Structures

How to Find an Igloo in Minecraft (and the Secret Basement)

By SeedLander 5 min read
Snow igloo in a snowy plains biome

Igloos look like a tiny novelty structure — a one-room snow dome in a frozen biome. Plenty of players walk past one without realising what is underneath. Roughly half of all igloos hide a secret basement with a zombie villager, a normal villager, a brewing stand, and a Splash Potion of Weakness. Curing the zombie villager is the easiest way to get a discounted villager early in any survival run.

Here is how to find one, and how to spot the version with the basement.

What Is an Igloo?

An igloo is a small structure made of snow blocks with a single doorway. Inside there is a bed, a crafting table, a redstone torch on the wall, and one block of carpet. That is the whole upstairs.

About half of all igloos generated in your world have a hidden basement — a sealed room dug straight down through the carpet block. The basement contains:

  • A zombie villager behind iron bars
  • A normal villager behind iron bars (so you can see what the cured zombie will look like)
  • A brewing stand with a Splash Potion of Weakness already brewed
  • A flower pot with a flower
  • A chest with rotten flesh, gold nuggets, an apple, occasionally a golden apple, emerald, or wheat
Interior of a snow igloo with bed, crafting table, and red carpet on the floor
Inside an igloo. The single carpet block on the floor is the giveaway — basements always sit beneath it.

Where Igloos Spawn

Igloos only generate in three biomes:

  • Snowy plains
  • Snowy taiga
  • Snowy slopes (1.18+, mountainous variant)

They are surface structures, so once you are in a snowy biome they are easy to spot — the white dome stands a few blocks above the snow.

How to Find an Igloo

The two practical methods:

Method 1: Use a Seed Map

The fastest way. Drop your world seed into the SeedLander Igloo Finder and it shows every igloo position around your spawn. From there it is just a hike to the nearest one.

This works for both Java and Bedrock, but pick the right edition — igloo positions differ between editions for the same seed.

Method 2: Walk the Snowy Biomes

If you are exploring on foot, igloos are roughly one or two per biome chunk — not common but not vanishingly rare. Look for the white dome silhouette against snow. They sit slightly raised, so they catch the eye from a distance.

Finding the Secret Basement

Step inside and check the floor. If there is a red carpet block in the corner, you are in a basement-style igloo — mine straight down through it.

Below the carpet is a vertical shaft made of stairs (or a one-block ladder drop, depending on layout) leading to the basement room.

Hidden basement room beneath an igloo with iron bars and a brewing stand
The secret basement — iron bars on the cell walls, a brewing stand, and a chest in the corner.

Curing the Zombie Villager

The basement gives you everything needed to cure the zombie villager — a Splash Potion of Weakness sits ready on the brewing stand. You just need a golden apple. The basement chest sometimes has one; otherwise, craft one with 8 gold ingots and an apple.

To cure:

  1. Throw the Splash Potion of Weakness so it hits the zombie villager. They will glow red briefly.
  2. While the Weakness effect is active, right-click them with a golden apple. The villager will start shaking and producing red particles.
  3. Wait 3-5 minutes (in real time). The zombie villager turns into a normal villager.

The cured villager has permanent discounts on all trades — up to about 80% off. If they roll a useful trade like Mending or Power V, that is one of the best villagers you can get in a survival run.

Tips and Tricks

  1. Trap the villager safely first. The cured villager will wander out of the iron bars once you free them. Place beds, fences, or doors to keep them in the basement until they are cured and ready to trade.
  2. The half without a basement is still useful. Free bed, free crafting table, free shelter for the night.
  3. Bring extra golden apples for backup. If a creeper kills the villager mid-cure, you have lost the opportunity. Make 2-3 golden apples just in case.
  4. Set spawn before going down. Sleep in the igloo bed first — if anything kills you, you respawn right there with all your stuff intact.
  5. Igloo basements are great brewing labs. Once the villager is cured, you have a built-in brewing room with iron bars to keep mobs out. Many players use the basement as a permanent potion-making setup.

Half-rare structure, all-rare reward. Find one near spawn with the igloo finder and you can have a discounted Mending villager within your first survival evening.

For the full igloo specification (loot tables, basement spawn rate, structure layout), see the Minecraft Wiki page.