Thinking about learning how to mine one of the most precious materials in Minecraft?
Minecraft diamonds are situated anywhere below layer 16. But, if you are using the Minecraft 1.18 update or newer, you might experience modified ore distribution.
In this article, we will tell you how you can unearth diamonds in Minecraft the fast and easy way.
Table of Contents
What is a Diamond in Minecraft?
A diamond is a rare material in the Minecraft world obtained from a diamond ore or loot chests.
Diamonds are one of the most sought-after materials in Minecraft and is pretty rare to find, similar to its higher-tier counterpart, the Netherite.
Diamond, being one of the rarest ores in Minecraft along with ancient debris, lapis lazuli, and emeralds- are used in crafting tools, weapons, and armor.
It can also help you upgrade your tools and gears into netherite.
Given its durability and overall functionality, diamonds are extremely difficult to find, and they severely dwindle a player’s stash of diamonds within the gameplay.
Since they are robust materials, they are usually used to create high-tier tools. You can also create highly-resistant armors, enchanting tables, diamond blocks, and jukeboxes with these materials.
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How Can I Mine Diamonds in Minecraft?
When mining diamond ores, don’t forget to bring with you an iron pickaxe or anything that’s more robust. Mining an ore drops a single diamond.
When mining using another tool, it drops nothing.
If the pickaxe you are using is enchanted with Fortune, you can have a drop of an extra diamond per level. This allows you to get a maximum of 4 diamonds with Fortune III.
But, if you are mining the ore using a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch, you can get an ore block than a diamond.
Remember that the ore is found at levels 15 or lower. They are most common in levels -50 and -64.
At the time of writing, it has been a few months since the second part of 1.18 Caves and Cliffs edition was released. Following its release, Mojang released a Minecraft 1.18 Ore Distribution chart along with comparison charts from 1.17 and earlier to show you the major changes made in this latest rev.
For an excellent breakdown of this chart, diamond mining techniques, and optimal locations for diamond mining we encourage you to check out Xisumavoid’s YouTube tutorial here. In summary, he found that the most promising layer for diamond mining is y-59 and he recommends the 2 by 1 strip mining technique for optimal efficiency.
At levels -58 and -59 you can easily mine them as they do not contain bedrock. Diamond ore starts spawning at level -60.
When you are descending into the deepest depths of the underground, you can find them on levels 10 to 12 when you are using version 1.17 and below. Meanwhile, in versions 1.18 and up, you can find them at level -59.
You must bring with you iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxes to successfully extract the diamonds. Don’t forget to bring 2 in case one breaks while you are mining. Bring food and some torches to protect yourself and prevent mobs from spawning.
Go ahead and bring a water bucket so you can turn lava into obsidian. A water bucket can also help you remove the burning status from falling to lava.
Bring a crafting table to help you forge mineral blocks and furnaces. Bring a sword to fight off dangerous mobs and finally, shovel, gravel, and armor to reduce lava and monster damages in case you are attacked.
Just a quick tip: You may use a bucket to store some lava or get it from nearby lava pools to help you make smelting easier. If your bucket contains water, be sure to store your water in a hole before you start to smelt. Water buckets are a handy tool to help you mine a lava pool.
Using your pickaxe with the Fortune enchantment increases your chances of obtaining more diamonds depending on what level you are in.
When using a Fortune III pickaxe, you can harvest an average of 4 diamonds per ore.
What Are The Steps In Mining Diamonds In Minecraft?
Ready to mine diamonds?
Brought with you all the necessary tools we’ve mentioned earlier?
Now, let’s get to the necessary steps to mine this precious material in Minecraft’s realm.
Diamonds can be created from diamond ore. It is a rare find and you can only find it in about -1 in 1200 blocks between levels 5-16.
You can find diamonds anywhere below layer 16. On versions 1.17.1 and below, you can easily locate them in layers 5-12. However, in version 1.18, they are most common in layers -50 – -64.
You can extract diamonds by caving or mining.
For you to be able to smoothly mine diamonds, be sure to bring with you an iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe. You can also use Redstone, emerald, or gold you may find along the way.
Although you might want to preserve the durability of iron tools, using a stone to dig will be totally useless and counterproductive. Remember that diamond ore does not drop the diamonds when using materials such as wood, stone, or gold pickaxe when mining.
Using an iron pickup axe when exploring low levels is good if you find anything that looks odd.
Also, don’t forget to keep torches and wood handy to create more sticks. When you are in the process of carving, take the usual supplies, specifically armor and weapons.
When you are a bit lucky, you can find diamonds in naturally-generated chests and structures.
Find gold by exploring caves
Exploring caves, also popularly coined as spelunking, takes less of your time and tool usage than the usual mining. However, it could be dangerous since caves bring you more possibilities of being in combat with monsters.
To find diamond ores by going into caves, look for surface entrances. Dig and work down to levels 15 and lower.
