Tutorials Mining

Info

Choosing layer to mine

See also: Layers Chart lining up Y-coordinate values (left) to block layers (right). Altitude is a measurement of vertical distance, or distance along the Y-axis. Contents 1 Definition 2 Limits 3 Natural resources and altitude 3.1 The Nether

• Levels bedrock
• Levels lava, although Lava has been found elsewhere.
• Levels diamond and redstone Redstone Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Availability Survival Drops Redstone (1) Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article is
• Levels gold and lapis lazuli Lapis Lazuli Type Wool dyes Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Data value dec: 3514 hex: 15F4 bin: 1010111114 Name dye 4 See the Lapis Lazuli dye. For the block, see Lapis Lazuli Block.
• Levels iron
• levels coal
• Gravel generates between layers 1 and 111.

• Note: If you are in a mesa A river bisecting a jungle biome. At the top right is a forest. A river running through a mesa biome with mesa plateaus, with a savanna biome in the bottom right. “ In case you biome, you would want to look for gold near the surface.

Due to being the safest layers to mine at which also possesses all ores All of the current ores. Ores are rare stone blocks used to obtain resources. Contents 1 Usage 1.1 As a smelting ingredient 1.2 Further uses 2 Availability 3 Table 4 Video 5 History 6 Gallery in reasonable quantities (especially diamond), Y-coordinates 10 to 15 is usually considered the best area in which to start mining. The exact best layer for mining is highly debated and cannot be agreed on. It`s easiest to use the debug screen Java Edition Only Screenshot showing the debug information "Debug" redirects here. For world type, see Debug mode. The debug screen is triggered when the F3 key is pressed. It shows the chunk cache, the memory (F3) to find your elevation. You can also look for lava pools, which tend to form around layer 11. (Mining at this layer ensures that the floor remains intact if you pour water). You can even dig down to bedrock, find and stand on the uppermost layer of bedrock, then climb up 6 blocks. Once you have located the desired layer, you can begin mining, using one of the techniques listed below.

Videos

Preparing yourself to mine

Most players find it helpful to bring food Foods (or Foodstuffs as considered by the Creative inventory) are consumable items that when eaten restore hunger points and sometimes cause status effects. They are essential to the player s survival, as going without them will , wood Wood Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 10 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same species only Flammable Yes Experience Smelted: 0.15 Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article , coal Coal Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 263 hex: 107 bin: 100000111 Name coal See the coal lump and charcoal item. For other uses, , torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. , a sword Sword Type Combat Durability Wooden: 60 Golden: 33 Stone: 132 Iron: 251 Diamond: 1562 Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values Swords are melee weapons that are mainly used and a water bucket Water Transparency Partial (-2 to light) Luminance No Blast resistance 500 (Flowing) 500 (Still) Tool Renewable Yes Stackable N/A Flammable No Drops None Data values Flowing Water dec: 08 hex: 8 bin: 1000 Still Water dec: 09 hex: 9 bin: 1001 . For larger jobs, you may want to bring a bed Bed Type Block Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 1 Hardness 0.2 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable No Flammable PC: No, but catches fire from lava PE: No First appearances See if you are spending several days underground so you do not have to go back to your house to sleep. Also, it`s a good idea to bring iron pickaxes instead of stone pickaxes, if you can spare the iron. The reason being, if you use iron pickaxes, they mine faster and have a higher durability. With the vast amount of iron that is in the world, you are likely to find an iron pickaxe will more than make up for itself in terms of iron mined, if you use a stone pickaxe it goes by slowly, so in theory you are wasting iron if you don`t use an iron pickaxe. If you are looking for obsidian, then you should also carry a diamond pickaxe. When you obtain a diamond pickaxe you should use it till it breaks, its the same argument as iron. Although, there is considerably less diamond than iron, diamond on average spawning less than once per chunk, a diamond pickaxe should more than make up for itself when you mine for strictly for diamond. And with the limited uses of diamond, making everything there is to do with diamond and stocking some up should set you up for the game and, if not, it should set you up for a long time.

Getting lost in a cave without food or a sword can easily turn into a death sentence. If not for enemies, then starvation.

If you are prone to losing your way or simply want to be safe about it, try marking your path with torches or a unique entity, such as signs or birch planks or colored wool. This also helps you recover your items should you die. Carving out a safe room containing furnaces, a crafting table, a bed and a chest might be well worth your time. If you are a professional miner and spend very long amounts of time in caves and underground you may want to build an actual subterranean house under ground with basic survival necessities.

Lava is highly dangerous and becomes quite common on lower levels, so remember to bring two water buckets when mining. Why two? Simple; this allows you to create an infinite water source to replenish your water supply from. Dig a 2x2 hole and place water in two opposing corners and now you have infinite water. This can also help getting to ores above lava. Just place the water next to the lava source, and you have an obsidian surface to walk on. On multiplayer PvP This article may need cleanup to comply with the style guide. Please help improve this if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. PvP, an abbreviation of Player versus Player, refers to combat in , try digging around ores, especially if they seem obvious. Another player may use the ore as bait.

