Minecraft’s 26.3 update brought its first Autumn themed snapshot, and one new structure is already pulling players away from their usual routes. The Abandoned Camp is a small surface site that hides real early game value, including a shot at diamonds before you have even placed a bed. Here is everything you need to find these camps and clear them properly.
What Are Abandoned Camps in Minecraft
Abandoned Camps are compact surface structures added in Minecraft 26.3 Snapshot 1, part of the first Autumn drop. Each site looks like a campsite someone walked away from and never returned to.
A worn wool tent sits at the center of every camp. Around it you will find an unlit campfire, a crafting table, barrels, chests, cauldrons, and a handful of decorative blocks that change based on location. A camp in a Cherry Grove picks up cherry themed blocks. A camp in the new Dappled Forest biome comes surrounded by Poplar wood, leaf litter, and Shelf Mushrooms. The structure stays the same everywhere, but the dressing shifts with the biome, which makes every discovery feel a little different.
Unlike Woodland Mansions or Ancient Cities, Abandoned Camps are not rare. They spawn across enough biomes that most exploration runs will turn one up fast, so treat them as a reliable early loot stop rather than a special find. Some players even wall one off with a few extra blocks and use it as a starter base.
Where to Find Abandoned Camps
Abandoned Camps generate across 18 Overworld biomes:
- Meadow
- Cherry Grove
- Forest
- Birch Forest
- Old Growth Birch Forest
- Flower Forest
- Windswept Forest
- Dappled Forest
- Taiga
- Snowy Taiga
- Old Growth Spruce Taiga
- Old Growth Pine Taiga
- Sparse Jungle
- Bamboo Jungle
- Swamp
- Savanna
- Wooded Badlands
- Pale Garden
Tip: Tame a horse before you start searching. Forests, Birch Forests, Flower Forests, and Taigas cover large flat stretches in most seeds, so a horse lets you cover ground fast and spot the white wool tents from a distance.
The Dappled Forest stands out as the strongest hunting ground among the new biomes. Its Poplar trees carry red, orange, and yellow foliage, so the pale tent contrasts sharply against the canopy. You will spend far less time scanning here than in a standard green forest.
For anyone still early into Minecraft, these camps offer a much more accessible loot source than digging underground. No torches, no mob fights, just open world exploration.
What Loot You Can Find in Abandoned Camps
Each camp holds up to three storage types: barrels, common chests, and secret chests. The gap in loot quality between them is significant, so it pays to know what to look for.
Barrel Loot
Barrels carry basic survival supplies. Nothing dramatic, but useful on day one.
| Item | Drop Chance |
|---|---|
| Bone | 33.6% |
| Coal | 33.6% |
| Rabbit Hide | 33.6% |
| Wheat | 33.6% |
| Arrow | 33.6% |
| Bread | 33.6% |
| Glass Bottle | 33.6% |
| White Candle | 33.6% |
| Leather | 33.6% |
| String | 33.6% |
| Bundle | 33.6% |
| Cobweb | 33.6% |
| Fishing Rod | 33.6% |
| Wooden Axe | 33.6% |
Every barrel item sits at the same 33.6% chance. A bundle this early helps a lot with managing inventory space during long exploration runs.
Common Chest Loot
Common chests raise the stakes. Copper gear, navigation tools, and saddles all show up here.
| Item | Drop Chance |
|---|---|
| Arrow | 27.5% |
| Bone | 27.5% |
| Firework Rocket | 27.5% |
| Glass Bottle | 27.5% |
| Rabbit Hide | 27.5% |
| Leather | 27.5% |
| Lead | 27.5% |
| Map | 27.5% |
| Bundle | 27.5% |
| Cobweb | 27.5% |
| Compass | 27.5% |
| Empty Map | 27.5% |
| Fishing Rod | 27.5% |
| Flint and Steel | 27.5% |
| Saddle | 27.5% |
| Bow | 19% |
| Bucket | 19% |
| Copper Axe | 19% |
| Copper Spear | 19% |
| Copper Sword | 19% |
| Shears | 19% |
| Spyglass | 19% |
| Copper Chestplate | 19% |
| Copper Leggings | 19% |
| Copper Boots | 19% |
A saddle at 27.5% matters if you plan to tame and ride a horse for faster camp hunting. The copper armor pieces at 19% each give you a working combat loadout without touching your own crafting resources.
Secret Chest Loot
This is why you search every corner of a camp instead of grabbing the first chest in sight. Secret chests often sit buried under barrels or tucked into less obvious spots.
| Item | Drop Chance |
|---|---|
| Copper Ingot | 75.6% |
| Gold Ingot | 75.6% |
| Empty Map | 75.6% |
| Iron Ingot | 75.6% |
| Potion of Healing | 36% |
| Potion of Leaping | 36% |
| Potion of Night Vision | 36% |
| Potion of Swiftness | 36% |
| Diamond | 36% |
| Iron Axe | 12.5% |
| Iron Spear | 12.5% |
| Iron Leggings | 12.5% |
| Iron Boots | 12.5% |
Warning: Don’t leave a camp after grabbing the first chest you find. The secret chest is easy to miss if you skip checking under barrels and around the tent’s less visible corners.
A 36% chance at a diamond from a surface structure with zero combat requirement is a strong pull on its own. The four potions (Healing, Leaping, Night Vision, Swiftness) also land at 36% each, and pulling a Night Vision potion this early changes how you approach cave exploration for the rest of the run.
How to Search Abandoned Camps Efficiently
A few habits speed up finding and clearing camps in the 26.3 snapshot.
Travel on horseback whenever possible. Forests and Taigas stretch across large areas, and a horse cuts your search time by a wide margin compared to sprinting on foot. The higher view angle also helps you spot tent structures before you are standing right on top of them.
Target the Dappled Forest first. The contrast between the orange red Poplar canopy and the white wool tent makes visual detection much faster than a standard green forest allows.
Check every container before moving on. Each camp holds barrels, at least one common chest, and potentially a secret chest. The secret chest carries the highest value loot in the camp, so a quick scan under barrels and around the tent perimeter costs you 30 extra seconds and pays off often.
Use the camp as a temporary base if the location works. The crafting table is already placed, and closing off the tent with a few extra blocks turns it into a functional shelter for your first night.
Tip: Abandoned Camps generate far more often than Woodland Mansions or Ancient Cities. Spawning across 18 biomes means most worlds will place several within reasonable range of your spawn point.
How Abandoned Camps Compare to Other Early Game Loot
Abandoned Camps hold an interesting spot next to other surface and near surface structures. They require no combat to clear, which sets them apart from a Pillager Outpost, and they are far easier to reach than a shipwreck sitting underwater. The loot tables lean toward utility and light combat gear rather than the enchanted books and treasure maps you would find in a shipwreck, but the total absence of danger makes camps a safer stop for a fresh world.
The same 26.3 update introduced Sulfur Caves, which bring new blocks and the Sulfur Cube mob into the mix. Gearing up at a few Abandoned Camps first gives you a reasonable buffer before heading into that kind of underground content.
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