Generated structures

This article is about natural buildings and other structures. For terrain features, see Terrain features.

This page lists generated structures in Minecraft. A generated structure is defined as any structure that is disabled when the "Generate structures" world creation option is turned off. Some structures, such as dungeons and desert wells, do still generate with this option turned off; however, they are listed on this page due to them having the appearance of an artificial structure as opposed to a natural formation.

Overworld

Main article: Overworld

The Overworld contains numerous generated structures, at a wide variety of scales.

Underground structures

These structures can only generate underground in normal worlds, although in Superflat they can generate above ground in Java Edition and in custom worlds mineshafts can generate aboveground in the void in Java Edition.

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Mineshaft	Any	A maze of corridors supported by wooden beams, with incomplete rail systems on which minecarts with chests can generate. Cave spider spawners may generate here heavily surrounded by cobwebs. In Badlands biomes, they use dark oak planks instead of oak planks, and may generate close to the surface.	Common
Stronghold	Any	Maze-like stone bricks structures containing many rooms, including one with a usually unactivated end portal frame. They have a specific, fixed way of generating, and a maximum of 128 can generate in a single world.‌[Java Edition only]	Rare
Buried Treasure	Beach Snowy Beach Stony Shore	A single hidden chest containing valuable loot that spawn in beach/shore biomes. They are easily found using treasure maps located in shipwrecks and occasionally ocean ruins.	Rare

Aboveground structures

These structures only generate aboveground (the Igloo does have an underground portion sometimes)

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Desert Pyramid	Desert	Large sandstone buildings containing four loot chests in an underground room hidden beneath terracotta. The chests are trapped with TNT which detonate when the stone pressure plate in the center is stepped on, destroying the chests and their contents.	Uncommon
Igloo	Snowy Plains Snowy Taiga	Snow buildings that may have a basement hidden under carpet. The igloo itself contains nothing much of interest, but the basement has a villager and a zombie villager held captive behind iron bars. The splash potion of weakness on the brewing stand, together with the golden apple in the loot chest, can be used to cure the zombie villager.	Rare
Jungle Temple	Jungle Bamboo Jungle‌[JE only]	Overgrown cobblestone structures containing two loot chests, with one trapped with two dispensers firing arrows and the other hidden behind a lever puzzle. Setting the correct combination for the lever puzzle moves a block on the main floor, revealing a hidden cavity and the chest.	Rare
Pillager Outpost	Plains Desert Savanna Taiga Snowy Taiga‌[BE only] Snowy Plains	An assortment of structures spawning pillagers. The main feature of interest is the watchtower: a tall structure built with wood and cobblestone that generates a loot chest on the top floor. Located around the watchtower are up to four small structures, including tents, target scarecrows, and wooden cages sometimes containing an iron golem.	Rare
Swamp Hut	Swamp	Also known as witch huts, these are small wooden buildings on log stilts containing a cauldron and crafting table. It spawns witches and, upon generation, one black cat. The cat and the first witch do not despawn naturally. You can use these witch huts to create a witch farm, as the witches will spawn automatically.	Rare
Village	Plains Desert Savanna Taiga Snowy Taiga‌[BE only] Snowy Plains Sunflower Plains‌[BE only]	A collection of houses and job sites inhabited by villagers of random professions and up to two iron golems. They are constructed with a wide variety of materials, depending on the biome that they generate in. Although village buildings do not have variants for jungle and swamp biomes, villagers wear different outfits when spawning in said biomes.	Uncommon
Woodland Mansion	Dark Forest	Massive, systematically-generated buildings constructed with dark oak wood and a cobblestone foundation. They contain many rooms (some hidden) and loot chests in their three floors, and are inhabited by vindicators and evokers that do not naturally despawn.	Rare

Aboveground and Underground structures

These structures generate both aboveground and underground.

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Ruined Portal	Any	An incomplete nether portal constructed with various types of stone or blackstone materials when generating in the Overworld or Nether respectively. They can generate in varying sizes and positions. A netherrack platform underneath, as well as a loot chest and a few gold blocks, often generates.	Common

Underwater structures

Note that ocean ruins and shipwrecks sometimes generate above water on shores, and icebergs are partially above and below water.