Lava kills players without any armor faster than players wearing a full set of Armor, so equipping yourself with a full Iron Armor set can buy a few extra crucial seconds for saving yourself Not only that but armor also offers protection against both hostile mobs and hostile players.

Building a rail system allows the player to quickly transport their goods throughout the mineshaft and toward the surface. This requires minecart with chests Minecart with Chest Type Vehicles Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No Internal ID PC: 43 PE: 98 Network ID PC: 10 Entity ID chest_minecart Drops 1 Minecart 1 Chest plus contents Health points 6 () , and minecart with furnaces Minecart with Furnace Type Vehicles Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No Internal ID 44 Network ID 10 Entity ID furnace_minecart Drops 1 Minecart 1 Furnace Health points 6 () First appearances See History Data value or powered rails Powered Rail Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 3.5 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 27 hex: 1B bin: 11011 Name golden_rail A powered rail is a type of rail that , depending on your resources. Be careful though; lava can burn the tracks and creepers can blow them up. Be careful where you place rails, and you may want to protect some of them with fences or even stone. Of course you`ll want the track properly lit as well. If you have access to ender chests Ender Chest Type Tile Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance 7 Blast resistance 3,000 Hardness 22.5 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No First appearances See History Drops Obsidian (8) Block entity id ender_chest , those can be a much simpler alternative for moderate amounts of material.

There are three basic ways to start off your mine, though they can be combined:

1. Find one of the many caves that opens to the surface, and start exploring that, generally working your way downwards. Even shallow caves offer plenty of coal and iron, and later gold and other ores. Caves offer the advantage that a great deal of stone has already been excavated for you, exposing many ore veins. On the flip side, they often contain a large amount of hostile mobs, and both water and lava can be troublesome.
2. If, rather than a proper cave entrance, you have a shaft or ravine Every specific group of blocks purposefully formed in Minecraft based on coding is part of a natural structure. Contents 1 The Overworld 1.1 Terrain 1.1.1 Mountain 1.1.2 Floating "island" 1.1.3 Hollows 1.1.4 Hill 1.1.5 Beach , you can start with that. Use a water bucket Water Transparency Partial (-2 to light) Luminance No Blast resistance 500 (Flowing) 500 (Still) Tool Renewable Yes Stackable N/A Flammable No Drops None Data values Flowing Water dec: 08 hex: 8 bin: 1000 Still Water dec: 09 hex: 9 bin: 1001 to create a waterfall that you can swim down (and back up), then continue as above with the caves that open off the ravine. Watch out for monsters falling off high ledges! You may want to pillar jump Pillar jumping (also known as pillaring, chimneying, towering, jump stacking, nerd-poleing, or constructing a block elevator) is a method of reaching a higher altitude that can t otherwise easily be reached in a map. The pillars to light those ledges and look for high tunnels.
3. Alternatively, you can make your own entrance to the underworld: dig a vertical or diagonal mineshaft wherever is convenient (such as a back room in your base), and start digging horizontal shafts at suitable depths. This takes more tools (since you`re digging everything out yourself), but with proper lighting you`ll hardly ever see monsters. Your mineshaft probably will also open into caves, which you can explore as above. There`s a good deal of discussion about which methods are best for mining ores, but for the initial mineshaft, the safest method is probably a 1ℂₗ3 shaft equipped with a ladder down the middle, and occasional ledges in case you fall off the ladder. Regardless of how you arrange things, you`ll need to light your shafts properly to avoid monsters spawning. You can also turn to mineshafts when your cave is mined out. It is a good idea to mine everything out including coal as you never know when you might be lost and need more torches.

Cave mining

Also known as cave hunting, caving, cherry picking, or spelunking, cave mining is simply the practice of exploring caves and extracting the ores found there. Ore veins are often found exposed along the walls, floors and ceilings of caves. Exploring a large cave system almost always results in finding large quantities of ore, though you probably will find bigger veins of ore unexposed, because cave generation sometimes cuts off the vein generation, so you may find only a few of a certain type of ore. Cave mining has a high return on investment, yielding more ore per time spent and requiring fewer tools (less pickaxe Pickaxe Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See data values Name See data values Pickaxes are one and shovel Shovel Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Diamond: No All Others: Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data durability Item durability is a property that affects all tools, weapons and armor, as well as certain other usable items. It represents the number of useful actions an item can perform and depletes upon item use. is lost mining stone, dirt, and gravel) than other approaches.

On the other hand, cave mining is also quite dangerous. Unexplored caves are dark and tend to contain many hostile mobs "Monster" redirects here. For the mob called "monster" in the code, see Human. Mobs are living, moving game entities. The term "mob" is short for "mobile". 1] Contents 1 Spawning 2 Behavior 3 List of ; a sword Sword Type Combat Durability Wooden: 60 Golden: 33 Stone: 132 Iron: 251 Diamond: 1562 Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values Swords are melee weapons that are mainly used , a bow Bow Type Combat Durability 385 Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data value dec: 261 hex: 105 bin: 100000101 Name bow A bow is a ranged weapon that fires arrows. Contents 1 Obtaining 1.1 Skeletons 1.2 and armor Armor Type Wearable items Durability See Durability Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values For the armor that can be worn by horses, see Horse Armor. Armor classes. From are practical necessities. The player should carry a large supply of torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. to light up the cave and prevent extra hostile mob from spawning. Large cave systems can become confusing and dangerous. Special attention must be paid to navigation, lest one quickly gets lost. Moving through a cave too quickly makes it easy to miss unlit passages above or beside you (where monsters can come out), and carries the danger of stepping into an open shaft. This becomes extremely dangerous when you are stuck in there and encounter mobs. You can also fall into a lava pool which will result not only in death but in all of your items being destroyed in the lava. Portions of caves at level 11 and below are often filled with lava. Because of these factors, players usually carefully explore and light a cave first, then extract ores on the way back out, increasing the total time required and cutting down on mining efficiency.

