Archaeology At A Trail Ruins! ▫ Minecraft Survival Guide S3 ▫ Tutorial Let's Play [Ep.53]

The Minecraft Survival Guide Season 3 continues in Minecraft 1.20.2!
In this tutorial, we locate and excavate a Trail Ruins, one of the major additions to the Trails and Tales update.
We discuss which biomes you can typically find a Trail Ruins structure in, and how to approach your own archaeological dig - carefully extracting the items from Suspicious Gravel as you go!
This Trail Ruins has a twist - a lot of it has generated in a nearby river. So we take our first look at the Conduit, which allows for infinite water breathing, enhanced underwater vision, and faster underwater mining!
Along the way we discover artifacts which hint at the former inhabitants of these trail ruins, find the Raiser, Shaper, Host, and Wayfinder armor trim Smithing Templates, and the 'Relic' music disc which I've been using as the outro music this season!
Survival Guide Season 3 world seed: 787419271612053211
Music:
Minecraft soundtrack by C418, Lena Raine, Kumi Tanioka, Aaron Cherof
Season 3 of the Minecraft Survival Guide will teach you how to master Survival Mode in Minecraft 1.20 and beyond!
Follow the Season 3 playlist here: • Finding the Perfect Wo...
----
Watch my streams live every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday around 3pm UK Time! / pixlriffs
Follow Pix on Twitter for video updates, screenshots, and other fun stuff! / pixlriffs
GNU Paranor001
#Minecraft #Survival #Tutorial #SurvivalGuide #TrailRuins

[@CatzillaDK]

I love that mojang added a nice calming way to experience a bit of world lore.

[@paulburdon7397]

Yes. I love ancient cities but they are really tense 😂. This is the opposite vibe 👌

[@CatzillaDK]

@@paulburdon7397 I don't vibe with the warden that's for sure 🥲

[@Fryd-FN]

@@CatzillaDKthe wardens my homie man

[@ArchaeoPlays]

Yay for a Survival Guide Archaeology video! And FOUR music discs??? I've never gotten more than two in a site! Seriously, that place must have been hopping. Either that or the archaeology gods really like you! The waterlogged trail ruins are rough - the last one I dug was mostly in water, and I can confirm that while I appreciate underwater archaeology as a field, I'd rather not have to do it too much with trail ruins 😅 Also, thanks for the shoutout!!! I'm glad the stream was helpful in figuring out how to dig this one!

[@droppedpasta]

Andesite is a volcanic rock, so between that and the flooded ravine, this habitation site seems to have had a bad time

[@timohara7717]

Wow

[@celticlion]

pompeii? lol

[@gayowulf]

My take on the history is that the trail ruins are towns and cities that were destroyed in the war with the piglins (i.e. MC Legends, although I haven't played it), and the bastion remnants are also ruins from that time. The overworld survivors switched to the pastoral, pacifist lifestyle we know today, and while some of the piglins continued to occupy the remains of their fortresses, many turned to a nomadic life in the Crimson Forests. Possibly some of the other ancient structures we see (jungle temples, desert temples, drowned villages, etc) are from this time too.

[@Scianta]

Crazy thought :you could route the river over the site through a glass canal now that you have the entire site excavated.

[@timohara7717]

Yea

[@valoisfulcanelli]

Been waiting for this one, and 42 minutes; what a treat! I loved excavating my first Trail Ruins. Having watched that stream with Archaeoplays, I did the same thing as you, only I also created a 'day book' into which I recorded all of my finds. I numbered them, and also numbered the signs, so I could keep track of everything. I also recorded when and where I unfortunately had suspicious gravel break. The whole process took me several hours across a couple of days, and had me absolutely engrossed. It's great fun to speculate on what each building might have been used for, based on what was found there. Those thoughts also went into the day book, so I have a complete record of the dig, and I think I'll do that for any others that I excavate.

