Dungeon

Biome	Any
Consists of	Cobblestone Moss Stone Monster Spawner Chest
Can generate post-generation	No
First appearances	See history

Dungeons are naturally generated structures that appear in the Overworld.

Generation[edit | edit source]

Dungeons generate naturally in the Overworld at any level. For each chunk, 8 attempts are made to generate a dungeon; it's possible but unlikely for multiple attempts to succeed.

For each attempt, a location and size (an open area of 5×5×4, 5×7×4, or 7×7×4) is chosen. The attempt succeeds if the following conditions are met:

The floor area (including under the walls) of the potential dungeon must be entirely solid.
The ceiling area (including over the walls) of the potential dungeon must be entirely solid.
The walls of the potential dungeon must have 1–5 openings (2-high air blocks) at floor level.

If the location passes, air and cobblestone are placed, then 3 attempts are made to generate each of 2 chests. To generate a chest, the chosen block must be empty and must have a solid block on exactly one of its four sides. The spawner is placed at the center of the dungeon.

Structure[edit | edit source]

Dungeons are small rooms made of cobblestone and moss stone and contain a monster spawner and up to 2 chests. Finding a dungeon without a chest is very unlikely but possible. Additionally, there is a slight chance of a dungeon being found without a spawner. Occasionally, a dungeon will generate with its chests in such a way as to create a double chest. Dungeons generate with either a zombie (50% chance), skeleton (25% chance), or spider (25% chance) spawner. The spawner is always in the center of the dungeon room, with chests located around the walls of the room (large chests can connect with the short side against the wall). Each block of the floor has a 25% chance of being cobblestone, and a 75% chance of being moss stone.

Loot[edit | edit source]

See also: Chest loot

Each dungeon chest contains 3 groups of 1–3, 1–4, and 3 item stacks, with the following distribution:

	Stack Size			Weight			# Items	Chance	# Chests
	1–3×	1–4×	3×	1–3×	1–4×	3×	# Items	Chance	# Chests
Bone	—	—	1–8	—	—	¹⁰⁄₄₀	3.375	57.8%	1.7
Gunpowder	—	—	1–8	—	—	¹⁰⁄₄₀	3.375	57.8%	1.7
Rotten Flesh	—	—	1–8	—	—	¹⁰⁄₄₀	3.375	57.8%	1.7
String	—	—	1–8	—	—	¹⁰⁄₄₀	3.375	57.8%	1.7
Wheat	—	1–4	—	—	²⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	1.000	35.3%	2.8
Bread	—	1	—	—	²⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.400	35.3%	2.8
Name Tag	1	—	—	²⁰⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.315	29.0%	3.4
Saddle	1	—	—	²⁰⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.315	29.0%	3.4
Coal	—	1–4	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₅	—	0.750	27.4%	3.7
Redstone	—	1–4	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₅	—	0.750	27.4%	3.7
Music Disc (13)	1	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.236	22.2%	4.5
Music Disc (Cat)	1	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.236	22.2%	4.5
Iron Horse Armor	1	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.236	22.2%	4.5
Golden Apple (Normal)	1	—	—	¹⁵⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.236	22.2%	4.5
Beetroot Seeds	—	2–4	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.600	18.8%	5.3
Melon Seeds	—	2–4	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.600	18.8%	5.3
Pumpkin Seeds	—	2–4	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.600	18.8%	5.3
Iron Ingot	—	1–4	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.500	18.8%	5.3
Bucket	—	1	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₅	—	0.200	18.8%	5.3
Enchanted Book^{[note 1]}	1	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.157	15.1%	6.6
Gold Horse Armor	1	—	—	¹⁰⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.157	15.1%	6.6
Gold Ingot	—	1–4	—	—	⁵⁄₁₂₅	—	0.250	9.7%	10.3
Diamond Horse Armor	1	—	—	⁵⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.079	7.7%	13.0
Golden Apple (Enchanted)	1	—	—	²⁄₁₂₇	—	—	0.031	3.1%	32.0

↑ All enchantments are equally probable, and any level of the enchantment is equally probable.

