Ancient cities directly under or next to spawn — swift sneak, echo shards and the deep dark's best loot, minutes into a world.
Java Edition 1.21.4 · 15 verified seeds
Explore this seedAn ancient city 0 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Forest · Plains · Ocean · Bamboo Jungle · Sunflower Plains
Explore this seedAn ancient city 23 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Old Growth Birch Forest · Dark Forest · Forest · Birch Forest · Lush Caves
Explore this seedAn ancient city 32 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Plains · Forest · River · Frozen Peaks · Meadow · Dripstone Caves
Explore this seedAn ancient city 48 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Savanna · Dripstone Caves · River · Wooded Badlands · Stony Peaks
Explore this seedAn ancient city 68 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Plains · Forest · Flower Forest · River
Explore this seedAn ancient city 72 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Grove · Lush Caves · Frozen Peaks · Deep Dark
Explore this seedAn ancient city 72 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Forest · Plains · Savanna · River · Ocean · Meadow
Explore this seedAn ancient city 86 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Cold Ocean · Ocean · Plains · Stony Shore · Forest · Deep Ocean
Explore this seedAn ancient city 86 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Wooded Badlands · Badlands · Deep Dark
Explore this seedAn ancient city 86 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Forest · Old Growth Birch Forest · Plains · Jungle · Birch Forest · Dark Forest
Explore this seedAn ancient city 93 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Plains · Forest · Dripstone Caves · Jagged Peaks · Taiga · Grove
Explore this seedAn ancient city 96 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Taiga · Forest · River · Lush Caves · Grove
Explore this seedAn ancient city 96 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Plains · Dripstone Caves · Birch Forest · Forest · Grove · Jagged Peaks
Explore this seedAn ancient city 96 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Dripstone Caves · Plains · Forest · River · Sunflower Plains · Old Growth Birch Forest
Explore this seedAn ancient city 96 blocks from spawn (dig down in the deep dark) — swift sneak, echo shards and recovery compasses early.
Nearby biomes: Forest · Old Growth Birch Forest · Dripstone Caves · River · Birch Forest · Meadow
Each seed here has an ancient city within 350 blocks of spawn horizontally — dig down carefully into the deep dark and you're there. Ancient cities generate deep underground (the city floor sits around Y -51), so the coordinates on the card are where to dig, not where to walk.
City chests are the only source of Swift Sneak books and hold echo shards, enchanted golden apples and disc fragments — top-tier loot if you can avoid waking the warden.
Want to scout any of these worlds first? Open a seed in the interactive seed map to pan the full world, toggle structures and copy teleport commands.
Playing an older version? This list is also verified separately for 26.3 · 1.20 · 1.19 — worldgen changes between versions, so each list has its own seeds.