The cave A dark cave with a Zombie. Caves (also known as tunnels or caverns) are commonly-found underground structures generated in the Overworld (and, to a lesser extent, the Nether). Contents 1 Generation 2 Structure 2.1 Hollow article contains tips on dealing with large cave systems, while the Navigation tutorial has a section on caverns.

It is a good idea to carry a bucket Bucket Type Tools Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (16) First appearances See History Data values PC: dec: 325 hex: 145 bin: 101000101 PE: dec: 3250 hex: 1450 bin: 1010001010 Name bucket See the item. For the server of water Water Transparency Partial (-2 to light) Luminance No Blast resistance 500 (Flowing) 500 (Still) Tool Renewable Yes Stackable N/A Flammable No Drops None Data values Flowing Water dec: 08 hex: 8 bin: 1000 Still Water dec: 09 hex: 9 bin: 1001 . Caves often contain random lava flows, and cave areas below level 10 are filled with large lava pools. A bucket of water serves as both a fire extinguisher, if you fall in; and as a way to form obsidian Obsidian Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 6,000 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 49 hex: 31 bin: 110001 Name obsidian “ Strong almost beyond compare and able to stand huge surfaces over lava pools (pour water onto a solid block adjacent to a lava pool; do not stand between that spot and the lava). If the monsters are too much trouble, you can also go to options and change the difficulty to "peaceful" to prevent mobs from spawning. Be that as it may, you could still die from lava, so don`t forget that water bucket!

Caves often contain dead-end passages and shafts, or masses of gravel and dirt blocking your way. Many of these dead ends are actually thin barriers that, if removed, reveal continuing passages, sometimes into entire adjacent cave systems. `Drifting` is a term for simply searching for adjacent caves by digging beyond apparent dead ends. Drifting can be effective in finding dungeons Dungeon Biome Any Consists of Cobblestone Moss Stone Monster Spawner Chest Can generate post-generation No First appearances See history Dungeons are naturally generated structures that appear in the Overworld. Contents 1 Generation 2 Structure 2.1 if there are mob sounds audible at a dead end. Once you can make pistons Piston Transparency Yes Luminance None Blast resistance 2.5 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data values See Data values Pistons are blocks capable of pushing most blocks, depending on , those can also help detect nearby caves, even through rock: Set one up facing against a wall, and power it with a lever Lever Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 2.5 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 69 hex: 45 bin: 1000101 Name lever A lever is a non-solid block that can , redstone torch Redstone Torch Transparency Yes Luminance Yes, 7 (when on) Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article , or whatever. If there`s an open space within 12 blocks ahead of the piston, it will push a hole into the wall.

Abandoned mineshafts

Abandoned mineshafts Abandoned mineshaft Biome Any Consists of Wooden Planks Fence Rail Torch Cobweb Dirt Monster Spawner Minecart with Chest Can generate post-generation No First appearances See history "Mine" redirects here. For information about mining, see Mining. are often found intersecting caves, but your own mineshafts may well tunnel into one of these. Dealing with them is similar to ordinary cave mining, but resources are more plentiful, especially wood and string String Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops String (1) Data values Block dec: 132 hex: 84 bin: 10000100 Item dec: 287 hex: 11F bin: 100011111 Name Block tripwire Item obtained from shears (from cobwebs Cobweb Transparency Partial (diffuses sky light) Luminance No Blast resistance 20 Tools Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops String (1) Data value dec: 30 hex: 1E bin: 11110 Name web Cobwebs are blocks that slow down ). The string can also be crafted into wool Wool Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 4 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same color only Flammable Yes Drops Itself Data value dec: 35 hex: 23 bin: 100011 Name wool Wool is a block derived from sheep for markers. The special hazards here are that it`s easier to get lost in mineshaft tunnels: they look dangerously similar, and pre-placed torches make it harder to know which places you have already explored. As well, abandoned mineshafts contain cave spider Cave Spider Health points 12 () Attack strength Easy: 2 () Normal: 2 () Hard: 3 () Venom: 1 () per 1.25 sec Hard: for 15 sec () Normal: for 7 sec () Size Height: spawners Monster Spawner Type Solid Block Requirements None Physics No Transparency Partial (doesn t block light) Luminance No (Small amount of light for Pocket Edition) Blast resistance 25 Hardness 5 Tool Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable which are rather difficult to reach and destroy. Often, there can be more than one in a small area, so even if you do defeat a spawner, be alert of the possibility of more spawners being in the area. There can be two, three or (very rarely) even four cave spider spawners side-by-side within 16 blocks (or less) of one another, but usually, there is only one spawner within 16 blocks of you.

