Welcome to the Deep Dark. This is Minecraft’s scariest new dungeon
and it doesn’t work like anything we’ve seen in the game before. Here the rules are different; to win you must
be sneaky, stealthy and to outsmart the Warden, you’ll need dozens of tricks up your sleeve. So today, we’re going to find out some of
the best strategies to conquer Ancient Cities, tactics to evade the Warden’s wrath and
see why this is one of the best places in the game to live! So Subscribe if you like what you see (we’re
very close to 400k!) I will be your host, I’m SimplySarc and
“How Do You Beat the Deep Dark?” Before you begin tackling the Deep Dark, you’ve
gotta know your enemy inside out! And one of the most important pieces of information
you’ll need is the actual number of Shriekers, Sensors and Sculk you need to avoid or destroy. The good news is each Ancient City generally
has around about the same number! You can see there is quite a lot around, but
don’t you worry! The results are in! Ancient Cities generally have about 50 Shriekers;
350 Sensors, a whopping 35,000 Sculk blocks and 15,000 veins. And if you’re curious, there’s about 75
Catalysts as well. This information is a really great way to
keep track of how much progress you’ve made and to see how close you are to making the
city totally safe! A question you might have though is, “Why
do I need to come here?”. There’s a lot of cool stuff in Ancient Cities,
but something really really awesome is that mobs actually can’t spawn here. It’s kinda like a mushroom island, so if
you wanted to make a cave base this is one of the best places to do it! If that’s not convinced you, let’s talk
about XP; we know how many Sculk blocks there are in Ancient Cities, but how much experience
does that actually translate to? Lemme show you! With 75 Catalysts, this nets you pretty much
a solid 30 levels. 350 Sensors will also get you 30 levels. Shriekers are actually a bit lame though;
all 50 only get you to level 13. 35,000 Sculk blocks though… This. Is roughly how much there is per city. A solid 2x2x2 chunks worth. How much XP is in this monstrosity? Well apparently each block drops 1 XP point,
so with 35,000 of them, you could expect at least 108 LEVELs from the entire place. With mending that’s about 89 levels, mending
+ unbreaking III, 104 levels. With all that, you could easily max enchant
around 100 items! Now if you’re actually looking for an ancient
city, you might be scratching your head for a while because they’re not super duper
common things to find. But there is actually a way to increase your
likelihood of locating one. Kind of like how azalea trees hint towards
there being a lush cave below, apparently ancient cities tend to spawn more often under
mountainous regions. So if you’re struggling to find one, try
focusing on looking in areas with big hills and mountain ranges rather than flat biomes. One of the first things you’re gonna notice
with the Deep Dark is it really is very, very dark. You basically can’t see anything. Before you get here, definitely invest in
some night vision potions otherwise you’re really gonna struggle. Now eventually you’re actually gonna want
to light this whole area up so you’re gonna need quite a lot of light sources. I counted and I’d recommend at the very
least 15 stacks of torches or whatever light block you’re using. Ancient Cities seem scary at first, but once
you understand how everything works it becomes a lot less intimidating. Take Sensors and Shriekers, they’re actually
only dangerous when you find them together! Shriekers only get set off in 2 scenarios;
you step on them or a Sensor relays a vibration to them. Likewise, Sensors are essentially harmless
by themselves; they only become a concern if they have something to relay a message
to. Use this knowledge to your advantage, it’ll
help you navigate the Deep Dark much more effectively. So wool blocks are an essential part of sneaking
around the Deep Dark undetected, but you’ve gotta be a little bit careful because there
are some situations where they don’t work properly. For example watch out for the edges; if you
jump or land on the edge of a wool block, this won’t always occlude vibrations; it'll
count as a regular block. So if you’re jumping around doing parkour,
make sure to try and land on the center of the wool, not the edges. Now if you really want to start building a
base down here, like I’ve shown you, there’s a lot of cleaning up to do! There’s a major Sculk infestation in this
city and you might think this looks like a mammoth task, but getting rid of all this
mess is actually way easier than it seems. The best tool to mine Sculk is the hoe and
you’ll be pleased to know you’re able to insta-mine it! The great thing however is that because Sculk
drops XP, if you have a mending hoe this makes cleaning up Sculk completely free! Because Ancient Cities are such a great place
to set up a base, making the city safe should be your number 1 priority. That’s why, before you start looting or
trying to remove Sculk you should focus on destroying the Shriekers. Once you’ve gotten rid of them there is
basically nothing that can hurt you anymore. So what’s the best strategy on taking out
Shriekers? If you find a Shrieker by itself, you’re
allowed to just punch it; this won’t trigger anything. If you find a single Shrieker surrounded by
lots of Sensors, take out the Shrieker first. If you find a single Sensor surrounded by
Shriekers, take out the SENSOR first. Do note however that there are a lot more
Sensors than Shriekers in cities (as I said, they outnumber them 7:1), so it’s way less
