Diamond

A diamond is a mineral that can only be obtained from diamond ore, loot chests and suspicious blocks. It is required to craft diamond tools and armor (and therefore obtain obsidian to access the Nether), enchanting tables, jukeboxes and duplicate smithing templates.

Obtaining[]

Mining[]

Diamond ore can be mined using an iron pickaxe or stronger. An ore drops a single diamond. If mined by any other tool, it drops nothing. If the pickaxe is enchanted with Fortune, it can drop an extra diamond per level of Fortune, allowing for a maximum of 4 diamonds with Fortune III. If the ore is mined using a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch, it drops an ore block rather than a diamond. The ore is found at level 15 or lower, most commonly between -50 and -64; levels -58 and -59 are the preferred levels to mine at since they don't contain bedrock, as it starts spawning at -60.

Chest loot[]

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Diamond	Mineshaft	Chest	1–2	8.9%
	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	2–6	15.8%
	Buried treasure	Chest	1–2	59.9%
	Desert temple	Suspicious sand	1	12.5%
	Desert temple	Chest	1–3	6.3%
	End city	Chest	2–7	21.2%
	Jungle temple	Chest	1–3	12.9%
	Nether fortress	Chest	1–3	19%
	Shipwreck	Treasure chest	1	14.1%
	Stronghold	Altar chest	1–3	7.3%
	Village	Toolsmith's chest	1–3	9.9%
	Village	Weaponsmith's chest	1–3	16.2%
Bedrock Edition
Diamond	Mineshaft	Chest	1–2	8.9%
	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	2–6	15.8%
	Buried treasure	Chest	1	46.9%
	Desert temple	Suspicious sand	1	12.5%
	Desert temple	Chest	1–3	6.3%
	End city	Chest	2–7	21.2%
	Jungle temple	Chest	1–3	12.8%
	Nether fortress	Chest	1–3	19%
	Shipwreck	Treasure chest	1	14.1%
	Stronghold	Altar chest	1–3	7.1%
	Village	Toolsmith's chest	1–3	9.9%
	Village	Weaponsmith's chest	1–3	16.2%

Suspicious sand[]

When brushing suspicious sand in desert pyramids, they have a ¹⁄₇ chance to drop a diamond.

Crafting[]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Block of Diamond	9

Smelting[]

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Diamond	Diamond Ore or Deepslate Diamond Ore + Any fuel	1

Usage[]

Diamonds are mainly used to craft high-tier armor and equipment, which in turn are also used in making netherite armor and equipment.

Crafting ingredient[]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Block of Diamond	Diamond
Diamond Axe	Diamond + Stick
Diamond Boots	Diamond
Diamond Chestplate	Diamond
Diamond Helmet	Diamond
Diamond Hoe	Diamond + Stick
Diamond Leggings	Diamond
Diamond Pickaxe	Diamond + Stick
Diamond Shovel	Diamond + Stick
Diamond Sword	Diamond + Stick
Enchanting Table	Book + Diamond + Obsidian
Firework Star	Gunpowder + Matching Dye + Head or Gold Nugget or Feather or Fire Charge + Glowstone Dust + Diamond		Up to eight dyes can be added. One head, gold nugget, feather, or fire charge can be added. Both the diamond and the glowstone dust can be added with any of the other ingredients.
Jukebox	Any Planks + Diamond
Smithing Template	Diamond + Matching Smithing Template + Netherrack or Cobblestone or Sandstone or End Stone or Terracotta or Cobbled Deepslate or Blackstone or Purpur Block or Prismarine or Mossy Cobblestone	22222222222222222
White Firework Star or Blue Firework Star or Brown Firework Star or Black Firework Star	Gunpowder + Bone Meal or Lapis Lazuli or Cocoa Beans or Ink Sac + Head or Gold Nugget or Feather or Fire Charge + Glowstone Dust + Diamond		‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]} Up to eight dyes can be added. One head, gold nugget, feather, or fire charge can be added. Both the diamond and the glowstone dust can be added with any of the other ingredients.

Trading[]

In Bedrock Edition, expert-level armorer, toolsmith, and weaponsmith villagers buy one diamond for an emerald as part of their trades.

