Diamond Ore

Diamond ore is generally considered to be the most valuable and elusive block in the game. It can be found in a vein of 1-8 blocks (with larger concentrations being more rare). Diamond shows up at elevations ranging from 1 to 20 blocks above the bottom of the map (for comparison, sea level is around 64 blocks above the bottom of the map). Below elevation 18, it occurs in roughly 0.09% of rock. This calculates to approximately 4 diamond ore per chunk. Mining 771 blocks below elevation 18 has a 50% chance of finding at least one diamond ore. It can be mined for a diamond gem using an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe. The diamond gems can be used in a Crafting Table to craft diamond tools, weapons, and armor which are the most durable in the game. Diamond blocks can be crafted by placing nine diamond gems together in a 3x3 square using the crafting table. Jukeboxes can also be made using one diamond gem.

Diamond ore cannot be found or placed in Classic as of version 0.30.

Trivia

 * When diamond was first introduced, it was called emerald.
 * If diamond ore is obtained via inventory hacking, smelting it will give the diamond gem.
 * Diamond, like other ores, is easier to find in caves and empty lava pools, as this gives more surface area.
 * Like other ores, diamond was about 50% more common in the quadrant south-west of the point (0,0) compared to the north-east quadrant. However, this was fixed in Beta 1.6.
 * In some vein formations, ores connect diagonally. Therefore it is recommended to mine around diamond ore. This also permits checking for lava.
 * Diamond Ore, along with other ores, appears in the background on the achievement page.
 * Diamonds are considered to be the rarest item in the game, but, due to a bug in 1.6 (and only 1.6), Clay was the rarest material in the game.