Tutorials/Defeating a woodland mansion

Woodland mansions are special structures found in dark forests. They are highly anticipated to explore because they are inhabited by the illagers and are one of the only reliable ways to find the totem of undying (the only other way is to kill evokers spawned from raids), an extremely useful item that can save you from death. This makes woodland mansions a great place to go before fighting bosses.

Exploration checklist
Exploring a mansion requires a lot of preparation, but not everyone has the same skills. So depending on how skilled you are, different preparations may be needed. The following is a suggested collection of equipment you might need:


 * An iron sword at minimum. Enchantments such as Sharpness and Fire Aspect will give you an easier time fighting the illagers, while Knockback helps keep a safe distance from vindicators.
 * A bow for ranged combat against evokers. Enchantments such as Power and Flame enable quicker kills, while Punch knocks the illagers back a safe distance.
 * Crossbows are an alternative to bows, although bows are sufficient.
 * One arrow with Infinity, or a stack of 64 at minimum
 * A full set of high-durability iron armor at minimum. Protection allows you to take less damage from evocation fangs, even though evocation fangs bypass armor, and guarantee higher survivabiliy against a vindicator’s ambushes.
 * A iron axe for breaking through walls and revealing secret rooms.
 * Highly nutritious food, such as bread, baked potatoes or cooked meat
 * A shield for protection against vexes, as well as vindicators as they cannot disable shields.
 * A stack of 64 cobblestone, dirt or any other expendable block for quick towering, hiding, etc.
 * A bed to set your respawn point outside the mansion in case you die
 * Several stacks of torches to light up the mansion and prevent common hostile mobs from spawning
 * A woodland explorer map to track down the mansion

Optional equipment

 * A pair of elytra (with Firework Rockets) to get to the mansion as fast as possible
 * A trident enchanted with Riptide makes travel even faster during storms
 * An anvil to repair your tools
 * A few golden apples for quick healing cover
 * Can be substituted for enchanted apples
 * Healing or regeneration potions for faster health recovery
 * A few strength potions for the upper hand in combat
 * A shulker box or ender chest for easier transportation of items
 * A few ender pearls for quick escape, if necessary
 * A few stacks of harming arrows or poisoned arrows for easier elimination of enemies
 * A few invisibility potions for unnoticed infiltration
 * A flint and steel if you want to burn down the mansion

Sword / Axe
Your sword or axe is your primary melee weapon for eliminating vindicators or cornering evokers. Although the durability of axes decreases more rapidly when used as a weapon, critical hits deal extremely heavy, if not fatal, blows to your target, and they can also be used to punch through walls for uncovering secret rooms.

Bow / Crossbow
Your bow, a secondary weapon, should be used for taking out enemies from a distance if there are many gathered together. When in melee combat, it is always safer to fall back to ranged combat if you’re swarmed by illagers. If you take a crossbow with you, however, make sure that an arrow has already been loaded for a faster first shot.

Armor
Armor is a must-have when exploring a mansion, because vindicators have one of the strongest direct attacks of any hostile mob, and vexes also have substantial melee damage. Iron armor should be worn at minimum, and protection helps to reduce damage from evocation fangs that would otherwise completely bypass armor and shields.

Food
Nutritious food, such as steak and cooked porkchops, are absolutely necessary for healing after a fight.

Expendable blocks
Cobblestone is the go-to expendable block for building a protective cover to heal, towering or bridging your way across. Although dirt is much easier to gather, keep in mind that it’s not as tough and can be destroyed by a creeper explosion. However, if evocation fangs are coming your way, use dirt instead of cobblestone to build a barrier such that you can quickly mine and escape if the fangs pass through.

Torches
A few stacks of torches provide better visibility in dark corners, and prevent common mobs from spawning.

Water bucket
Used to break your fall. Necessary for all missions, no matter the difficulty.

Shield
A shield (or two for backup) is recommended for a mansion venture because it can be used to block melee attacks. Just be more careful when using a shield against vindicators, as their axe attacks can disable it.