In Java Edition, journeyman-level armorer villagers have a 40% chance of offering to buy one diamond for one emerald. Expert-level toolsmith villagers have ²⁄₃ chance of offering to buy one diamond for one emerald. Expert-level weaponsmith villagers always offer to buy one diamond for one emerald.

Repairing[]

Diamonds are the repair items for the diamond tier and armor material, and thus can be used to repair the following items in an anvil or grindstone:

Beacons[]

Diamonds can be used to select powers from a beacon. The player must select one of the available powers then insert a diamond into the item slot.

A diamond can be substituted for an iron ingot, a gold ingot, an emerald or a netherite ingot.

Smithing ingredient[]

Ingredients	Smithing recipe	Description
Any Armor Trim + Any Armor Piece + Diamond	Upgrade Gear	All armor types can be used in this recipe, a netherite chestplate is shown as an example.

Trim color palette

The following color palettes are shown on the designs on trimmed armor:

(a darker color palette is used when a diamond armor piece is trimmed using a diamond).

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Item tags	Translation key
Diamond	`diamond`	Item	`beacon_payment_items`	`item.minecraft.diamond`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Diamond	`diamond`	`304`	Item	`item.diamond.name`

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		DIAMONDS!	Acquire diamonds with your iron tools.	Pick up a diamond from the ground.	20G	Bronze
		Enchanter	Construct an Enchantment Table.	Pick up an enchantment table from a crafting table output.	20G	Bronze
		Diamonds to you!	Throw diamonds at another player.	Drop a diamond. Another player or a mob must then pick up this diamond.	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Diamonds!	Acquire diamonds	Isn't It Iron Pick	Have a diamond in your inventory.	`story/mine_diamond`

History[]

