Dungeon

Dungeons are small underground rooms in the Overworld that are often filled with dangerous Mobs.

Overview

Dungeons are small rooms made of Cobblestone and Mossy Cobblestone that contain a hostile Mob spawner and up to two chests. Finding a dungeon without a chest is possible, though unlikely. Anyone exploring a Cavern should be wary of encountering a dungeon, as they are almost always connected to large caverns, and are quite dangerous for unprepared players. Dungeons do exist on peaceful mode, but the Monster Spawner will not function. Dungeons will generate with either a Zombie (50% chance), Skeleton (25% chance), or Spider (25% chance) spawner.

History

Dungeons were introduced in the "Seecret Friday Update 2" to Infdev and 0.9.0 for the Pocket Edition. Dungeons were the only place where Mossy Cobblestone could be found in a natural map, but in update 1.3, Jungle Temples were introduced, that were also made of mossy cobblestone and cobblestone, and then later, in 1.8, the Mega Taiga biome was added, which had small boulders generated in them, containing a bit of Mossy Cobblestone.

Monster Spawner

Main article: Monster Spawner

A monster spawner spawns a mob or monster about 20 seconds after the first monster or Mob got spawned. The model will spin faster and faster until a mob spawns, at which point it will "reset". A monster spawner looks like a cage with a trapped monster or mob in it. As it spawns, the mob will leave a trail of smoke.

Tips

• Another reliable way of locating dungeons is through listening, either for a large amount of noise from one kind of mob, or for Ambience. Neither of these things are an exclusive trait of a dungeon, but they do mean that there is an unlit and unexplored area nearby, which may well be a dungeon, particularly in the case of frequent and similar mob noises.
• A sure way of knowing a dungeon is nearby is if there is cobblestone or mossy cobblestone underground (that was not placed by a player). This gives time to prepare to tackle the dungeon and face whatever mobs are inside. Either block can be seen on the side of a cavern.
• In a desert, one can find a 5x7 rectangular hole in the Sand which could be a buried dungeon.
• If all else fails, one can use a map viewer to search for mossy cobblestone blocks. To locate them, set the viewer to show only mossy cobblestone (data value 48), monster spawners (data value 52) or cobblestone (data value 4) that was not player-placed. Play the save file and head out to one such place and dig down until the dungeon is found. The viewer must be up-to-date, or it may crash upon trying to load blocks that it doesn't recognize.
• To defeat a dungeon, aside from the obvious method of fighting the monsters and lighting up the area, one can instead tunnel underneath it and destroy the spawner from below. It is also possible to flood the dungeon with lava, kill all of the mobs, then place torches to disable the spawner just as the last of the lava disappears.
• Digging around the sides of the dungeon will allow bypassing of the spawner and loot the chests directly without any risk of health loss. This can also be used to attack the mobs without health loss. However, this is not a good way to deal with spider spawners because Spiders can pass through holes that are one block high and at least two blocks wide.
• A fast way to collect loot from the chests is to destroy the chest rather than removing the items from it. This way, all the loot is collected, as well as the chest. But the player must be aware of their inventory, as it might be almost full.
• Dungeons do not spawn without being connected to some sort of cavern system, or other naturally generated structure.

Trivia

• Dungeons can spawn with a side open to a ravine. This can cause mobs to not spawn, as the dungeon is exposed to sunlight, or lead to mobs walking off the ravine cliff and falling to their deaths. Dungeons may also generate with their openings closed, but with walls exposed on the side of a ravine, acting as a flag to players. This happens as of Beta 1.8.1.
• Dungeons are almost always connected to a cavern, and because the cavern can be as small as a single block of air, the dungeon could completely overwrite it, usually resulting in a dungeon with no entrance. It is also possible to find up to two dungeons in a large cavern.

