Minecraft: Everything you need to know about Woodlands Mansion

Minecraft never fails to deliver when it comes to exploration, with a never-ending stream of new structures popping up in its sandbox world. One of the more ground-breaking structures added to the game is the Woodlands Mansion, which debuted in version 1.11, signifying a momentum for Minecraft to add structures that are bigger and better in scale. The Woodland Mansion, aside from its cosy interior, is renowned for the Totem of Undying. A holy grail to aid Minecrafters like you in their quest to conquer and explore: especially for the Hardcore.

The Elixir of Life

Activation effect of the Totem, much glitter and sparkles!

No beating around the dead bushes, the Totem of Undying is the juicy booty here. These don't pop up naturally and to get one, you will need to wrestle it out of an Evoker's grasp. For balance reasons, an Evoker has a legendary rarity and only spawns a single time for every pre-generated Minecraft mansion. To make matters worse, they cannot respawn once defeated in a mansion, thus, farming for such a luxury is off the table. By holding the totem in your off-hand inventory slot, it will activate when you are on the brink of death and bring you back to health with a long period of buffs similar to an enchanted golden apple. However, miscellaneous ways of dying will not activate the totem.

The Fantastic Labyrinth and where to find them

Artificially spawned conjoining mansions.

Unlike the simplistic pre-1.10 structures or the more derelict ones found in the wilderness, the layout of the Woodland Mansion is complex and fancily decorated, with many rooms adorned in surprisingly regal fashion and true to its nature as a labyrinth, interconnected by dozens of hallways and staircases.

Its exclusivity is confined to the boundaries of a dark oak forest, including the Roofed Forest biome and its variants. Of course, the old-fashioned way would be to trudge your way through the dense overgrowth in hopes of stumbling upon one. However, to avoid all the hustle, your old trusty cartographer will be your greatest asset, in exchange for an item called "Woodlands exploration map". However, multiple backdoor methods can be used with cheats allowed.

• Seed generation is extracted through specialised seed compilation sites such as Chunkbase.
• The omnipotent command block by typing in /locate structure Minecraft: mansion, followed by clicking the coordinates to teleport instantly.

Chunkbase website, visit here for the seeds!

While not associated officially with the mansion, detachments called "pillager outposts" can be found scattered throughout the overworld houses an encampment of Illagers. They are the root source of all sieges. The only condition to trigger a raid is to defeat the raid captain to gain a lingering Bad Omen. Simply waltz toward an unsuspecting village and watch as a new raid metre builds up. Typically, an Evoker, like a final boss, will only spawn in the last few waves from wave four onwards.

• Intermission: everything you need to know about Bad Omen, the catalyst for raids.

A typical pillager outpost.

Denizens from down under welcome you

Cosy in their confinement.

While illagers are adored mostly for being the butt of antics for their goofy "Squidward" appearance. Meet Illagers, the savage residents of the Mansion. Their rank spans from Vindicators and Evokers to Pillagers. With their forte in laying siege on villages, these ilks will do everything to plunder villages and is a Minecraft equivalent of a Lego block to the village ecosystem. Their file and ranks are as follows:

• Pillagers specialise in using crossbows and have harder reach unless at point-blank range.
• Vindicators are the brawn that can overwhelm you with axes and commonly come in droves.
• Evokers call forth entities called vexes and evocation fangs to fight on their behalf, encoded into their behavioural AI is their fleeing from threats.
• Do keep an eye out on the swarm of vexes. These nasty little buggers can form a deadly swarm. Though, do not confuse them with their fairy-like passive counterpart: Allays.
• Evoker only spawns in the ritual room along with a vindicator as its vanguard.
• Ravager is a quadrupedal entity with horns and the trademark illager facial features. Under rare circumstances an illager (any) can be mounted on them by default, forming a jockey relationship.
• A more elusive one will be the Illusioner, a fine gentleman who distinguishes himself with his iconic blue pyjamas. This guy does some cool cloning ninjutsu to attack with four copies of himself, and attacks with a good ol’ trusty bow.
• Patrol captains are the alpha of the pack. They are the catalyst to start an overworld raid and rain nether upon villages. Killing any of them during their roaming or at outposts will bestow a Bad Omen that can trigger raids on villages within your radius.
• While initially a standalone mob, witches tend to spawn alongside the illagers and team up with them. However, amid the ensuing chaos, friendly fire can be triggered if they are accidentally attacked.
• With the low light level that favours the spawning of other overworld mobs.

The Golden Goose…metaphorically

Rooms containing chests.

Undeniably, in the interior of Woodland Mansion, lies a trove of booty waiting to be claimed. In addition to the usual pre-generated dungeon loot such as enchanted books, trinkets, or worst case scenario, rotten flesh to sour your day. To crank things up a notch, many dummy chests give a false sense of illusion to play tricks on gluttons. Here is a navigational guide to the rooms available.

• Avoid any of the chests found in the storage rooms. They are empty husks.
• Unless you are mired in botany, chests in the flower (allium) and tree sampling rooms only contain said items.
• Rooms that contain pleasant surprises:
• Checkerboard room with a hidden chest at the arch of the entrance.
• Arena room, a hidden chest is tucked comfortably on an overhead loft above the stone slab ring.
• Cobblestone stair room adorned with a grey banner, behind the staircase, hides a chest.
• Dark oak wood archway rooms, common on the ground floor, these corridor-like rooms house a chest at the end.
• Spiral staircase room. This one has you climbing the wavy staircase and making it to the inner side where the chest lies.