[@marling0134]

I love your idea of recording findings in a book. I might stole it for my world xd

[@AmanChooses]

I have found a great way to excavate these sites by moss mining. None of the ruin blocks will convert to moss, but everything it is buried in will. And you can instamine the moss with a good hoe without disturbing the structure

[@williamjones5334]

Bedrock differences: It might be fixed now, but in terrain generated in 1.20.0, the aboveground ruins structures don't directly connect to the ones below, so you'll need to just dig down from them without any structure to guide you. There will definitely be a structure present eventually, though! Also, conduits on Bedrock do require you to fully submerge your head, but on the flipside, they also work in rain.

[@gamingnscience]

Your video gave me an idea. If I find one of these next, I’d not only like to document what I find where, but turn the ruins into a proper museum and use armor stand magic to display every item I find (after duplicating the trims, of course).

[@milliejenkinson5832]

That sounds like a great idea! I hope it turns out well

[@LaGrenouille09]

Every Survival Guide video makes me so happy. I love Pix’s enthusiasm for the game and especially how he treats new aspects of the game. ❤

[@CM.25]

36:13 Wow thats a lot of artifacts, you could literally get so many frost embers with these!

[@Techdawg77]

There few activities in Minecraft that are more engaging than excavating a Trail Ruin structure. I completely lost track of time when I excavated one, it was a lot of fun!

[@sigurdvj1274]

It made me sad to see all the wool and signs get cleared away there in the end! Thank you for the video and great virtual demostration of an archeologist's work. Once the whole thing was cleared to the sky and overview was established, these signs really got to form a history in the entirety of the ruin. One building for food-storage, music-playing, pottery, etc. Each bit is part of one totality.

[@_Abjuranax_]

If you use a Slime Block to place your Conduit on, you can easily 1-punch it to remove the block, even with Mining Fatigue.

[@WhiteTigerJ15]

I'm so glad archaeology got added, it's such a fun feature. I spent a month or so excavating different trail ruins when 1.20 launched, so I have quite a large collection of goods. Although I used chunkbase to find them cause I really wanted to experience the feature. Looking forward to when I come across them organically in future

[@craigds3745]

I used Chunkbase too. They are so rare and difficult to find, even when you know where they are.

[@rileymeyers9530]

I fun lore idea could be that they used to be wandering trader villages. The wandering traders used to travel in bigger packs and set up stalls to sell their items. After a while less and less villagers wanted to travel trading different items and started settling down permanently in the villages we see today

[@BellePullman]

I love the archeology! Digging out trail ruins is so chill - until they're flooded! Would it be worth using hanging signs as the markers, set sideways so they can be unsupported? then the sign is securely within the block - I'm seeing the possibility of not having space to place a sign on a full block. But they're such interesting structures! So much thought and research has gone into them!

[@stlbuddhist]

That video with @ArchaeoPlays excavated the trail ruin was great. Glad to see this method of documentation made it here.

[@WilliamSheen-ee5qi]

I always have found it interesting that the treacle ruins and wandering traders have similar colors.

[@Pixlriffs]

That's a great point - especially when you consider the Wandering Trader sells seeds and dyes, like the ones found in these ruins, which other villagers don't. I like the idea that they're connected!

[@killianobrien2007]

​@@Pixlriffsplus the words trail and wander are similar

[@deborahsheets2604]

I really love the thought of repopulating the trail runs with villagers and reimagining what it used to be. What a great video and it was a joy to watch you enjoy digging this out. You do things with such precision and seem to find joy in that, whereas I am such a get it done kind of person so I really admire your attention to detail and perseverance with projects like this!

[@Calaban619]

My archaeology head cannon: these are 'ancient builder' villages, before 'the big one'- the Enchantment/Curse of Undeath- with xp bubble 'mana' All of the builders built temples and experiment spawners all over, trying to master their dream: immortality. Well, they got it. Sort of. They never die, but respawn every moonrise, slightly worse for wear. For millions of years now- they're in pretty rough shape.

