What an igloo is
An igloo is a small dome of snow and ice that spawns in Minecraft’s cold biomes. It looks like a simple survival shelter, and it works as one, but a good share of igloos hide a basement under the floor with a brewing setup and a trapped zombie villager.
Find an igloo early in a snowy world and you get a free bed, a furnace, and a crafting table without building anything. If it has the basement, you also get a shot at a golden apple and a villager you can cure into a permanent trade partner.
This guide covers where igloos spawn, what sits on the surface, how to find the hidden trapdoor, what the chest can hold, and how to cure the zombie villager downstairs.
Where igloos generate
Igloos only spawn in snowy, cold biomes. You will find them in snowy plains, snowy taiga, snowy slopes, and grove biomes. They sit on the surface, usually out in the open on flat snow, so they are easy to spot from a distance once you know the shape.
The dome is built from snow blocks, with a floor of white and light gray carpet laid over the base blocks. A pane of glass or ice usually forms a small window near the top. Because they generate right on the surface, you can walk up and step inside through the doorway with no digging required.
Igloos are not rare inside the biomes where they appear, but those biomes are not everywhere. In a warm or temperate world you will never see one. If you want an igloo, head toward snow and start scanning the horizon.
The white dome can blend into deep snow, so the easiest way to spot one is to look for its dark doorway and the small window, both of which break up the flat white surface. Traveling at dawn or dusk helps, since the low sun throws a shadow off the dome that stands out against the snow. Once you have seen a few, the rounded shape becomes obvious even from far away.
What’s on the surface
Every igloo comes with the same basic furniture, which is what makes it such a handy first-night shelter. Inside a plain igloo you get a bed for sleeping and setting your spawn point, a furnace for smelting and cooking, a crafting table, a redstone torch on the wall, and carpet covering the floor.
That is enough to survive your first night without placing a single block. You can sleep through the dark, cook whatever food you brought, and craft basic tools on the spot. Many players treat a found igloo as a temporary home while they scout the area for a permanent build site.
The layout looks identical whether or not a basement is hidden below, so the furniture alone does not tell you which kind of igloo you walked into. The only way to know is to check the floor.
The hidden basement
About half of all igloos have a secret basement. In Java Edition the chance is 50%, so roughly every other igloo you open will have one. The entrance is a trapdoor hidden under the carpet, and its exact position is random, so you have to pull up carpet and break floor blocks to find it.
To locate the trapdoor, break the carpet tiles and dig at the floor inside the igloo. Under one of the blocks is a wooden trapdoor sitting over a ladder. The ladder drops down a tall shaft into a small stone room, and that room is where the real reward waits.
The basement is built mostly from stone bricks, with mossy and cracked variants mixed in to give it an old, abandoned look. It is a tight space, so once you climb down you will see everything at a glance: two barred cells, a brewing area, and a loot chest.
What’s in the basement
The basement is set up like a small laboratory, and the pieces tell a story. Behind iron bars sit two cells. One holds a normal villager, the other holds a zombie villager. Between or near them you will find a brewing stand, a cauldron, and a chest.
The brewing stand usually holds a splash potion of Weakness, and the cauldron can contain water. The chest is the part most players come for. Its loot varies, but it commonly rolls items such as a golden apple, emeralds, wheat, a gold nugget, an apple, coal, a stone axe, and rotten flesh.
The golden apple is the prize. Paired with the splash potion of Weakness on the brewing stand, it is everything you need to cure the zombie villager standing a few blocks away. The basement is basically a puzzle that ships with its own answer key.
How to cure the zombie villager
Curing a zombie villager turns it back into a normal villager you can trade with. In the igloo basement, the two items you need are often already there: a splash potion of Weakness and a golden apple.
Work through it in order. First, throw the splash potion of Weakness so the cloud hits the zombie villager and applies the Weakness effect. Next, use the golden apple on the zombie villager while that effect is active. Then wait. The zombie villager will shake and take a few minutes to convert, so keep it penned and out of sunlight while it heals.
Once the timer finishes you have a live villager. Trades from a freshly cured villager come at a steep discount, and that discount can stick around, so curing this villager is one of the cheapest ways to lock in good early-game trades. If you plan to settle nearby, it is worth doing before you leave.
The second, already-normal villager in the other cell is a bonus. If you can move it safely to a home base, you have the start of a two-villager breeding pair, which is how most players grow a trading hall from scratch. Getting a villager out of the basement takes patience, since they will not follow you, but a minecart or a careful boat route can carry one to the surface.
Using an igloo as a base
An igloo makes a solid starter base with almost no effort. The dome already blocks mobs and weather, the doorway is easy to seal with a door, and the built-in furnace and crafting table cover your basic needs. If the igloo has a basement, that stone room below gives you a safe, dark storage area that is easy to defend.
Snow blocks are soft and quick to mine, so you can expand the dome outward or knock a hole for a bigger entrance without much work. The one thing to watch is light. The interior can be dim, so drop a few torches to stop mobs from spawning inside once you start opening walls.
If you would rather not live in it, strip it for parts. The bed, furnace, crafting table, carpet, and snow blocks all come with you when you mine them, and that is a full starter kit carried off in one trip.
Java and Bedrock differences
Igloos work almost the same in both versions. The surface furniture, the 50% basement chance, and the cure puzzle downstairs are shared across Java and Bedrock. The differences are small and mostly cosmetic.
The main gap is in the chest loot table, which rolls slightly different items and amounts between the two editions. A few building-material details differ as well. If you are on Bedrock, expect the same overall setup with minor changes to what the chest gives you.
Frequently asked questions
Do all igloos have a basement?
No. Only about half do. In Java Edition the chance is 50%. The rest are just the surface shelter with a bed, furnace, crafting table, and carpet.
Where is the trapdoor in an igloo?
Under the carpet on the floor, in a random spot. Break the carpet and the floor blocks beneath it to uncover the wooden trapdoor and the ladder below.
What biomes do igloos spawn in?
Cold, snowy biomes: snowy plains, snowy taiga, snowy slopes, and grove. You will not find them in warm or temperate biomes.
Can you cure the zombie villager in the igloo basement?
Yes. Hit it with a splash potion of Weakness, then use a golden apple on it. Both items can be found in the basement itself. After a few minutes it becomes a normal villager with discounted trades.
What loot is in the igloo chest?
The chest can hold items like a golden apple, emeralds, wheat, gold nuggets, apples, coal, a stone axe, and rotten flesh. The golden apple is the standout, since it lets you cure the zombie villager.
Can you take the whole igloo apart?
Yes. The snow blocks, carpet, furnace, bed, and everything else can be mined and carried off. Many players strip an igloo for its bed and furnace on the first day.
The bottom line
An igloo is one of the best pieces of luck on a cold-start world. Even the plain ones hand you a bed and a furnace on night one, and the ones with a basement give you a cheap path to a cured villager and a discounted trade line. If you spawn near snow, go find one before you build.