Where to find ore in minecraft. Where to find ore in minecraft

Hostile mobs appear in the dark. You will need to illuminate the tunnels that are being dug and any caves you explore. If you’re running out of firewood for torches, it’s time to quit mining and cut down some trees!

Minecraft: How To Find Every Ore In 1.18

Minecraft’s latest update made some changes to the way ore is generated, so here’s how players can find any ore they need.

With the Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs Part 2 update introducing such massive changes to the way worlds are generated both on the surface and underground, the way players found ore needed a significant change. In the old system, each ore would start generating at a certain depth and then continue generating all the way to the bottom, which meant players could dig to the bottom and find anything.

The new system changes that. Certain ores will now no longer generate below a certain depth, meaning players will need to mine the correct layers to find key materials. Some ores also have a higher probability in certain biomes, so there will be a lot of exploration in the players’ menu.

8 Coal Ore

The most popular ore in the game, Coal Ore, will be found wherever players begin diving into caves for the first time. With the ability to generate levels from 320 to 0, coal seekers will have to stay above the Deepslate layer, peering into ordinary stone caves or mountainous terrain.

The distribution algorithms for this ore mean that there are two levels where carbon is most abundant, 95 and 136. It is worth noting that both of these layers are likely to be above the mean ground level, meaning mountains are the best place to be for coal mining.

Some ores are so incredibly rare that knowing their height and possible biome is absolutely crucial. However, not all ores can be found in Overworld, and some resources can only be accessed after building and accessing a Nether portal. Here’s where to get started with your Minecraft specific ore hunt.

Nether Quartz

Nether Quartz is a special resource that can only be found in Nether. As of Update 1.16, some biomes, such as the Nether Wastes, are generally better to find because the landscape is so barren and open. Overall, however, quartz appears in abundance between Y: 10 and Y: 117 in Nether.

Quartz is used in a select few redstone crafting recipes. More importantly, it is a nice decorative block and mining it gives you a lot of experience points. Otherwise, it makes no sense except for a cool look.

Gold has become even more important with Update 1.16. It is used in some redstone recipes and is traded with Piglins. Gold can be found in the Overworld in caves usually between Y: 5 and Y: 29, but in the Badlands biome, it generates it more often and higher. Like iron, it must be smelted into ingots in a furnace.

Gold is also found in Nether where it falls directly as gold nuggets. Like quartz, it generates from Y: 10 to Y: 117 in almost every biome, but it’s easiest to find in Nether Wastes due to the openness of the biome.

Redstone

If you want to make any redstone structures or machinery, it is absolutely imperative to find redstone first. It’s a fairly common ore when you dig up the hill on the right, which is between Y: 5 and Y: 12. The ore drops directly as dust and will be more abundant if mined with a Fortune pickaxe.

Redstone’s only function is the crafting recipes related to Redstone. Otherwise, it can be completely ignored, although some common regulations, such as the compass, will still require it. Redstone, like quartz, is a decent way to gain experience points while mining.

You can save yourself some digging effort by finding some naturally occurring caves and exploring them. Just make sure you have lots of torches and be careful where you step.

1) Mine between Y level 48 and -58

ore veins are rarely found in Minecraft 1.18. They can naturally spawn anywhere underground. But if players know the correct Y levels at which ore veins are generated, they have a better chance of finding them.

copper ore strands in Minecraft 1.18 can be found between level Y 48 and 0. Iron ore strands can be found between level Y from -8 to -58. Once at the level, players can begin mining and searching for the Ore Vein.

2) Ore veins are surrounded by granite or tuff blocks

Due to their rarity, ore veins are not the easiest ones to find in Minecraft 1.18. When users start digging at a certain level, chances are they won’t find anything even after hours of digging. But there are tricks that allow you to quickly identify and locate the ore vein.

If they try to find copper ore veins, they can look for huge amounts of granite blocks because the copper ore veins are largely surrounded by them. If players find iron ore veins, they are usually covered with blocks of tuff.

