Biome bucket list: Dark Forest

1. Grab yourself some dark oak

The most immediately obvious feature of the dark forest is its thick and impenetrable canopy, which blocks most of the sun's light even in the midst of a balmy afternoon. This characteristic murk is caused by the mighty dark oak, an unusually stocky tree whose trunk grows to a positively chunky 2x2 blocks. 

Given that this hulking plant doesn't grow anywhere else, you'd be wise to stock up on logs, planks, and stripped logs while you're wandering around in the half-light. After all, the rich colouring of this lumber is the perfect way to lend panache to your interior designs. 

2. Hunt for a woodland mansion

If there's one reason that you'd actively hunt out a dark forest, it's in the hopes of discovering a woodland mansion. These sprawling structures generate in no other biome, so if you want to claim their riches for yourself, you're going to have to brave the arboreal dark. 

Despite their considerable size, woodland mansions are often surprisingly hard to spot in the tangle of woodland foliage. To make matters even trickier for you, not every dark wood generates a woodland mansion, so you'd be wise to visit a Cartographer and trade for the woodland explorer map if you're serious about paying one a visit.

So, what can you expect to find once you've finally tracked down a woodland mansion? First and foremost, quite a lot of hostile mobs. Axe-toting vindicators and spellcasting evokers roam the halls, making it a dangerous place for the unsuspecting and unprepared. As if that wasn't yelp-inducing enough, unlit rooms are frequently dark enough for creepers and skeletons and other hostile mobs to spawn too. 

But, assuming that you're not immediately bludgeoned into submission by an ill-tempered illager, the woodland mansion's many rooms are often home to treasure chests of loot (they're tucked away, so be sure to search carefully). Mansions are also an excellent source of allays, and you can usually find an entire flock of these item-gathering cuties locked away behind prison bars somewhere within the building. What's more, many mansions have secret rooms that host even more valuable treasures, so keep your eyes peeled for architectural oddities as you explore, and consider viewing the mansion from outside in order to check that you've explored it all.

As if all that wasn't tantalising enough, the mansion is also the best place to find an item with the power to bring you back from the brink of death itself. Which leads us to…

3. Claim a Totem of Undying

There's only one way to get your mitts on a Totem of Undying, and that's by clobbering one of the fearsome evokers that carries them. That means that you'd normally to nervously wait for an illager raid in order for one of those spell-slinging meanies to turn up.

Well, here's some good news that also happens to be bad news: the woodland mansion is typically home to loads of evokers, so you'll have lots of opportunities to try to grab a totem of undying while you desperately try to evade their powerful magical attacks. Hooray?

4. Dive into a lush cave

While lush caves are by no means unique to the dark forest, they do have a high likelihood of generating beneath this densely wooded biome. That's because lush caves are more likely to appear in areas of high humidity. 

So, while you nurse your cuts and bruises from your foray into the woodland mansion, why not engage in a spot of light spelunking in one of Minecraft's most visually soothing biomes. It's just the tonic after fighting for your life against a horde of unruly illagers, I find.

So there you have it: four ways to make the very most of your time in the dark forest. Join us next time, when I'll be on hand to guide you through another biome – if I ever recover from all these blunt-force injuries.