Craft a wooden pickaxe (a column of two sticks below a row of wood planks). Use the wooden pickaxe to break through a few stone blocks. Craft a stone pickaxe (two sticks below three blocks of stone).
Food Wood Sword (unless playing on Peaceful difficulty) Stone Pickaxe
Never dig through the block you’re standing on, to avoid falling into lava or a deep cave/ravines. When digging the block above you, make sure there is a torch at your feet and a quick escape route. This way, if gravel or sand falls down then the torch will break it, and since lava is slow, you can escape from it without getting harmed. Do not descend too deep or enter special areas (such as abandoned mineshafts) until you have good armor and weapons. Once you do go far down enough (About Y-19), Try mining as far as possible from the blocks so you have enough time to patch up lava spills if you get to lava.
Ore almost always spawns in groups larger than one block. Look carefully at surrounding blocks whenever you mine something. There usually is between 6-8 blocks of coal ore per group. Don’t wander too far! Many players get lost for the first time when they start mining. Try pressing F3 to view your x-, y-, and z-coordinates, and write down the coordinates you’d like to return to. It is a good idea to write down the coordinates of your spawn point or house before you go mining, so you know which direction to go to return home.
Only coal ore will appear above sea level, so don’t wander too high into the hills. You want a cave that extends down, although it doesn’t have to be steep.
Do not use a wooden pickaxe to mine iron. It will break the block and fail to drop ore. Use a stone-tier pickaxe or higher to mine iron ore. Only stone, iron, diamond pickaxe, or netherite pickaxes will successfully mine iron ore. Press F3 to view coordinates. Iron only shows up at a y-coordinate below 60, and is much more common below layer 50. [1] X Research source
Craft a furnace and place it on the ground. Interact with the furnace and place the iron ore in the top slot. Place wood, coal, or other flammable items in the bottom slot. Over time, the fuel will burn away and the ore will become iron ingots. (Try to keep 5 Iron ore/ingot extra to craft a blast furnace) Use the iron ingots to make a better pickaxe, better sword, and (eventually) armor.
Food, iron pickaxe, shovel, & your best combat equipment Torches (several full stacks) Coal Crafting table and several chests Two buckets of water Ladders Bed (if you’re in a multiplayer game that skips night)
Diamond: Only layer 15 and below Gold: Only layer 31 and below Lapis lazuli: Mostly between layers 11 and 17 Redstone: Only layer 15 and below Emerald: Only between layers 4 and 32 under Extreme Hills biomes Iron: Mostly between layers 2 and 58 No specific purpose: Focus on layers 10–15.
A large natural cave gives you a headstart with exposed ore on the walls. Be prepared to fight plenty of mobs and take special care to mark the paths you take with torches or signposts. Dig your own vertical shaft to go straight to the best mining layers. Dig this in a 1 x 2 space so you never dig underneath your feet. When complete, build a way up with ladders, or pour water from the top to make a waterfall elevator that you can swim up and down. Dig an angled shaft at a 45º angle, clearing enough room above you to jump back up. Optionally, place stairs along the shaft for faster movement up and down.
Remember, never dig straight up or straight down.
There’s not much worse than mining diamond ore on the floor and watching it fall into lava. Dig around valuable ores first to check for this possibility.
If you have trouble keeping your sense of Minecraft direction, leave a trail of redstone dust to follow on your way back. When exploring a cave, consider lighting each chamber first, then mining on your way back. This reduces the chance of an accident destroying your loot.
If you see mossy stone, you’re near a dungeon. These are small rooms with a monster spawner and zero to two chests of loot. [5] X Research source You can destroy the spawner or leave it there as a way to gain XP. If you see wooden structures or rails, you’ve found an abandoned mineshaft. Look for chests inside of minecarts, and clip cobwebs with shears to get string. Be wary of spider spawners lurking beneath the webs.
Fortune (max level III) increases the amount of ore you get per block. If you are lucky enough to get this one, save it for the extra-valuable ore only. Note that you cannot get Fortune and Silk Touch on the same item. Silk Touch (max level I) mines entire blocks instead of ore. You’ll need to mine the ore with a different pick to get the ore, but this does save on inventory space. It can be more valuable than Fortune if you’re on a large multiplayer server and plan to sell the blocks. Efficiency (max V) speeds up mining and Unbreaking (max III) increases durability.
You can find the strongholds using eyes of ender, gathered from the Nether.
Enchant armor with at least Protection I. Brew splash potions of poison and regeneration. Attract silverfish from the spawner found next to End portals. Construct a tunnel of glass so they can follow you without burrowing to you. Prepare a high glass walkway in the next area you plan to mine. Build two Nether portals here, one for you on the walkway and one for the silverfish below you. Lure the silverfish through a Nether walkway to the portal you just built, so they reach the area you plan to mine. Throw splash potions of poison and regeneration on the crowd of insects. They will get hurt constantly but heal before they die, summoning more silverfish from the stone around them. In just a minute or two, the silverfish will mine through a massive area of stone, leaving the ore behind.
