How To Find a Woodland Mansion in Minecraft (2026 Guide)

There are two ways to find a woodland mansion: buy a woodland explorer map from a master-level cartographer villager (14 emeralds and 1 compass), or use the /locate command in a world with cheats enabled. This guide walks through both methods step by step.

_{This guide is current for 2026 (Minecraft Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.50, Wilderness Bound).}

Woodland mansions are naturally generated structures in Minecraft that can only be found inside dark forest and pale garden biomes. These buildings contain loot and special rewards, including diamond blocks and totems of undying. You can also renovate the mansion to your liking and live inside as your own house!

Due to their rarity, it’s unlikely you’ll randomly find a Woodland Mansion while exploring. Luckily you can locate them with the help of a woodland explorer map.

This tutorial will teach you everything you need to know about how to find a Woodland Mansion in Minecraft.

Step One: Obtain a Woodland Explorer Map

Woodland explorer maps are essential to finding a woodland mansion in Minecraft. These maps can be obtained through villager trading with a cartographer villager. The woodland explorer map is a master-level trade (level 5, the highest rank), which means you’ll have to repeatedly trade with the cartographer until it levels all the way up and the map appears in the trading menu.

Colorful particles will surround the villager each time a level is unlocked, and you can check its current rank by the badge it wears (a master wears a diamond badge). The woodland explorer map costs 14 emeralds and 1 compass. Trading with villagers is also a source of Minecraft XP, so leveling a cartographer pays off twice.

Tip: on the way up, journeyman cartographers also sell ocean explorer maps and trial explorer maps (which lead to trial chambers), so you’ll collect some bonus adventures while unlocking the mansion map! On Java, the cartographer also needs to be in the overworld. One that was moved to the Nether or the End won’t unlock its map trades.

Step Two: Follow The Map

The next step to finding a woodland mansion in Minecraft is to open the map and travel towards the structure. Hold the map in your hand and look at the ground to enlarge it on your screen. Every map has a white marker (your location), a mansion icon (the woodland mansion), and a sketch of the world. The mansion icon got a new look in the Wilderness Bound drop, so it may not match older screenshots like the one above.

Note that the map is not to scale and in this photo the woodland mansion is actually about 3000 blocks away from the player!

Use the map to determine which general direction to go, for example in the above photo the player would need to travel south-east from their current location until reaching the woodland mansion. Remember, the player location is the white dot in the top left corner and not the crosshair.

To travel a specific direction (southeast in this example map), use the debug screen (F3 on Java) to find which direction you’re facing. Keep turning and checking the F3 screen until you’re facing the correct direction, travel that way, and eventually you’ll find a woodland mansion inside of a dark forest!

One thing that changed in Wilderness Bound: explorer maps can no longer be zoomed out at a cartography table. If the mansion is off the edge of your map, just keep walking toward the marker until it comes into view.

The Fast Way: Use the /locate Command

If you don’t mind using cheats, the /locate command finds the nearest mansion instantly. Here is how:

1. Make sure cheats are enabled on your world or server.
2. Open the chat and type: /locate structure minecraft:mansion (on Bedrock, type /locate structure mansion).
3. The game replies with the coordinates of the nearest woodland mansion.
4. On Java, click the coordinates in chat to fill in a teleport command, or travel to them on foot if you’d rather keep it fair.

This works on both Java and Bedrock Edition. For more commands like this, check out our full list of Minecraft commands.

Step Three: Explore and Enjoy the Woodland Mansion

Now that you’ve successfully found a woodland mansion, you can explore and collect all the rewards! There are many chests inside containing loot similar to dungeons, including diamond gear like a diamond chestplate. You’ll also find hidden rooms where you can find diamonds!

Two types of illagers live inside the mansion: vindicators (axe fighters) and evokers (magic users that summon vexes). Evokers are the important ones: every evoker drops a Totem of Undying when killed, guaranteed. The totem of undying can revive you upon death (when held in one of your hands), which makes it one of the most valuable items in the game. Note that illagers don’t respawn when they’re killed, so a cleared mansion stays clear.

Keep an eye out for allays too! These friendly blue flying mobs are locked in small jail cells inside some mansions (you can also find them caged at pillager outposts). Break them out and they will follow you around, and if you hand an allay an item, it flies off to collect matching dropped items for you. Rescuing allays is one of the best reasons to raid a mansion.

One more looting tip is that mansions have far more loot than your inventory can hold, so bring an ender chest with a few shulker boxes inside. Fill a shulker box, tuck it back into the ender chest, and nothing gets lost even if you die on the trip home.

When you’re finished and decide to leave the area, it’s a good idea to leave a marker to remind you where the mansion is. One way to do this could be by using a beacon beam to mark the location.

Tip: If you’re having trouble finding a woodland mansion on a new world, try searching online for a recent woodland mansion seed made for your game version. Old seeds won’t generate the same world on current versions.

Woodland Mansion FAQs

Why does the cartographer keep giving me the same map?

A cartographer picks its mansion when the map trade unlocks, and buying again from that same villager always gives the same map. To get a map to a different mansion, level up another cartographer, ideally in a village far away from the first one.

Can you get more totems after clearing a mansion?

Yes. Evokers also show up in the later waves of a raid on Normal and Hard difficulty, and each one drops a totem. Once you have a village you don’t mind defending, raids are the way to collect totems without finding another mansion.

Can mobs spawn inside a mansion after you clear it?

Illagers won’t come back, but regular hostile mobs like zombies and skeletons can still spawn in the dark rooms. If you want to live there, light up every room before you move in.

Can you zoom out a woodland explorer map?

Not anymore. Since the Wilderness Bound drop, explorer maps can’t be zoomed out at a cartography table, so their scale stays fixed. Walk toward the mansion marker and the map will fill in as you go.

That covers our article on how to find a woodland mansion in Minecraft. Do you have any questions or additions? Leave a comment below!