Igloos generate in snowy plains, snowy taiga and snowy slopes, and half of them hide a basement. The entrance is an oak trapdoor under the third carpet from the doorway. Below it, a long ladder shaft leads to a stone lab with a villager, a zombie villager, a chest with a guaranteed golden apple and everything you need to cure the zombie. From Minecraft 26.4, that chest can also hold the new Flurry music disc.
RateBasement in 50% of igloos
XP levelSnowy plains, taiga, slopes
Build timeGolden apple guaranteed
DifficultyBeginner
Where igloos generate
Only three biomes: snowy plains, snowy taiga and snowy slopes. The game tries to place one igloo in each region of 32 by 32 chunks, at least 8 chunks from the next attempt, and the igloo only appears if that spot is in one of those biomes. That makes them uncommon: you can cross a big snowy plain without seeing one.
Two ways to find one:
- Explore snowy plains. They are flat and open, so a small snow dome with two ice windows stands out from far away.
/locate structure minecraft:igloo in a world with cheats, or a seed map like Chunkbase's igloo finder if you know your seed.
Does this igloo have a basement?
Every igloo has the same room above ground: a bed, a furnace, a crafting table, a redstone torch, white and light gray carpets and two ice windows. Half of them also have a basement. You can check without digging:
- Stand in the doorway and count carpets straight ahead.
- Break the third carpet from the doorway.
- Oak trapdoor underneath: there is a basement. Snow block underneath: there is not, and this igloo has nothing more to give.
Open the trapdoor and climb down. The shaft is long: going by the game code it is built from 4 to 11 ladder sections of 3 blocks, so roughly 12 to 33 blocks before the basement itself. Do not jump.
What is in the basement
The game's structure file for the basement contains:
- Two cells behind iron bars: a villager and a zombie villager, both clerics when they spawn.
- A brewing stand holding one Splash Potion of Weakness, on a small table of spruce stairs and a slab.
- A cauldron with water, a potted cactus, cobwebs and a sign with arrows pointing at the cells.
- One chest.
- Infested blocks: nine of the stone bricks are infested with silverfish.
The walls are a silverfish trap. Six infested stone bricks, two infested chiseled stone bricks and one infested mossy stone brick sit among the normal ones. Breaking one releases a silverfish, and a hurt silverfish calls more out of nearby infested blocks. Do not tunnel out through the walls; leave by the ladder. Silk Touch is the safe way to mine them: an infested brick then drops as a plain stone brick and no silverfish comes out.
The chest loot
From the 26.3 loot table:
| Item |
Amount |
Notes |
| Golden apple |
1 |
Always there |
| Apple |
1 to 3 |
Common |
| Coal |
1 to 4 |
Common |
| Gold nugget |
1 to 3 |
Common |
| Rotten flesh |
1 |
Common |
| Wheat |
2 to 3 |
Common |
| Stone axe |
1 |
Uncommon |
| Emerald |
1 |
Rare |
The chest rolls 2 to 8 times from the common pool, plus the golden apple every time.
The Flurry music disc (26.4)
Minecraft 26.4 adds a third pool to the same chest: the Flurry music disc by Hyper Potions, with a 30% chance per basement chest. It arrived in 26.4 Snapshot 7 and is in the full game once 26.4 releases. The track is 2 minutes 34 seconds long and a comparator reads signal 7 from a jukebox playing it. Every other disc and where it comes from is in our music disc guide.
A chest's loot is rolled the first time it is opened, so any basement chest you have not opened yet, even in an old world, uses the new table after you update.
Curing the zombie villager
The basement is a puzzle with the solution supplied: a Splash Potion of Weakness in the brewing stand and a golden apple in the chest.
- Take the splash potion from the brewing stand and the golden apple from the chest.
- Break one iron bar of the zombie villager's cell, or throw the potion through the bars so it hits the zombie.
- With the zombie under Weakness, use the golden apple on it.
- It shakes and gives off red particles. Wait a few minutes; the basement is dark, so sunlight cannot burn it in the meantime.
- It turns back into a villager.
A cured villager gives you permanent trade discounts, and it is the cheapest way to get a second villager to a snowy base. Once both villagers are free, give them a job block and see our villager trades guide for which profession to pick. The basement already has a brewing stand and a cauldron, which are the cleric and leatherworker workstations.
Frequently asked questions
How do you know if an igloo has a basement?
Break the third carpet from the doorway. If there is an oak trapdoor under it, the igloo has a basement; if there is a snow block, it does not.
What biomes do igloos spawn in?
Igloos only generate in three biomes: snowy plains, snowy taiga and snowy slopes. Snowy plains are the easiest place to spot one.
Do igloos always have a golden apple?
Only igloos with a basement have a chest, and that chest always contains one golden apple.
Where do you find the Flurry music disc?
In igloo basement chests, with a 30% chance per chest, from Minecraft 26.4.
Why are there silverfish in igloos?
Nine of the basement's stone bricks are infested blocks. Breaking one without Silk Touch releases a silverfish.
Sources:
- Minecraft Java 26.3 and 26.4 Snapshot 7 game files: igloo structure pieces,
igloo_chest loot table, IglooPieces (checked by SyntaxMine)
- Minecraft Wiki - Igloo
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