I've heard of strip mining, excavation, tunnels, and good old fashioned searching. Which is best to find the maximum amount of resources?
Branch mining is the most effective way, and branch mining at the right depth is also very important.
There are several different schemes people prefer for how to set up their branch mining tunnels. I'm not going to get into the argument about which one is the most efficient or requires the least amount of walking. Truth be told they are all almost identical in their results and the differences are so tiny that you would have to be really obsessed with efficiency to care which method you used.
Basically branch mining in concept involves digging one shaft and then digging 1x2 side shafts from both sides of that one every third block so that at least one face of every block in the two levels you are mining at is exposed to your view.
And now, reposted once again, my explanation of why branch mining on levels 11 and 12 (feet in 11 and eyes at 12.62) is the best way to mine...
Digging anywhere between layer 5 and layer 12 will yield identical results as is shown in this graph of where diamonds are actually located in the game...
Since the distribution of diamonds is very nearly identical the only thing that really matters is which layers are the easiest to mine.
On layers 1-10 the game fills all natural air spaces (caves) with lava by default, so anytime you dig below layer 11 you stand a much higher chance of running into the side of a lava pool. Dealing with lava flows is dangerous and time consuming and should be avoided where at all possible in order to achieve maximum productivity.
Many people think that more diamonds are generated near lava, this is not true, it only seems that way because when exploring lava caves diamonds are sometimes exposed on the surface of the cave. Here are two pictures, one shows where the lava is located while the other shows the diamonds in the same area. Do you see any clusters of diamonds bunching up near the lava?
Diamonds are distributed totally randomly throughout the entire map, the presence or absence of lava has no effect on their generation. (In fact lava actually replaces diamonds that might have been generated where the lava pool was formed.)
All of which leads us back to the question, where is the best and most labor efficient place to mine diamonds? The answer is quite obvious even though many players out of shear contrariness refuse to accept it as true. You should mine with your feet in layer 11 and your eyes at layer 12.62, you will achieve statistically identical results to what you would mining at any other level while staying at the surface level of the lava pools.
Mining at layer 11 & 12 allows you to simply use a water bucket to turn the surface layer of the lava to obsidian as you move forward and to explore the interior of the lava caves as they are revealed. Digging lower forces you to go around many lava pools and deal with lava flows released by accident while not returning any increase in diamonds found for your efforts.
Branch mining (It isn't called strip mining! Strip mining is when you "strip" away the surface of the world! Like what most people call quarries.) is the most efficient method as it reveals the most block surfaces for the least amount of blocks mined. There are several different methods favored by people for branch mining as to how to create your tunnel configuration but they all have one thing in common.
That being that for each two blocks mined you reveal the faces of six additional blocks, so digging parallel 1x2 tunnel branches two blocks apart from each other reveals the faces of all the blocks in your two layers along with many of those in the layers above and below you. There is only one other method of mining that will yield comparable results to branch mining when comparing the number of diamonds found per block mined and that is cave mining.
Finding caves that go down to the 11-15 layers and mining exposed diamonds does result in collecting a few diamonds that are already exposed on the surface without having to mine many blocks. However it is very hit or miss to locate them and not that many large caves are found that go all the way down to the lava level. Also keep in mind that while branch mining at 11-12 you will still find these same caves and can and should explore them thoroughly up to level 15 in case they have any exposed diamonds.
This question has been asked and answered repeatedly on this forum and even though the only factually correct answer is to branch mine on layers 11 and 12 many people have their own pet theories. The fact that these theories have no objective evidence to support them does not matter to them, they have concluded based on their own personal intuition that their method is superior.
It isn't, but you you will never convince them of this because of the one time they found diamonds twice in ten minutes while doing it their own way.
Branch mining is the most effective way, and branch mining at the right depth is also very important.
There are several different schemes people prefer for how to set up their branch mining tunnels. I'm not going to get into the argument about which one is the most efficient or requires the least amount of walking. Truth be told they are all almost identical in their results and the differences are so tiny that you would have to be really obsessed with efficiency to care which method you used.
Basically branch mining in concept involves digging one shaft and then digging 1x2 side shafts from both sides of that one every third block so that at least one face of every block in the two levels you are mining at is exposed to your view.
And now, reposted once again, my explanation of why branch mining on levels 11 and 12 (feet in 11 and eyes at 12.62) is the best way to mine...