[@TheRealWormbo]

Cat, reading newspaper: "I should excavate a trail ruin."

[@killianobrien2007]

What

[@TheRealWormbo]

@@killianobrien2007 Look up the "sophisticated cat" meme.

[@AceOfFools]

Because I really had trouble differentiating between regular and suspicious gravel, I installed a texture pack that makes suspicious gravel and sand much more obvious to the casual observer. Definite improvement on the experience and easier on my eyes. :)

[@craigds3745]

I use the one from Vanilla Tweaks

[@proggz39]

The brush only works on sus sand an gravel

[@spyseahorse4277]

Seeing a conduit in action was neat 👍But using a shovel like yours would make me a nervous reck 😅😅

[@Lee-mmg]

It's fun to have an archeological dig! The way you did it made it take on the feeling of a real one. I liked that. Really enjoyed how you did it. I have found one site - and it was fairly big - but not as big as this. A way better way to look at them too - the way you did it. Thanks loads Pixl. Appreciate it so much!

[@sarahaufssri4529]

I am now rewatching survival guide videos to listen to in the background. Very chill and calm

[@Wordfishtrombone]

Your stream with archeoplays really changed how I see these structures!

[@krevlow]

You know my sleeps schedules messed up when I’m actually here for a new video

[@riuphane]

This was an excellent video, and highly anticipated. I think once I'm done excavating one of these, I'll going to put some villagers around to look like they're the archaeology team.

[@joshstevens7586]

I love archeology, it so satisfying uncovering a structure block by block.

[@Harry.said.so.]

I like the way you approached this, taking it seriously like actually archeology made it more fun than just digging it all up and smashing though for loot like I usually do in Minecraft structures, gonna try and find one.

[@anewbreed04]

I really hope you do this again, you won't need to explain everything, but that was realy cool to see it unveiled

[@febblepebble]

in my current world I've managed to find two different trail ruins within the same taiga forest around spawn! very excited to dig them, I haven't found one before, so to have two so close to where I've set up my early game base is very exciting

[@realherogaming]

It’s so crazy to see how much the game has changed. I played from 2009 at the age of 7 til like 2016 -2017

[@alneyGaming]

I love this. Can’t wait to explore my world and find some. I think Minecraft should add in more story behind the ancient civilisation that lived within it. wether it be books left over or paintings or something like that

[@radek559]

The layout of the ruin makes me think of a marketplace or trading post, somewhere that sat on a long travel route with merchants and caravans. Perhaps the trade in candles to passing traders earned attention enough for bards and songwriters in distant lands to be sending their music back along the route. Sadly, the general lack of currency laying around either discounts that idea or at least indicates that the route may have fallen out of favour some time before it was ultimately abandoned and buried.

[@terrybradford3727]

This is how I am going to excavate next time. The marking of the suspicious gravel is genius. (Makes sense in hindsight, great tip from your archeologist friend)

[@Flareontoast]

Once again, amazed by your patience digging out that whole structure. It's so interesting to look at these. I've dug out one so far and it had a whole different feel to it.

[@waveclaw]

Great that you waited until you had flight and access to advanced storage like shulkers to do a Trail Ruin excavation. Much easier with proper tools to asses and assist your work. If you are worried about shoveling a gravel block, making some unbreaking III but non-efficiency iron tools is reasonable. This is very helpful for underwater structures where it might not be really visible until you hear that unfortunate tool-breaking sound. One tip about a conduit: it only needs water around the conduit and enough prismarine to work. You don't even need to surround it completely, just have enough blocks in range. You can make some very aesthetic designs to still get conduit power.

[@MrRoadhog76]

Pix, I wish I had seen your approach to excavating trail ruins before I tried it. I just dug into it and had a load of suspicious gravel break because I wasn't taking enough care with my digging! It was fun though. I look forward to finding another one now after watching this.

[@jennybartolo4360]

I find these trail ruins so much fun to excavate!