Explorer map
The main way to locate a woodland mansion without cheats. Woodland explorer maps can be obtained from cartographer villagers.

Elytra
As mansions are typically thousands of blocks away, a pair of elytra combined with firework rockets will suffice for a speedier and more efficient journey to the mansion. Just make sure you’ve packed enough phantom membranes for repair, or enchanted the elytra with Unbreaking (and posibly Mending) for it to last longer.

Healing items
Powerful illager attacks can bring you to a vulnerable state at times, so golden apples, healing potions and regeneration potions will come in handy for a swift healing cover. Enchanted apples can heal you more than regular ones, but since they are extremely rare, use them sparingly if you get your hands on some.

If you do obtain a Totem of Undying by killing an evoker, do place it in your left hand slot as soon as possible, as shields aren’t as useful in woodland mansions due to the illagers’ shield-piercing or shield-disabling attacks.

Helpful potions
Potions enhance your performance, which can be highly beneficial although not necessary. Strength potions can give you the edge in combat, while invisibility potions can allow you to sneak into loot rooms given that you’re unarmored.

Ender chest / shulker box
These make transportation of loot much easier, as mansions are very far from the spawn point. You can even pack backup gear in the ender chest, which you can place at the mansion’s entrance along with a bed, such that if you die, you’ll be able to respawn at your ender chest and quickly ready yourself for a counterattack.

Ender pearls
Ender pearls can be used for quick travel across mansion floors, or escaping from a crowd of illagers. On the journey, if your elytra breaks while you are flying, throw an ender pearl to the ground to break your fall.

Obtaining the map


All players begin the journey to the woodland mansion with a woodland explorer map, which you can get by trading with a cartographer for 12-14 emeralds and a compass. If you don't know what a cartographer looks like, find a villager wearing a golden monocle. You need to trade paper at novice level, and glass panes at apprentice level. The cartographer sells the map at journeyman level. $$, the journeyman-level cartographer always sells the map, but $$, they have a $1/3$ chance to sell it. You must repeat the trade enough to level them up.

Patterns
Once you obtain the map, it has the same appearance as a normal map in your inventory, but it has patterns that represent the landscape and a little house-shaped icon that indicates where the mansion is. The solid colors represent landmasses, and the stripes represent bodies of water. The map also shows a pointer that tells you where you are.

Leaving your base
Once you obtain the map, you need to do a few other things before you go. Make sure you have an extra compass. It is probably the most important thing to have, because it helps you find your way back home. You need to trade one in to unlock trades that lead up to the map trade, and one is necessary for the map trade, so you need to make three in total. However, the compass needle points to your original spawn point or a lodestone, and not your bed. The direction the needle points never changes, so just in case your house is far away from your original spawn point or you don’t have lodestone yet, write down the coordinates of your house in your book.

Taking off
Once you know your original spawn point and the location of your house, you are just about ready to go. Make sure you have all of the necessary equipment, as well as the map. Put your shulker boxes, your anvil, your tipped arrows, your potions, extra firework rockets, and extra food into your ender chest. Keep your compass, four or five stacks of rockets, and two stacks of food with you. Before you leave, organize your inventory so that your hotbar contains the following:


 * Your sword
 * Your bow or crossbow
 * Your pickaxe
 * Your golden apples
 * A full stack of ender pearls
 * A full stack of food
 * Two full stacks of rockets
 * Your trident

Make sure you are wearing all of your armor, and instead of your chestplate, wear your elytra (if you are using one). Hold the map in your left hand, so that you don't have to keep switching between the map and your rockets while you fly. The pointer is still big enough to see. To start flying, jump off a mountain, or launch yourself straight up into the air with your trident. Now you can begin the great journey to the mansion.

Finding new places
Since the journey to the mansion is extremely long, you can find several new places along the way, some that you have never seen in your world before. You may even find loot in these places, and traveling with the elytra allows you to explore them completely. Write down the coordinates of these places in your book, so that you can come back to them later, and keep the book in your ender chest.

