To find a mineshaft is luck, to explore the mineshaft is brave. To find one, all you need to do is dig down about 50 blocks and simply stumble upon one when mining, or follow a cave deep underground until you again stumble on a mineshaft. In a mineshaft, you would find rails on the ground, wood supports, and every now and then you will find a chest containing materials like iron or food. Even though the wonders of mineshafts are great, there are many risks you have to take to travel these places. Along with other monsters, cave spiders claim the territory you know as an abandoned mineshaft.
These spiders are smaller and faster than regular spiders and one bite will poison you ( If you want to prevent being hurt from the poison, always have milk handy to drink to cancel the affect ). These spiders don't just randomly spawn in these areas, these monsters spawn in a spawner, easily identified by looking for heavily webbed area. Even though walking into a spider web slows you drastically, these spiders are not affected by it. The spiders simply drop what a regular spider does, but destroying there spawner with a pickaxe gives you xp. Always be equipped with a sword to quickly break the webs and kill the spiders.
Even though mineshafts are cool, finding the end portal location is an amazing feeling. There is only one spawned in every world and you can find it far underground by getting lucky or making an eye of ender. As said on the crafting and building link, it takes a blaze powder and an ender pearl to make. Once you make it, you would throw the orb up in the air above ground and it would lead you to the location. After a couple dozen blocks traveled, the eye will either stop and drop to pick up again or it will break. Once there, the orb will stop and float there, then fall or break.
When it floats above the surface, it is telling you to dig down from here. You would keep digging down, I recommend in a spiral staircase so if there is lava or a large drop, you don't plummet to your death, until you arrive at the location ( you will know when you see mossy and regular stone bricks). You can now explore the mysterious prison until you find the portal itself. If you choose to mine some of the stone bricks from the walls, be wary of silverfish. These can be found in certain blocks that take a little longer to mine than others. Once mined, all silverfish in the area jump out of the walls. You could also find libraries with chests, but there is usually only papers and books in those.
These spiders are smaller and faster than regular spiders and one bite will poison you ( If you want to prevent being hurt from the poison, always have milk handy to drink to cancel the affect ). These spiders don't just randomly spawn in these areas, these monsters spawn in a spawner, easily identified by looking for heavily webbed area. Even though walking into a spider web slows you drastically, these spiders are not affected by it. The spiders simply drop what a regular spider does, but destroying there spawner with a pickaxe gives you xp. Always be equipped with a sword to quickly break the webs and kill the spiders.
Even though mineshafts are cool, finding the end portal location is an amazing feeling. There is only one spawned in every world and you can find it far underground by getting lucky or making an eye of ender. As said on the crafting and building link, it takes a blaze powder and an ender pearl to make. Once you make it, you would throw the orb up in the air above ground and it would lead you to the location. After a couple dozen blocks traveled, the eye will either stop and drop to pick up again or it will break. Once there, the orb will stop and float there, then fall or break.
When it floats above the surface, it is telling you to dig down from here. You would keep digging down, I recommend in a spiral staircase so if there is lava or a large drop, you don't plummet to your death, until you arrive at the location ( you will know when you see mossy and regular stone bricks). You can now explore the mysterious prison until you find the portal itself. If you choose to mine some of the stone bricks from the walls, be wary of silverfish. These can be found in certain blocks that take a little longer to mine than others. Once mined, all silverfish in the area jump out of the walls. You could also find libraries with chests, but there is usually only papers and books in those.