Jesus. The level of stupidity on these forums is amazing. You've done absolutely no research - all actual studies show that the most is at layers 6-10, just above bedrock, 11-12 have almost as much as 6-10, and 13-16 have hardly any. Level 6 has more than 10 times as much diamond as level 16.
this is correct. i would strongly advise against mining on layer 16 as it is the very upper level of the diamond strata. layers 6-10 do have the most diamond in theory, but in practice its much harder to get to. by staying on layer 11(12.620) you are able to quickly bypass essentially all lava pools(instead of mining on layer 8, having lava pour on your head every 5 seconds) and in fact use them to your advantage to expose large areas of stone.
kind of is, but this post has been necro'd several times, the OP is from dec 2010 lol. as long as people are still finding some use out of it, i dont think a necro is a bad thing =P
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Quote from Swingerzetta »
This forum has made me decide that I now want kids, so that when they get old enough, I can forbid them from coming here. it's a terrible place.
kind of is, but this post has been necro'd several times, the OP is from dec 2010 lol. as long as people are still finding some use out of it, i dont think a necro is a bad thing =P
Well it's still going I really haven't found too many by digging on 11th layer using a strip mine, I was using Beta 1.0 World (I think(
Anyway the last post was from 3 months ago not really necroing
Regarding the best diamond levels being 6-10 I have a method for getting them pretty easily, though it's time consuming.
What I do is start my mines at 12 and totally clear out the area using a branch mine method, leaving 3 blocks between each branch (1 x 2 branches) from a 2x2 main 'spine'. If any lava is encountered in a large lake, I then move onto the next spot at 12 and do the same, if there is no lava I progress with the next step. Once that area is finished, I drop down to 9 (eye level) and do the same but I move over 1 block so I'm not digging out the top levels floor. Once that ones done, I move down to 6 eye level and do exactly the same, moving the branches 1 block over again, so that it is in the same place as the top level (I go left 1 block with my 9 branch and then right with the 6 branch).
The advantage for this is that you are VERY likely to not have lava falling on you as you have exposed 99% of all lava lakes at the 12 level so deemed it to be 'safe' to go deeper.
I find this method to be the best for getting to the best concentrations of diamonds, however I have stopped mining for diamonds a long time ago and mainly mine for gold and iron as I am too lazy to make a gold farm with obsidian/portals and not gotten around to making an iron golem farm...I have too much fun mining!
Actually believe it or not, level 11-12 is the layer at which ALL materials can be found most commonly, by average.
(Iron and Gold peak at 25-26, but are still VERY high in 11-12)
So, this means that not only is layer 12 one of the best places to mine diamonds because of the lava lake safety, it is the best layer to mine EVERYTHING.
Regarding the best diamond levels being 6-10 I have a method for getting them pretty easily, though it's time consuming.
What I do is start my mines at 12 and totally clear out the area using a branch mine method, leaving 3 blocks between each branch (1 x 2 branches) from a 2x2 main 'spine'. If any lava is encountered in a large lake, I then move onto the next spot at 12 and do the same, if there is no lava I progress with the next step. Once that area is finished, I drop down to 9 (eye level) and do the same but I move over 1 block so I'm not digging out the top levels floor. Once that ones done, I move down to 6 eye level and do exactly the same, moving the branches 1 block over again, so that it is in the same place as the top level (I go left 1 block with my 9 branch and then right with the 6 branch).
The advantage for this is that you are VERY likely to not have lava falling on you as you have exposed 99% of all lava lakes at the 12 level so deemed it to be 'safe' to go deeper.