For upsides, due to pre-placed torches, the presence of hostile mobs is a little lower. Since supports of tunnels are largely made out of planks, the need to surface due to wood shortage is also lower. In addition, mineshafts contain broken sections of rails and minecart with chests Minecart with Chest Type Vehicles Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable No Internal ID PC: 43 PE: 98 Network ID PC: 10 Entity ID chest_minecart Drops 1 Minecart 1 Chest plus contents Health points 6 () with loot. These rails can be reassembled into complete tracks for transporting loot. One method to avoid getting lost is simply to remove everything (supports, rails etc.) from the tunnel, leaving only a plain 3ℂₗ3 tunnel. This makes it much easier to recall where you`ve been, although it takes quite a bit longer (and lots of axes). Signs and other markers are also very helpful here. Since fences are plentiful (those supports again), you can use them to block off unexplored or dangerous areas or cave spider spawners.

Caves under sand

If you are mining in an area with sand or gravel, like a desert biome, you can break the sand or gravel blocks and see if any others fall. If any DO fall you know there is something beneath. This can be rather dangerous if blocks fall beneath you, but you can place ladders or dig your way out. If done during the day, hostile mobs will mostly burn or go neutral in the sun, but as always, watch out for creepers. Also, the fallen sand or gravel can cover ores. Another (unlikely) event is that there will be lava under the sand. This is most common under mountains. There could also be a dungeon under the sand, so be prepared to fight or retreat.

