Desert Well
| Biomes |  Desert Desert Hills[BE only] Desert Lakes[BE only]
|
|---|---|
| Generates in existing chunks |
No |
| Consists of |
Desert wells are structure-like features consisting mostly of sand, sandstone, and suspicious sand.
Generation
Desert wells generate in desert biomes. They have a 1⁄1000[JE only] or 1⁄500[BE only] chance to be generated in the given chunk. It is possible for a well to generate around a cactus. The well is considered a feature rather than a structure, and therefore it generates with the "Generate Structures" option disabled and can't be located with /locate.[1]
The game always tries to place the desert well on top of the first non-air block at a given position. For the generation to succeed, said block must be sand situated on solid ground in a 5-by-5 radius. In practice, none of the 25 positions in the radius are allowed to be only air on the two y-levels below the central sand block.
The same requirements apply for /place feature minecraft:desert_well_feature to succeed.
Construction
Main article: Desert Well/Structure
Desert wells are built of sandstone blocks and slabs with a water source inside. Underneath the water source are two suspicious sand blocks that can be brushed to get various items. The first suspicious sand generates directly below the water source blocks, and the second generates below that layer.
Loot
In Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, each desert well suspicious sand contains 1 item stack, with the following distribution:
| Item | Stack Size | Weight | Chance | Avg. per block |
Avg. # blocks to brush |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arms Up Pottery Sherd |
1 | 2⁄8 | 25.0% | 0.250 | 4.0 |
 Brewer Pottery Sherd |
1 | 2⁄8 | 25.0% | 0.250 | 4.0 |
 Brick |
1 | 1⁄8 | 12.5% | 0.125 | 8.0 |
 Emerald |
1 | 1⁄8 | 12.5% | 0.125 | 8.0 |
 Stick |
1 | 1⁄8 | 12.5% | 0.125 | 8.0 |
 Suspicious Stew[A] |
1 | 1⁄8 | 12.5% | 0.125 | 8.0 |
{ "chestNames": [ "brushable-desert-well" ], "gameVersion": "Java", "loot": { "brushable-desert-well": { "poolsJava": [ { "items": { "brick": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "brewer-pottery-sherd": [ 1, 1, 2 ], "suspicious-stew": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "emerald": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "arms-up-pottery-sherd": [ 1, 1, 2 ], "stick": [ 1, 1, 1 ] }, "rolls": [ 1, 1 ], "totalweight": 8 } ], "poolsBedrockUpcoming": [], "itemDataJava": { "brick": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "brick" }, "brewer-pottery-sherd": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.25, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 2 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.25, "itemname": "brewer-pottery-sherd" }, "stick": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "stick" }, "emerald": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "emerald" }, "arms-up-pottery-sherd": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.25, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 2 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.25, "itemname": "arms-up-pottery-sherd" }, "suspicious-stew": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "suspicious-stew" } }, "structID": "desert-well", "poolsJavaUpcoming": [], "structure": "Desert well", "container": "Suspicious sand", "itemDataJavaUpcoming": [], "allRollsJavaUpcoming": [], "itemDataBedrock": { "brick": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "brick" }, "brewer-pottery-sherd": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.25, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 2 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.25, "itemname": "brewer-pottery-sherd" }, "stick": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "stick" }, "emerald": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "emerald" }, "arms-up-pottery-sherd": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.25, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 2 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.25, "itemname": "arms-up-pottery-sherd" }, "suspicious-stew": { "sortsize": [ 1 ], "weights": [ "<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub>" ], "chanceany": 0.125, "sizes": [ 1 ], "sortweight": [ 1 ], "armor": 0, "material": 0, "avgamount": 0.125, "itemname": "suspicious-stew" } }, "poolsBedrock": [ { "items": { "brick": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "brewer-pottery-sherd": [ 1, 1, 2 ], "suspicious-stew": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "emerald": [ 1, 1, 1 ], "arms-up-pottery-sherd": [ 1, 1, 2 ], "stick": [ 1, 1, 1 ] }, "rolls": [ 1, 1 ], "totalweight": 8 } ], "allRollsBedrockUpcoming": [], "allRollsBedrock": [ 1 ], "itemDataBedrockUpcoming": [], "chest_type": "suspicious block", "header": "[[Desert Well]]", "display": "desert well suspicious sand", "allRollsJava": [ 1 ] } } }- ↑ The stew grants one of the following effects: in Java Edition, 5–7 seconds of Blindness, 7–10 seconds of Jump Boost, 7-10 seconds of Night Vision, 10–20 seconds of Poison, 0.35-0.5 seconds of Saturation, or 6–8 seconds of Weakness; in Bedrock Edition, 7 seconds of Blindness, 5 seconds of Jump Boost, 5 seconds of Night Vision, 11 seconds of Poison, 0.3 seconds of Saturation, or 7 seconds of Weakness.
Data values
ID
| Feature | Identifier |
|---|---|
 [No displayed name] | desert_well_feature |
History
Java Edition
| Java Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2.1 | 12w04a |  Added desert wells. | |||||
| 1.19.4 Experiment | 23w07a | Desert wells now include sand and suspicious sand under its water. | |||||
| The suspicious sand may contain arms up pottery sherds, brick, sticks, suspicious stew, and emeralds. | |||||||
| 1.20 | 23w12a | The loot of the suspicious sand in desert wells has been changed. | |||||
| Brewer pottery sherds now spawn in desert wells with the probability of 1/4. | |||||||
| The probability of arms up pottery sherds spawning in desert wells is now 1/4, and the probability of other items spawning in desert wells is now 1/8. | |||||||
| 26.3 | snap8 | Desert wells have been refactored in a technical sense; they are no longer generated features, however they are not quite structures. | |||||
Bedrock Edition
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Desert wells were intended to be added in this version, but they did not generate at all.[2] | |||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 |  The textures of desert wells has been changed. | |||||
| 1.18.0 | ? | Desert wells can now generate on terrain higher than Y=128. | |||||
| 1.19.70 Experiment | Preview 1.19.70.23 | Desert wells now include suspicious sand under its water. | |||||
Legacy Console Edition
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox 360 | Xbox One | PS3 | PS4 | PS Vita | Wii U | Switch | |
| TU12 | CU1 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added desert wells. |
Issues
Issues relating to "Desert Well" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.
Gallery
Screenshots
-
A desert well -
Another example of a desert well -
A desert well by a village -
An excavated well -
A well on the coast -
A well partially buried in sand -
Two desert wells overlapping each other
In other media
-
A zombie villager chasing a baby villager by a well
References
- ↑ MC-143151
- ↑ "Pocket Edition 0.9.0 Snapshot. Biggest update ever!" (Archive) – Mojang.com, June 9, 2014.
External links
- "Building Blocks: Desert Well" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, September 16, 2025.
Navigation
This article is linked to on an official Minecraft page.
