beacon block at the top. These beacons give you incredible bonuses when you're in their vicinity, from constant regeneration to increased mining speed.
To build a beacon, however, you need a Nether Star, which is a rare item dropped by one of the game's bosses known as the Wither. He's a difficult one to beat, even with multiple players pitted against him, but it's totally worth the effort once you set up your beacon.
4 Elytra
Who wouldn't want to fly in Minecraft survival? It sounded like an impossibility for the longest time, but that's not the case with the Elytra in the game now. The Elytra is a chest armor piece you can find in End Cities that have an End Ship attached to them.
Once equipped, you'll be able to glide through the air and if you're particularly good with your movement, never take damage ever again. To get the Elytra you first need to defeat the Ender Dragon before you can gain access to the End islands. There, it might take a while before you even come across an End City, but your trek will be worthwhile.
3 Wither Skeleton Head
Those coal-black skeletons in the Nether might seem frightening, but they carry one of the rarest items in the game: the Wither Skeleton Head. You might ask yourself why you would ever need one, but if you ever want to summon the Wither and get your hands on a Nether Star, you'll require three of these.
There's a very slim chance that at death a Wither Skeleton will drop their head. However, we recommend equipping your best Looting III sword before taking on the task. Otherwise, you might be waiting for a while in the Nether before you actually find a single head.
2 Enchanted Golden Apple
The Golden Apple is a nice but fairly common drop in dungeon chests and the like. However, the Enchanted Golden Apple is even more powerful with its effects, giving you 2 minutes of Absorption IV, Regeneration II for 30 seconds, Fire Resistance for 5 minutes and Resistance for 5 minutes.
You have a very, very slim chance of finding this rare treat in dungeon chests, desert temples, mineshafts, and even woodland mansions. While it can spawn in a couple of places, the likelihood of that happening is so small that to this day it remains a highly coveted item in Minecraft.
1 Totem Of Undying
How would you like to be immortal? This is now possible, thanks to the Totem of Undying, an item which nullifies your death if you happen to carry it with you.
However, in order to get this totem, you'll need to make a trek to your closest woodland mansion, which according to current world generation rules usually is several thousands of blocks away. Some players have even reported traveling up to 20 000 blocks to find one. Once there, you'll need to defeat an Evoker, which will always drop a totem at death.