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.

Natural generation
Ancient debris generate 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.

Breaking
Ancient debris drops as an item if mined by a diamond pickaxe or better. If mined by any other tool, it drops nothing.



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Trivia

 * Despite ancient debris' rarity, emerald ore is actually rarer due to its vein size 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.
 * 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.