Villages


Villages are the most common places to find along the way to the mansion because they can generate just about everywhere. The village buildings may have different terrain, based on whether they generate on flat land or on a cliff. To land safely, either make a sharp turn or dive into the nearest body of water.

The design of the buildings differs based on what biome the village is in. There are several different buildings, including residential houses, the church or temple, the library, and the blacksmith. The blacksmith's shop has a grindstone, and a chest with simple loot, such as iron or gold. You may even find a diamond or two, and take any bread that is in the chest, because you need as much food as possible. There may also be other buildings in the village that have chests.

Before you leave, check the farms to see if there are any new crops. If you do not have any of a certain type of crop, such as carrots or beets, take them, and replant some seeds for the villagers to use. Do a few simple trades, so that you can get XP and repair your Mending tools.

Temples
Besides villages, you can find several other structures as well. In deserts and jungles, you can find desert pyramids and a jungle temple or two. Even though you can loot them quickly, they are still very fun to check out, because you have to disarm traps and solve puzzles to access the chests.

In your encounters with oceans along the journey, you may find some shipwrecks, underwater ruins, or even an ocean monument, which can be almost as rare as the mansion. They are inhabited by guardians and elder guardians, and have complex puzzles as well, so they are fun to explore. However, exploring them requires entirely different equipment. Just write down the coordinates of the monument, so that you can come back to it on a different mission.

Biomes
You will for sure find new biomes along the way. However, you can ignore the plains, the forest, the swamp, and the extreme hills, since there are already several near your house and you will find many more along the journey.

You may not have seen many biomes before. For example, the desert and the savanna may be new to you. It is also possible to find some rare biomes, such as the jungle, the badlands, the snowy tundra, and even the ultra-rare mushroom biome. Write down the coordinates of all new biomes you find, because you may not find others like them for a long time.

Some biomes may have brand-new plants. For example, the savanna is the only place where you can find acacia trees, and the jungle is the only place where you can find jungle trees, cocoa beans, and bamboo. If you find one of these biomes with unique trees, land with your elytra, and collect a few stacks of wood. Take at least a stack of cocoa beans and bamboo if you are in a jungle. Collect at least ten saplings as well, so that you can grow them back home. Keep all of the new plants you find in one of your shulker boxes.

The new biomes you find may also inhabit animals that are new to you. For example, you can find parrots, ocelots, and pandas in the jungle, and mooshrooms in the mushroom biome. Come back to these biomes on a different trip, so that you can tame these animals. Unfortunately, ocelots are not tamable, so you can interact with them only while you are in the jungle. However, you can tame parrots and take them home, and even though mooshrooms and pandas aren't tamable, you can still bring them home using leads.

Arriving at the mansion
The journey to the mansion requires at least an in-game week if you travel nonstop. But eventually, the pointer on the map grows bigger, indicating that you are getting closer to the mansion. Once the pointer starts moving on the map, the mansion is near. It becomes visible when you get close enough. It is a huge brown house with massive windows. Explore all of the territories on the map, in case there is a special biome or structure nearby.

Entrance
Once you find the mansion, the great journey is complete. The entrance of the mansion is quite easy to find, as the mansion has only four sides. There is cobblestone on the windowsills as well as the entrance, but the entrance has cobblestone stairs and slabs as well as regular cobble. Since the mansion is always in the dark forest, there are many trees around it. There is sometimes a river in front of the mansion, as well as a smaller grove of trees. Land with your elytra on one of the trees and descend to the ground by jumping into the water.

Base
Before you even think about entering the mansion, you should set up a small base outside. The best place to build it is in the grove of trees, or on the riverbank. Clear out some of the grass, and build a 7&times;7 platform out of the cobblestone you have. You should cut down a few trees with your axe and build a fence to protect your base from evil creatures. You can also make a furnace and use the extra wood to make sticks and charcoal for more torches. Place your bed in the middle of the platform and sleep in it immediately. If you have arrived during the day, just touch the bed, because you need to set your respawn point as soon as possible. Place your ender chest on the platform as well, with a one-block gap between it and the bed. Get out one of your empty shulker boxes, and put away your extra equipment, such as your elytra, your leftover rockets, your trident, and the map, and put the box next to your ender chest. Take out your potions, your anvil, and an additional stack of food. Now you are just about ready to enter the mansion.