[@widowmaker2657]

Amazing! I hurt me a little bit when you took back the wool and signs after you finished though 😅 Thank you for your amazing dedication!! Keep it up!

[@ryseintide9332]

one of the first things I did in my current world (with all stone tools lol) was explore a trail ruin! I found it really fascinating. I'd love to see you 'restore' the ruins to full builds

[@sannekimenai639]

There is actually only 7 pottery sherds in the Trail Ruins! you were very lucky you found all of them!

[@eloquentornot]

I love Minecraft archaeology so much!! It's always so full of storytelling ideas!

[@Mntdewmania1]

I love the story telling that could be done

[@Dinki-Di]

I've been waiting for this episode! And you're right about trail ruins being hard to find in jungles. I've been playing this seed, and even using chunk base the nearest ruin was hard to locate.

[@Techdawg77]

I agree! I found one on this seed in an Old Growth Birch biome before I had Elytra so I had to haul all of the stuff back with a chest boat! It took several trips

[@lilyandpatricknelson1753]

One of your best episodes. Lots of fun to watch.

[@Flareontoast]

Pix having Pixandria flashbacks everytime he digs up a candle

[@jennbrock04]

I have been looking forward to this video. I am in a new world and on the lookout for a trail ruin with all my exploration I am doing. Thank you for all the tips and tricks. I can't wait to find one.

[@LyndlEndique]

Pixlriffs: You have to be very cautious when excavating as suspicious gravel is fragile. Also Pixlriffs: Step on the gravel to confirm the sus

[@alisavogt2892]

I just love how you excavated this! So educational and fun. Thank you for the care you take in making your videos!! ❤❤

[@johnirby8847]

That's a good looking item sorting building! Awesome video!

[@Desukaan11]

Wake up survival guide, a new babe just dropped.

[@itsViirtueYEAH]

wow the suspicious gravel sounding different when you walk on it is such a small detail yet awesome for accessibility

[@becksybermuda]

The little creeper block! I’ve never seen that before!😊

[@JimbodagamerMC]

This is my favourite Minecraft let’s play

[@wiseman8952]

i returned to your channel after 4 years, and man, i was refreshed after hearing your voice again. You taught me minecraft bro. Keep going, glad you're doing well and fine

[@Positivebeat83]

Great episode Pix! Thanks!

[@thenameissham_0741]

I cant explain how much peaceful sleep i get watching your videos.thnaks man

[@natasha.r.m]

I put Mending and Unbreaking III on my brush, which made it more convenient for use.

[@Pixlriffs]

I'll probably do this in future! I just liked using the brush durability to keep a tally of how many artifacts we'd found.

[@natasha.r.m]

@@Pixlriffs Yeah, that was actually a very smart way of keeping a tally. 😊

[@austex4024]

Thank you! This was so informative.

[@jaspersdumb]

..i watched this whole playlist in 3 days.. haven’t been here since season one but the new update got me sucked in again! cant wait to see this world expand

[@sooth15]

I initially also thought that the jungle would be one of the hardest biomes to find a trail ruin, but in actual practice, that hasn't been the case. I've only managed to find about 6 trail ruins so far across 2 servers and a personal world, and 2 (maybe 3? I've already forgotten) of those were in a jungle. I've gotten pretty good at not breaking any suspicious gravel, other than the occasional ones with an air block under them. I find these ruins take a long time to dig. They tend to take me around 3-4 hours maybe more depending on the size. Despite how long they take to find and dig, I absolutely love these.

[@_yenooi]

Pix will always be the archaeologist! Wonderful episode!

[@julianadoraciotto3334]

I love big episodes like this!!! ❤

[@imabagel7382]

Based on the size and shape of the ruins, I'd say that these are the ruins of the village you defend in m-Minecraft Legends.

[@Agent4077]

super lucky you got all four archeology trims

[@furqanabid7319]

Daskalos did a good 6 video long series on it.