I am making a main corridor which is quite wide with a railway line in the middle. You don’t have to be that ambitious, and there’s a lot of rock to dig, but you get the idea.

Step 3: Iron

• Use a stone pickaxe or better for digging
• After being destroyed by dropping an iron ore block
• It will appear at levels 63 (1 block above sea level) and below.
• Use it like any material to create iron tools and weapons
• Use it like any material to make iron armor
• Smel the iron ore to obtain iron ingots

Crafts with iron:

• 9 iron bars = 1 iron block and vice versa
• 3 Iron Ingots in “V” = Iron Bucket
• 2 iron bars diagonally apart = scissors
• 1 iron ingot + 1 flint = Flit and Steal
• 5 Iron Ingots in “U” = mine cart
• 6 iron ingots + 1 stick = 16 rails
• 6 iron ingots + 1 redstone torch in the center + 2 sticks above and below the torch = 6 activator rails
• 6 iron ingots + 1 red stone + 1 pressure stone plate = 6 detection rails
• 7 iron ingots in a large “U” = cauldron
• 4 iron ingots + 1 red stone = compass
• 3 iron blocks + 4 iron ingots below = anvil
• 5 iron ingots + chest = tank
• 6 iron bars (in 2 columns) = 1 iron door
• 6 iron ingots (2 rows) = 16 iron ingots
• 2 iron ingots = weighted pressure plate
• 1 iron ingot + 6 wooden boards + 4 cobblestone + 1 red stone = piston
• 1 iron ingot + 1 stick + 1 wooden board = Tripwire hook

6 Iron Ingots (2 rows, top and bottom + 3 diamonds) = Nether Core Reactor

Step 4: Gold

• Mine it with an iron pickaxe or better
• After mining, it will drop one block of gold ore
• It appears in the lower 32 layers of the world
• Use it like any material to make golden tools and weapons
• Use it like any material to make golden armor
• Used for making tools, it is very strong (it can kick quickly) but not very durable (it breaks faster)
• Smel the gold ore to get gold bars

Crafting for gold:

• Make 1 gold bar = 9 gold nuggets and vice versa
• Make 9 gold bars = 1 gold block and vice versa
• Make 4 iron bars (on each edge in the center) + red stone in the center = clock
• 8 gold bars surrounding 1 apple = 1 golden apple
• 8 golden blocks surrounding 1 apple = an enchanted golden apple
• 8 gold nuggets surrounding 1 carrot = 1 golden carrot
• 8 golden nuggets surrounding 1 melon slice = shiny melon

ore veins are rarely found in Minecraft 1.18. They can naturally spawn anywhere underground. But if players know the correct Y levels at which ore veins are generated, they have a better chance of finding them.

Contents

Ore blocks are mainly harvested for crafting purposes such as tools and armor. Redstone dust is extracted from redstone ore or deep redstone ore which can be used to create redstone circuits. Refined ore can also be combined to form a material type block.

Most ores drop their resources during mining and require a Silk Touch pickaxe to drop.

, diamond, emerald, their respective deepslate and nether quartz ores drop 1 unit of their corresponding material, gold and their corresponding Deepslate variants drop 1 unit of their raw form, and deepslate ore drops from 2-5 raw copper.
• Redstone and deep slate ores drop 4-5 redstone dust. Lapis lazuli deep slate ores fall by 4-9 lapis lazuli drops 2-6 gold nuggets is the exception; falls spontaneously after mining and must be melted down to obtain neterite scrap.

Smelting ingredient

The ores can be smelted faster with a blast furnace.

Mining with Silk Touch and then smelting a block of ore, which would normally drop many resources, is not efficient as smelting these ores gives you less experience and only 1 resource. The only exception is nether gold ore, as each block of ore produces an average of 8.8 gold nuggets, even after mining with Fortune III, which is less than the guaranteed gold bar obtained from silk Touch ore smelting.

