Minecraft Dungeons tips: Our guide to the loot-filled action adventure

A skeleton of advice.

Guide by Matthew Reynolds Former Guides Editor

Published on May 26, 2020

Minecraft Dungeons is an adventuring role-playing game released in May, 2020 on Switch, PS4, PC and Xbox One - and available through Xbox Game Pass.

Similar to dungeon crawlers such as Diablo and Torchlight, Minecraft Dungeons has you delve into procedurally generated levels solo or other friends, defeating iconic Minecraft enemies and expanding your hero's abilities by mopping up all the loot you can find.

And just like those adventures, higher difficulties and secrets give you an incentive to keep coming back. But before you finish your first playthrough, we have a bunch of Minecraft Dungeon tips to help guide you through the basics and things you can easily miss.

Minecraft Dungeons tips for exploring and using the map

Be sure to explore all of the level as you go, allowing you to find chests with better loot and occasionally secret levels. Usually, the further away from the main objective you are, the more likely you'll come across something valuable. A good rule of thumb when exploring is to go in the opposite direction the marker tells you to!

If you're not sure if you can explore an area, check the map - if it's in the boundary, you can get there somehow. Look nearby for bridges, alternate routes, or even try scaling it by walking against it - sometimes your character will climb the wall.
Holding the map button down longer gives you a fuller overview of the stage, including the number of secrets and chests there are to find.

Rolling is not only useful for dodging enemies, but is also helpful when exploring, allowing you to roll over thin gaps to reach distant ledges and chests.
Though you cannot walk off most edges to your doom, you can roll off them - returning you to the stage and taking a chunk of your health along with it.

Minecraft Dungeons tips for combat and loot

Don't be afraid to turn up the difficulty to begin with, especially as Minecraft Dungeons is on the easy side to begin with. You can tweak a slider before starting each level, and we'd recommend going to at least 1.4x difficulty for the opening stages, which should give you a decent challenge.

That said, don't be afraid to turn the difficulty down either - the last few levels are much longer and more difficult than the rest, and if it helps to power you on through - especially to unlock secret levels and reach higher difficulty levels - then so be it, especially as you only have a finite number of lives to reach the end of a stage.
Aside from arrows, everything works on a cooldown, so use that to your advantage. If you're about to enter an enemy heavy room, wait until your health potion and artefacts refill. Or if the going gets tough, retreat, take a moment or two to recharge then give everything you've got - before falling back again if you need to to repeat the process.
For moments when you can't retreat - such as bosses - as long as you keep moving, by and large you should avoid any attacks coming your way. This is useful if you're low on health and need to wait until your health potion regenerates - and in some cases, such as with The Nameless One, is an essential tactic to stop you becoming overwhelmed.
Though none of the end of level bosses can be skipped, most mini-bosses such as Enderman - which also put a health bar at the top of the screen - are optional, so feel free to avoid them if you prefer.

Similarly, outside of level-specific objectives, there's nothing stopping you speeding past enemies - useful if you want to quickly get back to where you were after losing all your lives, or fancy blasting through to the boss when replaying on a higher difficulty. That said, it's easy to get surrounded by mobs, so choose your route carefully!
Always take the time to set Enchantment points to your equipment. You get one per level gained, and though you have a finite number, they can be reclaimed provided you salvage previous equipment.

We also recommend you stop and check your inventory regularly, even in the middle of exploring a dungeon. It's easy to miss picking up some useful loot by accident; though something might seem unremarkable, enchanting can give you a boost in specific situations - such as weapons providing extra damage to the undead or Enchanted enemies.

And Minecraft Dungeons tips for things you might easily miss

Every completed level adds one chest featuring 50 Emeralds somewhere to the Camp, so make a loop around before continuing your adventure.

A neat, easily-missed feature within the Camp is your house - featured at the upper right of the Camp - which updates as you play the adventure, populating it with trophies and other trinkets from levels you've previously completed.

Non aggressive animals - such as chicken, cows and sheep - can be killed for health items and sometimes Emeralds.
Even when playing in offline mode, pausing will continue to run the game in the background - so if you need to set the controller down, retreat to a previous area with no enemy spawns. We learnt this the hard way...
Minecraft Dungeons will add cross-platform multiplayer sometime after release as part of a free update - allowing you team up with friends even if they're playing on a PS4, Switch, PC or Xbox One.