Tutorials/Exploring an ancient city

Ancient cities are among the most challenging structures to be in the game. There is very little light throughout the place, and the cities are home to wardens, which can easily smother players, even in full netherite armor.

Why bother?
There will be several benefits to go to an ancient city:


 * An easy way to obtain sculk blocks without a sculk catalyst.
 * Obtaining soul-related blocks and basalt without going to the Nether.
 * Easy way to obtain skeleton skulls without creating a charged creeper.
 * The useful Swift Sneak enchantment, which is exclusive to ancient cities.
 * Has the completely blast-resistant reinforced deepslate.
 * May have some interesting loot added later on.
 * The city can be converted into a mob-proof base after all the sculk shriekers are removed.

What you might need

 * Multiple stacks of wool for blocking off vibrations.
 * A pair of shears to break wool quickly, and to collect the wool generated on the floor of corridors in case you run out of wool.
 * Some iron ingots to craft more shears.
 * A hoe with Silk Touch for collecting the various sculk blocks, and to destroy the dangerous sculk shriekers.
 * The usual sword, pickaxe, and any other tools you usually take with you.
 * Lots of good food, like steak or golden carrots.
 * Some Night Vision potions.
 * Plenty of torches, at least two stacks.
 * A bed in case you die.
 * Some snowballs or eggs to distract the warden.
 * A bow, preferably enchanted with Infinity, to shoot arrows for distracting the warden. (Optional)
 * Some arrows, or just one if the bow has Infinity. (Optional)
 * A few milk buckets to remove the Darkness effect. (Optional)
 * Some snow blocks as a compact way to store snowballs, and to construct snow golems for distracting the warden. (Optional)
 * Some carved pumpkins to build snow golems for distracting the warden. (Optional)
 * Golden apples or enchanted golden apples to quickly heal. (Optional)
 * A full set of armor, ideally with Protection IV. (Optional)
 * It is not recommended to bring expensive tools or armor to the deep dark, since there are no regular hostile mobs that might attack you, and the warden is deadly in direct combat, even if the player has superior armor.

Starting Out
To prepare yourself for an expedition to an ancient city, there are a few things you will need to do.

Finding a City
You will first need to go to the deepslate layer, nearly to the bedrock level. If you mine into it from a higher height, there is a higher chance that you will mine into the city and likely die from fall damage. Once you get somewhere around Y -44, begin strip or branch mining. This will give you the highest chance of finding a city. The ancient city will also be more likely to spawn under the new mountain biomes.

What not to do

 * Try not to build or destroy anything unless you are sure there are not any s or s within a 9-block radius.
 * Try not to take any damage, keep your health bar at full.
 * Try your hardest to avoid alerting sculk shriekers or sculk sensors, so do not step on them.
 * Do not try to fight the warden under any circumstances. Instead, try to be as far away as possible, because it may sense your presence the closer you are to it and be able to track you down.
 * Do not place anything, including wool, on top of blocks. They will notify sculk sensor nearby, preventing you from occluding them.

Exploring the City
When you explore the city, the most important thing is to sneak constantly. This will make you slower unless you have Swift Sneak on your boots. Use your potions of Night Vision to see without having to place torches. Torches, however, are useful as a last resort if you run out of night vision potions or are under the Darkness effect, so use your night vision to identify spots where a sculk shrieker or sculk sensor will not notice the sound, and place torches in those places, so that you can see by their light later. There may be some areas where it is extremely difficult to get through if you have run out of night vision potions or have the darkness effect and you should simply avoid these areas until you are better equipped.

Evading the warden
Even the above strategies are not entirely foolproof, and it is still possible the warden will spawn sometime during your explorations. If this happens, you can still somewhat easily evade the warden without dying. When the warden spawns, it may be very tempting to sprint away, but it will hear your footsteps, start chasing you, and possibly kill you. You must keep sneaking and slowly move away, unless the warden has already begun chasing you. You can tell if the warden has begun chasing you because it will lean forward and roar. If the warden is currently chasing you, try to sprint to somewhere the warden cannot follow, such as though a two block high gap. Another strategy is to simply "nerd pole" up by placing blocks underneath your feet until you are higher than the warden. However, this is only feasible if you are already far away from the warden and it cannot knock you off your stack of blocks while you are building it. If the warden is near you but still has not taken notice of you, you can throw snowballs or eggs to distract it and lead it away from you. Make sure to throw the snowballs or eggs at least five seconds apart to keep the warden from getting angry.