Minecraft Trial Ruins: The Ultimate Guide

Minecraft structures are littered throughout any Minecraft world. These pre-rendered areas were built by the game’s developers and introduce some intrigue as you explore.

If you’ve been playing Minecraft since the game’s beginning, you may remember how empty the world used to feel. At that time, there were hardly any pre-made structures. You didn’t have Villages, Woodland Mansions, or really any different structures from those you create yourself.

Since then, the game has expanded greatly, adding different materials and other structures, with each new structure bringing with the potential for rare loot.

This guide will go over one of the more recent structures added to the game: Trail Ruins.

What Are The Trail Ruins Minecraft Has?

According to the Minecraft Official website, the Minecraft Overworld has been around for an extremely long time. So long, in fact, that it’s old enough to have ruins called Trail Ruins.

Trail Ruins in Minecraft are small buildings, at least on the surface, that are made up of Cobblestone, Bricks, Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Suspicious Gravel, and more. Some of these blocks create a road in between the Ruins sections, which you may pass through while you explore the world.

However, what’s most interesting about Trail Ruins isn’t only the top, but what’s underneath.

If you start to dig, you’ll uncover buried structures that make up the actual Trail Ruins. These Ruins resemble small, Ruined Villages and connect multiple small buildings into a single underground area.

These Ancient Settlements are the only structures in which you can find Blocks of Coal, Mud Bricks, and Packed Mud in a naturally spawning way.

Finally, the Trail Ruin’s Suspicious Gravel, Suspicious Sand, and other Suspicious Blocks, which are essential for Archaeology.

If you’re unaware, Archaeology has you taking a Brush to Suspicious Blocks to uncover Pottery Sherds and other rare loot, such as the Sniffer Egg. You can then use Shards to build the Decorated Pot item.

Archaeology was introduced in the Trails & Tales Update for Minecraft, which was released in early 2023.

The Trails & Tales Update came with the Sniffer, Armor Trims, the Cherry Blossom Biome, Camels, Sign hanging, the Chiseled Bookshelf, and much more! It was a significant update that led to many creative builds.

What Are Pottery Sherds In Minecraft?

Pottery Sherds (not Pottery Shards) are randomly shaped pieces of a Pot you can put together to create different types of Decorated Pot.

A Decorated Pot will take on the shape of the Pottery Sherds you use to craft it.

As mentioned, you can find Sherds by using a Brush on Suspicious blocks like Suspicious Gravel, which you can find in Trail Ruins as well as under the ground.

The type of Sherds you’ll uncover depends on the biome in which you Brush blocks with the Brush tool. Discover new biomes to find more Sherd types in the game.

If you think about it, these Pots seem to represent some sort of lost culture in Minecraft’s history. Who knows what may come to light in a future Minecraft update?

Which Biomes Contain Trail Ruins?

You can find Trail Ruins in the following, typically heavily forested biomes:

• Jungle
• Old Growth Pine Taiga
• Old Growth Spruce Taiga
• Snowy Taiga
• Taiga

Can I Find Trail Ruins In Existing Chunks?

You may not be able to find Trail Ruins in existing chunks. Typically, when a Minecraft update introduces new content, it will naturally generate in new chunks only. It’s not often that you’ll find new content in old chunks.

Trail Ruins Loot Table

Trail Ruins don’t really have chests or other forms of item distribution. Instead, loot comes from brushing blocks, as mentioned earlier.

That said, you can find more than Pottery Sherds inside these Suspicious Blocks. Here’s a loot table of every common item you can uncover while using a Brush in Trail Ruins, specifically for Java Edition:

• Beetroot Seeds
• Blue Dye
• Blue Stained Glass Pane
• Brick
• Brown Candle
• Coal
• Dead Bush
• Emerald
• Flower Pot
• Gold Nugget
• Green Candle
• Lead
• Light Blue Dye
• Light Blue Stained Glass Pane
• Magenta Stained Glass Pane
• Oak Hanging Sign
• Orange Dye
• Pink Stained Glass Dye
• Purple Candle
• Purple Stained Glass Pan
• Red Candle
• Red Stained Glass Pane
• Spruce Hanging Sign
• String
• Wheat
• Wheat Seeds
• White Dye
• Wooden Hoe
• Yellow Dye
• Yellow Stained Glass Pane

Note that these items are found explicitly in Suspicious Gravel, not so much in adjacent blocks. It’s rare to find a single Chest while exploring these areas.

That, and who knows what item will appear on any given roll. It’s completely random, so use this page to see the items expected while exploring.

However, there’s also a rare loot pool, which includes the following items:

• Burn Pottery Sherds
• Danger Pottery Sherds
• Music Disc (Relic)
• Friend Pottery Sherd
• Heart Pottery Sherd
• Heartbreak Pottery Sherd
• Host Armor Trim Smithing Template
• Howl Pottery Sherd
• Raiser Armor Trim Smithing Template
• Shaper Armor Trim Smithing Template
• Sheaf Pottery Sherd
• Wayfinder Armor Trim Smithing Template

The common items each have around a two to four percent chance of dropping, while the rare items, assuming you roll the “rare” item modifier, each have an equal chance of spawning.

Also, it’s important to note that some of these items are unstackable items, so make sure to have some room in your inventory before attempting to find them.

If all works out, you’ll come across some cool new items while exploring Trail Ruins.

Here’s an uncovered view of the Trail Ruins, thanks to the Minecraft Wiki.

Now you’re aware of Trail Ruins and how these structures factor into your Minecraft world. With this knowledge in mind, why not try to impress your friends by finding these rare places and gathering some cool loot?

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