Digging anywhere between layer 5 and layer 12 will yield identical results as is shown in this graph of where diamonds are actually located in the game...
Since the distribution of diamonds is very nearly identical the only thing that really matters is which layers are the easiest to mine.
On layers 1-10 the game fills all natural air spaces (caves) with lava by default, so anytime you dig below layer 11 you stand a much higher chance of running into the side of a lava pool. Dealing with lava flows is dangerous and time consuming and should be avoided where at all possible in order to achieve maximum productivity.
Many people think that more diamonds are generated near lava, this is not true, it only seems that way because when exploring lava caves diamonds are sometimes exposed on the surface of the cave. Here are two pictures, one shows where the lava is located while the other shows the diamonds in the same area. Do you see any clusters of diamonds bunching up near the lava?
Diamonds are distributed totally randomly throughout the entire map, the presence or absence of lava has no effect on their generation. (In fact lava actually replaces diamonds that might have been generated where the lava pool was formed.)
All of which leads us back to the question, where is the best and most labor efficient place to mine diamonds? The answer is quite obvious even though many players out of shear contrariness refuse to accept it as true. You should mine with your feet in layer 11 and your eyes at layer 12.62, you will achieve statistically identical results to what you would mining at any other level while staying at the surface level of the lava pools.
Mining at layer 11 & 12 allows you to simply use a water bucket to turn the surface layer of the lava to obsidian as you move forward and to explore the interior of the lava caves as they are revealed. Digging lower forces you to go around many lava pools and deal with lava flows released by accident while not returning any increase in diamonds found for your efforts.
Branch mining (It isn't called strip mining! Strip mining is when you "strip" away the surface of the world! Like what most people call quarries.) is the most efficient method as it reveals the most block surfaces for the least amount of blocks mined. There are several different methods favored by people for branch mining as to how to create your tunnel configuration but they all have one thing in common.
That being that for each two blocks mined you reveal the faces of six additional blocks, so digging parallel 1x2 tunnel branches two blocks apart from each other reveals the faces of all the blocks in your two layers along with many of those in the layers above and below you. There is only one other method of mining that will yield comparable results to branch mining when comparing the number of diamonds found per block mined and that is cave mining.
Finding caves that go down to the 11-15 layers and mining exposed diamonds does result in collecting a few diamonds that are already exposed on the surface without having to mine many blocks. However it is very hit or miss to locate them and not that many large caves are found that go all the way down to the lava level. Also keep in mind that while branch mining at 11-12 you will still find these same caves and can and should explore them thoroughly up to level 15 in case they have any exposed diamonds.
This question has been asked and answered repeatedly on this forum and even though the only factually correct answer is to branch mine on layers 11 and 12 many people have their own pet theories. The fact that these theories have no objective evidence to support them does not matter to them, they have concluded based on their own personal intuition that their method is superior.
It isn't, but you you will never convince them of this because of the one time they found diamonds twice in ten minutes while doing it their own way.
I swear this post needs to be a freaking sticky. Wish I had more positive up-votes to give out today.
Branch mining is the most effective way, and branch mining at the right depth is also very important.
There are several different schemes people prefer for how to set up their branch mining tunnels. I'm not going to get into the argument about which one is the most efficient or requires the least amount of walking. Truth be told they are all almost identical in their results and the differences are so tiny that you would have to be really obsessed with efficiency to care which method you used.
Basically branch mining in concept involves digging one shaft and then digging 1x2 side shafts from both sides of that one every third block so that at least one face of every block in the two levels you are mining at is exposed to your view.
And now, reposted once again, my explanation of why branch mining on levels 11 and 12 (feet in 11 and eyes at 12.62) is the best way to mine...
Digging anywhere between layer 5 and layer 12 will yield identical results as is shown in this graph of where diamonds are actually located in the game...
Since the distribution of diamonds is very nearly identical the only thing that really matters is which layers are the easiest to mine.
On layers 1-10 the game fills all natural air spaces (caves) with lava by default, so anytime you dig below layer 11 you stand a much higher chance of running into the side of a lava pool. Dealing with lava flows is dangerous and time consuming and should be avoided where at all possible in order to achieve maximum productivity.
Many people think that more diamonds are generated near lava, this is not true, it only seems that way because when exploring lava caves diamonds are sometimes exposed on the surface of the cave. Here are two pictures, one shows where the lava is located while the other shows the diamonds in the same area. Do you see any clusters of diamonds bunching up near the lava?