I find this method to be the best for getting to the best concentrations of diamonds, however I have stopped mining for diamonds a long time ago and mainly mine for gold and iron as I am too lazy to make a gold farm with obsidian/portals and not gotten around to making an iron golem farm...I have too much fun mining!
i bolded and underlined BY FAR the single most important thing in your post.
there are two types of efficiency when it comes to mining, block efficiency and time efficiency. i find it pointless to attempt to maximize your block efficiency. while your 3 spaced branch mine has a high block efficiency, it has a low time efficiency. however, there are an INFINITE number of blocks in the game of minecraft and i do not have an infinite amount of time to mine them.
in the amount of time you will spend attempting to get the 1 average diamond vein from every single chunk, i would have mined through at least 10 chunks already. i would only have to find a single vein out of the "10 average" possible to find the same number of veins, but i have the possibility of finding up to 10 veins, while you are limited to a maximum of the single vein. assuming there is no lava and you are at the beginning of a chunk, i will break 32 blocks in my 2x1 vein before hitting the next chunk very quickly. using your method and ONLY calculating mining time on the actual branches themselves, you will make 4 more branches per chunk on 3 levels, making 12 branches per chunk, so in reality its actually TWELVE chunks that i will get through in the same amount of time before you are through a single one.
again, you are basically guaranteed your single vein while i can roll the dice on the possibility of up to twelve veins(plus the extra time you will spend building the branch structure while i just mine off in a straight line until i hit a cave). personally, i've always been a gambler...
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Quote from Swingerzetta »
This forum has made me decide that I now want kids, so that when they get old enough, I can forbid them from coming here. it's a terrible place.
Could you please post some evidence to back your claim up as the best method, at the same time you will have to prove that ALL other methods aren't as good. Also please define in which way it is the best way.
Otherwise you should correctly include "I believe (and falsely)" to the title.
Or you could also rename as The WORST way to mine diamond layer as it is also possible to be the worst method also, especially if you want to keep your death statistic down... Constantly being around lava and the frequency of fighting mobs pose a BIG danger and greatly increase the chances of dieing, can think of much safer ways to mine diamonds.
Could you please post some evidence to back your claim up as the best method, at the same time you will have to prove that ALL other methods aren't as good. Also please define in which way it is the best way.
Otherwise you should correctly include "I believe (and falsely)" to the title.
Or you could also rename as The WORST way to mine diamond layer as it is also possible to be the worst method also, especially if you want to keep your death statistic down... Constantly being around lava and the frequency of fighting mobs pose a BIG danger and greatly increase the chances of dieing, can think of much safer ways to mine diamonds.
I love You.
-----------------> because I found diamonds 1 min into mining at layer 11
i will also add some visual evidence of this ravine at layer 11 with a diamond vein just sitting in the wall(to the left of the water, 6 ore). this was near an intersection of 3 different ravines with interconnecting mineshafts.
at the same time YOU will have to prove that my method ISNT the best. its the prosecutions job to prove the burden of guilt.
The burden of proof is often associated with the Latin maximsemper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit, the best translation of which seems to be: "the necessity of proof always lies with the person who lays charges."
i havent died to lava in literally years, it hardly increases my chances of dying. you are correct though... if you dont know what armor is or are simply unable to fight mobs intelligently, then yes, this method may not be for you. i fear no mobs wearing my full diamond armor... with greater risk comes greater reward.
Could you please post some evidence to back your claim up as the best method
In a statistical survey of over 40,000 chunks using MCEdit done back in Beta (and diamond generation has not changed since, according to the wiki and every other source I've seen), diamond generated
- Only between layers 0 and 16
- Most frequently from layers 5 to 11, with <1% density variation in there
- Second most frequently at layer 12, less than 10% less common than at layer 11.
Therefore, by mining at layer 12, he gets nearly the same amount of diamonds but does not have to tunnel through obsidian or mine around/over it.
Or you could also rename as The WORST way to mine diamond layer as it is also possible to be the worst method.
The worst way to mine diamond is leveling a mountain and stopping at y=64. Or digging a tunnel at y=18. These are both ridiculous, to prove that there is no "worst" way, since there are infinite ways of mining that will net no diamonds. Therefore it is not the worst way.
especially if you want to keep your death statistic down...
If you want to keep your death statistic down, dig down 3 blocks and cover your head. If you are going for diamonds, it is logical that you are willing to risk taking damage.
