Tutorials/Diamonds

Diamonds are some of the most sought-after items in Minecraft, due to their use in crafting the strongest tools, weapons, and armor available in the game. Diamonds are also some of the rarest items in Minecraft, found only in the deepest levels of rock. This makes diamonds extremely difficult to find and severely limits players' supplies of diamonds. This tutorial is intended to help players who want to obtain, maintain, and expand their diamond supply.

You must have an iron pickaxe, and preferably a water bucket, iron sword, and iron armor in order to mine diamonds, in addition to the usual caving supplies.

Finding Diamonds


Diamonds can be obtained from diamond ore, an extremely rare block that occurs in 0.1276% of stone from levels 1-15. There are two methods for locating ore: by caving or by mining.

By Caving
Caving is less resource-expensive (except in torches) than mining, but is more dangerous and time-consuming, since it requires you to explore a multitude of dark, monster-filled caves. To locate diamond ore by caving, simply explore any caves you find (either by locating surface entrances or digging) until you find a subterranean lava pool (not to be confused with surface lava pools, which spawn at sea-level), which indicates you are at the correct depth to find diamonds. Diamond ore veins may be exposed in the stone around the lava pool (take a water bucket with you to convert the surface of the pool into obsidian, making it easier to explore the area). If not, don't give up - diamonds aren't considered rare for nothing. Search for more caves with lava pools or switch to the next method: mining.

By Mining
Mining is safer and more reliable than caving, but consumes more tool-crafting resources. It also generates a lot of spare cobblestone, although in some cases this may be viewed as a benefit rather than a downside.

To create a diamond mine, dig a vertical shaft, quarry, or staircase down to the diamond-containing layers (as you do this, remember the cardinal rule: don't dig the block you're standing on!). Most players prefer level 11, where diamonds are generally believed to be most common (level 11 can be located using f3 [displayed as y=12.62] or using a lava pool in a nearby cavern, as most caves are filled with lava below level 11). Once there, begin branch-mining or mining a long, level hallway two blocks high and one block wide. Sooner or later (often later) your mining will expose a diamond ore vein.

It's likely your mine will intersect several caves. Since any cave you locate while mining for diamonds is, by definition, at the right level for diamonds, it's a good idea to explore the cave before proceeding with your mine.

Mining Diamonds


Once you find a block or vein of diamond ore, you'll need to mine it to get the diamond gem it contains. Before you do this, though, make sure the area is safe: after all, you don't want to lose any diamonds!

First, if you've located the diamond ore by caving, light up or block off any nearby dark areas so you won't get blown up, shot, or eaten while attempting to mine. Next, dig away all blocks directly adjacent to the vein, both to expose the whole vein and to make sure the diamonds won't drop into lava and burn. If you encounter any lava, get rid of it before you mine the blocks.

Now that it's safe to mine, use an iron or diamond pickaxe to break the blocks. The blocks will drop one gem each, unless your pickaxe is enchanted with the Fortune enchantment (Fortune III, the highest level, will make ore drop as many as four diamonds, and on average nearly triples the yield of a diamond vein). The gems will be picked up into your inventory when you walk over them, provided your inventory has available space.

Now that you have diamonds, it's best to either proceed directly to the safety of your home base, or stash the diamonds in a chest in an underground mining outpost, rather than continue searching and risk dying and losing your diamonds.

Using Your Diamonds
Now that you have diamonds, you can begin crafting some of the best items the game has to offer.

Diamond Tools
Diamonds can be used to make Shovels, Pickaxes, Axes, and Hoes that work faster and last longer than any other tools. Most players use their first three diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe, the only tool in the game that can harvest Obsidian blocks.

Diamond Weapons and Armor
Diamond swords deal the most damage of any sword - seven points - and diamond armor protects the wearer better than any other form of armor. As with Diamond tools, they also last longer than swords and armor made from lower-quality materials.

Other Diamond Items
Diamonds are also used to make Jukeboxes, decorative diamond blocks, and, most importantly, Enchantment Tables, which allow players to convert Experience into valuable tool-improving enchantments.

Maintaining and Expanding Your Supply
Once you've realized how useful your first diamonds are, you'll probably want more. To this end, you'll need to continue mining. If you want to become truly diamond-rich, though, you'll need to do a few other things first.

Getting a Fortune III Pickaxe
You'll want a pickaxe with the Fortune Enchantment, preferably level III, for your next diamond vein so you can significantly improve the amount of diamonds you get. To enchant, you need an enchantment table, and to get an enchantment table, you'll need five diamonds. If your first vein was smaller than that, store what you have and return to the mines until you've gotten at least five gems.

Once you have at least five diamonds, use three of them to make a diamond pickaxe. Use the pickaxe to mine at least four blocks of obsidian. Bring the obsidian back to your base. Then locate at least three Sugar Canes (sugar cane grows along shorelines in most Biomes), and craft them into paper and then into a book.

Now you can craft the enchantment table. You'll also need bookshelves to get a high-level Fortune III enchantment, so you'll want a sugar cane farm. See the page on enchanting for instructions on setting up the bookshelves.

You'll need to refer to the enchanting page for directions on enchanting tools as well, but in order to get Fortune III on an iron or diamond pickaxe you'll need to use nearly 50 levels of experience points, so an experience grinder is suggested unless you're willing to settle for a lower-level enchantment.

Once you've got a fortune pickaxe, return to mining as usual, reserving the pickaxe for veins of diamond or other valuable ores.

Repairing Tools
Repairing two tools doesn't just add their durability up - it adds some extra uses as well (10% bonus). Don't repair enchanted tools until they're just about to break, though, unless you don't mind wasting the precious experience you used to enchant them.

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 * Tutorials/Quarry
 * Tutorials/Branch Mining
 * Tutorials/Vertical Mine Shaft With Water Drop