Ancient Battleground

The Ancient Battleground is an underground ruin added by Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks that generates in the Nether. It is a sprawling network of deepslate-brick corridors, collapsed walls, burial mounds and piglin camps, built around a fallen military encampment. The structure is one of the places to meet Ancient Knights outside of the Echo of Tyros boss fight, and its chests include Cinder Essence, Netherite Scrap and Blank Runes.

In this pack the structure is rare. It is spaced 67 chunks apart with a minimum separation of 23 chunks, and no instance was observed in a 26 km² sample of the Nether, so a player may need to travel a long way to find one.

Generation

The Ancient Battleground generates in the Nether. Its biome tag matches the Nether's bastion remnant biomes, so it can appear in these biomes:

• Vanilla Nether biomes: Crimson Forest, Nether Wastes, Soul Sand Valley and Warped Forest.
• Biomes added by other mods, including Black Ice Glaciers, Crystalline Chasm, Erupting Inferno, Undergrowth, Visceral Heap, Withered Abyss, Mycotoxic Undergrowth, Blackstone Basin, Glistering Meadow and Infernal Holt.

The biome list also names Redstone Abyss, which the pack removes, so the structure is not placed there.

The structure is placed underground, with its start between Y 35 and Y 75. A player reaches it by digging or by following caves into the buried area.

Its placement uses random spread with the in-game spacing and separation given in the infobox. These are the values after the pack's sparse structure scaling, which makes the Ancient Battleground much less common than the mod's default placement.

Layout

The structure is built from a start piece called the origin, a branching set of corridors, and a large number of decoration pieces. The branch corridors end in dead ends, and the decoration pieces add hills, walls, burials, a fossil, skull piles, banners and armor displays.

• Corridors: Five branch pieces and a dead-end piece extend from the origin. The corridor pieces use deepslate bricks, which the processor list then partly cracks or replaces.
• Decoration: Hills, walls, burial mounds, skull piles, banners, armor displays and a fossil fill the open space around the corridors. A piglin camp is among the decorations.
• Piglin camp: A decoration piece that is also the source of the piglin camp chest loot set.

Block randomization

The structure's processor list alters many of its blocks when the structure generates, so no two instances look the same. The changes are:

• 35% of deepslate bricks become cracked deepslate bricks, and 10% become deepslate.
• 25% of soul soil becomes soul sand.
• 70% of obsidian becomes crying obsidian.
• 25% of armor piles are removed.
• 30% of skeleton skulls and 70% of wither skeleton skulls are removed.

The randomization gives a worn and abandoned look. It also means some skulls and armor piles are missing from a given structure.

Inhabitants

The structure places Ancient Knights in its rooms. An Ancient Knight has 60 health, 10 attack damage and 0.8 knockback resistance, so it takes a long time to kill and is hard to knock back. Its loot is Cinder Essence, with a 12.5% chance of Netherite Scrap. The structure also has a spawner. Its loot table drops Fire Charges.

Ancient Knights placed by the structure are ordinary, non-summoned knights. They award experience and loot when killed by a player.

Loot

The Ancient Battleground has two chest loot sets, one for the burial areas and one for the piglin camp. The generated table below lists each chest and its contents.

• Burial chests hold Cinder Essence, Blank Runes, Netherite Scrap and Wither Skeleton Skulls. The chests also contain bone, gunpowder, flint, diamonds, copper ingots and potions. A separate roll can add one diamond armor piece, a diamond, iron or netherite sword. These are the best weapon and armor finds in the structure.
• Piglin camp chests hold porkchop, crimson fungus, soul soil, gunpowder and nuggets. A separate roll can add a golden pickaxe or golden shovel.

Biomes (15): Crimson Forest, Nether Wastes, Soul Sand Valley, Warped Forest, Black Ice Glaciers, Crystalline Chasm, Erupting Inferno, Undergrowth, Visceral Heap, Withered Abyss, Mycotoxic Undergrowth, Blackstone Basin, Glistering Meadow, Infernal Holt, Redstone Abyss (Removed)

Mobs placed in the structure: Ancient Knight

Tips

The Ancient Battleground is a long melee fight in narrow corridors. Ancient Knights have high health and resist knockback, so a player should bring strong armor and a ranged option.

• Keep an escape route to open ground. The corridors are narrow, and a group of knights can trap a player in a dead end.
• Expect the burial rooms to hold the richest chests, with the Cinder Essence, Blank Runes and Netherite Scrap rolls.
• Bring fire protection and food for the Nether. Ancient Knights are fire immune, but lava, fire and the Nether's hazards still apply to the player.
• Remember that the structure sits in horror biomes. Visit it with a full set of gear and a plan for leaving.