My only complaint is that ore deposits (especially rare ones like diamonds, lapis, and to a lesser extent, iron, and completely excluding coal) tend to occupy 2x2x2 areas. I have never seen a diamond deposit extend more than 3 blocks in any direction. I have found single block deposits, too. The patterns used in that thread leave 2x2xN areas unexposed, leaving the possibility of missing hidden diamonds. During my mining sessions today, I uncovered one formation with 8 diamonds in a cube and one with six, in a cube missing an edge. Those two great finds, in addition to every other formation I found (all of which were 4 diamonds or smaller), could have been missed if a 2x2 area had gone unexposed.
Especially because with long mines back and forth times become a large factor, I'll stick with a full exposure over a smaller area.
Wow, this method is pretty awesome. After 30 minutes I had found: 54 Iron, 30 Gold, 62 Lapis Luzali, 30+ Obsidian, (I could have gotten more, but my Diamond pick broke), but no Diamond... :/ (There was a lot of Redstone too, but I already have 200+ so I don't mine any of that)
Another plus about this method is you don't have hundreds of cobblestone afterwards cluttering up your inventory. Kudos to you!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Now that you've read this signature, you've wasted 5 seconds of your life.
Nah, if you're looking for mining efficiency and at the same time not missing diamond this is your pattern:
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As you can see, staggering in this way leaves no 2x1 horizontal gaps:
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At worst, you can miss a 1x2 vertical vein. Most veins are horizontal. But let's say you do encounter one of those 1x1 or 1x2 vertical veins. The chance of missing a 1x2 vein is 12.5%. The chance of missing a 1x1 diamond is 33%. So at worst, you still have 87.5 and 67% chance respectively of still hitting diamond.
The efficiency is high; you only mine 2/12 squares, but you cover 8/12. As opposed to that technique above which covers 12/12 but also requires you to mine 2/8 squares. My method requires much less digging at a tiny risk of losing out on diamond, and on average this is the most time efficient way of finding diamond.
The thread and info about the resource distribution and world generator is starting to get old so there might have been changes, but I find these theories involving diamonds and lava to be rather strange.
The world generator will attempt to add 1 vein of diamonds in each chunk. Diamond is the last resource to be added. If a chunk contains a lot of dirt, gravel, air or lava there will be less diamonds.
If you go minging and find a diamond vein nicely secluded in rock, then it's always a full vein. I'm not sure if the number of diamonds in a vein is fixed or not, but I usually find 4. If you go spelunking in a cave and find a diamond exposed in a wall close to a patch of dirt, lava or even coal, then it's more often than not a reduced number of diamonds. The dirt, coal and/or air has hindered the generation of diamonds.
I think this is more correlation than causation; naturally, you're being more efficient spelunking at layer 12 than mining shafts at 6-10; not only are you exposing more blocks at once, but you're being a hell of a lot easier on your Iron supply (pickaxes, shovels, etc)
Layer 12 is a relatively safe elevation as far as lava is concerned, and it also happens to rest approximately in the middle of the Diamond strata (6 to 16, if I recall correctly). So yes, you will find diamonds quite easily this way in comparison to other methods (probably; random generation can be a ***** too). But I don't think layer 12 magically has more ore than other layers; I opened my main map with Minecraft Xray and searched Diamond, and got basically what looked like scattered pixel art in various sizes all around the map.
In sum: It is coincidental, but still extremely effective and I plan to adopt this strategy next time I'm mining for diamond ore.
I never found so much diamonds in one day before. I usually suck at mining and its super rare for me to find a diamond ore, nearly a few days to find one !
But, now, within one day, I can get so much more of them!
This really helped new players like me! Thanks so much! :biggrin.gif:
I have a large branch mine at level 6 and have unearthed around 40 diamonds using 1x2 tunnels with 3 blocks in between. Will have to try this though; I built a staircase up to level 12 and I'll mirror my tunnel system below and see if I hit any lava caverns.
Great find. I've only found 5 diamonds, hell of a lot of iron and redstone, and I got stuck in a large cave. And I found two veins of lapis.