Cave mining checklist

1. A pickaxe Pickaxe Type Tools Durability Wood: 60 Uses Stone: 132 Uses Iron: 251 Uses Golden: 33 Uses Diamond: 1562 Uses Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See data values Name See data values Pickaxes are one . If it is your first mining trip, use your wooden pickaxe to mine some cobblestone and make a stone pickaxe. If you are further along in the game, and expect to mine for a while, bring two iron pickaxes and at least 12 stone pickaxes. Once you have reached diamonds, if you have an efficient style of mine at a depth where diamonds are found, you can use a diamond pickaxe, which lasts a long time and is capable of mining obsidian Obsidian Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 6,000 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 49 hex: 31 bin: 110001 Name obsidian “ Strong almost beyond compare and able to stand huge . Even a partial vein usually provides enough diamonds to replace your pick when it does break, or repair it when it`s about to. If you prefer to save valuable materials, take a few stone pickaxes for mining stone and one iron pickaxe only for mining ores.
2. A Shovel. Having at least one iron shovel can get through cumbersome patches of dirt and gravel quickly without using your hands. Just one or two stone shovels also works if you want to use your iron for other things. Later, a diamond shovel is a nice convenience.
3. Torches. Light is the key to survival. At least a full stack is recommended, and the more you can carry, the better. Lighting the area around you can help you know which areas you have explored and not get lost, keep monster spawns down to a minimum, and find hidden ores in the shadows. Torches can also be used to disable mob spawners, allowing you to convert them into drop farms later on.
4. Wood. If you run out of tools or torches, you can make a crafting table and sticks to replenish your supplies of pickaxes, shovels, and torches (you can get more coal for them from mining). You can take the crafting table with you when you`re done, or leave it and turn it into the core of a mini-base. As for torches, if you run out of coal as well, you can burn wood to make charcoal as a substitute.
5. A water bucket Water Transparency Partial (-2 to light) Luminance No Blast resistance 500 (Flowing) 500 (Still) Tool Renewable Yes Stackable N/A Flammable No Drops None Data values Flowing Water dec: 08 hex: 8 bin: 1000 Still Water dec: 09 hex: 9 bin: 1001 . This is useful in saving your life and your items, should you run afoul of lava. Also, if you come across a lava lake or pool you want to cross, you can flood it to turn the lava into obsidian. Water can also be placed to create a waterfall, to descend any shafts or ravines you come across. More experienced players may also substitute a water bucket for ladders.
6. An empty bucket. A spare bucket is useful for collecting lava to use as fuel in a furnace, to block or slaughter monsters (you`ll lose most of their drops), or just to get the lava out of your way. You can also use it to pick up more water from a spring, perhaps after placing a waterfall. A second bucket of water also lets you create a perpetual water pool, from which you can then refill either or both buckets whenever you want. The easiest way to make an infinite water source is to make a 2ℂₗ2 pit one level deep, then empty two water buckets into opposite corners. This lets you refill your bucket(s) from any of the pool blocks.
7. Food. Prolonged visits in mines wear away your hunger bar. Bringing food allows you to spend more time in your cave system, and keeping your hunger bar full is important for healing. If there are mushrooms present, you might carry or make a bowl to make mushroom stew.
8. Weapons: A sword Sword Type Combat Durability Wooden: 60 Golden: 33 Stone: 132 Iron: 251 Diamond: 1562 Renewable Yes Stackable No Data values See Data values Name See Data values Swords are melee weapons that are mainly used (stone or better), a bow Bow Type Combat Durability 385 Renewable Yes Stackable No First appearances See History Data value dec: 261 hex: 105 bin: 100000101 Name bow A bow is a ranged weapon that fires arrows. Contents 1 Obtaining 1.1 Skeletons 1.2 , and plenty of arrows. These help you defend yourself against monsters. Upgrade to a diamond sword as soon as you can, as it makes fights noticeably shorter.
9. Armor. It protects you from the monsters you may encounter, and even from lava. In general, you want at least iron armor ⃢₀ₔ if necessary, you can smelt ore and craft your armor in the caves.
10. Chests are invaluable when exploring lava caves since you can store your items in case you die; instead of losing a whole stack of iron and half a stack of gold along with all of your food and weapons, you can drop a chest and a crafting table nearby, and lose only your current tools and whatever you hadn`t stashed yet. It`s worth writing down the coordinates of your stashes, just in case.
11. Ladders. For when you`ve fallen down, and can`t get up... Also useful for reaching high tunnels and blocking off flooding water.
12. Signs. These are useful to mark your way in a cavern. Leave messages or ASCII arrows for yourself, such as "EXIT -->", "Base with Bed ^", "Zombie spawner this way", or "mind the holes!". Signs can be stacked, which makes carrying a supply much easier. Signs can also block water and lava.
13. (Optional) Fences. Useful not only for blocking off unexplored passages, but for containing waterfalls and rivers when you can`t bucket the source. As noted above, you can also harvest these in abandoned mine shafts.
14. (Optional) Markers of various kinds. Aside from the above-mentioned signs, wool Wool Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 4 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same color only Flammable Yes Drops Itself Data value dec: 35 hex: 23 bin: 100011 Name wool Wool is a block derived from sheep is available early, and redstone Redstone Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Availability Survival Drops Redstone (1) Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article is turns up when you get deep enough. If you have pumpkins available, jack o`lanterns provide both light and direction.
15. (Optional) Dirt, cobblestone, gravel. You`ll certainly be picking some of these up along the way, but starting off with some cheap blocks lets you plug holes, make quick staircases, block off lava and bridge your way across pits and ravines if staircases are too expensive or time-consuming.
16. (Optional) Saplings and seeds. You can create an underground tree farm to replenish your supply of wood Wood Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 10 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same species only Flammable Yes Experience Smelted: 0.15 Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article and a small wheat farm to continuously grow wheat for bread, allowing you to stay underground for an infinite period of time. These should both be built in a safe, well-lit area, to prevent spawning of hostile mobs and to encourage growth.
17. (Optional) Doors. In conjunction with solid blocks, wooden doors can be used to temporarily block off unexplored caves and prevent hostile mobs entering a secured area. The crafting recipe for wooden doors creates three doors from six wood planks, hence each door uses two wood planks - the same as what would be required to block a 2 x 1 hole but with the ability to pass through with ease, and return in a hurry if there are a large number of mobs on the other side. Some Zombies can break through wooden doors on hard, and consideration should be given to this when playing on this difficulty level. After an area is neutralized the doors may be mined and placed deeper in the cave system, or left as a marker/decoration as well as giving protection against a surprise creeper explosion making a section of cave unsafe again.
18. (Optional) Bed. Having a bed around might be useful when you could be trapped in a cave or ravine if you surface during night time. Having a bed can help you set up a base camp if you`re far from home and the surrounding area is filled with hostile mobs "Monster" redirects here. For the mob called "monster" in the code, see Human. Mobs are living, moving game entities. The term "mob" is short for "mobile". 1] Contents 1 Spawning 2 Behavior 3 List of or other dangers. With the bed, you can sleep and avoid the danger of the night and return home safely in one piece.

Shaft Mining

Also known as Vertical Mining and Shafting, Shaft Mining consists of digging your own tunnels to expose hidden resources. The usual warning for digging applies: Watch out for uncorking lava or water or for digging into a deep drop or inhabited cavern. While doing this, make sure to be careful as you might remove a block holding back lava or separating you from a drop or hostile mobs.

Staircases

A staircase mine.

The advantage of a staircase is that you can always trivially climb back up, without need to place ladders. Crafting some of your harvested stone into stairs makes getting down and up even easier (no jumping!), though you`ll need to carve out an extra block of headroom. Any such staircase drops at most 1 block for each 3 blocks excavated (without the headroom). There are several sorts possible:

Straight Staircases

A straight staircase heads down, but also over. This may or may not be useful—with a map, you might learn about more of the surface you`re going under, but if you need to dig your way back up a different way, you may come out in unknown territory. Also, a long staircase from your base may take you out of chunk-update range from your base, or at least far enough out that further exploration will take you out of range. Then your crops won`t grow and so forth while you`re mining. All of these can be 1, 2, or even 3 blocks wide.

The most basic strategy is to mine in a straight line at a 45₰ angle downwards, moving one block across for every block down. If you dig out four blocks above each step instead of three, climbing back up is easier, since you won`t "hit your head" with each jump up the steps. Placing a torch every 5th block helps you keep track of your elevation, and maintain a decent light level.

