Trail ruins are a buried structure added in the 1.20 update. They sit mostly underground, made from the blocks of some long-gone builders, and the only way to pull loot out of them is with a brush.
They are worth the dig. Trail ruins are the one place you can get four armor trim templates and the Relic music disc, and they hand out pottery sherds and useful early-game items on the side. This guide covers where they spawn, how to find one, and how to clear it without wrecking the loot.
What are trail ruins?
Trail ruins look like the remains of an old settlement that sank into the ground. You get walls, floors, and passages built from bricks, mud bricks, packed mud, terracotta, and wood, arranged into rooms that connect underground. Most of the structure is buried, so what you see on the surface is usually a small patch of unusual blocks poking through the dirt.
Unlike a village or a temple, trail ruins have no chests. Every reward is hidden inside suspicious gravel, a block that only gives up its contents when you brush it. That single mechanic shapes how you approach the whole structure: you are not looting a room, you are excavating a dig site.
Where trail ruins generate
Trail ruins spawn underground in a fixed set of biomes. If you are not standing in one of these, you will not find them:
- Taiga
- Snowy taiga
- Old growth pine taiga
- Old growth spruce taiga
- Old growth birch forest
- Jungle
The taiga family and jungle are your best bets. Because the structure sits below the surface, the biome above it is what counts. A trail ruins buried under a jungle will still have the same block palette as one under a snowy taiga.
How to find trail ruins
Finding trail ruins takes more effort than most structures because they hide underground. There are a few ways to track one down.
Look for surface clues
Sometimes a corner of the ruins breaks the surface. Keep an eye out for stray bricks, mud bricks, terracotta, or gravel sitting in the middle of a forest floor where they have no business being. That patch is the top of a buried structure. Dig straight down next to it (never directly under your feet) and you will drop into the rooms below.
Use the locate command
If you have cheats on, the fastest option is the /locate command. In Java Edition, run /locate structure minecraft:trail_ruins and the game gives you the coordinates of the nearest one. On Bedrock, the command is /locate structure trail_ruins. Travel to those coordinates, then dig down to find the rooms.
Dig carefully once you are inside
The rooms are packed with normal gravel and dirt as well as the suspicious gravel you actually want. Mine out the fill with a shovel so you can see the walls and floors clearly. Suspicious gravel has a faint speckled texture that stands out once you know to look for it, so clear the space first, then hunt for those blocks.
Getting loot: brushing suspicious gravel
Every reward in trail ruins comes from suspicious gravel, and you need a brush to get it. A brush is crafted from a feather, a copper ingot, and a stick stacked in a column in the crafting grid. Bring at least one, and a spare copper ingot or two, since the brush wears down with use.
To collect loot, point at a suspicious gravel block and hold the use button. The brush slowly clears the block over about a second and a half, and when it finishes, the hidden item pops out and the block turns into regular gravel. Keep the brush steady until the item appears.
Do not mine suspicious gravel with a pickaxe or shovel. If you break it any other way, it drops as plain gravel and the loot inside is gone for good. Brushing is the only method that works. Water is also the enemy here: a suspicious gravel block that gets hit by a water source or falls turns into normal gravel, so seal off any leaks before you start brushing near them.
What you can find in trail ruins
Trail ruins pull from two loot pools. Most suspicious gravel gives common, everyday items. A smaller number of blocks in the more decorated parts of the structure hold the rare rewards.
Common loot
The everyday pool leans toward early and mid-game supplies. Expect items like coal, wheat, emeralds, various dyes, a wooden hoe, iron nuggets, and clay balls. None of it is exciting on its own, but a full trail ruins has dozens of suspicious gravel blocks, so the pile adds up.
Armor trim templates
This is the real reason to visit. Trail ruins are the only source of four armor trim smithing templates: Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, and Host. You cannot get these patterns anywhere else in the game. If you want to decorate your armor with all of them, trail ruins are a required stop.
The Relic music disc
Trail ruins are also the only place to find the music disc “Relic.” Like the trims, it only comes out of the rare suspicious gravel, so getting one takes patience and a bit of luck. It is a quiet, atmospheric track and a nice collectible for anyone chasing every disc in the game.
Pottery sherds
Trail ruins are a strong source of pottery sherds, the decorated fragments you combine with bricks to craft decorated pots. Several sherds show up here, and combining four of them lets you make a pot with a custom set of pictures on its faces. If you are building a collection of sherds, trail ruins give you a lot of chances to add to it.
Blocks that make up trail ruins
Part of the appeal is the block palette itself. Trail ruins are built from a mix you rarely see gathered in one natural structure, which makes them a handy source of decorative material once you have grabbed the loot. You will find bricks, mud bricks, packed mud, gravel, and terracotta in several colors, along with wood from the surrounding biome worked into the floors and frames.
Because the structure has no chests and nothing stops you from mining the walls, you can strip the whole place for building blocks after brushing. The terracotta and mud bricks in particular are useful if you like the weathered, ancient look for your own builds.
Tips and common mistakes
A few habits make clearing trail ruins faster and keep you from losing loot:
- Bring more than one brush. They break, and running out mid-dig means a trip home for another feather and copper ingot.
- Light the area as you dig. The rooms are dark and mobs will spawn in the gaps, so drop torches while you clear the fill.
- Clear normal blocks first, then brush. Trying to find suspicious gravel in a room full of dirt and gravel wastes time.
- Watch for water and gravity. Suspicious gravel that gets flooded or falls turns into plain gravel and loses its loot.
- Do not brush in a hurry. Interrupting the brush before the item pops resets the progress, though the block stays suspicious so you can try again.
Java and Bedrock differences
Trail ruins work almost the same on both editions. They were added to Java and Bedrock in the 1.20 update, they spawn in the same biomes, and the brushing and loot systems match. The main difference is the locate command syntax, where Java uses minecraft:trail_ruins and Bedrock uses trail_ruins without the namespace. Loot tables can shift slightly between versions, so exact drop rates may vary, but the headline rewards (the four trims and the Relic disc) come from trail ruins on both.
Frequently asked questions
What biomes have trail ruins?
Trail ruins generate underground in taiga, snowy taiga, old growth pine taiga, old growth spruce taiga, old growth birch forest, and jungle biomes.
Do trail ruins have chests?
No. All loot is stored in suspicious gravel and can only be collected with a brush. There are no chests in the structure.
What do you get from trail ruins?
Common items like coal, wheat, emeralds, and dyes, plus rarer rewards: pottery sherds, the four exclusive armor trim templates (Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host), and the Relic music disc.
How do you get loot out of suspicious gravel?
Point at the block and hold the use button with a brush equipped. After about a second and a half the item drops out. Breaking the block any other way destroys the loot.
Are trail ruins rare?
They are uncommon and hidden underground, which makes them harder to stumble on than surface structures. Using the locate command is the quickest way to find one if you have cheats on.
What armor trims are only in trail ruins?
The Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, and Host trim templates come only from trail ruins. No other structure or mob drops them.
Can suspicious gravel be moved or reused?
Not really. If you break it without a brush, or it gets flooded or falls, it becomes plain gravel and the loot is lost. Brush it in place to be safe.
Trail ruins reward patience more than combat. There are no mobs guarding the loot and no traps, just a lot of gravel to brush through. Pack a couple of brushes and some spare copper, and a single site can hand you armor trims you cannot get anywhere else.