Find Diamonds in Minecraft

Want to find diamonds, but don't know where to search? Maybe you need a diamond pickaxe to help get obsidian and to go to the Nether or create an enchantment table. Diamonds are precious, so your task will be difficult, but definitely possible. The following tips and a little luck will help you maximize your chances of finding diamond ore quickly and mining it efficiently.

Steps

Creating an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe

  1. Know that to mine diamonds, you need either an iron or diamond pickaxe. You cannot mine diamond with other implements, which means that you have to build an iron or diamond pickaxe first. If you already have an iron or diamond pickaxe and want tips on finding diamond, skip to the next section.
  2. Create a workbench, or crafting table, if you haven't already. Crafting tables are made by placing a block of wood in your crafting area, producing 4 wooden planks. These 4 wooden planks are then put in the crafting area again, yielding a crafting table.
  3. Create a wooden pickaxe. In your crafting table, put:
    • 3 wooden planks in a horizontal line across the top 1/3 of the grid
    • 2 sticks in a vertical line down the middle of the grid
  4. Create a stone pickaxe. With your wooden pickaxe, dig four blocks down into the earth until you find smooth stone. Mine only 3 stone while making sure that you still have 2 sticks left over. In your crafting table, put:
    • 3 cobblestones in a horizontal line across the top 1/3 of the grid
    • 2 sticks in a vertical line down the middle of the grid
  5. Build or find a furnace. For your next step, you'll need a furnace. Furnaces can be found in NPC villages, or made using 8 cobblestones, lined around the outside edges of your crafting table.
  6. Build an iron pickaxe. With your stone pickaxe, start searching for iron ore. Iron ore can be found above ground and in caves. You only need to mine 3 iron ore.
    • In your furnace, smelt together iron ore and coal to create iron ingot. Alternately, craft a block of iron into 9 iron ingots.
  7. Make an iron pickaxe by lining up in your crafting table:
    • 3 iron ingots in a horizontal line across the top 1/3 of the grid
    • 2 sticks in a vertical line down the middle of the grid

Mining for Diamonds

  1. Before you start, know that diamonds can sometimes be found above ground in naturally generated chests. These chests can be found in villages or abandoned mine shafts. Although it's possible to find diamonds without mining them, it's generally less successful. It's recommended to mine for diamonds if you want to collect them efficiently.
  2. Make sure you have adequate supplies before you go diamond mining. Your mission is to get diamonds, but in order to realize that mission, you first need some supplies. Be prepared with the following when you dig underground to mine:
    • Lots of torches (more than 100)
    • An iron pickaxe, or a diamond pickaxe if you have one
    • Weapons and armor, in case there are mobs in caves
  3. Know that diamond can be found in layers 1 to 16. Diamond distribution is reputedly highest between levels 8 and 13, with level 12 having the highest likelihood for containing diamond ore. Diamond ore blocks come in small veins of 1 to 10 blocks. There's a chance you could find more than 10 blocks close to one another if the random generation is kind to you.
  4. Make a staircase that goes down. To make this, make a 3 block high hole, make the same hole that starts at the middle of the hole to one block below the lowest block of the original hole, and repeat. Keep doing this with a pickaxe, and it is advised that you come back every 10 minutes or so to get more food, store goods in chests, and make more picks and swords, etc.
  5. Once you reach bedrock, dig around and find the bottom-most layer. That is layer 0.
  6. Go up to layer 12 (1 block is 1 layer), and make a small room there. Make chests, a crafting table, and a furnace, so you do not have to go all the way above ground to craft more tools.
  7. Start digging using a digging pattern. There are several digging patterns that you can use to efficiently mine for diamonds. Here are just some of them that have worked well for other players:
    • Make one main shaft that is 2 blocks tall and 1 block wide going in a straight direction for some while. Create small arms that start at the main shaft and appear every 5 blocks. Dig the arms in 2-tall, 2-wide blocks.
    • Go in a straight line in 3x3 chunks until you hit diamond ore.
  8. If you can, try using a Fortune enchantment on your pickaxe while mining. Enchanting your pickaxe with a Fortune enchantment will increase the diamond drops you get while mining. There are three Fortune levels you can enchant your items with.
    • Level I gives you a 33% chance to multiply drops by 2 (a 33% increase on average), while level II gives you a 25% chance to multiply drops by 2 or 3 (yielding an average 75% increase), while level III gives you a 20% chance each to multiply drops by 2, 3 or 4 (averaging a 120% increase). Fortune level III enchantment is extremely rare, so be prepared to only get a Fortune I or II when you enchant your pickaxe.
  9. Dig around a diamond block before mining it. Diamond ore is often around lava; when you mine them, there's a chance that the diamonds could accidentally fall into the lava, destroying them. Because diamonds are precious, it's best to make sure that they fall into your inventory, not the lava, when you mine them.
    • Place stone, dirt, or gravel blocks on top of the lava if you happen to encounter a lava lake beneath the diamond ore. That way, if the diamonds fall down, they won't be sucked up into the lava.



Tips

  • Make sure you bring lots of torches and pickaxes because you might run out.
  • Watch out for cave mobs. Bring an iron or diamond sword, armor, and plenty of lava. (Skeletons, zombies, and cave spiders are not fire resistant).
  • Also, mine redstone, gold, and iron when you're at diamond level because diamond sometimes hide under or above these ores.
  • If you only find one diamond, mine a couple blocks around it in case it is a corner vein.
  • Also have a bucket of water on you, in case you catch on fire, by lava. You can also use this on lava to obtain obsidian!
  • Don't dig straight down because you can hit lava and burn to death.
  • Branch mining is often thought of to be the most efficient method of finding diamonds.
  • When you are mining, make sure you don't get lost in your mine and you will know your way back. Keep digging if you're desperate.
  • Always be careful for mobs.
  • A huge mistake in mining is not using iron pickaxes. You will find a lot of iron on the way, and iron will speed up the process.
  • Bringing a water bucket is a good idea if you don't have any time to go into your inventory and get blocks. Water buckets will help you if you reach lava. Also,never look an enderman in the face(another reason to bring water buckets). Endermen cannot swim and will get damaged by the water as a result..
  • Don't place wooden blocks on lava, for they'll burn.
  • If you run into dirt or gravel you should dig all of it out, but be careful of lava.
  • Mods can sometimes give you lots of diamonds including the Too Many Item mods and in some cases the Solar System mod.
  • When going in a cave, put torches leading you back to the way out so you don't get lost.
  • Don't think that the nether is under the bedrock,because it is just thin air!
  • You can also find gold near bedrock.
  • If your cave runs into a dead end, you can place a minecart with a block of TNT over it. When you sit in the minecart, you will be able to see all the open spaces around you.
  • Every time you find a diamond go to the surface an put it in a chest.
  • If your fortune pick broke, you can use a silk touch pick to save the diamond until you do get another pick.
  • Dig at the first layer of bedrock diamonds spawn more there and you will be under lava pools.
  • Texture packs rarely find you diamonds, as they can only show you blocks that show their surface. Use a diamond finding mod, but finding it legit will make you feel more proud when you find the diamond.
  • Bring a lot of dirt or wooden slabs, which are fire-proof, so when you run into lava you can place it/them on the lava, making a passage.

Warnings

  • Be aware of creepers, they'll spawn quite fast and blow you up.
  • Never dig straight down, unless your attempting a diamond finding record, as lava may be underneath you. Never dig straight up either.

Things You'll Need

  • Iron pickaxe
  • Armor
  • A lot of torches
  • Weapons
  • Crafting Table
  • Food
  • Minecraft

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