Alternatively, you can dig diagonally. Face a corner, and imagine that the corner block is the missing block of a 2⃗2⃗2 cube. Now dig that cube. Repeat, adding torches at every step. This takes more effort for each level dropped, but exposes more blocks along the way.

You can also dig a shallower stair, two blocks ahead for each block down. This takes you even farther away horizontally, but makes it much easier to run minecart trains up the stair.

Spiral

Spiral staircases are slightly more complicated since they have frequent turns, but have the advantage of leading straight down, thus staying in the same chunk(s). This gives you a more targeted dig, and can often reach bedrock quicker and more safely than straight staircases.

2⃗2 Spiral Staircase

Starting from a flat floor, dig one block ahead of you, then dig 2 blocks down to the right of that. Then move forward into the first place you dug, turn right to face the second step, and to its right dig 3 blocks down from the floor. The fourth step puts you below your original floor—leave the floor block to become a ceiling, and dig the three blocks below it down to the new step. Continue with this pattern—note that each turn of the stair becomes the ceiling for the next turn. This design drops 4 layers per full turn, but if you run into gravel, you need to place dirt or cobblestone to replace it for your stairway. Turning right gets you a clockwise spiral, you can of course go the other way for a counter-clockwise stair.

3⃗3 Spiral Staircase

One design is a 3⃗3 horizontal grid. By digging one block down at a time, and moving around the perimeter of your 3x3 area, you leave enough head room as you move down the staircase. You can also add stair blocks to this setup as well. You can optionally leave the central column for a barrier, or mine it out to place ladders for speedy transit. Instead of ladders, you could use a waterfall, but you`d have to place that after "finishing" the stair (dig an extra pit beneath the bottom of the column to prevent flooding). You`ll also have to dodge out of the water column occasionally to breathe.

The basic design drops 8 layers per full turn. You could build this as a shallower stair (4 layers per turn) for minecarts, but minecarts have trouble with the corners anyway, because of the rock around them.

5⃗5 Spiral Staircase

This is similar to the 3⃗3, except that you dig out the edge of a 5 by 5 grid. The center column is cleared, acting as a supply of light on the way down. The middle acts as a safety barrier, and the outer ring has the staircase itself. The middle can also be hollowed (digging straight down should be safe so long as you didn`t find any caves or lava pools as you made the staircase) out and a ladder or waterfall can be placed in it, with openings at different levels to allow for quick and easy access. Note that climbing ladders does not deplete hunger, unlike walking and jumping used to travel the outer ring. Swimming does deplete hunger, but since you have less distance to travel, you still come out ahead.

This design drops you 16 layers each full turn, and provides an exploratory dig over a wider region. At the same time, it has a bigger chance to miss things in-between the spirals.

Additional Staircases

With a shaft of 4⃗4 or more, two staircases on opposite sides of the shaft going in the same clockwise direction can be added, allowing horizontal `satellite shafts` to be added on each flight of stairs on opposite sides if the shaft, allowing for extremely efficient and exhaustive mining, and in shafts of 5⃗5 or more, a staircase can be added on every side of the shaft for an even more productive mine.

Room Spiral

This is variation of the spiral which consists of a spiral of 5⃗5 rooms leading down. Simply dig a straight staircase down for a short while, then dig out a 5⃗5 room and add a torch or two. Turn right or left, and dig another staircase for a short while, and dig out another 5⃗5 room, add a torch, and so on. Remember to always turn the same way. This method allows you to find a large number of ores and such. If you hit bedrock, don`t worry — go back up to your first room and turn the opposite direction this time. It is very helpful if you want to avoid lava and such. It also has the tendency to open up underground caves, which are always well-stocked with ores and gems. Just remember to be careful of monsters, so always bring a sword when using this method.

Vertical shaft mining

Vertical shafts are mined vertical tunnels used to gain access to underground mining sites. They can be of any width starting from (if you`re crazed) 1ℂₗ1 blocks. Don`t forget to keep a water bucket *and* a stack of blocks in your hotbar, to deal with lava quickly.

1⃗1

Aka, "Digging straight down". Do not do it.You will fall into a cavern or lava. If you absolutely must be the crazy one, try this: Put a bed and a chest at the top. Sleep in the bed, and put everything from your inventory into the chest except for pickaxes, ladders, a stack each of gravel and cobblestone, and perhaps some torches. Dig down until you die or reach your target depth, placing ladders above you as you go. Every 5 levels or so, cut a 2-block high foothold opposite the ladder. If you fell into a cavern and survived, pillar jump back to the hole you fell out of, and/or build a cobble pillar in front of you, and put ladders on that. If you fall into a cavern and die, the footholds might let you break the ladders below it so you can drop gravel for a pillar, and perhaps retrieve any ore you found on the way down (watch out for mobs). If you fell into lava, you can forget about the ore, but perhaps you can drop water to quench the lava.