It is best to mine at level 11 or 12 if you are hunting for diamonds because lava beds mostly spawn in level 10. A bucket of water will help you stop lava from flowing.
Traverse safely through the depths’ shortcuts with ravines and shafts. Ravines and shafts create waterfalls to help you get down and back up safely. If you find lava pools, it’s a good sign that you are currently in the right depth range, but that might not be the best location to find your diamonds.
If you see diamond-ore blobs showing near the lava pool, carefully use a water bucket to turn the lava pool’s surface into obsidian or cobblestone. To keep you safe, leave the area flooded while you are mining diamonds.
This lets you protect your diamonds if there is more lava under the diamond ore, the water can soothe it before it destroys your newly-mined diamonds.
If you cannot find diamonds after spending time searching through the whole area, do not give up. Diamonds are completely rare.
Go ahead and search for more caves at a similar level or move on to mining and searching for diamonds from village chests.
Find Diamonds from the Ocean
Couldn’t find diamonds from searching the caves? We will now move on to the next plan of extracting one of Minecraft’s most precious materials.
To find diamonds from the ocean, you must have many water-breathing potions and night vision. Oceans are the best spots to find diamonds as it has many ravines that may have a series of caves in them, best for searching and retrieving diamonds situated at the bottom. This is a great location to find diamonds as many ores are already unearthed and ready to forge.
By Using TNT
Can’t spend hours and hours mining the diamonds from the caves?
Blowing up the place with a TNT is one of the most efficient ways to mine. But, before you opt into using explosives, be warned that blowing up a TNT on caves can alert monsters. You will have to kill a large number of enemies for gunpowder and get a lot of sand. If you have a massive amount of TNT, you can detonate one at a time, break through a large clump, or place your block every five meters to successfully expose the diamonds.
TNT is 100% accessible using the Java Edition, but the method isn’t viable using the Bedrock edition.
By The Safest Way- Branch Mining
Branch mining is the simplest, safest, and most reliable way to obtain diamonds. This is much more reliable than the caving strategy, but this consumes more time and tool-crafting resources. Branch mining creates a lot of spare cobblestones, gravel, diorite, dirt, andesite, and granite- all the by-products of using this method.
To do this, remember to bring a silk touch pickaxe for stone because the stone items can be traded in exchange for emeralds. Be sure to bring 6 or more pickaxes before starting your branch mining journey. Carry your own water bucket, your full suit of iron armor, food, crafting table, five stacks of torches, an iron sword to defend and protect yourself, and a shovel to get rid of dirt and debris. A shield may also come in handy to protect yourself from skeleton arrows. And don’t forget to bring your furnace.
To help you make smelting a lot easier, use your water bucket to store lava and get some of it from the nearby lava pools. Enchant your pieces of equipment as much as possible, as the weakest of all enchantments can actually make a great impact.
Trade With Villagers
Diamond themselves are precious, rare, and non-renewable. Diamond tools and armors, however, can be obtained when trading with villagers.
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How Do I Create A Diamond Mine?
To successfully create a diamond mine, you must first get down to the diamond layers.
You may choose to follow existing caves. Or you may also dig a vertical path, quarry or staircase drilling down to the diamond-bearing layers. Remember not to dig straight down.
Most players will dig down to level 11 because they can easily quench the lava and keep it at foot level.
When digging deeper tunnels, you will likely expose the lava flow at head level or from above. Level 11 lets you skip this challenge since lava is likely to be seen from the floor.
While this can be a little cumbersome, it saves you the risk of falling down into a pit of lava incinerating you.
If you are using the Bedrock edition, level 11 gives you the biggest possibilities of unearthing and harvesting diamonds.
Once you are at your preferred level, start doing the branch mining. Dig long-level hallways two blocks high and about one block wide. Dig through the path and you will eventually uncover a diamond ore blob.
You may find two or more diamond blobs intertwined together while you are digging long-level paths or branch mining. Keep in mind that when you are mining in 1.18+ version, branch mining at level -59 puts you right above the bedrock, which gives you higher probability of finding precious diamonds.
After you have found your first sought-after diamond and finished enchanting, you should forge and carry one Fortune III pickaxe to help you multiply the diamonds you will unearth in the future.
Well, you might be thinking that enchanting your shiny new diamonds with a pickaxe with Fortune seems a little easy, but there are actually better ways to do that.
You could enchant the diamond pickaxe with Silk Touch. Save a separate Fortune III pickaxe at home for future purposes to be used on mining valuable ores such as the ancient debris used to make Netherite.
Leave your Fortune III pickaxe at home to preserve it instead of risking it on your adventures.
When branch mining, there are possibilities of intersecting with several caves. Since caves are almost intertwined with other caves, it is a good idea to use a torch before proceeding with mining into the caves. This will help you assess the area and protect yourself from mobs that may inhabit it.
Conclusion
Mining diamonds only need a little practice and lots and lots of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
All you have to do is keep finding these rare minerals from caves, oceans and eventually, you will get to mine them!
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