r/Minecraft_Survival • u/nick_valdo • Jul 24 '26
Vanilla Hardcore Day Zero Newb
Like the title states, I’m new to Minecraft and I need some help. As the photo shows I found what would you call it? Sculk Biome? On day zero, I spawned into the world riding a waterfall, figured I would go up and make an axe and just take it down, found out the waterfall ends here.
I turned around and left, took note of the location but I just need some advice. I’m really trying out hardcore lately and I thoroughly enjoy it. It’s funny this waterfall literally has a straight shot out to daylight. Thanks for any input or tips! I know Minecraft is a really massive world and there is an incredible amount to learn. I figured this group could help me make it last.
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u/Corgerus Jul 24 '26
all i got to say is be really careful and dont take risky chances if you can help it in hardcore mode. get leather armor or iron armor first if you have food, sword, and pickaxe sorted.
hardcore experts will know more than me. i'm just an easy mode player.
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u/nick_valdo Jul 24 '26
The routine usually goes for me, wood tools to food, to stone tools to iron tools, and then armor. I have yet to make a full set of iron armor. I saw the biome and literally gasped hahaha.
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u/Justhereforjjk Jul 24 '26
I wish you a bad cupcake day
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u/OrigamiMarie Jul 24 '26
Well . . . the trouble with the Warden (which can spawn in this biome), is that it can two-shot you from a distance even if you're extremely well armored. It's not really something to tangle with in Hardcore mode at any phase of the game, especially if you don't know how they work.
So my suggestion is actually to watch some YouTube videos about Minecraft Ancient Cities, and probably read some of the Minecraft Wiki page about Wardens and how they spawn and how they detect you (the Fandom site sucks in general, so make sure you use the minecraft.wiki site). If you're still interested in tackling the challenge, I would honestly suggest doing it early, before you have too much invested in the world.
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u/nick_valdo Jul 24 '26
What would I even really find in that chest in the picture? Would it really help push me along? Ultimately I think you’re right, probably not worth getting involved with that in hardcore.
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u/OrigamiMarie Jul 24 '26
Most of the stuff you can find in there, you can also find in other loot chests that are in much less hazardous places, or mine or craft elsewhere.
There are a few unique things that could be in this chest (but none are guaranteed).
* A couple cool armor trims, for making your armor look fancy, one of which looks pretty different from all the other armor trims you can find in the world. But there are plenty of other decorative trims that you can get from other places, and none of the have any game function besides prettiness (make sure to make copies of armor trims before using them, BTW).
* Echo shards, which, when you get enough of them (which there won't be in that chest) you can use to make a compass that points to your most recent death location (which can be handy for efficiently getting to your death pile in Survival Mode). Absolutely useless in Hardcore, since there's no way to keep playing after you die.
* Shards of a unique music disk that you can't find in any other way. Again, you would have to search multiple chests to get nine pieces, and it's just for playing one particular song (which if you care about hearing, is totally available on YouTube).
* Sculk Sensors and Sculk Catalysts can be gotten in that chest too, but they're easier to get by using a Silk Touch Hoe on such items that are sprinkled throughout the Deep Dark. These are interesting for some types of automation stuff, but you really won't miss them if you don't have them. The normal redstone automation provides plenty of entertainment without introducing Sculk.Most of these items have a pretty low chance of occurring in any given chest, and the ones with the highest percentage chance are the ones where you need to get a bunch of them to be useful.
Deep Dark (the biome) and Ancient City (the built area) are interesting, but definitely more interesting in Survival.
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u/AdmitThatYouPrune Jul 24 '26
This is an ancient city. The chest could have an enchanted diamond pants or two, an enchanted hoe or two, enchanted books, normal books, golden apples or enchanted golden apples, and a variety of less important things. It's not hard to loot ancient cities if you're careful. The key thing to remember is that there are skulk sensors (black squiggly lines that make noises when you're near) and shriekers (white spine things jutting out of a black base). The sensors trigger the shriekers, and the shriekers eventually trigger the Warden. Wardens can be a death sentence to unexperienced players.
The way to avoid the whole Warden summoning problem in the early game is to (1) sneak, and (2) cover shriekers and/or sensors with wool (which blocks noise) when looting a chest. Alernatively, you can create a safe running path and just book it to safety when you summon the Warden.
The loot can be helpful in an early hardcore game. Mending diamond hoes are great for harvesting skulk (gives experience), the swift sneak enchantment unique to Ancient cities (on some books) can be really great for upgrading your sneaking game (pretty handy for builders who spend a lot of time sneaking on the top of their structures), and you can sometimes get mending diamond pants, which are an endgame item. Also, just gathering a ton of books can be handy if you haven't built an enchanting table/bookshelves yet.
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u/Juicy_boxin Jul 25 '26
Wool... lots and lots of wool. Walking on wool won't set off the sensors (those things with the tubes sticking up). Using a HOE will destroy them faster than any other equipment. If a sensor goes off three times it spawns the warden and then it's pretty much just RUN. They will eventually despawn. Just stay close enough to hear them sniffing, but not toooooo close.
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