Trial chambers in Minecraft: Location, loot, mobs, and more

Minecraft 1.21 is still some months away, but fans have had the opportunity to access some of its features thanks to Java Edition snapshots and Bedrock Edition previews. One such addition to the game is the trial chamber, a new generated structure that challenges players with rooms full of opponents to defeat and plenty of loot to plunder along the way.

Even more intriguing, Minecraft's new trial chambers procedurally generate their layout and scale their hostile mob encounters to the number of players exploring the structure. This makes them quite unique among in-game structures, and there's plenty to learn about trial chambers well before they make their full debut in the 1.21 update.

What to know about Minecraft 1.21's trial chambers

Location

Trial chambers will require Minecraft fans to head quite deep underground (Image via Mojang)

Trial chambers generate fairly deep underground within the Overworld. They can appear anywhere in a range from the height levels Y=-40 and Y=-20, so you may have to do some digging and mining to find them. Since trial chambers are procedurally generated, they may have different room arrangements, so some may be tougher to unearth than others based on their overall composition.

Mobs

Breezes are a new Minecraft mob that generates within trial chambers (Image via Mojang)

Throughout Minecraft's trial chambers, new blocks known as trial spawners are responsible for creating the hostile mobs you battle against. These blocks spawn creatures depending on how many players are nearby. Fortunately, you can get an idea of what a trial spawner will create based on its surrounding blocks.

Each trial spawner is capable of generating mobs from four categories (breeze, melee, small melee, ranged), and the blocks surrounding the spawner will dictate which mob from each category is created. Once you defeat the mobs created by the spawner, the new block will also provide a collection of rewards.

All mobs that can spawn within trial chambers and their corresponding blocks

The Breeze
Melee - Zombie (mossy cobblestone), Husk (chiseled sandstone), Slime (moss)
Small Melee - Silverfish (stone bricks), Baby Zombie (cobblestone/mossy cobblestone), Spider (stone with cobweb on top), Cave Spider (stone with cobweb on top with podzol and a red mushroom)
Ranged - Stray (packed ice), Skeleton (bone block), Skeletons with poison arrows (bone blocks with podzol and a red mushroom)

Loot

Certain blocks within trial chambers contain a plethora of items to collect, some more useful than others. You can find items and gear in chests, barrels, pots, and dispensers that are generated within different rooms in the trial chamber's layout. As mentioned above, defeating the mobs of a trial spawner also yields rewards.

Chest loot in trial chambers

Acacia Plank Blocks
Amethyst Shards
Arrows
Baked Potatoes
Bamboo Hanging Signs
Bamboo Planks
Blocks of Emerald
Blocks of Iron
Bone Meal
Cake
Damaged Diamond Axes and Pickaxes
Damaged Iron Axes
Damaged Shields
Damaged Stone Axes and Pickaxes
Diamonds
Diamond Blocks
Enchanted Books
Enchanted Crossbows
Enchanted Diamond Chestplates
Enchanted Golden Apples
Enchanted Iron Axes/Pickaxes/Shovels/Armor
Ender Pearls
Golden Horse Armor
Glow Berries
Honeycombs
Iron Horse Armor
Milk Buckets
Moss Blocks
Potions of Regeneration/Strength
Saddles
Scaffolding
Sticks
Tipped Arrows of Poison/Slowness
Torches
Trial Keys
Tuff Blocks
Wooden Axes

Trial spawners will release loot items when their Minecraft mobs have been defeated (Image via Mojang)

Barrel loot in trial chambers

Bamboo Plank Blocks
Baked Potatoes
Buckets
Damaged Enchanted Golden Axes/Pickaxes
Compasses
Diamonds
Enchanted Diamond Axes/Pickaxes

Pot loot in trial chambers

Amethyst Shards
Arrows
Diamonds
Diamond Blocks
Emeralds
Emerald Blocks
Gold Ingots
Iron Ingots
Lapis Lazuli
Trial Keys

The loot that Minecraft fans can access varies depending on what room they're currently in (Image via Mojang)

Dispenser loot in trial chambers

Arrows
Eggs
Fire Charges
Lingering Potions of Healing/Poison/Slowness/Weakness
Snowballs
Splash Potions of Poison/Slowness/Weakness
Water Buckets

Loot provided by trial spawners

Baked Potatoes
Emeralds
Ender Pearls
Glow Berries
Golden Carrots
Potions of Regeneration/Strength
Trial Keys

Vaults and Trial Keys

Vaults offer Minecraft fans a new multiplayer-friendly loot mechanic (Image via Mojang)

As players roam trial chambers, they’ll no doubt encounter more than a few trial spawner blocks complete with various enemies, including the breeze mob. Whatever the case, once a spawner is beaten, it has the chance to provide a trial key that can be used to unlock a special lootable block in trial chambers known as vaults. These offer quality items but have multiplayer-friendly looting mechanics.

According to Mojang, unlike chests that can simply be looted in multiplayer and leave nothing for the next player that finds them, vaults operate differently. Although a player can only use a trial key to open and loot a vault once, other players can do the same without emptying the vault, making these blocks particularly helpful for Survival Mode servers.

No matter how many others have looted the vault, fans won’t miss out. With loot like enchanted books, enchanted iron and diamond gear, diamonds, emeralds, and enchanted golden apples, players will certainly seek trial keys to unlock vaults when they find a trial chamber. Each player can open a vault once without depleting its contents, which will be helpful in Survival Multiplayer (SMP) situations.

As Mojang continues to develop Minecraft 1.21 and its features, there will likely be even more additions or changes made to trial chambers. There's quite a bit of time remaining before the next major update arrives, but you can dive into Java snapshots and Bedrock previews to enjoy the current state of trial chambers right now.