Greetings.
I am a man in a suit who has fallen into the world of Minecraft.
When I find suspicious gravel, I use a brush before I break anything.
In Episode 48, I walked through a forest slope and a snowy taiga. From that trip, this note follows the clues for finding it, the moment to use a brush, and the items I brought home.
On a forest slope, I can see stonework and a stepped piece of ruins at the surface.
Minecraft’s official Trail Ruins article explains that the ruins are buried in dirt, coarse dirt, gravel, and suspicious gravel.
This is only the part I could check at the surface on this trip.
I look around slowly instead of deciding the full shape or size too quickly.
Clues to look for around trail ruins
Stonework peeking through dirt and grass sits beside gravel here.
I begin by looking at the exposed remains and the nearby blocks together.
The official Java Edition 1.20 release notes say that suspicious gravel can be found in trail ruins and cold ocean ruins.
This note covers only my trail ruins experience.
In this snowy taiga, one piece of gravel looks patterned differently from the surrounding gravel.
When a piece of gravel catches my eye because it looks patterned, I try a brush before breaking it.
Use a brush before breaking it
I use a brush on suspicious gravel instead of breaking it.
Minecraft’s official Brush article describes making one with one feather, one copper ingot, and one stick.
After looking closely at the gravel, I take the brush in hand and face it.
I keep the brush against it rather than breaking it and wait for the item inside.
The official Java Edition 1.20 release notes also describe suspicious gravel as fragile and explain that brushing retrieves its buried item.
The four items from this trip and the display items
This inventory screen lets me check a green candle added during this excavation.
I do not treat every item visible on the screen as an excavation find; I first sort the four recorded results.
In this world, I brushed suspicious gravel four times and found these four items:
- Flint
- Green candle
- Red stained-glass pane
- Emerald
These are the results from this trip only.
They do not show drop rates or a required number of excavations.
Back in the castle town, I sort what I brought home and what I will use for the display.
The purple candle and stick visible here are display items, not items from this brushing.
Keeping the four finds separate makes it easier not to mix them up when I make a display later.
An archaeology display inspired by trail ruins leaves a record of the trip in town.
The frames include display items as well, so they do not mean that every item shown was excavated on this trip.
For the next step of building the archaeology museum, see Episode 49.
For the armor trim found at trail ruins, see the Episode 50 armor-decoration story.
For the complete adventure story, see Episode 48 at the trail ruins.
That is all for this time.
Farewell.