Minecraft Dungeons:Ancient Hunt

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More images for gold rooms and Hunt Doors.

Concept art.

An Ancient Hunt is an end-game^[1] mission that can be found within the Nether Cave at the Camp of Minecraft Dungeons. Ancient Hunts offer a chance at winning gilded gear and gold for the price of sacrificing equipment to enter.

Starting a hunt[]

Ancient Hunt Exchange — The ranged weapon selection interface for configuring an ancient hunt.

Accessible after a single mission at Default V or greater is completed, a portal located in the Nether Cave serves as the physical point of interaction for Ancient Hunts, next to the piglin merchant. Hunts can also be accessed from the Other Dimensions tab of the Mission Select map.

Offerings[]

Before starting a Hunt the hero needs to offer up a valid set of equipment. Runes attached to the items determine what Ancient might respond. The hero cannot offer gilded gear.

Structure[]

In an Ancient Hunt, the heroes explore three large locations connected by Nether portals, primarily searching for Hunt Doors. Most doors lead to Gold Rooms, but some can lead to an arena where the heroes can summon an Ancient. Ancients are powerful mobs that drop gilded gear.

Chests and ordinary mobs do not drop equipment but can instead drop gold. Gold Rooms are packed full of mobs and include at least one piglin ambush, and they offer chests of gold as a reward. On completing the Hunt, the end-of-mission chest provides thirty gold.

During a Hunt, heroes are given three revives and are able to leave and return to the Hunt three times at any point.

Sub-missions[]

The majority of the hunt takes place in a sequence of large sub-missions. They are connected by Nether portals that weave the hero's Hunt between the Mainland and the Nether. Their locations can include:

Mainland

Creeper Woods
Desert Temple
Spider Cave (Ancient hunt–exclusive)
Woodland Mansion (Ancient hunt–exclusive)
Woodland Prison (Ancient hunt–exclusive)

Flames of the Nether

Mainland locations feature hunt-exclusive tiles that do not appear in regular missions. These tiles provide further points for unique procedural generation and the appearance of hunt doors.

Hunt Doors[]

Ancient Hunt Door — These doorways lead to Ancient Arenas and Gold Rooms.

A Hunt Door is a dark-framed, blue glowing passage that transport the hero to a hunt exclusive area. These areas could be a gold room or an area themed around the ancient that resides there, containing an intractable button or lever that summons the ancient and its enchanted minions.

The number of Hunt Doors generated depends on the dungeon seed. These doors normally lead to gold rooms, but some are replaced by ancient arenas with respect to the ancients on average value.

Ancient arena[]

Barrage's Arena — These arenas are where the heroes battle Ancients for a shot at gilded loot.

An Ancient Arena is a Hunt-exclusive arena that's themed for the Ancient that resides there. They have an interactable button or lever that summons the Ancient and its enchanted minions.

Gold room[]

A Gold Room is an interior, bastion-themed area explored in a counterclockwise direction. They are full of mobs, and they have gold-containing chests, a supplies chest, and an extendable bridge. These rooms can generate with fancy chests, and obsidian chests. Activating a beacon or lever to get into a treasure room summons a multi-part ambush of mostly piglins, blazes, wraiths, and the occasional ghast.

Mobs[]

Ancient mobs[]

Ancients are powerful boss-like variants of enchanted mobs with enchanted minions, their own title name, and a themed arena accessed through hunt doors. These mobs and their minions can possess enchantments that would otherwise be player-exclusive, such as Shockwave, and some ancient exclusive enchantments such as Mob Resurrection Aura and Huge.

Ancients and their minions can obliterate unprepared heroes, forcing considerations of different tactics to prevail against the ancient. Upon the ancient's defeat, a gilded item of any rarity is dropped as a reward.

Ordinary mobs[]

All mobs, including DLC exclusive mobs, can appear during Ancient Hunts even if they do not fit the theme of their environment. The Woodland Mansion has charged creepers as an exclusive mob.

Due to the nature of Ancient Hunts all mobs and entities spawn along the generated areas, except for bosses, Chicken Jockey Towers, Drowned Necromancers, Elder Guardians, Endersent, Guardians, Pink Slimes, Poison Anemones, Quick Growing Kelps, Raid Captains, Redstone Cubes, Shulkers, Silverfish, Squall Golems, Tower Guards, Tower Wraiths and Wavewhisperers.

