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One of the most exciting parts of Minecraft is exploration, which can sometimes reward you with precious loot and rare structures found in the wild. While it's relatively easy to find mineshafts, dungeons, or even villages, other structures are much rarer to come across.

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A particularly rare structure is the Woodland Mansion, which is often located thousands of blocks away from world spawn, within a dark oak biome. The Woodland Mansion is a necessary place to visit and conquer if you want to get your hands on the Totem of Undying, a rare item which allows you to cheat death.

Updated on February 18, 2024, by Eva Csaki: While a lot has been added to Minecraft in the most recent Caves and Cliffs update, Woodland Mansions remain one of the most interesting things to explore in any Minecraft world seed. To help you make the most fun out of this location type, we've updated this guide to bring you even more tips and tricks to taking down the Woodland Mansion. As a bonus, we've also added some recommendations for how to use the mansion once you've cleared it.

Get A Woodland Explorer Map

Minecraft: An image of the player holding a woodland explorer map

It's possible to come across a Woodland Mansion by accident, but the likelihood of this is minuscule. The best and most efficient way to find one is to get a Woodland Explorer map, which will show the exact position of the closest Woodland Mansion.

You can trade for the Woodland Explorer map by finding a village that has a cartographer villager.

If there are no cartographers, crafting a cartography table and placing it near a villager after destroying the block previously related to their job will usually do the trick.

Pack Up The Essentials

Minecraft: an image of the player's inventory

Once a map has been traded for, it's time to start preparing for a very, very long and potentially difficult trip.

If you are playing on hard difficulty in survival, it's even more important to go in after proper preparation, as the enemies at the mansion are not easy to deal with.

It's an absolute necessity to have at least diamond-tier armor, and if you can manage to craft it, Netherite armor is the best option. Diamond armor should be fully enchanted.

Prepare tons of food like cooked beef, as well as a few golden apples, potions of healing, torches, a spare bed, a shield, and an enchanted bow.

An enchanted crossbow is also an option.

A bow with Infinity will serve you best since it means that you won't waste inventory space on arrows.

Shulker boxes, firework rockets for the Elytra, and an Ender Chest are also necessary for a good time.

Make sure your Shulkers and Ender Chests are well stocked with replacement gear and food.

While dogs aren't exactly considered gear, they can help you immensely as you battle your way through the mansion. Just remember to bring some food or rotten flesh to feed them if they are injured.

You can only bring dogs with you if you walk to the mansion, otherwise, you will need to tame them nearby the mansion.

Other friendly mobs, like the Allay or mules, are also useful to bring along. Allays will pick up loot dropped in the mansion if you assign them a specific item to collect, and mules can carry chests on their backs to boost your storage capacity.

Potions are also incredibly useful. Consider the following potion options when you plan your inventory:

Potion

Recipe

Potion of Healing

  • Water bottle
  • Glistering Melon Slice

Potion of Regeneration

  • Water Bottle
  • Ghast Tear

Potion of Swiftness

  • Water Bottle
  • Sugar

Potion of Strength

  • Water Bottle
  • Blaze Powder

Potion of Invisibility

  • Potion of Night Vision
  • Fermented Spider Eye

Potion of Night Vision

  • Water Bottle
  • Golden Carrot

Take The Trip With An Elytra

Minecraft: The player uses an Elytra to fly into the stratosphere

Since the mansion is usually very far, going by foot is going to take a very long time, and is generally an inconvenient option. Because of this, it's best not to attempt taking down a Woodland Mansion prior to visiting the End and finding an Elytra.

On top of having an Elytra, it should either be enchanted with Mending, or you should have enough Phantom Membranes with you to fix it during your trip. You don't want to get stranded halfway to the mansion without an Elytra.

If you're traveling over land, consider using banners on a map to mark your path or structures you wish to return to later. You can name banners on an anvil, place them, and then interact with them with the map in your main hand to add that map marker to your map.

Don't destroy your banner. Doing so will destroy the marker.

Set Up A Long-Distance Nether Portal

Minecraft: An image of a Nether Portal in a field.

Alternatively, if you are well versed in Nether travel techniques, you can first set up a long-distance portal in the Nether.

One block in the Nether equals eight blocks in the Overworld, making it particularly useful for long-distance travel. It will still require a lot of walking and effort, but it's a nice emergency solution if no Elytra is available.

To know which way to set up a portal in the Nether, study the Woodland Mansion map to determine where the white dot is positioned.

For example, if the mansion is southeast of the dot, that's the general direction you should take in the Nether as well.

On PC, Pressing F3 in the Nether will show which direction you are facing.

If you're still struggling to find a Woodland Mansion and don't feel like taking the overland route, you can use cheats to find the mansion.

If you're playing on a PC, type the cheat: '/Locate structure minecraft:mansion'

Camp Outside Mansion

Minecraft: an image of a dirt house

After making the grueling trip to the mansion and finally finding it, it's time to scope it out.

Mansions being on fire due to nearby lava lakes is not unheard of, so if that's the case, make sure to put out the fire before losing all the loot inside.