You sir, won a and maybe a :SSSS:.
ive won a number of with this method. thankfully, they cant break obsidian and you can sometimes use your bucket of water to create a barrier so you can snipe them =)
Quote from Eniliad »
I think this is more correlation than causation; naturally, you're being more efficient spelunking at layer 12 than mining shafts at 6-10; not only are you exposing more blocks at once, but you're being a hell of a lot easier on your Iron supply (pickaxes, shovels, etc)
Layer 12 is a relatively safe elevation as far as lava is concerned, and it also happens to rest approximately in the middle of the Diamond strata (6 to 16, if I recall correctly). So yes, you will find diamonds quite easily this way in comparison to other methods (probably; random generation can be a ***** too). But I don't think layer 12 magically has more ore than other layers; I opened my main map with Minecraft Xray and searched Diamond, and got basically what looked like scattered pixel art in various sizes all around the map.
In sum: It is coincidental, but still extremely effective and I plan to adopt this strategy next time I'm mining for diamond ore.
man, people are still saying this?? ive already said that i probably worded the post poorly and it is "coincidental". its about as coincidental as branch mining, there is a set number of diamond in a given chunk and you must "coincidentally" find it with your branch. if you miss the diamond by a single block, you wont find it until you start your next branch. this is why my branches looked like this.
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id just stack that 3 times, moving the center one horizontally a block off center for better efficiency. this method is simply EVEN MORE efficient than any branch method ive used. i even edited the OP with underlines and everything...
Quote from Adversity »
THIS IS NOT DUE TO INCREASED MINERAL GENERATION SURROUNDING LAVA POOLS BUT BECAUSE OF THE INCREASED VISIBILITY LAVA POOLS WILL GIVE YOU, WHICH IN TURN INCREASES YOUR EFFICIENCY
you will also generate a much higher volume of chunks(creating much more diamond to be found, diamond is an INFINITE resource after all.) by covering large areas across the horizontal axis. a good branch mine is generally layered across the entire diamond strata so that you find a very high % of diamonds/chunk. with this method you will be finding a LOWER % of diamonds/chunk but will be generating a MUCH HIGHER volume of chunks themselves(in my own personal experience).
its also way more fun, i will never go back to my "traditional" branch mine again simply based on that fact alone. i never once found anything like this while branch mining...
but now ive noticed those kind of things are fairly common across all my worlds. i found over 70 diamonds in the above cave system in a few hours and never finished exploring it.
Quote from sashko138 »
Works best in SSP
most likely 100% true, i have not tested this at all in SMP.
Quote from tang63 »
Thanks so much! It worked really well for me!
I never found so much diamonds in one day before. I usually suck at mining and its super rare for me to find a diamond ore, nearly a few days to find one !
But, now, within one day, I can get so much more of them!
This really helped new players like me! Thanks so much! :biggrin.gif:
this is what i like to hear!
this is the method im still using and ill generally have diamonds by my 2nd game day on any new world.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Lots of good advice in this thread - some of it I knew, other things were a new way of looking at the process for me.
I'll agree wholeheartedly that a bucket of water is the most useful tool for mining at this level (technically, it's "level 11", because Steve is 1.62m tall) and it's good if others don't have to learn that the hard way as I did. Basically I made a shaft straight down from my basement until I got to 12.6 and one of the first things I did is make an "infinite water" pool there to make sure I can fill buckets when needed.
A little bit of branch-style mining yielded entry into some pretty big cavern networks, and after fully exporing them, I dressed them out a little to make the chambers more uniform and room-like. Doing so revealed several other mineral deposits I might have otherwise missed.
Like some others, I disagree with the 1x2 shaft being the best way to mine. Sure, it reveals the most adjacent squares per square dug, but you have to dig more shafts in the long run so I don't feel that it is as efficient as it may seem at first. I tend to go 2 wide (or even sometimes 3) and at least 3 high (and sometimes up to 6). If not for this method, I wouldn't have uncovered the cluster of 5 diamonds I just found.
I'm finally getting to the point where I feel I have enough diamonds stocked up to begin using a diamond pick at all times. Seeing as one diamond pick lasts as long as 6 iron ones (or a dozen stone picks!) , as long as I can uncover 4 diamonds in every 1500 blocks I dig up (which usually means an inventory full of cobble and vcarious ores), I'll be ahead of the game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Don't know why you should feel that there's something to learn... it's just a game that you play."
I don't mean to be mean, but you basically re-discovered spelunking. I do not see what is so revolutionary about this.
Well, the thing that was revolutionary about this was that he tried to bridge the two opposing schools of thought for mining. Now you can have all the hardcore branch mining while still spelunking. It's a lot more fun than mindlessly mining under layer 12 and throwing down cobble to block up lava. Woo.