  

• Because Deserts are made of sand and dungeons are not generated with a roof, dungeons close to the surface can cause tell-tale rectangular pits. These pits can also be identified by cobblestone or Stone exposed by the fallen sand and can be easily looted during the daytime once excavated.
• Sometimes, dungeons can be found on the coast on beaches. It is similar to desert dungeons since the sand will cave in. Furthermore, Water can flood into the dungeon.
• It is possible, albeit rare, for the Player to spawn in a dungeon near the surface.
• Rarely, a Mushroom will appear in a dungeon on mossy cobblestone.
• Very rarely, there will not be a mob spawner in the dungeon. There is also a chance that the dungeon might be turned upside down. This is most likely a generation error. There may also be partially-generated dungeons near chunks that were re-generated.
• It is possible, though almost impossibly rare, for a dungeon to be generated at bedrock level, thereby deleting the bedrock. In which case digging through the mossy cobblestone can lead into the Void.

  

• It is possible for a dungeon to spawn over a lava pit. It is also possible that the dungeon does not have a cobblestone floor, or only a partial floor, resulting in a floating spawner. At around a floating spawner, in an open dungeon, is shown in this video.
• On peaceful, a monster spawner may spawn a monster that can attack once before quickly Despawning.
• Rarely, on peaceful, a monster spawner may spawn a monster that plays its sound file before it can despawn.
• Commonly, a monster spawner can be spotted from the surface. Islands of Gravel or sand will have an obvious ditch in them which can indicate a monster spawner which the sand or gravel has caved in on.
• It is possible, albeit rare, for a player to find a dungeon with two spawners and up to 4 chests. This occurs when a 5x5 dungeon spawns within a 7x7 dungeon, since the dungeon will remove any blocks from the walls or floor that open into a cave, the walls of the smaller dungeon will be removed, resulting in a 7x7 floor space with one spawner in the middle, and a second spawner adjacent or diagonally adjacent to the first.
• Sometimes, a dungeon can spawn in an ocean or lake, but very rarely. When this happens, it can make exploration deadly, as a player is likely to drown.
• Double-chest dungeons, as shown below, may have chests that form a perpendicular barrier between the wall and spawner (an exception to this would be in 7x7 dungeons, in which the chest cannot reach the spawner).
• Sometimes, dungeons can spawn at the lava level. This causes parts of the floor to be open directly to the lava. Around 1:20, a dungeon with a lava floor is shown.
• The mossy cobblestone pattern on the dungeon floor seems to have a pattern, most noticeable with a 5x5 dungeon, where a 2x2 cube of mossy cobblestone lays in one corner. It is unknown if this happens with 5x7 dungeons and, of course, the larger 7x7.
• Although extremely rare, three dungeons may spawn together or very close to each other, resulting in a massive amount of mobs and up to 6 chests. Due to the sheer amount of mobs generated, these dungeons may be very difficult to conquer (unless the game is set to Peaceful mode).
• If a dungeon loads in two chunks and one regenerates (often causing a flat vertical wall), the dungeon can become partially generated. This can be found if one of the walls of the dungeon is not cobblestone, but rather stone. Sometimes, the partially generated dungeon will not have a spawner or a chest. Example of a partially generated dungeon.
• Because some caves are deep, skinny pits, dungeons may have a small hole in the corner, which can be dangerous to both mobs and a player.
• Abandoned mine shafts can strip a dungeon apart, due to the arches and air overwriting the dungeon. The result is usually a partial floor and/or a missing wall. Strongholds also have this capability.
• Sometimes, three chests can be found in a single generated dungeon. This might be due to a generation bug.
• Prior to snapshot 11w48a, apples could only be found in dungeons.
• Somewhat rarely, dungeons may spawn with no chests.
• Prior to 1.8, dungeons could spawn quite high up, rarely appearing in mountains.
• Rather rarely, dungeons may spawn in underwater ravines, usually entered via the ravine's opening.
• An extremely rare bug can occur in which there is a dungeon on the surface of land. This was fixed later on.
• Dungeons can also spawn under a pool of lava, thus resulting in the destruction of the dungeon's chests; however, this is extremely rare.
• 2 dungeon chests may spawn next to each other, creating a large chest.

Gallery

Video

Dungeons - Minecraft Micro Guide

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References

See also

• Chest
• Cobblestone
• Monster Spawner
• Mossy Cobblestone
• Strongholds