Overview
Trail ruins are an archaeology site rather than a dungeon, and they reward patience over combat — there is nothing here to fight and nothing to unlock. The structure is buried, with its roof several blocks underground, so you will walk over one without noticing unless you are digging. Once exposed, the value is entirely in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand: brush each block, one slow swing at a time, and it yields a pottery sherd, a smithing template, an emerald or a bead of ordinary junk. Trail ruins are the only source of the wayfinder, raiser, shaper and host armour trims, and of the Relic music disc, which makes them the only mandatory stop for anyone completing a trim collection. Brushing is exposed work: each block takes a few seconds during which you cannot move, so light and seal the excavation before you start, especially since caves frequently cut through the buried rooms. The other rule is simple and unforgiving — a suspicious block broken with a shovel, a pickaxe or a fist simply vanishes and takes the item with it. Strip the terracotta and mud brick afterwards; the palette is difficult to obtain in quantity any other way.
The wayfinder, raiser, shaper and host smithing templates, the Relic music disc, pottery sherds for decorated pots, and emeralds and beads from the gravel. It is also a compact source of mud bricks, terracotta and stripped logs for building.
A buried settlement of terracotta, mud bricks and stripped logs, almost entirely underground, so it is easy to walk over one without noticing. Trail ruins have no chests. Everything comes from suspicious gravel and suspicious sand, which must be brushed rather than mined — hit them with anything else and the contents are lost. They are the only source of the wayfinder, raiser, shaper, host and guster armour trims, and of the Relic music disc, which makes them a purely archaeological structure.
It is rare in the Overworld, restricted to Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, Old Growth Spruce Taiga and 3 more, and it generates buried below the surface; the roof is typically several blocks underground.
How to get it
Trail ruins are rare and buried in taiga, snowy taiga, old growth pine and spruce taiga, jungle, desert and badlands biomes. Dig a 3-block-deep trench or watch for the distinctive gravel and mud brick patches breaking the surface; a stray path of stripped logs underground is the usual first sign.
Tips
- Use a brush on every suspicious block. Any other tool destroys the item without so much as a particle effect.
- Excavate the whole roof before brushing, so you can work through the site without standing still in an open trench.
- Suspicious gravel and suspicious sand carry different loot tables here, so clear both rather than favouring one.
- Bring several brushes: a brush has 64 uses and a full trail ruin will exhaust more than one of them.
Version notes
Added in 1.20 with archaeology, brushes and decorated pots. The Relic music disc shipped with them; the guster trim was added to the same suspicious blocks in 1.21.
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:trail_ruins 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.
- Biomes it generates in
- 7
- Notable loot items
- 5
Where it generates
Trail Ruins generates in 7 biomes: Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, Old Growth Spruce Taiga, Jungle, Desert, and Badlands. Outside those it will not generate at all, however far you travel.
Notable loot
Its loot includes Music Disc — Relic, Emerald, Coal, Wheat, and Blue Dye. 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.
What to watch out for
3 things to prepare for before you go in:
- Brushing is slow and leaves you standing still in the open
- Breaking suspicious blocks by accident destroys the item
- Caves often intersect the buried ruins
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Do trail ruins have chests?
No, none at all. Every item in a trail ruin comes out of suspicious gravel or suspicious sand and must be brushed out.
Which armour trims come from trail ruins?
Wayfinder, raiser, shaper and host smithing templates. The guster trim also appears here, and none of these five are found in any other structure.
How do you find a buried trail ruin?
Look for out-of-place gravel, mud bricks or stripped logs poking through the surface in taiga, jungle, desert or badlands, then dig down a few blocks to expose the rooms.
How do I find Trail Ruins?
Trail Ruins generates in the Overworld, only in Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, Old Growth Spruce Taiga and 3 more, and is rare. /locate structure minecraft:trail_ruins finds the nearest one instantly with cheats on.
What loot is in Trail Ruins?
The notable entries are Music Disc — Relic, Emerald, Coal, Wheat, and Blue Dye.
When was Trail Ruins added?
Trail Ruins was added in Java Edition 1.20.
Related pages
Structures that share Trail Ruins's loot, its mobs or its biomes — not simply the next few in the list.