Seriously though. Spelunking and efficient branch mines can coexist to a ridiculously high yield for diamonds. And it's pretty fun with a few friends. We all start on a branch and when we hit a cavern, we explore and usually net quite a few diamonds.
The concept of spelunking in lower elevations without mining is absolutely preposterous and I completely refuse to believe that such a "school of thought" actually existed. Further, why the insistence on layer 12? I've had a ridiculous amount of success at layer 15 using an organized version of this method, since "lava pools" don't generate at layer 10, lava simply fills existing caves. You should be equally likely to find caves no matter where you dig, and all caves between layers 10 and 16 are equally useful for finding diamond.
The concept of spelunking in lower elevations without mining is absolutely preposterous and I completely refuse to believe that such a "school of thought" actually existed. Further, why the insistence on layer 12? I've had a ridiculous amount of success at layer 15 using an organized version of this method, since "lava pools" don't generate at layer 10, lava simply fills existing caves. You should be equally likely to find caves no matter where you dig, and all caves between layers 10 and 16 are equally useful for finding diamond.
Who are you to say what exists or not? There are many schools of thought. That was an extremely strong statement, and even if you don't subscribe to the idea, there are others who do. I believe that there are a lot of people on the forums and servers I've been on who don't systematically mine before spelunking. They'll just mine and find something and then explore. I always branch and then explore.
Level 12 has a few inherent benefits from the lava. Since the lava has luminescence, more blocks will be visible in a shorter period of time. I mean, putting down torches takes time. Saving time is always good. Also, monsters don't spawn near the lava. No immediate surprises is nice.
Anywhere from 10-16 is great, I've mined on every level at one point or another, but the general idea of any mining system is exposure and efficiency, and the effect of lava helps that.
That is quite exhaustive.
My only complaint is that ore deposits (especially rare ones like diamonds, lapis, and to a lesser extent, iron, and completely excluding coal) tend to occupy 2x2x2 areas. I have never seen a diamond deposit extend more than 3 blocks in any direction. I have found single block deposits, too. The patterns used in that thread leave 2x2xN areas unexposed, leaving the possibility of missing hidden diamonds. During my mining sessions today, I uncovered one formation with 8 diamonds in a cube and one with six, in a cube missing an edge. Those two great finds, in addition to every other formation I found (all of which were 4 diamonds or smaller), could have been missed if a 2x2 area had gone unexposed.
Especially because with long mines back and forth times become a large factor, I'll stick with a full exposure over a smaller area.
[FAQ] Extremely Common Problems
[OFFICIAL] Dragon Cave Thread
Another plus about this method is you don't have hundreds of cobblestone afterwards cluttering up your inventory. Kudos to you!
yes, layer 12 is the best to find diamond. I am on 12.6 and have found more than 50 diamonds.
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As you can see, staggering in this way leaves no 2x1 horizontal gaps:
[] []
[] []
[] []
[] []
At worst, you can miss a 1x2 vertical vein. Most veins are horizontal. But let's say you do encounter one of those 1x1 or 1x2 vertical veins. The chance of missing a 1x2 vein is 12.5%. The chance of missing a 1x1 diamond is 33%. So at worst, you still have 87.5 and 67% chance respectively of still hitting diamond.
The efficiency is high; you only mine 2/12 squares, but you cover 8/12. As opposed to that technique above which covers 12/12 but also requires you to mine 2/8 squares. My method requires much less digging at a tiny risk of losing out on diamond, and on average this is the most time efficient way of finding diamond.
Wow, Great Find! I Found an 8 diamond vein at level 19 while Spelunking, i love that word.
The world generator will attempt to add 1 vein of diamonds in each chunk. Diamond is the last resource to be added. If a chunk contains a lot of dirt, gravel, air or lava there will be less diamonds.
If you go minging and find a diamond vein nicely secluded in rock, then it's always a full vein. I'm not sure if the number of diamonds in a vein is fixed or not, but I usually find 4. If you go spelunking in a cave and find a diamond exposed in a wall close to a patch of dirt, lava or even coal, then it's more often than not a reduced number of diamonds. The dirt, coal and/or air has hindered the generation of diamonds.
Layer 12 is a relatively safe elevation as far as lava is concerned, and it also happens to rest approximately in the middle of the Diamond strata (6 to 16, if I recall correctly). So yes, you will find diamonds quite easily this way in comparison to other methods (probably; random generation can be a ***** too). But I don't think layer 12 magically has more ore than other layers; I opened my main map with Minecraft Xray and searched Diamond, and got basically what looked like scattered pixel art in various sizes all around the map.