Navigating the mansion
Once inside, create a small shelter with a crafting table, a bed and chest, preferably an ender chest. This way, you can ready backup equipment if you ever die.

Stay alert as you explore. There’s nothing more awful than getting surprised by a creeper explosion and dying on the spot, losing all your experience points in the process. Vindicator ambushes are another threat as they deal hefty amounts of damage.

For added security, you could head to the second floor immediately to kill an evoker and get its Totem of Undying, before exploring normally afterwards floor-by-floor.

If you spot groups of illagers in the distance, use a ranged weapon to take them out one-by-one. Against lone ones, however, don’t hesitate to dispatch them with your sword or axe.

Don't bother looking in storage room chests; they contain nothing, and looking through them leaves you vulnerable to ambushes.

Always look out for solid walls where windows should be, or strange missing spaces in-between rooms; these could indicate a secret room behind. Two of them contain obsidian with a diamond block in the center, so be sure to take with you a diamond pickaxe to extract the diamonds within.

If you plan to make the mansion your base, be sure to light up every room to prevent hostile mob spawning. Be careful not to accidentally set anything on fire or let creepers sneak up on you.

Vindicators
Vindicators have HP, which means they’re not the beefiest mobs out there. However, their punishing axe blows deal a maximum of damage on Hard difficulty, and are especially dangerous if their axes are enchanted.
 * As shields are redundant, quickly attack them until they die.
 * Against a group, either strike before retreating, or build a 3-block tall pillar to hit your assailants from above.
 * They drop 0-2 emeralds upon death and have a chance of dropping their iron axe as well.

Evokers
Evokers have HP like vindicators, but have a more unconventional fighting style. When within a 16-block radius, they summon a row of evocation fangs that bypass armor and shields, and when cornered, they summon a ring of said fangs instead. Evokers may also summon three vexes to join the fight, and flee at the player’s sprinting speed when cornered.
 * Shooting them with a ranged weapon is the safest way to defeat an evoker.
 * Melee combat is also possible; corner the evoker into a small space while dodging any fangs that come your way, before striking repeatedly until it dies.
 * Upon death, evokers drop their Totem of Undying as well as 0-1 emeralds.

Vex
Summoned by evokers, vexes can fly through walls and floors to attack their target by surprise. Despite their low health pool, they deal up to damage on Hard difficulty, meaning that they’re not to be trifled with.
 * Time your hits well against vexes, and retreat if necessary to avoid getting struck.
 * Against a swarm of vexes, just flee from the scene and ignore them; they drop nothing when killed anyway and will despawn within 2 minutes.

Melee Warfare
The easiest and fastest way to conquer a mansion, given that you have good fighting tactics.

Required Items:
 * Iron sword / axe
 * Bow / crossbow
 * Full set of iron armor
 * Plenty of food
 * Fairly good fighting skills


 * Procedure:

Using a sword or bow, attack the illagers head on. Take down the mansion room by room, and punch holes in the walls to look for secret rooms.

Water Defense
Required Items:
 * Sword
 * Bucket of Water
 * Bow and Arrows

Carry your water bucket in your hand. When you see a Vindicator, apply the water bucket to the floor right underneath you to make a water pool. Stand in the water and hit the Vindicators with your sword. Shoot any Evokers with your bow.
 * Tip: Dig up the carpet as you walk so you can see where you have been.

Foolproof Attack
If those illagers are scaring you, then try this method! Based on the idea that all illagers can be hit with arrows, this strategy relies on raiding the mansion from above, clearing one room at a time.