[@julianadoraciotto3334]

I'm loving this series ❤❤❤❤

[@jasonreed7522]

I have always felt that the trail ruins gave a very early Minecraft vibe, so to me they represent alpha Minecraft player made structures. Obviously the block pallet doesn't match, and a bunch of other reasons I'm not thinking of right now, but i just feel like its a player made base from the pre-redstone days.

[@jeremygarcia7605]

this video is informative, entertaning and satisfying at the same time 👌👌👌

[@magyborisova]

I’d love to restore the next trail ruin I find!, I never knew they were so large!.

[@AntonioZephiel]

I still believe that Otherside is the best disk in the game but thats me. 😛😊

[@mintycheddar3854]

Each of the Trail Ruins I have found have been under rivers. That's probably due to how much more easily they can be spotted in a river than in a forested area. I do not doubt that I have passed near a Trail Ruin in a forest without noticing. It often takes an intense search to find one there. As for potential histories of Trail Ruins, there are many possibilities. The denizens of such a civilization might disperse due to natural disasters, a decline in local resources, economic decline, warfare or a combination of those kinds of events. Given the presence of pillagers in Minecraft worlds, frequent hostile attacks could rapidly lead to economic decline and dispersal, if not outright destruction. On the other hand, the presence of so many valuable artifacts could also be evidence of gradual decline due to the loss or overuse of local resources, which could have happened long before pillagers arrived. In the absence of evidence favoring either explanation, it's anybody's guess in the end. That's part of the fun of Minecraft - you can develop the lore for your world as you see fit. Thanks for the thorough examination of this Trail Ruin and the techniques for uncovering them, Pixlriffs!

[@prcuer]

Not sure if it’s a bedrock thing, but the visible top of the tower isn’t connected to the base. There’s about a 10-15 block gap where you have to dig down with faith and care

[@Kmtd_lele]

I experienced the same thing😂. I even started to wonder if I got a really small trail ruin and that the top part is all I'm gonna get.

[@spritemon98]

Ive literally only found 3 trail ruins in my new chunks. They are incredibly rare to find and i haven't seen a pilliger outpost in forever

[@anntheresaasher5300]

This was a great video as allways ❤

[@trazom666wow3]

With Efficiency IV shovel I always dig too far and break suspicious gravel. Thanks for this interesting video !

[@Heather-Br]

You did a great job explaining Minecraft Archaeology. You learned a lot from ArchaeoPlays, Pix! Do you have any plans to drop more Minecraft livestreams on your vod's channel? Because I'm missing them. 23:02

[@elliotgandersen]

Pixelriffs sounds like his Empires season 2 character in this episode.

[@joshuabaughn3734]

I have been trying to decipher the meaning of the Glazed Terracotta. So far, I have found that White Glazed Terracotta is placed above ground level and depicts the Sun and Sky, possibly representing the Heavens. Black Glazed Terracotta has a more sinister appearance than White Glazed Terracotta and it is located on the floors of structures with basements and in Ruined Towers that double generate. I was brought to the conclusion that this symbolized the Underworld or Death. I have a theory about the Yellow Glazed Terracotta and maybe the Orange Terracotta but I need to do more research.

[@jts8053]

I believe the multicolored terracotta in the ancient ruins' construction is homage to Minecraft's original ancestor, LEGO.

[@leobetosouza]

Oh! I didn't know that these ruins would be so spread

[@DryptosaurusDavid]

Yesterday I was thinking I’d need a guide on this and I got one.

[@spacecat3198]

Oh ffs hadn't played a long while, came across one of these, I dug the gravel like an idiot, wondered where the rest was and couldn't be bothered. I ruined my first trail ruin. Luckily there's a few near me. Well I need to make a brush. :/ Thanks for vid, I needed it.

[@RUBRONEGRO87]

That's something I'll never do. So much wirk, brother!