Diamonds are distributed totally randomly throughout the entire map, the presence or absence of lava has no effect on their generation. (In fact lava actually replaces diamonds that might have been generated where the lava pool was formed.)
All of which leads us back to the question, where is the best and most labor efficient place to mine diamonds? The answer is quite obvious even though many players out of shear contrariness refuse to accept it as true. You should mine with your feet in layer 11 and your eyes at layer 12.62, you will achieve statistically identical results to what you would mining at any other level while staying at the surface level of the lava pools.
Mining at layer 11 & 12 allows you to simply use a water bucket to turn the surface layer of the lava to obsidian as you move forward and to explore the interior of the lava caves as they are revealed. Digging lower forces you to go around many lava pools and deal with lava flows released by accident while not returning any increase in diamonds found for your efforts.
Branch mining (It isn't called strip mining! Strip mining is when you "strip" away the surface of the world! Like what most people call quarries.) is the most efficient method as it reveals the most block surfaces for the least amount of blocks mined. There are several different methods favored by people for branch mining as to how to create your tunnel configuration but they all have one thing in common.
That being that for each two blocks mined you reveal the faces of six additional blocks, so digging parallel 1x2 tunnel branches two blocks apart from each other reveals the faces of all the blocks in your two layers along with many of those in the layers above and below you. There is only one other method of mining that will yield comparable results to branch mining when comparing the number of diamonds found per block mined and that is cave mining.
Finding caves that go down to the 11-15 layers and mining exposed diamonds does result in collecting a few diamonds that are already exposed on the surface without having to mine many blocks. However it is very hit or miss to locate them and not that many large caves are found that go all the way down to the lava level. Also keep in mind that while branch mining at 11-12 you will still find these same caves and can and should explore them thoroughly up to level 15 in case they have any exposed diamonds.
This question has been asked and answered repeatedly on this forum and even though the only factually correct answer is to branch mine on layers 11 and 12 many people have their own pet theories. The fact that these theories have no objective evidence to support them does not matter to them, they have concluded based on their own personal intuition that their method is superior.
It isn't, but you you will never convince them of this because of the one time they found diamonds twice in ten minutes while doing it their own way.
I agree that the best layer to mine is 11, but in SSP I mine at y=10 out of tradition and for some obsidian. Plus, I have an Efficiency V Unbreaking III diamond pickaxe.
How you identify layer 10 without enter in debug mode? I use branch mining where I find the first bedrock, I think that’s like layer 4 or not?
And for the info in this post is not truth that minecraft saying “there are good things near lava”
Bedrock is found at level 5 and below. When you hit bedrock you will have to dig sideways several blocks in each direction before you know if you are are level 5 or lower. See the image below.
Bedrock is found at level 5 and below. When you hit bedrock you will have to dig sideways several blocks in each direction before you know if you are are level 5 or lower.
Or you could use the F3 button.
Usually, the best way to mine is either spelunking or just digging randomly. Spelunking, or mining in caves, works well as ores spawn more frequently in caves; however, there are mobs to deal with. Digging randomly is more luck than anything else.
I've been mining ever since I started playing and I have two methods (that I use together) with which I get an overload of ores. Note that Y11 is the layer where you have the highest chances at getting ores, although Y12 is safer (Lava spawns at Y1-10).
The first and main one is the 100% efficiency strip mining. It's main advantage is that you mine 100% of the ores while mining the least amount of blocks possible. I recommend making the middle one at Y12 and not going higher than Y14 or lower than Y10.
Advanced branch mining is one of the most efficient way to mine 100% of the ores on multiple levels.
The second is simply spelunking any cavern you find. This makes your pickaxe last much longer while still getting many ores, although some may have trouble fighting monsters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please report posts that do not abide by the rules, it's quick and easy!
Try digging a quarry that's 16x16 blocks and dig down to bedrock. It is strip mining but mining out a chunk has gotten me a lot of ores.
The world generator will only place one pocket of Diamonds per chunk so this kind of mining is great for building blocks coal and redstone it is a very poor method for hunting diamonds.
Or you could use the F3 button.
Usually, the best way to mine is either spelunking or just digging randomly. Spelunking, or mining in caves, works well as ores spawn more frequently in caves; however, there are mobs to deal with. Digging randomly is more luck than anything else.
Got any proof of that statement? Any at all? Or is it only your own subjective opinion?