In sum: It is coincidental, but still extremely effective and I plan to adopt this strategy next time I'm mining for diamond ore.
I never found so much diamonds in one day before. I usually suck at mining and its super rare for me to find a diamond ore, nearly a few days to find one !
But, now, within one day, I can get so much more of them!
This really helped new players like me! Thanks so much! :biggrin.gif:
ive won a number of with this method. thankfully, they cant break obsidian and you can sometimes use your bucket of water to create a barrier so you can snipe them =)
man, people are still saying this?? ive already said that i probably worded the post poorly and it is "coincidental". its about as coincidental as branch mining, there is a set number of diamond in a given chunk and you must "coincidentally" find it with your branch. if you miss the diamond by a single block, you wont find it until you start your next branch. this is why my branches looked like this.
[] []
[] []
id just stack that 3 times, moving the center one horizontally a block off center for better efficiency. this method is simply EVEN MORE efficient than any branch method ive used. i even edited the OP with underlines and everything...
you will also generate a much higher volume of chunks(creating much more diamond to be found, diamond is an INFINITE resource after all.) by covering large areas across the horizontal axis. a good branch mine is generally layered across the entire diamond strata so that you find a very high % of diamonds/chunk. with this method you will be finding a LOWER % of diamonds/chunk but will be generating a MUCH HIGHER volume of chunks themselves(in my own personal experience).
its also way more fun, i will never go back to my "traditional" branch mine again simply based on that fact alone. i never once found anything like this while branch mining...
but now ive noticed those kind of things are fairly common across all my worlds. i found over 70 diamonds in the above cave system in a few hours and never finished exploring it.
most likely 100% true, i have not tested this at all in SMP.
this is what i like to hear!
this is the method im still using and ill generally have diamonds by my 2nd game day on any new world.
The BEST way to mine diamond, layer 12 and you.
I'll agree wholeheartedly that a bucket of water is the most useful tool for mining at this level (technically, it's "level 11", because Steve is 1.62m tall) and it's good if others don't have to learn that the hard way as I did. Basically I made a shaft straight down from my basement until I got to 12.6 and one of the first things I did is make an "infinite water" pool there to make sure I can fill buckets when needed.
A little bit of branch-style mining yielded entry into some pretty big cavern networks, and after fully exporing them, I dressed them out a little to make the chambers more uniform and room-like. Doing so revealed several other mineral deposits I might have otherwise missed.
Like some others, I disagree with the 1x2 shaft being the best way to mine. Sure, it reveals the most adjacent squares per square dug, but you have to dig more shafts in the long run so I don't feel that it is as efficient as it may seem at first. I tend to go 2 wide (or even sometimes 3) and at least 3 high (and sometimes up to 6). If not for this method, I wouldn't have uncovered the cluster of 5 diamonds I just found.
I'm finally getting to the point where I feel I have enough diamonds stocked up to begin using a diamond pick at all times. Seeing as one diamond pick lasts as long as 6 iron ones (or a dozen stone picks!) , as long as I can uncover 4 diamonds in every 1500 blocks I dig up (which usually means an inventory full of cobble and vcarious ores), I'll be ahead of the game.
Like anime? Try Visual Novels.
Well, the thing that was revolutionary about this was that he tried to bridge the two opposing schools of thought for mining. Now you can have all the hardcore branch mining while still spelunking. It's a lot more fun than mindlessly mining under layer 12 and throwing down cobble to block up lava. Woo.
Seriously though. Spelunking and efficient branch mines can coexist to a ridiculously high yield for diamonds. And it's pretty fun with a few friends. We all start on a branch and when we hit a cavern, we explore and usually net quite a few diamonds.
Like anime? Try Visual Novels.
Everything is on me, the drinks is on me, the b!tches, the hotel, the weed is all free.
Who are you to say what exists or not? There are many schools of thought. That was an extremely strong statement, and even if you don't subscribe to the idea, there are others who do. I believe that there are a lot of people on the forums and servers I've been on who don't systematically mine before spelunking. They'll just mine and find something and then explore. I always branch and then explore.
Level 12 has a few inherent benefits from the lava. Since the lava has luminescence, more blocks will be visible in a shorter period of time. I mean, putting down torches takes time. Saving time is always good. Also, monsters don't spawn near the lava. No immediate surprises is nice.
Anywhere from 10-16 is great, I've mined on every level at one point or another, but the general idea of any mining system is exposure and efficiency, and the effect of lava helps that.