Mob	Difficulty
Mob	Default	Adventure	Apocalypse
Hostile
Baby Drowned	Yes	Yes	Yes
Baby Zombie	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blastling	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blaze	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Blaze Spawner	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cave Spider	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Charged Creeper	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Chicken Jockey	Yes^{[note 2]}	Yes^{[note 2]}	Yes^{[note 2]}
Creeper	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Drowned	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enchanter	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Endermite	Yes	Yes	Yes
Frozen Zombie	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fungus Thrower	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}
Geomancer	Yes^{[note 4]}	Yes^{[note 4]}	Yes^{[note 4]}
Hoglin	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Husk	Yes	Yes	Yes
Iceologer	Yes^{[note 5]}	Yes^{[note 5]}	Yes^{[note 5]}
Icy Creeper	Yes	Yes	Yes
Jungle Zombie	Yes	Yes	Yes
Leapleaf	Yes	Yes	Yes
Magma Cube	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Mob Spawner	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mossy Skeleton	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mountaineer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Necromancer	Yes	Yes	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Piglin	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Piglin Hunter	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Pillager	Yes	Yes	Yes
Poison-Quill Vine	Summoned^{[note 6]}	Summoned^{[note 6]}	Summoned^{[note 6]}
Quick Growing Vine	Summoned^{[note 6]}	Summoned^{[note 6]}	Summoned^{[note 6]}
Rampart Captain	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ravager	Yes	Yes	Yes
Royal Guard	Yes	Yes	Yes
Skeleton	Yes	Yes	Yes
Slime	Yes	Yes	Yes
Snareling	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spider	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Stray	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sunken Skeleton	Yes	Yes	Yes
Trident Drowned	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tropical Slime	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vanguard	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vex	Summoned^{[note 7]}	Summoned^{[note 7]}	Summoned^{[note 7]}
Vindicator	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Vindicator Chef	Yes	Yes	Yes
Watchling	Yes	Yes	Yes
Whisperer	Yes^{[note 8]}	Yes^{[note 8]}	Yes^{[note 8]}
Windcaller	Yes	Yes	Yes
Witch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wither Skeleton	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Wither Skeleton Archer	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Wraith	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zombie	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zombified Fungus Thrower	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 3]}
Zombified Piglin	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Zombified Piglin Hunter	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Powerful
Enderman	Yes	Yes	Yes
Evoker	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 9]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 9]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}^{[note 9]}
Ghast	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}	Ambush^{[note 1]}
Redstone Golem	Yes	Yes	Yes
Skeleton Horseman	Yes^{[note 10]}	Yes^{[note 10]}	Yes^{[note 10]}
Wildfire	Yes	Yes	Yes

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb ^bc ^bd ^be ^bf Spawns in arena battle as ambush
↑ ^a ^b ^c chickens spawn as its mount
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Throws blue nethershrooms
↑ ^a ^b ^c Summons geomancer bombs and geomancer walls
↑ ^a ^b ^c Summons ice chunks
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Summoned by whisperers
↑ ^a ^b ^c Summoned by evokers
↑ ^a ^b ^c Summons entangle vines
↑ ^a ^b ^c Summons evoker fangs
↑ ^a ^b ^c Skeleton horses spawn as its mount

Achievements[]

Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
A Piglin's Best Friend	Collect 500 gold over time.	—	20G	Bronze
Ancient Hunter	Defeat 15 different ancient mobs in Ancient Hunts.	—	50G	Silver
Back to Back	Complete two Ancient Hunts and two daily trials, in two-player co-op, on the second day of the month.	—	50G	Silver

Sounds[]

Music[]

Sound	Description
File:P4 bgm env goldTileMain-001.ogg	Gold Room Main
File:P4 bgm env spcaArena-001.ogg	Spider Cave Arena
	Spider Cave Arena End
File:P4 bgm env spcaMain-001.ogg	Spider Cave Main
File:P4 bgm env womaArena-001.ogg	Woodland Mansion Arena
	Woodland Mansion Arena End
	Woodland Mansion Intro
File:P4 bgm env womaRoof-001.ogg	Woodland Mansion Roof
	Woodland Mansion Boss End
File:P4 bgm env womaGroundFloor-001.ogg	Woodland Mansion Ground Floor
File:P4 bgm env womaMain-001.ogg	Woodland Mansion Main
File:P4 bgm env womaPrison-001.ogg	Woodland Mansion Prison

Ancient Mobs[]