Perhaps you have personally found a code section hidden in the game programming that everyone else has missed for the last three years?
Try digging a quarry that's 16x16 blocks and dig down to bedrock. It is strip mining but mining out a chunk has gotten me a lot of ores.
That is a ridiculously inefficient way to mine, gold only appears between levels 2-29 and redstone only appears in 5-12. You are digging out every single block when you only need to dig about 40% of them at the two levels that all the ores you want can be found.
While mining your butt off for diamonds at 11/12 you will find all the coal and iron you could want and so much redstone (8 times as often as diamond) that it becomes a nuisance filling up your inventory.
In order to "find the maximum amount of resources", your best bet is actually to dig straight down. Obviously, you need a strategy to do this safely, like feather falling boots or ender pearls and fire protection armor or a fire resistance potion, but in terms of how many new blocks you reveal for each block broken, digging straight down is actually the most efficient way. Keep in mind, this is the way to "find the maximum amount of resources" not the way to find valuable resources quickly. For getting diamonds quickly, you want to just branch mine at level nine or so. I like this way because I can completely strip an entire biome of its ores relatively quickly, but it isn't for everyone.
Finding a nice chasm would probably be the fastest way to get started. Beyond that it's mostly random luck.
Though Industrial Craft 2 mod's quarry's are always fun.
Branch mining is the most efficient, but cave exploring is mostly quicker due to being able to see hundreds —perhaps thousands— of exposed blocks at the same time.
Got any proof of that statement? Any at all? Or is it only your own subjective opinion?
The location of air blocks has no relation to the ore generation algorythm; but given how caves hold a significant amount of exposed blocks, it's no wonder he would get that impression, which actually is not a bad rule of thumb.
In order to "find the maximum amount of resources", your best bet is actually to dig straight down. Obviously, you need a strategy to do this safely, like feather falling boots or ender pearls and fire protection armor or a fire resistance potion, but in terms of how many new blocks you reveal for each block broken, digging straight down is actually the most efficient way. Keep in mind, this is the way to "find the maximum amount of resources" not the way to find valuable resources quickly. For getting diamonds quickly, you want to just branch mine at level nine or so. I like this way because I can completely strip an entire biome of its ores relatively quickly, but it isn't for everyone.
I've always broken the rules and dug straight down (but the smart way, where you stand srtaddling two blocks and dig down 1x2, so that digging one single block down does not make you fall). Typically the best way I've found diamonds. If local caves haven't panned out well, I'll go to the lowest naturally attainable level, then commence my 1x2 digging down until I hit bedrock. I'l then start hollowing out, wit my bucket of water, my stack of dirt, and my volume turned up to be ready for lava of course. I'll hollow out from lowest bedorck to layer 12 for as long as I have the patience for.
Efficient? probably not. Recommended? I don't think it is. But it works and can be fun.
For diamonds - Branch mine at layer 12.
Branch mining is the most effective way, and branch mining at the right depth is also very important.
There are several different schemes people prefer for how to set up their branch mining tunnels. I'm not going to get into the argument about which one is the most efficient or requires the least amount of walking. Truth be told they are all almost identical in their results and the differences are so tiny that you would have to be really obsessed with efficiency to care which method you used.
Basically branch mining in concept involves digging one shaft and then digging 1x2 side shafts from both sides of that one every third block so that at least one face of every block in the two levels you are mining at is exposed to your view.
And now, reposted once again, my explanation of why branch mining on levels 11 and 12 (feet in 11 and eyes at 12.62) is the best way to mine...
Digging anywhere between layer 5 and layer 12 will yield identical results as is shown in this graph of where diamonds are actually located in the game...
Since the distribution of diamonds is very nearly identical the only thing that really matters is which layers are the easiest to mine.
On layers 1-10 the game fills all natural air spaces (caves) with lava by default, so anytime you dig below layer 11 you stand a much higher chance of running into the side of a lava pool. Dealing with lava flows is dangerous and time consuming and should be avoided where at all possible in order to achieve maximum productivity.
Many people think that more diamonds are generated near lava, this is not true, it only seems that way because when exploring lava caves diamonds are sometimes exposed on the surface of the cave. Here are two pictures, one shows where the lava is located while the other shows the diamonds in the same area. Do you see any clusters of diamonds bunching up near the lava?
Diamonds are distributed totally randomly throughout the entire map, the presence or absence of lava has no effect on their generation. (In fact lava actually replaces diamonds that might have been generated where the lava pool was formed.)
