Echo Shard ID

Looting ancient cities without waking the Warden

Ancient cities generate in the deep dark biome far below sea level. Chests there have a good chance at echo shards, but sculk shriekers summon the Warden after repeated triggers, so crouch-walk, break or wool-cover shriekers, and open chests quietly.

Bring wool for pathways, night vision potions, and a escape route. The shard hunt is one of the riskiest loot runs in the game, and a death in an ancient city is exactly what the recovery compass is meant to fix.

• Source: ancient city chests in the deep dark.
• Sneak on wool, disable shriekers before looting.
• Cities sit deep underground; find deep dark under mountain ranges.

Crafting and using the recovery compass

Surround one compass with eight echo shards to craft a recovery compass. It points toward the spot where you last died, making corpse runs across thousands of blocks practical instead of guesswork.

The compass only works for the player who died, in the dimension where the death happened, and it spins uselessly before your first death. Keep it in an ender chest so losing items on the next death never costs the compass itself.