Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. How tos

How to find and use echo shards in Minecraft

Add as a preferred source on Google
End city in Minecraft.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Of all the new things that can be added to Minecraft, some of the most exciting are new enemy mobs and biomes. These give us all fresh reasons to enchant our weapons, brew up some potions, and get ready to explore all over again. The Wild Update introduced a new mysterious item called echo shards. Echo shards are a surprise addition to Minecraft since they were not listed among the other features coming to the game. That led to a lot of mystery surrounding this new resource, which many still don't know how to find, let alone use. Getting your hands on it won't be easy, but the reward is a brand new item to craft that could make your life much easier when adventuring. Here's all the tips and tricks you need to know about how to find and use echo shards in Minecraft.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

10 minutes

What You Need

  • Minecraft

  • Crafting table

  • Compass

An underground city with chests.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to find echo shards

Finding echo shards will be highly dependent on luck. They only appear in one biome, so if luck is with you, you will be able to find that biome fast, but it may end up taking a bit more time if you get a bad roll.

Step 1: Find a Deep Dark biome. This is a brand new biome added in The Wild Update that appears deep underground. They can start spawning at any point from the coordinates Y -52.

Step 2: Once in a Deep Dark biome, you need to find an Ancient City inside this area. It won't be hard to spot one since they are extremely large.

Step 3: Enter the Ancient City and loot the chests. These will be filled with very high-end items, including a chance for some echo shards. They're not guaranteed, though, so again, you're relying on a bit of luck.

Crafting a recovery compass.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

What do echo shards do?

Echo shards, at least at this point, only have one purpose. That is to craft a brand new item called the recovery compass.

Step 1: Collect eight or more echo shards.

Step 2: Combine these echo shards on a crafting table with a regular compass by placing it in the center square and surrounding it with echo shards.

Jesse Lennox
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jesse Lennox covers all things gaming but has a specific interest in all things PlayStation, JRPGs, and experimental indies…
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more
I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Read more
The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out
Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.
Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.

Read more
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2026) Review: Almost everything I want from a gaming laptop, except the price
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop

Quick Take

Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.

Read more