All of which leads us back to the question, where is the best and most labor efficient place to mine diamonds? The answer is quite obvious even though many players out of shear contrariness refuse to accept it as true. You should mine with your feet in layer 11 and your eyes at layer 12.62, you will achieve statistically identical results to what you would mining at any other level while staying at the surface level of the lava pools.
Mining at layer 11 & 12 allows you to simply use a water bucket to turn the surface layer of the lava to obsidian as you move forward and to explore the interior of the lava caves as they are revealed. Digging lower forces you to go around many lava pools and deal with lava flows released by accident while not returning any increase in diamonds found for your efforts.
Branch mining (It isn't called strip mining! Strip mining is when you "strip" away the surface of the world! Like what most people call quarries.) is the most efficient method as it reveals the most block surfaces for the least amount of blocks mined. There are several different methods favored by people for branch mining as to how to create your tunnel configuration but they all have one thing in common.
That being that for each two blocks mined you reveal the faces of six additional blocks, so digging parallel 1x2 tunnel branches two blocks apart from each other reveals the faces of all the blocks in your two layers along with many of those in the layers above and below you. There is only one other method of mining that will yield comparable results to branch mining when comparing the number of diamonds found per block mined and that is cave mining.
Finding caves that go down to the 11-15 layers and mining exposed diamonds does result in collecting a few diamonds that are already exposed on the surface without having to mine many blocks. However it is very hit or miss to locate them and not that many large caves are found that go all the way down to the lava level. Also keep in mind that while branch mining at 11-12 you will still find these same caves and can and should explore them thoroughly up to level 15 in case they have any exposed diamonds.
This question has been asked and answered repeatedly on this forum and even though the only factually correct answer is to branch mine on layers 11 and 12 many people have their own pet theories. The fact that these theories have no objective evidence to support them does not matter to them, they have concluded based on their own personal intuition that their method is superior.
It isn't, but you you will never convince them of this because of the one time they found diamonds twice in ten minutes while doing it their own way.
Thank you very, very much for that!
In full agreement.
And for the info in this post is not truth that minecraft saying “there are good things near lava”
Bedrock is found at level 5 and below. When you hit bedrock you will have to dig sideways several blocks in each direction before you know if you are are level 5 or lower. See the image below.
Or you could use the F3 button.
Usually, the best way to mine is either spelunking or just digging randomly. Spelunking, or mining in caves, works well as ores spawn more frequently in caves; however, there are mobs to deal with. Digging randomly is more luck than anything else.
The F3 button takes you into the debug mode.
The question was
I'm probably the only person on earth that loves Microsoft more than Apple
Advanced branch mining is one of the most efficient way to mine 100% of the ores on multiple levels.
Taken straight from the wiki.
The second is simply spelunking any cavern you find. This makes your pickaxe last much longer while still getting many ores, although some may have trouble fighting monsters.
The world generator will only place one pocket of Diamonds per chunk so this kind of mining is great for building blocks coal and redstone it is a very poor method for hunting diamonds.
Got any proof of that statement? Any at all? Or is it only your own subjective opinion?
Perhaps you have personally found a code section hidden in the game programming that everyone else has missed for the last three years?
That is a ridiculously inefficient way to mine, gold only appears between levels 2-29 and redstone only appears in 5-12. You are digging out every single block when you only need to dig about 40% of them at the two levels that all the ores you want can be found.
While mining your butt off for diamonds at 11/12 you will find all the coal and iron you could want and so much redstone (8 times as often as diamond) that it becomes a nuisance filling up your inventory.
Though Industrial Craft 2 mod's quarry's are always fun.
The location of air blocks has no relation to the ore generation algorythm; but given how caves hold a significant amount of exposed blocks, it's no wonder he would get that impression, which actually is not a bad rule of thumb.
I've always broken the rules and dug straight down (but the smart way, where you stand srtaddling two blocks and dig down 1x2, so that digging one single block down does not make you fall). Typically the best way I've found diamonds. If local caves haven't panned out well, I'll go to the lowest naturally attainable level, then commence my 1x2 digging down until I hit bedrock. I'l then start hollowing out, wit my bucket of water, my stack of dirt, and my volume turned up to be ready for lava of course. I'll hollow out from lowest bedorck to layer 12 for as long as I have the patience for.
Efficient? probably not. Recommended? I don't think it is. But it works and can be fun.