Sound	Description
	Ancient Mob Alarm
	Ancient Mob Generic Pre
	Ancient Mob Generic Loop
	Ancient Mob Generic Post

Gilded Gear[]

Sound	Description
	Gilded Gear Common Drop
	Gilded Gear Common Loop
	Gilded Gear Unique Drop
	Gilded Gear Unique Loop

History[]

Minecraft Dungeons
February 12, 2021					Ancient hunts are mentioned and explained of their potential functionality.
February 19, 2021					Footage of an ancient hunt reveals the new ancient mobs and the offering UI, and the tweet revealing that ancient hunts are an end game feature.
February 20, 2021					Footage of another ancient hunt which reveals gilded gear and their appearance in the inventory.
1.8.0.0					Added ancient hunts.
1.8.6.0					Added sound effects for ancients on the offering UI
					Changed gold room generation. Previously consisted of a single long narrow corridor, stretching in a south-eastern direction containing only mobs and gold chests, and the ambient music and sound effects of the gold room. ^{[more information needed]}
					Changed Spider Cave ambush and "Destroy the Spawns" objectives to occur upon entering the tile instead of upon contacting the web gate
					Changed web gate of the Spider Cave to not show the purple gate glow
					Changed Unbreakable One rune requirements from: -> .
					Changed ancient hunt text to clarify spending enchantment points and level.
					Fixed gilded gear dropping in inaccessible locations during ancient hunts^[2]
					Fixed Multiple ancient mobs spawning during ancient hunts ^[3]
					Fixed gold reward displaying full inventory prompt when inventory is full. ^[4]
					Fixed gold room bridge opens properly for both host and clients
					Fixed text overlapping buttons on ancient hunt menus for several languages
					Fixed incorrect button colors for the prompt that appears when cancelling an ancient hunt
					Fixed Nintendo Switch crash upon entering ancient hunt.
1.10.1.0					Added new ancient mobs, the Abyssal Eye, the Vengeful Mariner, the Scuttling Torment, the Watcher of the End and The Swarm.
1.14.1.0					Changed solemn giant wearing gold helmet (Variant 0 > Variant 1)
1.17.0.0					Increased the amount of gold received upon completing an Ancient Hunt from 10 to 30.
1.17.0.0					Increased the amount of gold received from gold chests Gold Chest Minimum gold increased from 2 to 4 Maximum gold increased from 5 to 6 Rare Gold Chest Minimum gold increased from 4 to 8 Maximum gold increased from 7 to 10

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Ancient Hunt" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Due to MCD-5279, it was initially thought that the woodland mansion theme in ancient hunts was sourced from a new secret location obtained in Creeper Woods. This, however, is partially true, Woodland Mansion is connected to Creeper Woods internally but with no method to access it. Spider Cave shares a similar relationship with Soggy Cave without the visual bug.
The Nether portal in Minecraft Dungeons does not necessarily transport the hero from the Overworld to the Nether and vice versa like in Minecraft. The portal can transport within one dimension. It is possible for a hunt to only consist of Nether locations or Overworld locations.
The "Ancient Hunt Deep Dive" article on minecraft.net displayed an image presenting unused pink squares in addition to the existing purple and grey squares to represent equipment enchantment slots.
The max possible amount of Ancients to respond is 16. With melee weapon of Cursed Axe or Whirlwind (), ranged weapon of Corrupted Crossbow (), armor of Black Wolf Armor () and artifact of Torment Quiver () or Soul Lantern ().

Gallery[]

The loading screen for an Ancient Hunt.
The offering menu.
An ancient hunt door inside the Spider Cave.
A hunt doorway with the blue glow. Most regular doorways glow yellow.

References[]

Minecraft Dungeons

[ambush-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb ^bc ^bd ^be ^bf Spawns in arena battle as ambush

[chicken_jockey-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c chickens spawn as its mount

[blue_nethershroom-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Throws blue nethershrooms

[geomancer-5] Summons geomancer bombs and geomancer walls

[ice_chunk-6] Summons ice chunks

[whisperer-7] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Summoned by whisperers

[evoker-8] Summoned by evokers

[entangle_vine-9] Summons entangle vines

[evoker_fang-10] Summons evoker fangs

[skeleton_horseman-11] Skeleton horses spawn as its mount

[BlogENDGAME-1] Dungeons Dev Blog: Endgame

[12] MCD-5331

[13] MCD-5462

[14] MCD-5389

[1]