Constantly being around lava and the frequency of fighting mobs pose a BIG danger and greatly increase the chances of dieing
Diamonds only exist below y=16. Lava exists below y=12, and caves exist above y=12. Therefore, it is impossible to mine at diamond level and NEVER experience danger. Mobs are a threat that also cannot be avoided, except by blocking off caves as they are found. Doing so would result in you turning to the side to avoid the cave, after which you would have to check every so many blocks if the cave was still next to you. This checking wastes time, and it would be much safer to simply run across the cave. More importantly, with iron armor and sword, it is a serious challenge to die to any mob while in a 1*2 tunnel.
I'm pretty sure there isn't a mob in the game that you need even leather armour to kill or evade...xD
i would have to disagree. I once stumbled across 4 cave spider spawners within 20 blocks or so of each other. the mobs of cave spiders gave me a run for my money even with diamond armor lol.
My mining technique is to make a staircase down to from any layer from 6 to 13, and then start hollowing out the entire layer. After a while, you can hollow out an enourmous opening in the layer and get a large yield (the largest I've gotten to is about 100 blocks in one direction so far) This helps because you can expose alot of blocks, chances of finding caverns increase, and over all my worlds and servers I play on combined, I've pulled together at least a stack and a half of diamonds (I play on like 2 servers and 2 single player worlds I use with this technique )
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If facebook, Myspage, and Twitter were all destroyed, 90% of teens would go insane. If you're one of the 10% that would be laughing at them, copy this into your signature and hope it happens.
I use the phoenix mining method shown here...Its amazing. Each main branch (Marked in green) is only 60m long and yet I've already got a little over a stack of diamonds.
I use the phoenix mining method shown here...Its amazing. Each main branch (Marked in green) is only 60m long and yet I've already got a little over a stack of diamonds.
this is pretty inefficient. the fact that there are only a few blind spots is actually really bad. you have to mine out almost every block in the chunk on a certain level for a couple of diamond veins? its actually a lot worse than a strip mine that is just a straight line. at least those go through multiple chunks more quickly giving people the chance for more diamonds out of less blocks. people seem to like this because it looks pretty or something, but i dont enjoy mining and would rather be down there less time instead of more time with less output. if you dont believe me just try this weird pattern to something more normal and see how the output per hour compares. a normal mine isn't even efficient. i have a technique that goes through many more chunks and blocks per time spent but doesnt get every single diamond out of a chunk because it covers more chunks. this seems pretty pointless and time consuming. maybe something to consider on the xbox version since the diamonds are very limited there.
heres some math to back it up. there is an average of 3.097 diamond ore per chunk. there are four chunks shown in this picture. that means an average of 12.388 diamond ore blocks in the chunks covered in the post. diamond ore spawns from y levels of 0 to 16 so 1/8th of the amount would be run into with a 2 block high tunnel except some blocks are bedrock, the ceiling and floor blocks of the tunnels are uncovered, and some diamonds are placed next to each other and may run into blind spots. this brings the amount ran into maybe 1/4th of the amount in the chunk. that calculation is the most arbitrary out of any in this post so if someone else wants to actually figure out the chance that would be appreciated. if it is 1/4th of the amount someone mining this obscure pattern will get on average 3.097 diamond ore blocks per four chunks. the amount of blocks mined to find these 3 diamond ore blocks is 684 blocks that are not diamond. some of this will be other ores, but still it is around 10 stacks of cobble for 3 diamond ore blocks. this is inefficient. the amount of blocks uncovered is not that great either. each 32 by 32 area consists of 1024 blocks. after the blind spots are subtracted 996 blocks have been uncovered. this is multiplied by 2 considered the tunnel is 2 blocks high. the 684 blocks mined also yield 684 blocks uncovered on the ceiling and floor. the total is 2676 out of 16384 possible blocks where 12.388 diamond ore blocks reside uncovered. this is 16.33% of the possible area revealed. The estimated diamond output is generous being bumped up to 25% of the diamonds uncovered.
