Minecraft locate command: find a stronghold, ancient city or biome and teleport there

Minecraft’s built-in locate command prints the coordinates of the nearest stronghold, ancient city, village or cherry grove, so you can go straight there without exploring. But if you type the command the way an older guide wrote it, the game only returns an error message. The command syntax has changed, and the names differ between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Use the current syntax and names, and you get the coordinates and can teleport there.

The tests ran on Windows 11 with Java Edition 26.3 and the official Bedrock Edition 1.26.61.1 server.

Command permissions

Both locating and teleporting are cheat commands. When you create a new Java Edition world, you can switch “Allow Commands” on right away.

If you play on a Java Edition server, type op PlayerName in the server window to make the player an operator. Without permission, the chat shows “Unknown or incomplete command. See below for error”, even when the command is spelled correctly:

Java Edition locate commands

Since 1.19, the old locate became locate structure, and locatebiome became locate biome. Once you have permission, open the chat and type one of the commands below for what you want to find:

You can leave out the minecraft: in front of a name. # stands for a group of structures. For example, villages come in five structures (plains, desert, savanna, snowy and taiga), and #minecraft:village searches all of them at once. After you send the command, the chat shows the nearest coordinates and the distance. The messages in the screenshot read “The nearest minecraft:stronghold is at [1392, ~, -1040] (1736 blocks away)”, and the same format for the savanna village and the cherry grove:

Structure and biome names

Every name below was queried in the game, and you can add minecraft: in front of the Java Edition names. The dimension column is the dimension where you can find the structure:

Desert pyramids, jungle temples and swamp huts can only be found on Java Edition, with the names desert_pyramid, jungle_pyramid and swamp_hut. Bedrock Edition uses temple for them.

These are the biomes people look up most. On Bedrock Edition, you must always put minecraft: in front of the name:

Locating in the Nether and the End

The locate command only searches the dimension you are in, so locating a Nether fortress while you stand in the Overworld gives a “not found” message. If you haven’t traveled there yet, put execute in in front of the command to choose the dimension, and you don’t have to move:

1/execute in minecraft:the_nether run locate structure minecraft:fortress
2/execute in minecraft:the_end run locate structure minecraft:end_city

Biomes work the same way, for example /execute in minecraft:the_nether run locate biome minecraft:crimson_forest.

Teleport to the coordinates

After you get the coordinates, move the cursor over the green coordinates and the tooltip shows “Click to teleport”. Click the coordinates and the chat fills in /tp @s 1392 ~ -1040. Press Enter to send it and you teleport there:

The first two numbers of spreadplayers are the X and Z of the destination, and you don’t need to change the other parameters. It finds the ground even if the destination hasn’t been generated yet. Strongholds and ancient cities are underground, so teleport to the surface first and then dig down. Y 127 in the Nether is bedrock, and without under 120 you stop on top of it, so always add this parameter in the Nether.

If you are already stuck in blocks, enter the spreadplayers command from the table to return to the ground, or enter /gamemode creative to switch to Creative mode, and the damage stops.

After you arrive, run the same locate command again. When you stand at the structure, the distance shows 0.

Error messages and fixes

When you type the syntax of an old guide or misspell a name, the message depends on the cause:

Differences on Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition also has /locate structure and /locate biome, and the syntax is listed in the official documentation. The screenshot below shows the results in the Bedrock Edition server window. The Y of a structure shows as (y?), and a biome without minecraft: shows a syntax error:

On Bedrock Edition, the Y of a biome is the ground height, so you can teleport right away, for example /tp @s -480 104 -1312. Structure names must be all lowercase. A wrong dimension, a misspelled name and uppercase letters all give the same No valid structure found within a reasonable distance, so check them one by one when you see this message.

Test notes

The seed was 20261106 on both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, but the two editions generate different worlds, so the coordinates can’t be used across editions. I queried the 52 structures and 67 biomes built into Java Edition 26.3, and the 17 structures and 87 biomes listed in the official Bedrock Edition documentation, once in each of the three dimensions. Every Java Edition structure was found, and only the_void couldn’t be found among the biomes. Every Bedrock Edition structure was found, and most of the 26 biomes that couldn’t be found are old names such as desert_hills.

Summary

Write the locate command separately for structures and biomes, use the names of your current version, and teleport after you get the coordinates. The 52 structures built into Java Edition 26.3 and the 17 structures listed for Bedrock Edition can all be located in their dimensions.

Ted Liou

Software engineer writing about Unity and AI development. Available for consulting.