Note Blocks

All kinds of ores can be placed under the note blocks to produce “bass drum” sounds.

Distribution

Below is the distribution of ores by height (strata is the number of blocks above the lowest bedrock layer) in Overworld and Nether.

Overworld

Coal [a]	Copper		Lapis Lazuli	iron	Gold		Red stone	Diamond	Emerald [b]
Stone variant
Variant of Deepslate [c]
Raw resource
Refined resource
Manufactured product	–	–				–	–	–
Mineral block
Raw mineral block
Minimum pickaxe level required	Wood	Stone	iron
Found in the biome	Everyone	Infiltration Caves [d]	Everyone	Badlands [e]	Everyone	Mountains Windswept hills
Abundance	Very often	Common	Very often	Unusual	Common	Rare	Common	Unusual	Rare	Unusual
Total coverage	0 to 320	-16 to 112	-64 to 64	-64 to 320	-64 to 32	-64 to 256	-64 to 16	-16 to 320
Most often found in layers	95 and 136	48	-1	15 and 232	-16	32 to 256	-59	236
Missing on layers	-64 to -1	-64 to -17 and 113 to 320	65 to 320	73 to 79	31 to 320	257 to 320	15 to 320	16 to 320	-64 to -17
Attempts to generate per serving	20 (0 to 192),

16 (-16 to 112) 2 (-32 to 32),

10 (-24 to 56), 10 (-64 to 72)

1 for 2 pieces (-64 to -48), 50 (32 to 256) (badlands)

The Nether

1. ↑ This refers to blocks of coal ore that form in bubbles, and not as parts of fossils or forges in residences.
2. ↑ Instead of multi-block blobs, emerald ore is placed in scattered blocks.
3. ↑ Deepslate variants only generate in Deepslate under layer 0.
4. ↑ This biome produces larger sizes of copper ore lumps.
5. ↑ Gold ore has an increased frequency in this biome.
6. ↑ Deepslate variants only replace Deepslate and Tuff.
7. ↑ Unlike most other ores, the frequency of the ancient remains peaks in layer 15 and declines rapidly above and below.

If they try to find copper ore veins, they can look for huge amounts of granite blocks because the copper ore veins are largely surrounded by them. If players find iron ore veins, they are usually covered with blocks of tuff.

Starting Your Mine

Start somewhere low, like the bottom of a valley, not the top of a mountain. You’ll want to start digging somewhere safe; a well-lit building or a sealed cave as it will likely be night when you return to the surface. Since you’ve probably already built a house, why not start with the basement?

At the head of your pit, you will need a crafting table, one or more stoves, and some storage space.

Equipment

In the beginning, the only equipment you’ll need (or actually have) is a few stone pickaxes, a few shovels, a pile of torches, and wood to make more torches. You should be able to get more than enough carbon for your lighting needs as you progress and you will soon find iron to make better tools. Armor and some weapons will come in handy if you break into a cave or an abandoned mine shaft.

Safety

Torches, torches, torches

Hostile mobs appear in the dark. You will need to illuminate the tunnels that are being dug and any caves you explore. If you’re running out of firewood for torches, it’s time to quit mining and cut down some trees!

Never dig straight down

Sooner or later you will dig up the block you are standing on and fall into a lava lake or creeper exit. You can learn from this mistake. (It is possible to dig a vertical shaft more safely if it is two blocks wide and you straddle the two blocks correctly.)

Be careful if you dig straight up

If there is water or lava above the block you are going to dig, you should be able to see the drops and know that you cannot dig that block. However, sand and gravel are also dangerous as they can suffocate you and not give you that warning. Putting a ladder or mark at head level before kicking upwards and it will stop anything unpleasant from falling off.

Abandoned mineshafts, caves and dungeons

You will often find that your mining leads you to one of these subterranean traits. These sites present their own dangers and are discussed on their own page.