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100128			Added diamonds. Initially, they were referred to as "emeralds".
		20100128			A stack of 100 diamonds can be found inside the Indev house chests.
		20100129			Diamond can be used to craft diamond blocks and diamond swords, shovels, pickaxes and axes.
					Diamonds can no longer be found inside the Indev House due to all items having been removed from its chests.
					Diamond can be obtained by smelting diamond blocks.
		20100130			Emeralds from the previous version are now officially known as "diamonds", though this has no actual effect as item names are not yet displayed in-game.
		20100130			Diamond blocks now require 9 diamonds (3×3) instead of 4 (2×2) to be crafted, making them much more expensive.
20100206					Diamonds are now used to craft diamond hoes.
20100212-1					Diamonds are now used to craft diamond helmets, chestplates, leggings and boots.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.14					Diamonds are now used to craft jukeboxes.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Diamonds are now found in mineshaft chests.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			Diamond ore can now be smelted into diamonds.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Diamonds are now used to craft enchantment tables.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Diamonds are now found in stronghold altar chests.
1.1		12w01a			Diamonds are now found in village blacksmith chests.
1.3.1		12w21a			Diamonds can now be traded to blacksmith villagers in quantities of 3–5 for 1 emerald.
		12w21a			Added desert temples, with a hidden chest room and loot containing diamonds.
		12w21b			Diamonds have been changed in the game code from "emerald" to "diamond", due to actual emeralds being added. Diamond's original name during Indev, as stated above, was emerald in the code, and was kept this way until this snapshot.
		12w22a			Added jungle temples, which contain loot chests with diamonds.
		1.3			The texture of diamonds has been changed.
1.4.6		12w49a			Diamonds can now be used to craft a firework star with a trail.
1.6.1		13w16a			Diamond is now used to craft diamond horse armor.
		13w18a			Diamond is no longer used to craft diamond horse armor.
		13w18a			Diamonds are now found in nether fortress chests.
1.8		14w02a			Diamonds can now be traded to any black apron villager in quantities of 3–4 for 1 emerald, as their tier III trade.
1.9		15w31a			Diamonds now generate in end city chests.
		15w43a			The average yield of diamonds have been slightly decreased in nether fortress chests.
		15w44a			The average yield of diamonds in desert temple and mineshaft chests have been decreased.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 264.
		18w10a			Diamonds now generate in buried treasure chests.
		18w11a			Diamonds now generate in shipwreck treasure chests.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of diamonds has been changed.
1.14		18w50a			Diamonds can now be found in chests in village toolsmith houses.
1.16		20w16a			Diamonds now generate in bastion remnants chests.
1.16.2		20w30a			The chance of finding diamonds in bastion remnant chests is increased from 8.6% to 15.8%.
1.17		21w08a			Diamonds can now drop and be smelted from deepslate diamond ore.
1.20 (Experimental)		23w04a			Diamonds can now be used to craft smithing templates.
		23w04a			Diamonds can now be used as an armor trim material.
		23w07a			Diamonds now drop when brushing suspicious sand in desert pyramids.
1.20		23w12a			The probability for the diamond to generate in the suspicious sand in desert temple has been changed from 1/7 to 1/8.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0					Added diamonds. They are currently unobtainable and serve no purpose.
v0.3.2					Diamonds can be collected and used to craft blocks of diamond and diamond axes, pickaxes, swords and shovels.
v0.4.0					Diamonds are now used to craft diamond hoes.
v0.5.0					Diamonds are now used to craft nether reactor cores.
v0.6.0					Diamonds are now used to craft diamond armor.
v0.8.0		build 1			The texture of diamonds has been changed.
v0.12.1		build 1			Diamonds are now used to craft enchanting tables.
					Diamonds are no longer used to craft nether reactor cores and are now instead dropped by it.
					Diamonds now generate in nether fortress chests.
v0.13.0		build 1			Diamonds now have a chance to generate in desert temple chests.
v0.14.0		build 1			Diamonds are now found in minecart with chests in mineshafts.
v0.15.0		build 1			Diamonds can now be found in jungle temple chests.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Diamonds can now be found in altar chests in strongholds, dungeon chests and end city chests.
1.0.0		alpha 1.0.0.0			Diamonds can now be found in blacksmith chests in villages.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			3-4 diamonds can now be traded to blacksmith villagers for an emerald as part of their third tier trades.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Diamonds can now be used to craft a firework star with a trail.
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Diamonds can now be used to craft jukeboxes.
1.4.0		beta 1.2.14.2			Diamonds can now be found inside buried treasure chests and shipwrecks.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Diamonds can now be found in plains village weaponsmith chests.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of diamonds has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Diamonds can now be found in village toolsmith chests and in savanna, desert, taiga, and snowy taiga village weaponsmith chests.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Armorer, toolsmith, and weaponsmith villagers now buy one diamond for an emerald as part of their fourth tier trades.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Diamonds can now be found in bastion remnant chests.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.52			Diamonds can now drop and be smelted from deepslate diamond ore.
1.20.0 (Experimental)		beta 1.19.70.23			Diamonds now drop when brushing suspicious sand in desert pyramids.
		beta 1.19.80.21			Diamonds can now be used to craft smithing templates.
		beta 1.19.80.21			Diamonds can now be used as an armor trim material.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added diamonds.
TU5					Diamonds are now found in the new mineshaft chests.
TU7					Diamonds are now used to craft enchantment tables.
TU9					Diamonds are now found in village blacksmith chests.
TU14		1.04			Diamonds can now be traded to blacksmith villagers in quantities of 3–5 for 1 emerald.
					Added desert temples, with a hidden chest room and loot containing diamonds.
					Added jungle temples, which contain loot chests with diamonds.
					The texture of diamonds has been changed.
TU19	CU7	1.12			Diamonds can now be used to craft a firework star with a trail
TU19	CU7	1.12			Diamonds are now found in the new nether fortress chests.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Diamonds can now be traded to any black apron villager in quantities of 3–4 for 1 emerald, as their tier III trade.
TU46	CU36	1.36	Patch 15		Diamonds now generate in end city chests.
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Diamonds now generate in buried treasure chests.
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Diamonds now generate in shipwreck treasure chests.
		1.90			The texture of diamonds has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added diamonds.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Diamond" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Unlike in Minecraft, newly mined diamonds in real life are rough, cloudy stones. The largest, purest ones are polished into crystal-clear gemstones, while the rest are used in industry for cutting and grinding.
Diamonds were finally made renewable in update 1.21 with the addition of The vaults in trial chambers.
In the April fools version Java Edition 2.0, diamond chickens can lay diamonds. This does not exist in newer versions, as this was a joke.
The item forms of diamonds and turtle eggs have the same shape.