Dirt tier loot, it happens.

The Labyrinth of Desires

The layout of the Woodland Mansion is complex and maze-like, with many rooms that are interconnected by hallways and staircases. From here on out, we will tier the rooms and categorise them based on their spawn rarity:

• Library rooms: The abundance of bookshelves makes for a good spot for enchantment needs.
• Utility rooms: Rooms constructed to serve as a workstation for the illagers. Said rooms include:
• Conference room, proceed with caution as a mob of indicators shepherded by an evoker will spawn here.
• Map room, again, a hotpot of illagers where vindicators and an evoker will spawn.
• Dining rooms, again with three sizes, no, a feast does not await you in the large dining hall. Only vindicators and evokers.
• Resting quarters: Hotpot for vindicators, comes in three sizes: single, double and triple bed. Bedroom. There is also a master bedroom and another variant with an installed loft. Do keep a note on the latter as a chest hides out of sight on the loft.
• Botanist's dream: these rooms contain functional plantations and farms for all sorts of perishables such as wheat, melon, pumpkin and dark oak samplings.
• The fluff: Beneath the illager's tough and vile exterior, lies a soft spot and proficiency in the art of sculpting. These rooms are a testament to that statement: include a woolly statue of a cat, a chicken and an Illager statue. Sadly, other than aesthetic values, these values contain no booby traps nor any treasure with the exception being the illager statue. In the middle of the head and you will find a lapis lazuli block.
• The darker side of the mansion: prisons. These only spawn on the ground floor and allays are found exclusively here in the largest cell. Despite the hostile environment, allays are passive creatures and make for a good fetch dog.

Woolly world!

The woody secrets - hidden from sight

The source of all excitement

Secret rooms can generate and require intuition and good eyesight to locate. Doing so will either reward the player handsomely or at the very least, gives you fits of laughter. While the availability of glass panes makes them easy to spot from the outside. A more noticeable Updated to the latest version, here is a list of secret rooms waiting to be discovered and the telltale sign of these rooms is the lack of an entrance.

• A mock end portal room with wool replacing the end portal blocks with the most distinctive offering being a chest sandwiched between two TNTs. Do not let the relatively harmless room deceive you as Silverfish lay dormant in the surrounding cobblestones. Equivalent to its original Stronghold counterpart, the chest is rigged and opening it can spring the TNT. So tread carefully.
• Obsidian and its more dangerous counterpart, The Obsidian + lava combo room, respectively, exist to play illusionary tricks on who happens to wander into them. The standout structure in these rooms is some funnily built obsidian chunk, which, in itself, is a valuable resource for the end game. However, being the very definition of a "diamond in the rough", encased within is a diamond block up.
• The X room earned its namesake thanks to the prominent “X” shapes formed by cobblestone that decorates its walls. A solitary chest rests in the centre of this tiny room.
• The spider room, much like the ones encountered in mossy caverns, contains a spider spawner and an annoying number of cobwebs.
• In the birch pillar room, what you see is what you get. There are four birch pillars erected in this claustrophobic room and it has nothing to offer.
• The lumberjack room, this one can be quite an exception as there is a noticeable indentation built onto the walls of the mansion with its entrance sealed. Upon entering the chamber, there is a lone dark oak tree sitting in the middle and a chest that mostly contains an enchanted axe with efficiency I.
• Clean chest room. A barren room, which is limited to the ground floor. It’s a barren room with a chest sitting in the middle.
• There is also an unorthodox attic room. So not let the room fool you with its empty interior as above the attic there are two chests.

So, with all those features, these woodland mansions make for a great settlement for nomads who wish to set up temporary camps, or dreamers who wish to fulfil their wildest dream of living in a mansion. However, living in such a place requires extensive revamping and resource investment, unless you wish to just stay in part of the mansion and leave the rest untouched.

• Purging the villager spawners.
• Properly set up torches everywhere to ensure adequate light levels to prevent uninvited guests.
• Most importantly, getting rid of any source of fire, particularly the lava found in the secret lava + obsidian room, the entire structure is highly combustible and a flicker of flame can bring ruination to the entire mansion.

Combustible, suitable for arson.

Not a fan of flames? We have someplace cool for you to pop over and chillax instead!

Gear up and take back the fight

En garde!
Be it raiding a mansion, or defending against a raid in your beloved village which you took extreme pain to create. A seasoned veteran worth his salt will always remind you to gear up, suit up and vanquish the foul beasts into oblivion. Here are some general tips to elongate your survivability:

• For every scenario, Netherite armour stacked with loads of enhancement is your way to go when fighting against the swarm of illagers and their underlings.
• Ranged over melee. It is always encouraged to use bows or firework launchers to deal damage.
• Utilise friendly fire. Another fun aspect is that illagers can be baited to attack their allies or other mobs. With this in mind, you can draw strength from the number of mobs.
• Sun is your friend - avoid fighting a raid at night. You will not appreciate the extra hassle the overworld mobs can add to the plate. Though, experts can manoeuvre their way and utilize creepers to blow apart large swathes of illagers.
• We are legion. You are going to need extra help in the form of iron golems. They can soak up damage while flinging those illagers up in the air.
• Rising of the village shield hero. As with combat with most mobs, your trusty shield can be brandished to deflect arrows as well as defend against the Ravager.