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Ocean Ruins	Ocean (all variants) Beach (sometimes)	A collection of small structures made of stone bricks or sandstone. Drowned may spawn naturally here.	Common
Shipwreck	Ocean (all variants) Beach (sometimes) Stony Shore (sometimes) Snowy Beach (sometimes)	Wooden structures resembling sunken ships in varying states of deterioration. They contain up to three loot chests, and may generate in underwater ravines‌[Bedrock Edition only].	Common
Ocean Monument	Deep Ocean Deep Frozen Ocean Deep Cold Ocean Deep Lukewarm Ocean	Massive prismarine temples inhabited by guardians, as well as three elder guardians in fixed positions. Wet sponges, along with eight blocks of gold as treasure, also generate naturally here. The interior structure is randomly generated, resembling a maze of sorts.	Rare

The Nether

Main article: The Nether

The Nether, though equally vast, contains far fewer generated structures than the Overworld.

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Nether Fortress	Any	Towering nether brick castles that exclusively contain blaze spawners and nether wart farms. They are divided into open-air ramparts and winding interior corridors, some of which contain loot chests. wither skeletons and blazes exclusively spawn here.	Uncommon
Bastion Remnant	Nether Wastes Crimson Forest Warped Forest Soul Sand Valley	Enormous, castle-like blackstone structures housing piglins and piglin brutes. They can generate in various forms (bridges, housing units, hoglin stables, and treasure rooms) and chest spoils vary from one form to the next.	Uncommon
Nether Fossil	Soul Sand Valley	Fossil variants that are more incomplete and purely composed of bone blocks.	Common
Ruined Portal	Any	An incomplete nether portal constructed with various types of stone or blackstone materials when generating in the Overworld or Nether respectively. They can generate in varying sizes and positions. A netherrack platform underneath, as well as a loot chest and a few gold blocks, often generates.	Common

The End

Main article: The End

The End is the final and most barren dimension, with no generated structures on its main island. After defeating the ender dragon, gateways to the outer islands are created.

Structure	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
End City	The End End Midlands End Highlands	Sprawling, well-connected towers built from purpur, end stone bricks and Purple Stained Glass. They are inhabited by shulkers that guard valuable loot chests, and the largest, most meandering cities may generate an end ship holding a pair of elytra.	Rare

Structure-like Features

Main article: Terrain_features

These worldgen features have similarities to structures but they are not true structures. Instead, they are coded and generated the same way as trees or ores. This is why they generate even when the "Generate structures" world option is disabled, and also cannot be located with the /locate command.

Features	Biome(s)	Description	Rarity
Dungeon	All Overworld Biomes	A small cobblestone room containing a spawner, which spawns zombies, skeletons, or spiders, as well as up to two loot chests. They are typically connected to underground caves but may generate above ground or intersected with true structures such as Mineshafts or Strongholds.	Common
Desert well	Desert	Small sandstone feature holding water in their center cavity. They do not generate gold or treasure as part of their generation but the water can be used as an infinite water source.	Uncommon
Forest rock	Old Growth Taiga	Small mossy cobblestone boulders randomly found throughout Old Growth Taiga, often partially buried.	Uncommon
Geode	All Overworld Biomes	Large, hollow spherical rocks composed of outer layers of smooth basalt and calcite with an inner layer of amethyst blocks. This is the only place where budding amethyst and amethyst blocks can be found. They come in many sizes, including open geodes and entirely encased geodes.	Rare
Fossil	Desert Swamp	Usually buried feature made of bone blocks and some coal ore.	Rare
Iceberg	Frozen Ocean (all variants)	A feature varying in size, consisting of packed ice and snow blocks, with blue ice on the bottom. Note, not all iceberg-looking terrain in Frozen Ocean Biome are created by feature but as part of the biome itself through Surface Builders.	Uncommon

Technical details

Structures are generated for a given chunk after the terrain has been formed. The chunk format includes a tag called TerrainPopulated that indicates whether structures whose point of origin is in that chunk have been generated. If it is false or missing, it generates again. Structure generation is based on what is already in the chunk, so (for example) flagging a chunk that has already been populated for repopulation approximately doubles the amount of ore in it. When structures are generated, they can spill over into neighboring chunks that have been previously generated.