It is possible to do this method safely, but it is very time consuming. It`s the same as before, except hold ⇧ Shift to cling to your ladder while mining straight down. This way, if you mine into a pit or lava, you won`t fall into it unless you let go of shift (shift won`t let you move down the ladder, but makes you mine slower). If you do find a cave, you can climb up a little bit, remove the last ladder you put down, and put a bucket of water there instead. Now you can swim down, and if there was lava under you, it will turn into obsidian, and will be harmless. You can also dig 1 deep/2 wide alcoves in the side, giving you a place to put a torch, rest, and most importantly dig the hole deeper (as far as you can reach) without having to hold onto the ladder.

Note that mining upward in a 1⃗1 shaft can actually be safer, if you are placing ladders as you go up. Lava will be blocked by the ladder, which can`t burn (and even if it could, there`s no place for a fire block to appear).

1ℂₗ2

1. Pick a place where you want your shaft
2. Mine a first block adjacent to the block you are standing at
   1. Step down
   2. Mine a block you were standing at and one below it
   3. Place a ladder every block (as of Beta 1.5 you cannot go up ladders with gaps)
   4. Go to 2
3. Continue in above pattern until you reach desired depth. From then on use a horizontal mining method of your choice

Simpler variant

1. Pick a place where you want your shaft
2. Stand on the dividing line between two blocks
   1. Mine the two blocks you are standing on, being ready to stop if need be
   2. Place a ladder every block
   3. Go to 1
3. Continue in above pattern until you reach desired depth. From then on use a horizontal mining method of your choice

1ℂₗ3

Similar to 1ℂₗ2, but you have more room to place torches, ladders, or footholds in case you fall off the ladder. You also get more warning of gravel masses, caverns, or lava, and an extra block of room to deal with them. This is relatively safe, and is a good way to start a mine from within your base.

The more common version runs the ladders down the middle of the wide side (put blocks to break your fall on both sides every few levels, and at your mining levels), but another way to do it is to put ladders on one end, and put a waterfall on the other. You can then put a few blocks in the middle to prevent falls, but leave plenty of spaces to pop out of the waterfall for a breath.

2ℂₗ2

You want to excavate one level at a time, placing ladders down one corner of the square. Also relatively safe.

Vertical mineshaft with water drop

Cutaway of the top of the mineshaft. (1) Entrance passage (2) Ascent shaft (3) Descent shaft.

Cutaway of the bottom of the mineshaft. Note the placement of torches in the ascent and descent shafts. (1) Ascent shaft (2) Descent shaft (3) Water pit (4) Side passage to utility room/mining area.

A vertical mine shaft can be built quickly and allows safe, fast access to the deepest regions of the map. To descend to the bottom, simply walk into the shaft. You will pass over the ascent shaft, fall into the descent shaft, and land in the water pit. To ascend, climb the ladder and hop out.

This guide describes the construction of a vertical mine shaft with the following properties:

• Provides quick access to the lowest mining levels
• Fast construction
• Requires a decent amount of wood

Drawbacks:

• Unsuitable for minecarts

Materials:

• 64 ladders
• 2 water buckets
• 20 torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch.
• pickaxes and shovels

The wood Wood Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 10 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64), same species only Flammable Yes Experience Smelted: 0.15 Drops Itself Data values See Data values Name See Data values This article requirements amount to approximately 60 blocks of wood.

Construction

Overview:

1. Gather all materials
2. Dig 3-wide pit to bedrock
3. Dig utility room
4. Dig and fill water pit
5. Place ladders in ascent shaft
6. Fill in center of shaft

Details:

First, gather and manufacture the materials. Be sure to fill the buckets with water. The shaft will be constructed to the side of an existing room. Start by excavating a 3-block deep alcove. If the top of the shaft is above ground, it should be surrounded by fences or walls with only one entrance on a narrow side. Place one torch in the end of the alcove as illustrated.

Next, a 3-block wide pit will be dug all the way down to the bedrock. Do not dig out the block you are standing on. Dig out a 3-high by 2-wide section, then hop down into it and dig out the 3-high column that you were standing on. Place torches on both sides (ascent and descent) at regular intervals, excavating 1 block to place them in. In the ascent shaft, torches should be placed in the wide sides so they don`t interfere with the ladder. In the descent shaft, torches should be place in the narrow side, primarily so that you can keep track of which side is ascent and which is descent.

Be on your guard when digging out any blocks beside you! Lateral breaches into lava pools or monster caves can be hazardous. Be ready to plug the hole, or hop up and throw blocks down so you can escape upwards. Also, be sure that the 3x2 section hasn`t opened into a cavern before you hop down. Keep the pit well-lit. When you reach the bedrock, make a 3-deep pit on the descent side. Fill in the middle and ascent sides as needed, as in the screenshot.

The water trough in the utility room.

In the middle of the shaft, cut a side shaft. Due to the fact that the landing pit must be 3 deep, you may want to stairstep downward a few blocks in this shaft. Next, dig out a utility room. Cut a 3ℂₗ1 horizontal trough in this room for water. Empty each bucket into the end of this trough. The water should fill it in and become still.

Fill the buckets again from the center of the water trough. Use the water to fill the pit at the bottom of the descent shaft. Be sure that the pit is 3 deep, and each block is filled with water.

Now it`s time to place the ladders and to fill in the center of the shaft. Stand in the ascent shaft and face away from the descent shaft. Place ladders on the wall in front of you and climb. Build the ladder all the way to the top.