Required Items:
 * Sword ( iron at minimum)
 * Bow ( preferably enchanted)
 * Arrows ( bring a lot, or use infinity)
 * Gravel or Sand ( a few stacks should do)
 * Food
 * Axe and Pickaxe
 * Bed ( any color)


 * Procedure:

Climb to the top of the mansion. From there, build a small base with a bed and a few chests. Next, mine out the ceiling of a room. Using your bow, shoot the mobs from above. Drop gravel over the doorways to prevent more mobs from entering, collect the drops, then proceed to the next room. Repeat until you have raided the entire top floor. There can be up to 3 floors. Because the entire ceiling is broken off, you can easily find all of the secret rooms. In rooms with lots of illagers, drop gravel or sand around the vindicators and shoot the evoker. Then, kill the vindicators after collecting the drops from the evokers. This way, you don't lose drops while killing other mobs.

Infiltration
As long as you have some spare blocks and potions of invisibility, you can make raiding the mansion easier.

Required Items
 * Potion of Invisibility
 * Spare blocks, like cobblestone
 * All other regular supplies (maybe a melee weapon and golden apples in emergencies)
 * Ender pearls (optional)


 * Procedure:

Get in the mansion with invisibility, once you see an illager, cover it with blocks to trap it. Do not get too close, as they will notice you, even with invisibility. Make sure to bring enough invisibility potions and drink another one when the effect is about to expire, in emergencies where you lost invisibility, either escape with ender pearls, or if you have the equipment, put on a brave face, armor and sword and kill the monsters melee!

Raid Squad
If you have friends that have survived alongside you, you may bring them with you, so you can fight the illagers as a team. You can use different equipment, to be more like a squad, or just use strong equipment, regardless of team member's choices.

Required Items


 * At least another player (the more, the better)


 * Equipment for melee warriors, which includes:
 * A sword (enchanted, netherite, diamond or iron)
 * Armor (full armor, enchantments, netherite, diamond or iron)
 * A shield (enchanted)


 * Equipment for ranged fighters, which includes:
 * A bow or crossbow (enchanted)
 * Arrows (several stacks, or use Infinity on bow)
 * Armor (can be iron or chain, as long as they are away from melee combat)
 * Tipped arrows (few stacks)
 * A sword (for emergencies)


 * Equipment for potion wielders, which includes:
 * Ranged potions (negative effects for enemies, positive for allies, use healing on undead mobs)
 * Armor (iron, avoid melee combat)
 * Sword (same as above)


 * Equipment for mining looters, which includes:
 * A sword (iron or better, take enchanted as better)
 * Armor (same as above)
 * 2 Pickaxes (diamond, enchanted, one with Fortune, the other with Silk Touch, both with Efficiency and Unbreaking)
 * 1 Axe (diamond, enchanted)
 * Healing items, like potions and golden apples (all the team)
 * Nourishing food (all the team)
 * Chests (normal and ender, all the team)


 * Procedure:

As a team, enter the mansion together and stay alert. Once in combat, try to fulfill your roles. The melee fighter should act as a tank, stopping enemies from attacking their less protected teammates, while the sniper should attack from away, maybe with the miner watching their back, and the potion mage should try to help their allies, by healing them and attacking their enemies with potions, choosing the effects on their potions wisely. If done correctly, you can defeat your enemies without much damage to your team. Once having cleared the mansion, the miner should open the secret rooms with their tools, while all the team collects the loot. When you are finished, go back to your base with your new, valuable loot.

Wolf Army

 * Equipment:
 * 10 or more tamed wolves
 * 1 or more iron golem(s). They are much stronger than wolves, but they also require a lot of iron to craft.
 * A diamond or iron sword, enchanted if possible
 * A bow and arrows
 * Full diamond or iron armor, enchanted if possible
 * Lots of food, including meat to heal the wolves
 * As many torches as possible
 * Basic equipment such as pickaxe, chest, etc.
 * Rotten flesh to heal the wolves.


 * Procedure:

Enter the mansion with your wolves. If you want to use the mansion as a home base, light up the rooms. When you see an enemy, attack it. Your wolves will then attack and finish the job. If you see an evoker, avoid the fangs and shoot at it with your bow. The wolves will also protect you from any hostile mobs that attack you. Heal your wolves by feeding them meat when they take damage. WARNING: the wolves may die, so don't use ones you're attached to.