In Pocket Edition, cocoa beans and ink sacs can be found in chests.

Video[edit | edit source]

Note: this video was created before the release of 1.3.1. Since then, moss stone can be found in jungle temples and mega taiga biomes and can also be crafted. Also, cocoa beans no longer generate in dungeon chests. Name tags and horse armor were added to chests later in 1.6.

History[edit | edit source]

Infdev
Seecret Friday 2				Added dungeons.
Alpha
1.0.4				Added redstone dust to dungeon chests, sometime between its introduction in alpha 1.0.1 and 1.0.4.
1.0.14				Added the newly introduced 13 and cat music discs to dungeon chests.
Beta
1.4				Added cocoa beans to dungeon chests.
1.8				Bread can appear in groups of 2^[verify], because food became stackable in 1.8
Official release
1.3.1			12w22a	Breaking the spawner of a dungeon gives experience.
1.4.6			12w49a	Added enchanted books to dungeon chests.
1.6.1			13w16b	Added name tags to dungeon chests.
1.6.1			13w18a	Added horse armor to dungeon chests and removed cocoa beans. Probabilities were also adjusted.
1.7.2			13w36a	Changes in cavern generation make dungeons considerably rarer.^[1]
1.8			14w30a	Chances of music discs reduced.
1.9			15w44a	Added bone, coal, rotten flesh, enchanted golden apple, and melon, pumpkin and beetroot seeds to chests.
				Average yields of music discs are increased. Average yields of enchanted books, gunpowder and string have doubled. Average yield of normal golden apples is substantially increased.
				Average yield of iron horse armor is decreased. Average yields of name tags, saddle, wheat and bread are nearly halved. Average yields of iron ingots and buckets are substantially decreased.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.9.0			build 1	Added dungeons.
0.15.0			build 1	Added name tags,enchanted books and horse armor to dungeon chests.
Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added dungeons.

Issues[edit | edit source]

Issues relating to “Dungeon” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

Dungeons are always connected to a cavern or other structure, although it's possible for the dungeon itself to overwrite most of a very small cave.
It is possible, though rare, to find connected dungeons with multiple spawners and extra chests. It is also possible for a dungeon to generate over another, replacing the chests and spawner of the first.
It is possible, though almost impossibly rare, for a dungeon to be generated at bedrock level, thereby deleting the bedrock. In that case, digging through the moss stone can lead into the Void.^{[citation needed]}
- Because the air at y=10- replaces itself with lava, this cannot happen in caves. However, it can happen in abandoned mineshafts.
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).

Gallery[edit | edit source]

A gravel vein fallen into a dungeon
A dungeon located within a bedrock layer.
A very rare instance of a dungeon generating in midair.
A dungeon without chests.
A dungeon.

Surface dungeons[edit | edit source]

A caved in surface dungeon.
Surface dungeon
Dungeons can rarely be found open to the surface.
A dungeon found under a frozen ocean.
A dungeon found in the water.
Two surface dungeons right next to each other.

Multiple dungeons[edit | edit source]

Five dungeons and 2 cave spider spawners close together in a mineshaft, cleared to show all 7 spawners
A double dungeon, the wall of the first acting as the entrance of the second.
A double dungeon with three chests.
Triple dungeon.
Extremely rare double-decker dungeon.
Dungeon in a dungeon
Another Double Dungeon

Intersections[edit | edit source]

A dungeon intersecting with an abandoned mineshaft.
A dungeon found by an end portal room in a stronghold.
Dungeon generated aside the chest chamber of the temple. One chest was overwritten by the dungeon wall.
A dungeon distorted by a desert temple.
A dungeon with lava spilling into it from a spring.
A dungeon with a hole in it, caused by a lake generating in the same space.
Caves can cut through dungeons.
A floating dungeon in a cave system.
A dungeon distorted by a cave system.
The cave this dungeon generates in can be even this small.
A dungeon that has become flooded because of falling sand on the bottom of a river.
A dungeon intersecting with a mineshaft at bedrock level.
A dungeon connected to a dead end of an abandoned mineshaft.
A dungeon with a double chest and a mineshaft in background.