Diamond Ore

Diamond ore is a rare ore that generates deep underground and is the only reliable source of diamonds.

Natural generation


Diamond ore can generate in the Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Diamond ore attempts to generate once per "ore chunk" (16x16 area in the center of four chunk corners) in veins containing 1 to 10 ore, from altitudes 0 to 15, in all biomes. If two veins spawn directly adjacent, it is possible to have a "singular vein" with more than 10 diamond ore.

Breaking
The diamond ore block itself (rather than its diamond drops) can be obtained by mining it with an iron, diamond or netherite pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment. When mined without Silk Touch, diamond ore drops a single diamond. The maximum amount of diamonds dropped can be increased with Fortune. Fortune I gives a $1/3$ chance for 2 diamonds, Fortune II gives a 25% chance (each) to give 2 or 3 diamonds, and Fortune III gives a 20% chance (each) to give 2, 3, or 4 diamonds.

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Trivia

 * In some vein formations, ores connect diagonally.
 * In real life, the rarity of diamonds is highly exaggerated. Gemstone quality diamonds, whose qualities are mirrored by the game's mechanics, need to be cut and processed carefully, and therefore must be found in large pieces. Industry-grade diamonds, which are used in the manufacturing of most diamond-based tools, are relatively plentiful and affordable.
 * Due to how Minecraft vein generation works, it is possible to find veins with up to 10 diamonds even though the max vein size is 8.