"Johnny" strategy
Keep naming Vindicators "Johnny" until you have enough of them, so they attack all remaining mobs. Remember to dig for hidden rooms. It is also mandatory to make the mansion your home. Just make sure they don't attack you.
 * Equipment
 * 5 or more name tags
 * 1 netherite, diamond or iron sword
 * 2 axes
 * 2 pickaxes
 * Invisibility potions (to avoid vindicator attacks)
 * Many torches.
 * Procedure

TNT Raid
Mine holes in strategic places and place TNT in them. Make sure most of them are relatively close to the wall. You can use flint and steel, but Redstone is recommended for a good blast. If done correctly, it will kill most hostile mobs, but leave the items and rooms intact. This is also a good way to uncover secret rooms.
 * Equipment
 * A few stacks of TNT
 * 1 iron, diamond or netherite axe enchanted with Unbreaking
 * Flint and steel
 * Optional
 * Redstone of your choice
 * Procedure

Burning
The way to uncover all secret rooms and defeat most of the mobs


 * Equipment
 * Flint and Steel


 * Procedure:

Stay on the outside of the mansion and run around using flint and steel to burn the building.

Loot
The mansion is made up of several rooms and some of them contain chests with loot in them.

The majority of the chests found in the mansion contain the same loot as chests found in a Dungeon would contain, however, there are some exceptions to this rule.
 * The chest generated in the "Allium room" contains 8 Alliums.
 * The chest generated in the "Sapling farm room" contains 28 Dark Oak Saplings.
 * The chest generated in the "Checkerboard room" contains a secret loot chest at the top.
 * The chest generated in the "X room" contains a loot chest at the corner.
 * The chest generated in the "Gray banner room" contains a loot chest behind the construction, with a vindicator guarding it.
 * The chest generated in the "Wood archway room" contains a loot chest at the end of the long corridor, with a vindicator guarding it.
 * The chest generated in the "Winding stairway room" contains a loot chest at the bottom.
 * The chest generated in the "Bedroom w/ loft" contains a loot chest at the loft.
 * The chest generated in the "Clean chest room" contains a loot chest at the center.
 * The chest generated in the "Roof-chests room" contains two loot chests at the secret attic.
 * The chest generated in the "Arena room" contains a loot chest on its loft.
 * The trapped chest generated in the "Fake End portal room" contains 2 Ender Pearls (Note that this chest is linked to two blocks of TNT, which ignite if the trap is sprung, causing silverfish to crawl out of the infested cobblestones).
 * The chest generated in the "Tree chopping room" contains an Iron Axe enchanted with Efficiency I.
 * The chests generated in the large and small storage room and mushroom farm are always empty.

Pay attention to the walls, some have secret rooms that can have enchanted golden apples if your version of Minecraft still has them.

Aside from chests, there are also several valuable blocks that the player can scavenge from the mansion's rooms, for example: the "Obsidian room" and the "Lava room" both contain a Diamond Block, the "Illager statue room" contains a hidden Lapis Lazuli block, a lot of the furniture can be dismantled into loot and the Jail rooms contain Redstone circuitry, just to name a few.

For further information, please see the page woodland mansion/loot.

Post-Exploration
After the mansion is looted, there are a number of things you can do with it. You can turn it into a home, burn it down, systematically dismantle it to get extra resources, or just leave it as it is.

Turn it into a home
Turn the mansion into your base. Light it up and clear out all hostile mobs. You can use the original rooms, or tear down the inner walls and build them how you want. Make sure to change the beds in the bedrooms so you can sleep them. Add a kitchen, bathroom, anything you want. You can even redesign the whole mansion. See Grian's channel on youtube for tips.

Make a villager breeder or any type of farm inside
You can build some type of farm(s) inside. You can make a spider farm with the spider spawner, bring in villagers for villager trading halls, or make the building a giant crop farm.

Build a community building
Use the woodland mansion for a community building. Redo the inner walls and move it to the location you want using mods. Some ideas are making a hotel, town hall, or factory.

튜토리얼/삼림 대저택 정복 教程/征服林地府邸