Minecraft Forums

how is the best way to explore a stronghold? The one I found is huge. It covers several lvls, plus it will stop, changing to rock for a ways then go back into the stronghold. it's very confusing as it all looks the same. I find myself going in circles sometime. Would it be best to mine it out? Get all the goodies & materials inside.....or how have others explored stronghold you have found?

mark you exit to the surface. then as you explore torch everything and mine as you go, at a lots of intersections place a block like netherrack and a torch on the side that points toward the exit

Yea, I think I'm going to just mine it out for now. Some of it is pretty messed up. altho, I may just keep some of the areas. It's close to my main base & under the ocean for some of it. I'd like to make the ceiling and walls glass to view the ocean....watch squids swim overhead....we'll see.

The torch method can help, but you will also find that lots of the areas in strongholds already have torches in them so could get confusing. The nether rack suggestion is a good one and then also just block areas off that you know to have nothing of interest in them. What I usually do when I find an end portal, is step out to the room next to it and dig straight up to the surface and mark that point so you know exactly where it is in future.

So far, I'm just mining stuff. I put a torch on the ground in the middle of the path of where I'm coming from. I can tell I've already been there by blocks missing in the walls & floors. I already ran around & lit the place up like crazy when I first found it. Still some areas I've not even gone into at all. Haven't found the end portal yet. not in a hurry tho. just getting stone & bars & books for my fortress above. The silverfish are fun. But only come across one at a time so far. No droves of them yet.

Quote from hulyn

So far, I'm just mining stuff. I put a torch on the ground in the middle of the path of where I'm coming from. I can tell I've already been there by blocks missing in the walls & floors. I already ran around & lit the place up like crazy when I first found it. Still some areas I've not even gone into at all. Haven't found the end portal yet. not in a hurry tho. just getting stone & bars & books for my fortress above. The silverfish are fun. But only come across one at a time so far. No droves of them yet.

The end portal should be somewhere near the library...I believe you already found that? It might take some digging to get to though.

there are several rooms with books....in the lower levels. Haven't gotten to exploring those yet. It may be awhile before I explore much other then what i have found so far. I was sooooo careful. I got up to level 60+.....with diamond armor....nothing could kill me, even an exploding creeper only took 1 or 2 hearts. Anyway, I drowned!!!! How dumb!!! Anyway may just be hanging around my monster & slime spawner awhile to get my xp back up.

What about just blocking out the doorways that don't go to anywhere in particular with cobblestone or something?

I do that in the Nether so that way anywhere that's actually worth going to has a path straight there.

That's a good idea. I'm going for the blocks, doors, books & bars right now. I'll block up dead ends so I can retreive the torches & not worry about monsters. It's also under a lake. Water streams in a floods one room & the place continues on thru that room. New place to look!!! It just keeps going....