How to Find Mushrooms in Minecraft

Featured Image credit: Mojang.

Having multiple food options in Minecraft is never a bad idea, and mushrooms can be an excellent way to spice up your diet. 

But sometimes, it can seem impossible to find any mushrooms anywhere and even harder to grow them in large numbers. 

Below, you can see how to find mushrooms in Minecraft and grow them to make all the mushroom stew you want.

Finding Mushrooms in Nature

Before you can begin your mushroom farm, you must find wild mushrooms. There are two types: red mushrooms and brown mushrooms. 

Now, there are three main places where you can find mushrooms growing naturally.

You can also occasionally find them in village chests.

Did you die in the middle of nowhere and lose all your stuff? Check out this guide on respawn radius in Minecraft.

Giant Mushrooms

The first way to find mushrooms is by locating giant mushrooms.

You can find these in multiple biomes, including the Dark Forest biomes, swamp biomes, and even Oak Forests occasionally.

They are easy to spot, appearing as huge red mushrooms (or brown) almost as tall as trees.

Even so, they like to grow in a shady area (light level < 12) when small.

You will likely find a Dark or Oak Forest first, as Mushroom Island is one of Minecraft’s most difficult locations to find (see the FAQ at the end of this article).

Each giant mushroom is made up of several mushroom blocks. Breaking these large mushrooms will typically give you 20 small mushrooms.

How to grow a giant mushroom outside

If you want to grow your own giant mushrooms, it is a quick process.

Place a red or brown mushroom outside in the open on a grass block or a dirt block, and then use bone meal on it until it grows.

Before long, you’ll have a huge mushroom block to chop at. 

Underground

Mushrooms like to grow in dark places out of direct sunlight, and you can harvest many mushrooms underground in naturally occurring caves.

Lush Caves are the best for locating mushrooms since the 1.18 update, and you can often find all the mushrooms you need. 

The Nether

The Nether is the final place where you can locate mushrooms in the wild. While they are not as common here, you can find them here. 

If you are in the Nether, though, you have probably already found mushrooms, to begin with, so they shouldn’t be on your priority list.

Mushrooms in Minecraft Bedrock Edition

In Bedrock edition, you can get mushrooms from fallen trees. The drop rate of mushrooms for fallen oak, birch, and jungle is between 0 and 2.

Mushrooms and mobs

Witch huts have flower pots, each with a red mushroom.

If you’re in a mushroom field biome (see FAQ below), you can shear a red or brown Mooshroom and get 5 mushrooms. This turns the mushroom into a normal cow.

Growing Your Own Mushrooms

So now you have your hands on mushrooms, and you want an infinite supply of them for all that delicious stew. 

Growing mushrooms is not often as easy as it may seem, giant mushrooms aside.

You must put in a little extra work to create an aesthetically pleasing mushroom farm. 

Mushroom farms must be underground, with the light level under 13. Otherwise, they will never mature.

Might I suggest you combine an underground mushroom farm with an axolotl breeding ground? They also only breed in dark places.

If you’re a cave dweller, you might as well have some cute fish to share your food with. Plus, they’ll help you battle drowners.

You can, however, plant mushrooms in any light level if planted upon mycelium (found in Mushroom Islands) and podzol (found in Taigas).

All you have to do then is wait for them to grow, but be warned; this can take quite some time as they are notoriously slow. 

Uses for Mushrooms in Minecraft

You have set up your mushroom farm now, and you have access to all the mushrooms in the world, but want can you use them for?

Well, the main purpose of mushrooms is to make mushroom stew which takes one wooden bowl, a red mushroom, and a brown mushroom. 

Eating mushroom stew will restore six hunger points (3 drumsticks) and 7.2 hunger saturation points.

They can still serve a purpose if you are not a fan of mushroom stew. First, you can use them to create another type of stew, rabbit stew. 

Rabbit stew takes one mushroom, bowl, cooked rabbit, carrot, and baked potato. Eating this will restore ten hunger points (5 drumsticks) and 12 hunger saturation points. 

The next usage is to create Fermented Spider Eyes, which are key potion ingredients that are made with one mushroom, one spider eye, and one sugar. 

I mean, who doesn’t like a fermented spider eye for breakfast? Yummy!

Finally, you can use mushrooms to make a suspicious stew with one bowl, one red and one brown mushroom, and any flower. Eating it will provide a special effect based on the flower you use to craft it.

Looking for delicious food? Check out the guide to Minecraft Salmon.

Conclusion

While mushrooms may not have many special uses in Minecraft currently, they make some great stews. 

If you enjoyed this article, check out how far water can flow in Minecraft and some great ways to utilize it in your builds.

Until next time, happy gaming!

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FAQ

What is a Mushroom Island?

Mushroom Island is a rare mushroom biome where mycelium and mooshrooms (mushroom covered cows) can be found, and no hostile mobs spawn.

They always spawn as islands surrounded by deep oceans, which is why they’re so hard to track down.

Mushroom islands are also known as mushroom fields.

Can You Make Mycelium For Mushroom Farming?

Sadly no, a Mycelium block can only be found naturally in mushroom island biomes. You must mine it with a Silk Touch enchanted shovel. If you break the block without Silk Touch, regular dirt will drop instead. 

Why Aren’t My Mushrooms Growing Properly?

If your mushrooms are not growing, it is likely because the light source is too bright. They may not grow because they are exposed to the sky, growing on the wrong type of block, or there needs to be more space above them.