Once the place is scoped out, it's time to set up an outpost.

The outpost can either be at the entrance of the mansion by the stairs or just outside in a separate shack. Here, a bed, a chest, and an Ender Chest, as well as a crafting table should be placed.

Optionally, you can also open up a Nether portal inside the mansion, which allows for quick travel through the Nether back to your original spawn.

Another possible option is to mine into a ground-floor room of the Woodland Mansion and use that room as your base of forward operations.

Many rooms have open archways to other areas, so be sure to close off the archway and create an entrance that you can easily exit while mobs cannot easily enter. Try using an iron door with a pressure plate on your side and a button on the mobs' side.

You can use this room to store loot that you get from the mansion gradually, and it will ensure that you can quickly spawn in the mansion and retrieve your dropped loot if you do end up dying to a mob.

Furthermore, you can stock this room with backup tools, so you can easily retrieve dropped loot.

When you're ready to enter the mansion, you can either enter it from the main entrance, use scaffolding to reach the roof and mine into the top floor, or mine into the walls of the mansion.

Any of these methods will get you into the mansion successfully. Choose whichever method is most beneficial for you.

Light Up The Structure

Minecraft: an image of an interior room of the woodland mansion, lit up by a chandelier of torches

Your priority is to light up the mansion. You will quickly notice that the mansion has unique inhabitants, but it is also flooded with regular mobs. There are a lot of narrow areas and secret spots in rooms where mobs can spawn in low light.

It might take a while, but going cautiously room by room, floor by floor, is a great idea to make sure any regular mobs aren't spawning around. The last thing you want is to deal with both a Creeper and a Vindicator.

A tip for clearing rooms one by one is to use dirt or other blocks to section off rooms and areas of hallways. This ensures that you can bottleneck mobs away from you and focus on clearing single areas at a time. You can always mine these make-shift walls later.

Spare The Vindicators

Minecraft: An image of a vindicator trapped in a fenced-in area

The first special enemy you are likely to run into is the Vindicator. These villagers will chase after you with an axe, and deal devastating amounts of damage with one hit alone. This is why a shield is vital when dealing with these guys.

Although your first reaction is no doubt to kill them as fast as possible, Vindicators are actually very precious. They can be used later for farming purposes if they're given the name tag Johnny.

Naming them Johnny makes them hostile to almost any mob out there, and very efficient in animal farming.

To spare Vindicators, try to trap them in corners by using dirt blocks.

Save Loot Regularly

Minecraft: An image of an ender chest in a small field

There's a lot of cool loot to be found in the Woodland Mansion. While it won't be at the level of End Cities, it's still worth keeping. Once you find Totems of Undying in particular, it's even more important to make sure you don't lose this rare loot.

Returning to the Ender Chest regularly to store any good loot is a great idea. It's also good for healing in between rooms or floors, or fixing any tools or armor that needs it. If there are a lot of mobs, your shield may wear off very quickly.

Make sure you keep your Ender Chest well stocked with any equipment you need. It's a good idea to have crafting blocks either in the chest or nearby. Consider stocking anvils, crafting tables, and other crafting blocks.

Keep A Distance When Fighting Evokers

Minecraft: An image of an evoker in a field

The second type of enemy found in the mansion is the Evoker. These mobs are pretty difficult to deal with, so it's important to try and attack them from a distance before they spot you. This is where a good bow or crossbow will come in handy.

The Evoker will spawn Vexes, which are tiny, evil fairy-like ghosts that follow you and are difficult to kill due to their unpredictable movement and small size. They're like an Allay's evil cousin.

However, once killed, the Evoker drops a Totem of Undying, which is the main reason why Woodland Mansions are worth visiting. Holding it in one hand while at the brink of death will spare you.

Totems of Undying are used up upon death, and if you want to spare yourself from an untimely end a second time, you will need to source another totem.

Check Enclosed Areas For Hidden Rooms

Minecraft: a hidden room in the woodland mansion, containing two Mooshroom statues and a trapped Mooshroom

The mansion has a bunch of truly unique rooms, but not every mansion will have every unique room possible. There's always a chance, however, that a mansion will have a hidden room. This is why you should try and keep track of the layout of the mansion to the best of your ability.

When in doubt, check behind walls. These secret rooms might not have incredible loot, but they're pretty cool to find nonetheless and tend to have distinctive layouts.

Once you've cleared the mansion of hostile mobs, you can dedicate some time to exploring every nook and cranny. You can also use the mansion as your new home base permanently and repurpose the many rooms, halls, and hidden rooms you find.

Since the Woodland Mansion is so large and holds so many rooms, one of the best uses of the mansion is to dedicate each room to storing a specific type of loot or using them as indoor mob or crop farms.

Remember that to grow crops indoors or underground, you will need a strong light source.

If you plan your new layout correctly, you can effectively convert a cleared Woodland Mansion into a fully self-sustaining base. It's also a great way to make sure all your friends have room to build at your base if you're playing in multiplayer.

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Minecraft Complete Guide And Walkthrough
Your complete guide to Minecraft.