Minecraft Monday: Exploring the Woodland Mansion

There are two large randomly generated structures in Minecraft that spawn in the Overworld that are a lot more rare than the others. Between the Ocean Monument and the Woodland Mansion, the Woodland Mansion is my favorite. There’s just something special about an ominous Mansion hidden deep in the woods that gets my attention. 

Every server I make, every single player world I decide to start, I always make it my mission to raid the Woodland Mansion. But that mission is not the easiest to pull off because of a lot of different factors you have to think about. First, you have to know where to find the Woodland Mansion, and more often than not you have to travel thousands of blocks from spawn to find it. Then you should prepare your gear to make the long trip and survive, as the Mansion is anything but a safe space. And lastly, you usually have to travel thousands of blocks before fighting for your life against the Illagers who inhabit the Mansion.

What is the Woodland Mansion?

Woodland Mansion is a rare randomly generated structure found in dark forests. It is filled with different types of Illagers and is one of the only places where you can find a Totem of undying. It is the only place besides a Village raid where Evokers and Vindicators spawn, but that is not all as you can also find Allays there. Considering the entrance is open and that most of the rooms are dark, you could also run into any other hostile mobs that spawn in the Overworld.

Although every Woodland Mansion is unique in its own way, all of them do have some similarities. The Woodland Mansion always has three floors with various rooms. It also always generates a cobblestone foundation underneath the entire structure. The top floor is about half the size of the other floors, but their size is random from mansion to mansion. A large staircase always connects the bottom two floors and makes you feel like you’ve entered a truly luxurious mansion.

The Woodland Mansion contains a lot of types of rooms, while some might not always be present as they are randomly generated. The mansion usually generates some secret rooms inside as well. You may look for these secret rooms by looking for gaps between normal rooms. You can also look through the windows on the second and third floors, as the secret rooms sometimes have windows.

How to Find the Woodland Mansion?

It is not uncommon for the nearest Woodland Mansion to spawn thousands of blocks from spawn. That means that it is a waste of time for you to just wander through the world and hope that you will run into one. But luckily there is a way for you to know exactly where to look for. All you have to do is get a map from one of your “unpaid interns”! You can easily turn one of your villagers into a cartographer and as you level him up, he will offer you maps both to the Ocean Monument and the Woodland Mansion. But the Woodland Explorer Map doesn’t always point to the closest mansion, so if you’re an explorer at heart you can take it upon yourself to discover one!

Preparing for the Expedition

Exploring the Woodland Mansion can be a challenging mission, especially on the high difficulty. It is something that should not be attempted in the early game, as those Evokers and Vindicators can definitely tear you a new one if you are inexperienced in dealing with them. But all the dangers are worth it as there are a ton of chests with loot in the mansion, and perhaps even some treasure!

Food – Food is incredibly important to have before looking for the Woodland Mansion. Not only does the trip there take forever, but you will also most likely take a lot of damage while fighting, which you will need to heal back up. Make sure to bring at least a stack of food that replenishes a large part of your hunger bar.

Weapons & Armor – I recommend you equip a full set of armor before you even think about exploring the Woodland Mansion. You don’t really have to grind out the diamond armor, I feel like iron armor is fine as long as you properly enchant it. As for the weapons, I usually bring a sword and axe, accompanied by my trusty bow. Oh, and don’t forget to bring a strong pickaxe to mine possible blocks of loot.

Final Thoughts

Whoever decided to put Illagers in the game should get a raise if they didn’t yet. They are by far my favorite regular hostile mob in the game, as they represent the evil side of our regular villagers. And since I can’t seem to stop enslaving villagers in every single one of my worlds I guess I have a lot in common with them.

While the Illagers do have a ton of smaller outposts scattered around the world, the Woodland Mansion is their base of operations and it fits them perfectly. All the loot they hoarded over the years of villager abuse was put down to good use when they were designing this luxurious mansion.