[@mohammadafiq4818]

MatPat sure have a field day for the trail and tales update :)

[@seanmcnally6658]

Since zombies look more like Alex than a villager, the Nether has soul sand, the mines and Lost cities use tech well ahead of villagers,my theory is we (Alex) are the last of our race. These ruins like the underwater ruins show the signs of environmental catastrophe (volcano/ meteor). Some us tried to escape by boat (sunk, some evolved to become villagers, and some used the lost city portal to escape. Being deep a mountain, they gave refuge from the catastrophe. The radiation created the zombies, monsters and the warden. The warden was first created to protect the cities (hence no mobs spawn there) but in the end they succumbed and now blindly protect the cities from all. Maybe they await the portal re opening! The lost city is my way home. The end was a failed first portal jump attempt. Those who went there and stayed too long and ate too much chorus fruit and became the ender. That’s my lore.

[@CyberVP]

Yes the trail ruins. Edit, I think it would be cool to try to rebuild the trail ruin

[@StanliteStar283]

11:14 At this moment, I thought as if a creeper would sneak up to you and destroy the structure 😅. Cats are really essential while concentrating on this archeological excavation.

[@imperfectimp]

Yet another Bedrock tip: the top of the tower is usually disconnected from the rest. You will have to dig down quite a bit. On my first attempt I gave up after digging about a dozen layers of blocks, loaded the world in creative, and found out I literally had to remove just one more layer. Might be fixed by now, maybe I missed it.

[@Pixlriffs]

Interesting. I wonder if this is related to the same issue that sometimes causes shipwrecks to spawn in the air?

[@imperfectimp]

@@Pixlriffs I think it has something to do with the way Bedrock tries to keep the ruins completely underground. You'll also often see weirdly cubic lumps if it generates into a hillside. A ruin like yours would probably not be waterlogged but encased in a blob of rock. I'm not sure what causes flying shipwrecks. Maybe the opposite? The game trying to not spawn it so low that it's embedded in the rock?

[@paultipton743]

Glad I found this comment as playing in Bedrock I've found trail ruins and stopped digging after the top part as it just went to dirt & stone.

[@arasdeeps1852]

Wattles checks the trail ruins every time there's a bedrock update, and it has not been fixed yet. He thinks it happens as a result of a previous bug fix for where the ruins were generating largly exposed.

[@Ragnablock]

Hey pixlriffs, love the survival guide series. Im curious what programs you use to record edit your videos.

[@Nels_Smells]

I’ve been looking for one of these in my world for a little bit. I’ve gotten my elytra now so hopefully that will speed up the search

[@MASSOFTHEFERMENTlNGDREGS]

babe wake up, new survival guide just got posted

[@stellaluna9023]

Anytime I want to learn something in Minecraft I come to see Professor Pixlriffs. So detailed. I thought I kept seeing a green creeper face block?

[@sharkdentures3247]

Suddenly, I want to decorate my world with one of my spare Conduits! (On land and "activate" it.)

[@jakewilliams9015]

This is the first time I've actually seen glazed cyan terracotta. No clue it had a creeper face until today lol

[@humourlessjester3584]

That trail ruin was very generous! I'm lucky to just find one armor trim, but you got all four?

[@Pixlriffs]

Yeah, very happy I found all four of them, considering I've only seen one of these structures on my travels. Maybe now we have Elytra, I might travel further and find more of them...

[@StuStuStu2107]

Contemporary villager structures are built with simple materials: stones and planks. They utilise dyed fabrics for decoration, but beyond this, their materials are fairly basic. The unearthed trail ruin uses terracotta and glazed terracotta; arguably, more advanced building materials. You're dig seems to suggest that this ancient civilization had a candle-maker and a grain-store/baker, beyond the simple butcher of modern villages (see what I did there?) My hypothesis supposes that modern villagers are descended from a barbaric, simple "civilization" who were incapable of the innovations of the ancients (nitwits). However they were warmongerers and violent. Jealous of the technological superiority of the ancients. They attacked, slaughtered and stole what technology they could understand. Ergo, villagers are evil. Thus explaining why they are such a pain in the bottom. Thoughts?