Descend to the bottom again using the ladder. Be careful, because the center of the shaft is not filled in yet, and it`s possible to fall to your death. Once at the bottom, stand in the middle of the shaft and fill it with blocks. Hop upward and place blocks beneath yourself. When you reach the top, leave the central pillar 1 block below the surface (see screenshot). Leaving it 1 block lower allows you to enter the descent shaft simply by walking in.

Alternate landing

Instead of a 3-block deep water landing pit, if you place a single block of water (use two blocks if the drop is greater than 60) at the bottom of the shaft in the ceiling of your utility room at the bottom and "hold it in place" with a sign on the wall below the shaft, it will break your fall as you fall through it and you will land without damage on the bottom of your utility room area. Beware this may be taking advantage of a bug in the code but it is the fastest and easiest way to go down a deep shaft.

Horizontal Mining (or Resource Mining/Stratifying)

Safety:

Horizontal mining is not as dangerous as vertical. But there are some similar suggestions. Carry a water bucket and some blocks of some disposable, NON FLAMMABLE material (ex: sand, gravel, cobblestone) somewhere on your hot bar. A block can be used to quickly plug the leakage in cases of lava, and water can be poured over source lava to turn it into obsidian, as well as to put out fires. (Flowing lava will usually turn to cobblestone, occasionally smooth stone, if the water is a source block.)

Terms and Definitions

Main shaft/access shaft: a 1⃗2 or 2⃗2 tunnel use accessing other tunnels.

Efficiency: how many ores you get for the amount of effort you put into the mine, or how many ores you get/how many cobble you dig to find them.

Thoroughness: how many of the ores you extract per chunk.

The tradeoff: a mine can be made more thorough at the price of efficiency, or vice versa.

Layout: the top-down view of the mine.

Branch: the tunnels dug purely to gather ores.

Branch-length: how many blocks you dig your branches out. One recommendation is to measure a length with the durability of a stone pickaxe.

Spacing: how far apart the branches are.

Completely Thorough: a mine that reveals 4 new blocks/block dug, and reveals every block within a chunk, is completely thorough.

Tiering: "stacking" one branch mine on top of another, in order to obtain a much greater degree of thoroughness without sacrificing too much efficiency.

Efficiency vs Thoroughness

Efficiency in Minecraft mining is defined as how many ore blocks you mine, relative to the time spent reaching them. Thoroughness is the percentage of the ores you extract from a given chunk. Efficiency is approximated by blocks revealed per blocks mined, while thoroughness is approximated by blocks revealed per blocks in a chunk. Since both include "blocks revealed", they are often confused.

If we assume that all ores spawn in 2⃗2⃗2 cubes or smaller, then there is no need to reveal every block. Mining three spaces wide, with four blocks between each shaft will be completely thorough. If we assume that 90% of ores are 2⃗2⃗2, but 10% are 1x1x1; while obtaining 100% unitary thoroughness then requires a spacing of 3 and a tiering distance of 2, the original mine (the 3-space 4-tiering) maintains a thoroughness of 98%. The 100% thorough mine requires mining twice as much stone while only increasing the total yield by 2%, resulting in half the efficiency.

In order to give an actual number for efficiency, we can use efficiency=100*(number of ores collected / number of blocks mined)-or, equivalently, %efficiency = (number of ores collected/number of blocks mined)

Several assumptions must be made:

1. Ore is distributed randomly
2. Ore is orientated randomly
3. Ore occupies a certain width, whereby two tunnels running too close to each other would intersect the same orebody twice.

In Minecraft these assumptions are essentially true, though there is some distortion since diamonds only spawn once per chunk.

So we reach the crux of the argument; tunnel spacing. In the traditional "efficient" mining methods, tunnels are spaced close together in order to "observe" the maximum number of blocks possible, therefore removing all of the ore from an area. So, let`s consider a spacing of 1; that is one tunnel separated by one block from another tunnel. During the digging of the first tunnel, several ore bodies are encountered. This tunnel has a high efficiency (in fact, the maximum efficiency possible, as we shall see later). The second tunnel has a very low efficiency because almost all of the ore bodies it encounters have already been removed by the first tunnel. This causes the efficiency of the mining operation to plummet. A spacing of 1 is incredibly inefficient. Now we move to a spacing of 2. This is a spacing that a lot of people use because it leads to 100% observed blocks in a single layer. Be that as it may, with a spacing of 2, the second tunnel still encounters several ore bodies that have already been removed, so it is also quite inefficient. We can go on like this; as long as the second tunnel has a chance of encountering ore bodies which have already been removed by the adjacent tunnel, it will have a less than maximum efficiency. It follows that the most efficient way to mine is to place the second tunnel far enough away from the adjacent tunnel that there is no chance of encountering ores that have already been removed.

I have modeled the problem in matlab using a 2D slice of a real Minecraft level and a virtual mining procedure. The model mines a 1 block wide tunnel through the 2D layer and removes all diamonds it encounters, just like a real player would do. The model is limited to diamonds but the principle applies to all ores. It repeats the mini