Locating

Feature name	Java Edition	Bedrock Edition	Dimension
Bastion remnant	bastion_remnant	bastionremnant	The Nether
Buried treasure	buried_treasure	buriedtreasure	Overworld
End city	endcity	endcity	The End
Fortress	fortress	fortress	The Nether
Woodland mansion	mansion	mansion	Overworld
Mineshaft	mineshaft	mineshaft	Overworld
Monument	monument	monument	Overworld
Nether fossil	nether_fossil	—	The Nether
Ocean ruins	ocean_ruin	ruins	Overworld
Pillager outpost	pillager_outpost	pillageroutpost	Overworld
Ruined portal	ruined_portal	ruinedportal	Overworld, The Nether
Shipwreck	shipwreck	shipwreck	Overworld
Stronghold	stronghold	stronghold	Overworld
Desert pyramid	desert_pyramid	temple	Overworld
Igloo	igloo
Jungle pyramid	jungle_pyramid
Swamp hut	swamp_hut
Village	village	village	Overworld

History

Java Edition Infdev
20100625-2					Added dungeons.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Added mineshafts.
					Added villages.
					Added strongholds.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Added Nether fortresses.
1.2.1		12w04a			Added desert wells.
1.3.1		12w21a			Added desert pyramids.
		12w22a			Added jungle pyramids.
1.4.2		12w40a			Added swamp huts.
1.8		14w25a			Added ocean monuments.
1.8.1		pre1			Swamp huts can now spawn witches at levels 64 to 71, enabling three spawning floors for witches.
1.9		15w31a			Added End cities.
		15w43a			Added igloos.
1.10		16w20a			Added fossils.
		16w21a			Blacksmith job sites in villages now generate with cobblestone in all biomes, rather than acacia logs in savannas and sandstone in deserts.
		pre1			Zombie villagers generated in zombie villages no longer despawn.
					Wooden fences are now substituted with the biome’s corresponding wood type.
					Paths no longer replace most blocks, preventing them from generating in treetops or bridging ravines.
1.11		16w39a			Added woodland mansions.
					Added the /locate command that shows the coordinates of the nearest structures.
		16w42a			Witches that spawn upon the generation of witch huts no longer despawn.
1.13		17w43a			Structures using structure files can now be modified, with the addition of data packs.
		17w47a			Flower pots in swamp huts now contain mushrooms; they were previously empty.
		18w09a			Added ocean ruins.
		18w10a			Added buried treasure chests.
		18w11a			Added shipwrecks.
1.14		18w47a			Added pillager outposts.
		18w48a			Overhauled villages.
1.16		20w06a			Added nether fossils.
		20w16a			Added bastion remnants and ruined portals.
1.17		20w45a			Added Amethyst Geodes.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0		build 1			Added villages, abandoned mineshafts, strongholds, dungeons and desert wells.
v0.10.0		build 1			Abandoned mineshafts now generate on ground level in Badlands biomes.
v0.11.0		build 1			Added desert wells.
v0.12.1		build 1			Added the Nether along with Nether fortresses.
v0.13.0		build 1			Added desert pyramids.
v0.14.0		build 1			Added swamp huts.
					Cauldrons in swamp huts are filled with a random potion.
v0.15.0		build 1			Added jungle temples.
					Added savanna and taiga village variants.
					Villages can now generate in cold taiga and ice plains biomes, where village buildings are constructed with spruce wood like in taiga villages.
					Villages have a slim chance to generate as abandoned villages, which spawn zombified villagers. Cobwebs and moss stone replace some blocks in the buildings of such villages.
v0.16.0		build 1			Added ocean monuments.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added the End and along with End cities.
					Added igloos.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added woodland mansions.
1.1.3		alpha 1.1.3.0			Added fossils.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.14.2			Added shipwrecks.
					Added buried treasure chests.
		beta 1.2.20.1			Added ocean ruins.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Added pillager outposts.
					Overhauled villages.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Added Nether fossils, bastion remnants and ruined portals.
1.17.0		beta 1.17.0.50			Added Amethyst Geodes.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added dungeons.
TU5					Added villages, abandoned mineshafts, and strongholds.
TU12					Added desert wells.
TU14		1.04			Added jungle and desert pyramids.
TU19	CU7	1.12			Added swamp huts.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Added ocean monuments.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Added fossils and igloos.
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Added woodland mansions.
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Added shipwrecks, ocean ruins, icebergs, and buried treasure chests.

See also

• Biome
• Generated structures data file format
• Jigsaw Block
• Structure Block
• Air

Generated structures and terrain features

View at: Template:Generated structures/content [edit]

Environment

View at: Template:Environment/content [edit]