Find Iron in Minecraft

Iron can be used to create a variety of items in the game and is very useful. Thankfully, it is also fairly common! Here are a few quick tips on how to find iron ore in the game.

Steps

  1. Get yourself a stone pickaxe. The stone will be necessary to break the iron blocks down in order to get the material.
  2. Get torches. You will need to bring some torches with you, as it can get dark and impossible to see.
  3. Get a lot of dirt. Get a large amount of dirt. At least 80 pieces. You will be using this to lift yourself out of the mine you create.
  4. Find a suitable cave. Caves are the best way to find Iron Ores. They usually appear in veins at a time. Stop wasting your time digging down from the surface, as this will only yield a small chance of success.
  5. Investigate all blocks surrounding any iron you find. Iron occurs in veins, or groups, so if you find one, there is likely more nearby. Check diagonal blocks as well. The usual size of a vein is 2x2x2 blocks.
    • Iron looks like peach or pink-ish splotches on grey stone.
  6. Place torches as necessary. Recover them when you can.
  7. Mind your vertical level. Using your map or the debug mode, check out the "Y" axis: this indicates your elevation. Remember that Iron Ore only occurs from levels 1-63.
  8. Use a furnace to turn the Iron Ore into Ingots. Coal goes at the bottom slot, Iron Ore goes on top.
  9. Use the iron to make better tools and armor. Enjoy!



Tips

  • Looking around in natural caves will give the highest chance of getting iron.
  • Try not to start digging in sand or gravel, as it'll collapse on top of you and you'll eventually suffocate.
  • Only mine Iron ores using a stone pickaxe or better. If mined by a Wooden Pickaxe or by hand, it will drop nothing.
  • Keep torches handy while mining.
  • Iron is used to craft lots of things you need as you progress in the game. It's important that you find some as quick as you can.
  • Try the seed 8675309 on creative. Fly up and you will see that there is a part of land with exposed coal and iron and a piece in the water. You can walk there on survival mode (it's only 20 something blocks away straight or to your right) and live! 7 blocks of exposed iron and many blocks of coal. There is a block of iron in the lake near you, not the ocean. There are about 13 sheep in the grass too so you don't have to travel. They grow from babies to adults in 1 min. Enjoy and you'll find tons of loot under the stone!
  • If you make a hole that will allow monsters in your mine close it because if a monster gets in it is hard for you and the monster to get out.

Warnings

  • Don't dig straight down, you might fall into lava.
  • You may find many aggressive mobs in the cave.

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