Get Started

Dig the oblique shaft as deep as possible. You will find minerals along the way; coal and iron in the beginning. Use a shovel to remove any deposits of gravel and dirt. Place torches on walls every 10 blocks to keep the monsters from spawning! (More about lighting.)

On the way, you should find a lot of coal and iron ore. When your pickaxes are worn out or you have a large amount of iron ore, you’ll want to return to the surface to smelt the iron and make better tools (and possibly iron armor).

You will likely want to make stairs to make it easier to climb and descend the glass.

Hitting Bottom

Eventually you will see the bedrock, notice a strange black fog, or press F3 and you will see your y-coordinate getting closer to 6. This is the bottom!

You’ll probably want to build another base here, with a warehouse, stoves, and possibly a food source and a supply of wood.

Branch Mining

Now it’s time to find those diamonds! The branch mine is a long main corridor, with other tunnels going out to the sides, giving you a good chance of finding all the diamonds in the area. Opinions vary on the best strategy, but here are some ideas.

Main Corridor

I am making a main corridor which is quite wide with a railway line in the middle. You don’t have to be that ambitious, and there’s a lot of rock to dig, but you get the idea.

Which layers to mine?

Diamonds are only found in the bottom 16 layers of the map, so here you will focus on mining.

There is a lot of lava in Layers 5-10, including large lava lakes. Some players prefer to avoid this by staying on tier 11 and above (y = 13.6). I prefer to dig at all levels, turning around when hitting lava, although this means many of my lower tunnels are short. Whichever you choose, you need to be constantly on the alert for the lava and be ready to run back down the tunnel at any time!

Side Branches

Efficient mining

What’s the best design for side branches? There are many different ideas on this front, but the goal is to find as much ore as possible with as little excavation as possible.

Ores are usually found in veins or seams that are larger than one block in all directions.

Most of the ores are in veins of 3 or more blocks that extend 2 blocks in all directions. This means that if you dig tunnels 3 blocks apart, you should be able to see each ore seam from one side or the other.

Since the diamonds are in the bottom 16 layers, we want to search this volume as thoroughly as possible. Most can be covered with three levels of branched tunnels, 3 blocks apart.

Scheme of extraction of branches. The side tunnels have 3 horizontal blocks between them and one vertical layer.

In the diagram above, the black blocks are the places where you need to dig tunnels. The green blocks are the ones you can see directly. The light gray blocks are the ones you won’t see directly, but since the ore deposits are mostly larger than one block, you’ll see some of the ore in the green blocks.

Mining with this scheme is very efficient and you will only miss the smallest veins of ore.

The exception is when you mine emeralds in the Extreme Hill biomes. Emerald Ore comes as single blocks, so if you really want to get all the emeralds you’ll need to place your tunnels 2 blocks apart.

Efficient side tunnel pattern for branch extraction.

The distribution algorithms for this ore mean that there are two levels where carbon is most abundant, 95 and 136. It is worth noting that both of these layers are likely to be above the mean ground level, meaning mountains are the best place to be for coal mining.

How to find Iron and craft Iron Ingots in Minecraft

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Once you’ve made your wood and stone tools, you’ll want to upgrade to Iron before you start your diamond search in Minecraft.

To find Iron, dig out of the surface and you’ll eventually walk through the ground and hit the Cobblestone. Start pushing your way through this Cobblestone until you go down to the newly created mine.

Once you’re deep enough, start digging horizontally, not vertically. (Make sure you use torches, ladders, and signs so you can easily get out of this mine.) You should end up stumbling upon some iron ore (pictured above). However, iron can only be obtained if you kick it with a stone pickaxe or better. Growing it with a wooden pickaxe won’t get you iron.

You can save yourself some digging effort by finding some naturally occurring caves and exploring them. Just make sure you have lots of torches and be careful where you step.

After extraction, the iron must be placed in a furnace to be processed into iron ingots. You can make armor and tools with iron bars. You need an iron pickaxe or better to mine gold and diamonds.

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