i use mines where i go in a straight line for 500 blocks and explore the caves and mineshafts on the way. this yields me an average of about 20 diamond ore blocks and as many as a stack of ore blocks sometimes. since there are caves along the way i have only dug 900 blocks and exposed many thousands of blocks. this is one third of the amount dug with more than 6 times the output. i use a grid-type structure to prevent myself from overlapping old caves and when i finished in an area i make a nether portal to a new one. i never walk more than 1500 blocks and mine out 18000 before i have to switch to another area by nether portal.
i dont know what to say, this method is absolutely terrible and i really hope no one uses this seriously in survival...
also, people who think avoiding caves is better for whatever reason think about it this way. if you stand in a 10 by 10 by 10 room you expose 600 blocks. most cave or a lot bigger than this. in about 2 minutes of caving you expose more blocks than mining this entire grid once will expose and furthermore the cave will be spread into a lot more than 4 chunks giving you the chance of finding more than 12 diamonds right off. this post is the type of thing that makes me worry about the future of the world.
simply put, if your goal is to uncover every single block in a chunk then this is pretty efficient. the actual goal of mining is to mine as few blocks for as much output as possible.
ive gotten that much loot in an hour from my method before with a little less redstone and coal because i couldnt carry it on me or in the enderchest... i even get up to a stack and a half of diamonds from an hour sometimes. i really need to quit looking at this, its really hard to because im in disbelief. 12 pages of replies with very few people pointing out how bad this is? im sorry for my angry tone, really though, how many hours did this collectively cause people to waste.
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Quote from Swingerzetta »
This forum has made me decide that I now want kids, so that when they get old enough, I can forbid them from coming here. it's a terrible place.
this is correct. i would strongly advise against mining on layer 16 as it is the very upper level of the diamond strata. layers 6-10 do have the most diamond in theory, but in practice its much harder to get to. by staying on layer 11(12.620) you are able to quickly bypass essentially all lava pools(instead of mining on layer 8, having lava pour on your head every 5 seconds) and in fact use them to your advantage to expose large areas of stone.
hey, im all for it. feel free to keep on posting =P
im just astounded the thread hasnt been lost in the bowels of the survival forums lol.
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
(I hope this isn't a necropost :0)
Hey everyone, I'm back!
kind of is, but this post has been necro'd several times, the OP is from dec 2010 lol. as long as people are still finding some use out of it, i dont think a necro is a bad thing =P
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
Well it's still going I really haven't found too many by digging on 11th layer using a strip mine, I was using Beta 1.0 World (I think(
Anyway the last post was from 3 months ago not really necroing
Hey everyone, I'm back!
What I do is start my mines at 12 and totally clear out the area using a branch mine method, leaving 3 blocks between each branch (1 x 2 branches) from a 2x2 main 'spine'. If any lava is encountered in a large lake, I then move onto the next spot at 12 and do the same, if there is no lava I progress with the next step. Once that area is finished, I drop down to 9 (eye level) and do the same but I move over 1 block so I'm not digging out the top levels floor. Once that ones done, I move down to 6 eye level and do exactly the same, moving the branches 1 block over again, so that it is in the same place as the top level (I go left 1 block with my 9 branch and then right with the 6 branch).
The advantage for this is that you are VERY likely to not have lava falling on you as you have exposed 99% of all lava lakes at the 12 level so deemed it to be 'safe' to go deeper.
I find this method to be the best for getting to the best concentrations of diamonds, however I have stopped mining for diamonds a long time ago and mainly mine for gold and iron as I am too lazy to make a gold farm with obsidian/portals and not gotten around to making an iron golem farm...I have too much fun mining!
(Iron and Gold peak at 25-26, but are still VERY high in 11-12)
So, this means that not only is layer 12 one of the best places to mine diamonds because of the lava lake safety, it is the best layer to mine EVERYTHING.
