Identify the first game
Minecraft Dungeons is the standalone dungeon crawler first released on May 26, 2020. You fight the Arch-Illager’s forces through missions, collect equipment and shape your hero around weapons, artifacts and enchantments. It uses Minecraft’s setting, but its central activity is combat and exploration rather than mining blocks or building a home. Mojang’s launch FAQ explains that distinction.
If your title screen says Minecraft Dungeons and your mission concerns the Arch-Illager, this is the game you want. Keep that title in your searches when looking for an item, mission or boss guide: the sequel has its own equipment and progression systems.
Looking for The Sift?
Open the Minecraft Dungeons II guide for The Sift, its bosses and the new adventure. Mojang’s Dungeons II launch article places that journey in the sequel. For the portal quest, go directly to how to enter The Sift.
The rest of this page covers the original game. You can use the Dungeons series directory to move between the two without mixing their walkthroughs.
Build a playstyle in Minecraft Dungeons
There is no permanent character class to select. Your equipment determines how you fight, so a new player can try different weapons and artifacts before committing to a preferred combination. Missions combine fixed story elements with changing paths, enemies and treasure, giving you a reason to revisit a familiar location. Minecraft Dungeons launch FAQ.
For your first sessions, give each equipment choice a job. Choose the attack you enjoy using, read the effects on the items that support it, and keep a way to recover when a fight goes badly. Before changing several pieces at once, compare what the new setup gains and what it gives up. A bigger number is easier to judge when you also know which effect made the previous item useful.
Our suggested routine is simple: finish a mission, review the new equipment together, then choose the next objective. If a combination feels awkward, revisit a familiar mission to learn it before raising the challenge. This lets you distinguish an unfamiliar setup from a fight that needs a different approach.
Choose the base game or the six DLC expansions
For a new purchase, Ultimate Edition includes the base game and all six DLC packs. The similarly named Ultimate DLC Bundle is the expansion collection for the original game. Check which product is already in your platform library before choosing an edition or add-on. Official Minecraft Dungeons overview.
| DLC | Where the adventure takes you |
|---|---|
| Jungle Awakens | Jungle missions and the Jungle Abomination |
| Creeping Winter | Frozen lands and the Wretched Wraith |
| Howling Peaks | Mountain paths and storm-threatened heights |
| Flames of the Nether | Nether missions and environments |
| Hidden Depths | Underwater exploration and sunken treasure |
| Echoing Void | The End and the story’s concluding expansion |
Mojang lists these packs on the official DLC overview. Use the list to recognize expansion-specific walkthroughs: an Echoing Void objective belongs to that DLC, while a first-game purchase alone does not identify which expansions you own.
Before organizing an evening around a DLC mission, check the host’s available destinations and agree on the mission you intend to play. When shopping, compare the exact edition contents on your platform; the old launch article’s Hero Edition and 2020 prices are historical references.
Set up a party across platforms
The original game supports up to four players in local couch co-op or online co-op. Its later cross-platform update connected players on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and Windows. Use the cross-platform announcement, rather than the launch FAQ’s earlier same-platform restriction, when checking whether friends on different systems can team up.
Before a planned session, have everyone launch the correct game, install available updates and confirm their online account access. Then check that you can see and join the intended friend. A quick connection check before choosing a long mission gives the group time to resolve an account or platform issue without using up the session.
For couch play, prepare the controllers first. For online play, check the subscription and account requirements shown by each console’s service. Owning Dungeons II or Minecraft: Java & Bedrock is a different entitlement from owning the original Dungeons.
Move an existing hero to another device
Mojang added cross-platform cloud saves in May 2021. The original Dungeons uses a manual upload and download process: upload the hero on the source device, then sign into the same Microsoft account on the destination device and download that hero. Mojang’s cloud-save instructions show both screens and describe twenty upload slots per account.
Check the selected hero before continuing on the new device, especially if you maintain several saves. After playing, remember which device contains your latest progress before the next transfer. Keeping that distinction clear is more useful than assuming every local hero automatically stays synchronized.
Choose a challenge after the story
The original game offers several reasons to keep improving a hero. Ancient Hunts exchange equipment and optional enchantment-point investment for generated missions with a chance at Gilded gear. Items and points offered to a hunt are consumed permanently, so review the offering before starting. Apocalypse Plus ties further difficulty progression to completing boss missions. Mojang’s endgame developer explanation describes how these systems work together.
Choose your next session around the reward you want. Continue missions when you want to develop the same hero and gear; investigate Ancient Hunts when you are ready to make an offering for their rewards. The Tower offers another structured challenge, with a rotating layout described in Mojang’s Dungeons update retrospective.
That retrospective identifies 1.17 as the final content update and says no new features or content updates were planned. There is still a completed adventure to explore; choose the game for its available missions, expansions and challenges rather than expecting a new content roadmap.
Confirm the title before following a guide
Match three things before following detailed instructions: the game title, the mission or item name, and the DLC requirement. This is especially useful for videos that shorten both games to “Dungeons.” A guide to the original Arch-Illager campaign, an Echoing Void quest and a Dungeons II Sift objective lead to different places.
If the instructions instead begin with a mod JAR and a Minecraft Java loader, use the community project directory. For this game, keep your platform, installed expansions and current mission together when asking for help. Those details make it much easier to find a walkthrough that applies to your hero.