How to loot trial chambers in Minecraft 1.21

Minecraft 1.21's trial chambers are sprawling underground structures filled with dangers and loot. They are filled with different storage blocks, including barrels, dispensers, pots, chests, and their own unique vaults and ominous vaults, all of which have different loot for you to claim and use as you see fit.

While this is an exciting aspect, it's important for you to know where to find the lootable blocks in trial chambers and how to loot them. While things like chests, pots, dispensers, and barrels are likely self-explanatory, the vaults and ominous vaults found in trial chambers are a different story.

How to find and loot the blocks found in Minecraft 1.21's trial chambers

Loot chests

Loot chests can be found in various parts of the trial chamber in Minecraft 1.21. However, the structure's procedurally generated nature means that you may not always find loot chests in the same locations in each chamber.

Regardless, loot chests in these chambers can generate in the following areas:

The entrance of trial chambers.
Trial chamber corridors.
The end of chamber corridors and at corridor intersections.
"Supply" rooms placed behind copper doors.
As a reward chest near vaults.

You can loot these chests by right-clicking them or pressing the use/place button on their controller. Depending on the chest in question, different loot is available. This means you won't find the same loot in an entrance chest as you would in corridors, supply rooms, or reward chests.

Barrels

When it comes to trial chambers in Minecraft 1.21, barrels are generated squarely within corridor intersections, typically lined across walls and adjacent to the chambers' support pillars. You can simply right-click or press use/place on your controller to open them. These barrels can typically generate near other lootable blocks, like decorated pots.

Decorated pots

Minecraft 1.21's trial chamber pots are found in similar locations to barrels (Image via Mojang)

Decorated pots in trial chambers can be found in corridors near walls and support pillars. However, unlike barrels and chests, you will need to break them by left-clicking or pressing the attack/mine button on your controller. This will break the pot and scatter its loot onto the ground along with bricks and pottery sherds.

Several decorated pots tend to be generated in trial chamber corridors at once, so you can break multiple pots and rack up plenty of loot as you open other storage blocks like chests or barrels.

Dispensers

Dispensers can be found within the trial areas of trial chambers in Minecraft 1.21, typically being placed against walls near trial spawner blocks, so they can fire off various potions and projectiles or empty water buckets. However, if you are careful and quick, you can remove the redstone-compatible blocks (like buttons) attached to the dispensers and then loot their contents.

Like many blocks, dispensers can be easily opened via right-clicking or pressing the use/place button on a controller. Just be careful, as if you're in the middle of a combat encounter; you don't want to be ambushed while rummaging through the dispenser's inventory.

Trial spawners and ominous trial spawners

Minecraft 1.21's trial spawners will release loot after players have defeated their mobs (Image via Mojang)

Each trial chamber comes complete with several trial spawner blocks, which will begin spawning hostile mobs as players draw near. They will spawn more mobs based on how many players are taking them on. However, once all of the hostile mobs created by the spawner are defeated, they will dispense a quantity of loot based on how many players helped beat the mobs.

Meanwhile, you can consume an ominous bottle (obtained from vaults, reward chests, ominous vaults, and pillager raid captains on patrol in Minecraft 1.21) to acquire Bad Omen. This effect will convert into a trial omen when you are in trial chambers, converting trial spawners into ominous trial spawners. These blocks spawn deadlier mobs but dispense better loot when they're beaten.

Vaults and ominous vaults

A standard vault and an ominous vault in Minecraft 1.21 (Image via Mojang)

Vaults and their ominous counterparts are found throughout trial chambers, though they are often situated near combat-intensive rooms that utilize trial spawners. The two can be distinguished by the vault having a single skull on its front-facing texture, and the ominous variant having three skulls. The ominous vault is also surrounded by a small altar that includes lit candles.

Both vault variants require trial keys to open in Minecraft 1.21. Standard vaults require trial keys that can be obtained from defeating ordinary trial spawners. Meanwhile, ominous vaults need ominous keys that will only appear after beating ominous trial spawners.

Once you have a key, you can equip it in their hotbar and right-click or press use/place on your controller on the appropriate vault to unlock it.

Once unlocked, Minecraft 1.21's vaults and ominous vaults will dispense loot on their own. These blocks will only dispense loot once per player. Once you've unlocked a vault, you'll have to find another one if you want more loot. Either that, or have a friend unlock the vault and swap items with them.