Ancient Debris

Ancient debris is a rare ore found in the bottom layers of the Nether, and is the main source of netherite scrap. It floats on lava in item form and it cannot be burned by any other forms of fire. It also has an extremely high blast resistance, meaning it cannot be blown up under normal circumstances. It is more common in the soul sand valley biome.

Natural generation
Ancient debris generates in the Nether in the form of mineral veins. Up to two veins may generate per chunk: one vein of 1–3 ancient debris attempts to generate with a periodic (similarly to lapis lazuli ore) from levels 8 to 22, and an additional vein of 1–2 ancient debris attempts to generate randomly from levels 8 to 119. There is an average of 1.7 ancient debris blocks per chunk, with a maximum of 5. Ancient debris never generates naturally exposed to air and can only replace netherrack, basalt, and blackstone. On average, y-level 15 has the most ancient debris.

Breaking
Ancient debris drops as an item if mined by a diamond or netherite pickaxe. If mined by any other tool, it doesn't drop anything.

Smelting ingredient
Ancient Debris can be smelted using a furnace or blast furnace. If a player takes out the netherite scrap, they are rewarded with 2 experience orbs.

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Trivia

 * Despite ancient debris' rarity, emerald ore is actually rarer due to its vein size, specific biomes, and chance per chunk.
 * As a bonus, since netherrack can be broken much more quickly compared to stone or cobblestone, strip mining for Ancient Debris is a lot faster than strip mining for emeralds.
 * It is recommended to use beds to mine ancient debris, due to the bed causing large explosions in the nether. Still, be careful not to blow yourself up or die from lava flooding on you.
 * The texture of the ancient debris is supposed to look like pressed metal plates.
 * Ancient debris yields the most experience of any item when smelted.
 * According to the description on the Minecraft site, ancient debris is actually what remains of the mining activity of the piglins, who extracted all the original netherite ore.