Ancient Debris

Ancient debris is a rare ore found in the Nether, and is the only source of netherite scrap. It floats on lava in item form and it cannot be burned. It also has an extremely high blast resistance, meaning it cannot be blown up.

Mineral veins
Ancient debris generate in the Nether in the form of mineral veins. Two veins generate per chunk: one vein of 1–3 ancient debris generates with a periodic Gaussian distribution (similarly to lapis lazuli ore) between levels 8–22, and an additional vein of 1–2 ancient debris generates randomly between levels 8–119. There is an average of 1.7 ancient debris blocks per chunk, with a maximum of 6. Ancient debris never generates exposed to air.

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



Trivia

 * Ancient debris is the only ore in the game to not have the name of the mineral obtained from it or the word "ore" in its name.
 * Despite ancient debris' rarity, emerald ore is actually rarer due to its vein size and chance per chunk.
 * Because of its blast resistance, and the mechanics of beds exploding in the nether, a popular method of obtaining ancient debris is to lay beds periodically down a long tunnel dug at Y level 11, shielding yourself with 2 netherrack blocks and blowing them up as you go along. This blasts large caverns into the nether rack that typically destroy all other blocks, leaving ancient debris behind. Needing only wood and wool, beds are a cheaper resource to acquire than TNT, and have a 25% stronger explosion in the nether.
 * However, executing this method is considered extremely dangerous, as the resulting blast will ignite fire and heavily exposes lava oceans. It is not recommended without the use of fire resistance potions.