likely for this to happen and there probably is a Sensor hiding somewhere you can’t see. For example, Sensors can generate INSIDE Sculk
patches. It’s a really dirty move, but just be aware
of it. On the other hand, if you find lots of Shriekers
and Sensors together, this is where you’ll need to pay more attention. You’ll need to use wool here. Again the Shriekers are the priority, so you
need to occlude every angle that breaking a Shrieker might trigger a Sensor. Once it’s safe, break the Shrieker. But what do you do when this happens?! In this scenario, it’s impossible to occlude
every face. The good news is there is a technique to deal
with this, it’s just a little riskier. What you’ve got to do is find the general
center of the Shriekers and place a wool block. Hoe at the ready, break the wool block. What’s gonna happen is all of the Sensors
will be activated and distracted. In this brief moment you’re able to break
a Shrieker undetected. The reason this works is because Sensors only
trigger Shriekers if it was deemed to be a player action. A wool block dropping from a tile, doesn’t
count as a player action. DO NOT throw the item onto the Shriekers!! This *IS* considered a player action and WILL
set off the Shriekers! What you’ve gotta remember about Wardens
is they only spawn after you’ve set off 4 Shriekers. If you’re a real wimp like me and really,
really, really want to avoid fighting him at all costs there is a cowardly tactic you
can use. When you die, your Shrieker tally resets. So say you’ve set off 3 Shriekers and only
have one chance left you can actually intentionally die and when you respawn your tally is back
to 0. This is great if you don’t want to lose
your stuff in a risky area or if you’d like to take out Shriekers without faffing around
with wool too much. But let’s be real here, even if you try
really hard not to summon the warden, you’re bound to slip up eventually! And if you really mess up you’re actually
going to have to fight him. One of his most dangerous weapons is the darkness
effect he inflicts on you. Unlike most status effects, milk actually
isn’t able to remove it (and this applies to honey as well). The aim is to confuse and disorient you and
it can really throw you off balance. That’s why I’d recommend using spectral
arrows over regular arrows if you’re taking him on. These work through the darkness effect and
are really gonna help you stay oriented and see where the Warden is in relation to you. Alternatively, sometimes it can be a decent
strategy to strike first to get the upper hand. If you’d rather avoid getting the darkness
effect altogether, you can actually intentionally set off shriekers from at least 40 blocks
away and this will spawn a Warden, but won’t give you the effect. Beware though, if you let the Warden get too
close, he’ll give it to you. Beating the Ancient Cities is all about being
sneaky and having tricks up your sleeve and I have a really good one you can try. Night vision potions are essential, but I’d
also strongly recommend having a couple slow falling potions as well. A cool thing with slow falling is it actually
prevents jumping from triggering Sensors. You can fall from any height and as long as
there’s no sideways movement when you’re on the ground, you’re totally safe! This gives you more control on how you can
explore. But you can go a step further! As you may know, if you combine an elytra
with slow falling this essentially lets you hover in mid air. To avoid confusion, elytra use still gets
picked up by Sensors and Wardens but this technique is extremely powerful for maneuvering
around the Deep Dark. It’s so much easier to control elytra in
this state and gives you time to plan where you’d like to go with a lot more precision. For example lighting up the ceiling can be
a real chore and normally requires loads of noisy block placing, but here you can lay
down tons of torches super duper quickly. The same applies to clearing Sculk; what would
normally be a really tedious task becomes a breeze when you combine hoes with elytra
and slow falling. This trick is also a decent way of evading
the Warden, but be warned you aren’t invulnerable. Don’t showboat and waft around an agitated
Warden, because his Sonic attack can easily still get you. If you’re gonna use it, get as far away
from the Warden as quickly as possible because generally if you hear this sound, you’re
already dead. Everyone is looking for ways to cheese the
Warden, but I’d just like to point out a few facts to save you a death or two. First, if you’ve set off a Shrieker, trying
to break it to shut it up won’t work. In fact it’ll actually just make the Warden
spawn immediately. You may think the Sonic attack works sorta
like Guardian lasers, but it doesn’t; it doesn’t need a line of sight and it can
get you through blocks. The warden looks pretty thick, but if you
look at his bounding box, he actually only has a 1x1 block width, so don’t assume he’ll
be too big to fit through narrow areas, because a lot of the time he can! What you’ve got to remember about the Deep
Dark and Ancient Cities is this is all about being sneaky and not getting caught. The Warden is exciting, but he’s designed
to be a punishment not an opponent. That’s why my advice is more tailored to
tactics that avoid him even showing up; because to ‘beat’ the Warden isn’t to 1v1 him,
it’s to enter the cities, steal his stuff and if you’re skilled enough, outright block
him from spawning. But these were just some of the strategies
I think are useful in the Deep Dark. What kind of tactics are you planning on using
to outsmart the Warden?
