How to Find Buried Treasure in Minecraft: Where to Dig

Find a buried treasure map in a shipwreck or ocean ruin chest, open it, and travel until your marker sits on the red X. Then dig down where the X is. The chest is in a fixed spot inside that chunk: block 9, 9 of the chunk on Java and block 8, 8 on Bedrock. Every buried treasure chest holds a heart of the sea.

Getting the map

• Shipwrecks: every shipwreck has a map chest, and that chest always contains a buried treasure map. On an intact ship it’s usually in the bow (front) area. Shipwrecks can be half buried, sideways or upside down, so check every chest you can reach.
• Ocean ruins: small and large ruin chests have roughly a 40% chance of a map each.

Dolphins help with the first step. Feed one raw cod or salmon and it swims toward the nearest shipwreck or ocean ruin.

The map is named Buried Treasure Map on Java and Treasure Map on Bedrock. It’s generated when you first open the chest, and it points to the nearest buried treasure from where that chest is. Several maps can lead to the same treasure, so if two nearby wrecks give you maps, check whether the X is in the same place before making two trips.

Reading the map

When you hold the map, it shows the surrounding area in a parchment style with the treasure marked by an X. Your position is the white marker. If you’re off the edge of the map, the marker turns into a small dot on the border nearest to you. Walk or sail in that direction until it becomes an arrow again.

Then line the marker up with the X:

• Java: stand so your arrow is under the X (the X is drawn on top of you).
• Bedrock: your arrow appears on top of the X when you’re in the right place.

One block of difference is hard to see on a map, which is why so many people dig a few holes. Using the chunk position fixes that.

Digging in the right spot

Buried treasure always generates at the same position inside its chunk:

Edition	Chest position in the chunk
Java	X and Z offset 9 (counting 0 to 15)
Bedrock	X and Z offset 8

On Java, press F3 and look at the line showing your chunk-relative position (“Chunk: x y z in …”). Walk until the first and third numbers both read 9. On Bedrock, turn on Show Coordinates in the world settings, then find the coordinates whose X and Z divide by 16 with a remainder of 8 (for example X = 104 or X = -24, since -24 = -32 + 8).

Dig straight down from that block. The chest is usually under sand or gravel at around sea level, a few blocks down. If the X is in the water, the chest is in the sea floor and may be covered by stone; bring a Potion of Water Breathing or wear a turtle helmet. Treasure in water is waterlogged, which makes it easier to spot once you’re close.

If you don’t hit it right away, dig a 3x3 down rather than a 1x1 shaft. Sand falls in, and the chest can be one block lower than you expected.

Buried treasure is much more common on Bedrock than on Java, so Bedrock players sometimes stumble on chests while digging on beaches without a map at all.

What’s in the chest

Every chest has one heart of the sea, which you need for a conduit. The rest varies. On Java it rolls:

• iron ingots (almost always, around 9 on average) and gold ingots (most of the time)
• TNT (1 to 2 per stack on Java, 1 to 5 on Bedrock)
• emeralds, diamonds and prismarine crystals (each roughly 50%)
• sometimes an iron sword, iron spear or leather tunic
• cooked cod or salmon, and often a Potion of Water Breathing
• now and then a piece of nautilus armor, from copper up to the rare diamond kind

Bedrock’s loot was brought in line with Java in late 2025, so the two are now nearly the same apart from the TNT amounts.

Things that trip people up

• Treasure maps can’t be zoomed. Since Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.50, a cartography table won’t zoom explorer or treasure maps out. Copy the map if you want a spare.
• The map is fixed. It always points to one treasure. Once you’ve emptied that chest, the map is just a souvenir.
• Beach biomes only. Treasure generates in beaches, snowy beaches and (on Bedrock) stony shores, plus underwater just off them. If the X is deep inland, check your heading again.

If you’re after the heart of the sea for a conduit, it pairs well with a trident hunt around the same ocean.