How to use a Minecraft seed map like Chunkbase

A seed map such as Chunkbase’s shows where the biomes, villages, temples and other structures are in your Minecraft world. You enter your world’s seed and pick the same edition and version your world was created with; get any of those three wrong and the map will be wrong too.

Below you’ll find how to get your seed, how to use the Seed Map and how to check that the map really matches your world. We don’t hand out seeds here: this is about the method. Chunkbase, by the way, isn’t an official Mojang product.

What is a seed?

The seed is the number Minecraft builds your world from. The same seed in the same version gives you exactly the same world. Type text instead of a number and Java turns it into a number for you. Leave the field empty and the game picks a random seed.

Java and Bedrock only partly line up. The same seed gives you the same landscape and the same biomes, but structures end up in different places. So always choose the right edition on a seed map.

How to find your world’s seed

How to use Chunkbase’s Seed Map

1. Open the Seed Map on chunkbase.com, under Apps.
2. Paste your seed into the Seed field, with no spaces before or after it. You can also load it from your world with Load from save. On Java 26 and later, pick the world_gen_settings.dat file in your world’s data/minecraft folder.
3. Choose your edition and version under Version, for example Java 26.3 or Bedrock 26.50 to 26.52. Pick the version that generated the part of the world you’re looking at.
4. Choose the dimension: Overworld, The Nether or The End.
5. Tick the features you’re after, such as villages, a stronghold or trial chambers. Zoom in to see them all.
6. Jump to a spot by entering coordinates under X and Z and clicking Go!

In the game, F3 shows your own position; there’s more on that in how to show coordinates in Minecraft. Along coastlines the map can look off, because by default it shows biomes rather than the exact land and water. Switch on the Terrain option below the map and Chunkbase adjusts the colours.

Seed map or seed finder?

A seed map shows a single world. A seed finder works the other way round: you describe what you want, such as a certain biome or structure near spawn, and it searches for seeds that fit. Chunkbase has its own Seed Finder for Java and Bedrock, which opens its results straight in the Seed Map. There are also separate finders per structure, for villages, slime chunks or ancient cities, for example. Other well-known tools include mcseedmap.net in your browser and Cubiomes Viewer for your computer. The latter is open source, but by its own account it supports Java up to 1.21.

Why doesn’t the map match my world?

• A different seed. One typo or a stray space and you’re looking at a completely different world.
• A different version. When Mojang changes world generation, newly generated parts of the world get the new terrain, while what already existed stays as it was. If you’ve played the same world for ages, pick the version each area was generated in.
• Mods, add-ons or data packs that change world generation. No seed map accounts for those.
• Not everything is exact. Chunkbase itself lists dungeons, the spawn point and amethyst geodes as inaccurate, and a village or igloo can occasionally fail to generate in the game. Small structures such as fossils and ruined portals sometimes only point to the centre of the chunk, so you may have to dig around a bit.

How to check a seed

1. Note down the seed and the version you want to use.
2. Create a test world in the same version, in Creative with cheats on. Enter the seed under More World Options, in Seed for the world generator.
3. Pick a structure on the map close to spawn and go there with /tp.
4. Compare. If it’s there, you can trust the seed. If not, run through the list above.

A seed on your own server

Want a world with a particular seed on your server? Enter it as level-seed in server.properties before the world is created. Changing it later won’t alter an existing world, so start a fresh one: see start a new world and edit server.properties.

On a server, the seed stays hidden from regular players. /seed only works for operators, a Java server doesn’t send the seed to players, and since 26.40 Bedrock hides it from anyone who isn’t an operator. It isn’t watertight, as there are tools that try to work out a seed from a world. Anyone who does have it can see on a seed map where every temple and village is. If you want everyone on your SMP to explore for themselves, keep the seed to yourself. Looking for something specific, like a stronghold for the End portal or trial chambers? Then the map gets you there fast.