Overview
An abandoned mineshaft is the best-value free hardware in the game and a genuinely nasty place to walk into unprepared. The rails are the headline: minecart chests scattered along the tracks supply rails, powered rails, name tags and golden apples, and picking up the track itself gives you enough rail to build a working transport line without touching an iron vein. Badlands mineshafts are the exception worth planning a trip around, because there the corridors generate near the surface instead of deep underground, with far more gold, so you can strip one without ever digging. The danger is cobwebs, and the rule is absolute: a cluster of cobwebs means a cave spider spawner is within a few blocks. Cave spiders are small enough to fit through a one-block gap, they poison, and cobwebs hold you in place while they do it. Clear webs with a sword, which is instant, rather than shears, then block the spawner's line of sight or light it out. The other killer is architecture — long stretches of the corridors hang unsupported over ravines and lava, and the wooden floor you are sprinting along may simply end.
Rails and powered rails by the stack, name tags, golden apples, enchanted books and the ordinary ore exposed along the corridors. Badlands mineshafts double as surface gold mines, and the oak and dark oak support beams are free wood deep underground.
Long branching wooden corridors with rails, minecarts, support beams and floating sections over ravines and caves. Minecart chests along the tracks are the most common source of free rails and name tags in the game, and badlands mineshafts generate near the surface with far more gold. The hazard is cobwebs: they mark cave spider spawners, they slow you to a crawl while spiders swarm, and they are trivially cleared with a sword. Mineshafts cut through caves and lava, so falls and floods are as dangerous as the mobs.
It is very common in the Overworld, and it generates underground, roughly Y=-59 to Y=30; badlands mineshafts generate much closer to the surface.
How to get it
Mineshafts are very common underground, roughly Y=-59 to Y=30, in essentially every Overworld biome, and badlands mineshafts generate much closer to the surface. Any large cave system explored for 10 minutes will usually intersect one somewhere.
Tips
- Cobwebs mean a cave spider spawner nearby. Stop, look for the mossy cobblestone, and deal with it before pushing on.
- Cut cobwebs with a sword rather than shears — it is far faster, and speed is the whole problem when spiders are on you.
- Mine the rails as you go: a single mineshaft usually yields more rail than smelting a full iron vein would.
- Watch the floor. Corridors cross ravines on unsupported planks, and a sprint through one section can end as a fall into lava.
Version notes
Present since 1.0.0. Badlands mineshafts gained their surface-level generation and extra gold with the 1.7.2 biome rewrite, and the corridors now extend down to Y=-59 after the 1.18 world height change.
Properties
It generates in the Overworld, which is the only dimension with a day-night cycle and weather, and the one every distance in the game is measured against. In a world with cheats on, /locate structure minecraft:mineshaft gives the coordinates of the nearest one. Without cheats, an explorer map from a cartographer villager is the reliable route for the structures that have one; everything else is exploration.
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Rarity
- Very common
- Y level
- underground, roughly Y=-59 to Y=30; badlands mineshafts generate much closer to the surface
- Added in
- 1.0.0
- Notable loot items
- 10
Notable loot
Its loot includes Rail, Powered Rail, Name Tag, Golden Apple, Iron Ingot, Gold Ingot, Diamond, Lapis Lazuli, Redstone Dust, and Enchanted Book. These are the notable entries rather than the full loot table — the common filler (bread, coal, iron nuggets) is omitted, and in some structures the best of it comes from a vault or a spawner rather than a chest.
Mobs found here
Cave Spider, Zombie, Skeleton, Creeper, Spider, and Bat generate here. Several of them spawn nowhere else, which is usually the reason to make the trip.
What to watch out for
4 things to prepare for before you go in:
- Cave spider spawners surrounded by cobwebs
- Unsupported floor sections over ravines
- Lava at corridor ends
- Silence — mobs approach through side tunnels
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you deal with a cave spider spawner?
Approach with a sword to clear webs, then place torches or a block over the spawner's spawn space, or simply break it with any pickaxe. Cave spiders fit through one-block gaps, so sealing the room does not work.
Why do badlands mineshafts look different?
They generate much nearer the surface than ordinary mineshafts and carry more gold, because badlands run their own gold distribution. Corridors often open into open air between the buttes.
Are minecart chests worth the detour?
Yes for rails and name tags in particular, both of which are tedious to obtain any other way. The ore-grade loot is ordinary, but a name tag saves a wandering trader hunt.
How do I find Abandoned Mineshaft?
Abandoned Mineshaft generates in the Overworld, and is very common. /locate structure minecraft:mineshaft finds the nearest one instantly with cheats on.
What loot is in Abandoned Mineshaft?
The notable entries are Rail, Powered Rail, Name Tag, Golden Apple, Iron Ingot, Gold Ingot and 4 more.
When was Abandoned Mineshaft added?
Abandoned Mineshaft was added in Java Edition 1.0.0.
Related pages
Structures that share Abandoned Mineshaft's loot, its mobs or its biomes — not simply the next few in the list.