-----------------> because I found diamonds 1 min into mining at layer 11
i bolded and underlined BY FAR the single most important thing in your post.
there are two types of efficiency when it comes to mining, block efficiency and time efficiency. i find it pointless to attempt to maximize your block efficiency. while your 3 spaced branch mine has a high block efficiency, it has a low time efficiency. however, there are an INFINITE number of blocks in the game of minecraft and i do not have an infinite amount of time to mine them.
in the amount of time you will spend attempting to get the 1 average diamond vein from every single chunk, i would have mined through at least 10 chunks already. i would only have to find a single vein out of the "10 average" possible to find the same number of veins, but i have the possibility of finding up to 10 veins, while you are limited to a maximum of the single vein. assuming there is no lava and you are at the beginning of a chunk, i will break 32 blocks in my 2x1 vein before hitting the next chunk very quickly. using your method and ONLY calculating mining time on the actual branches themselves, you will make 4 more branches per chunk on 3 levels, making 12 branches per chunk, so in reality its actually TWELVE chunks that i will get through in the same amount of time before you are through a single one.
again, you are basically guaranteed your single vein while i can roll the dice on the possibility of up to twelve veins(plus the extra time you will spend building the branch structure while i just mine off in a straight line until i hit a cave). personally, i've always been a gambler...
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
Otherwise you should correctly include "I believe (and falsely)" to the title.
Or you could also rename as The WORST way to mine diamond layer as it is also possible to be the worst method also, especially if you want to keep your death statistic down... Constantly being around lava and the frequency of fighting mobs pose a BIG danger and greatly increase the chances of dieing, can think of much safer ways to mine diamonds.
what is this... a court of law?
ok, heres my evidence...
i will also add some visual evidence of this ravine at layer 11 with a diamond vein just sitting in the wall(to the left of the water, 6 ore). this was near an intersection of 3 different ravines with interconnecting mineshafts.
at the same time YOU will have to prove that my method ISNT the best. its the prosecutions job to prove the burden of guilt.
i havent died to lava in literally years, it hardly increases my chances of dying. you are correct though... if you dont know what armor is or are simply unable to fight mobs intelligently, then yes, this method may not be for you. i fear no mobs wearing my full diamond armor... with greater risk comes greater reward.
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
Like, for example...?
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You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
I'm pretty sure there isn't a mob in the game that you need even leather armour to kill or evade...xD
In a statistical survey of over 40,000 chunks using MCEdit done back in Beta (and diamond generation has not changed since, according to the wiki and every other source I've seen), diamond generated
- Only between layers 0 and 16
- Most frequently from layers 5 to 11, with <1% density variation in there
- Second most frequently at layer 12, less than 10% less common than at layer 11.
Therefore, by mining at layer 12, he gets nearly the same amount of diamonds but does not have to tunnel through obsidian or mine around/over it.
If you are saying "I believe" than it is an opinion statement, and therefore whether it is true or not is irrelevant.
The worst way to mine diamond is leveling a mountain and stopping at y=64. Or digging a tunnel at y=18. These are both ridiculous, to prove that there is no "worst" way, since there are infinite ways of mining that will net no diamonds. Therefore it is not the worst way.
If you want to keep your death statistic down, dig down 3 blocks and cover your head. If you are going for diamonds, it is logical that you are willing to risk taking damage.
Diamonds only exist below y=16. Lava exists below y=12, and caves exist above y=12. Therefore, it is impossible to mine at diamond level and NEVER experience danger. Mobs are a threat that also cannot be avoided, except by blocking off caves as they are found. Doing so would result in you turning to the side to avoid the cave, after which you would have to check every so many blocks if the cave was still next to you. This checking wastes time, and it would be much safer to simply run across the cave. More importantly, with iron armor and sword, it is a serious challenge to die to any mob while in a 1*2 tunnel.
You ask for evidence to back up the claim, and you provide none for yours. Any examples?
I hope I've discounted your ridiculous post, and that now the dwellers of the Minecraft forum can resume mining diamond in the best manner possible.
i would have to disagree. I once stumbled across 4 cave spider spawners within 20 blocks or so of each other. the mobs of cave spiders gave me a run for my money even with diamond armor lol.
hahahaha, what that guy said.
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
http://www.minecraft...expandable-v02/
I'm sure its been mentioned but I figured I'd repost because it was a revelation when I stumbled on this the other day.
Terrible way to mine for diamonds...
I suggest reading this post, taken from that thread.
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.