Diamond Ore

Diamond Ore is an ore for diamond, which is the most valuable resource for tools and armor found in Minecraft.

Overview

Immediately after mining the block, a player acquires a Diamond (More if using the fortune enchantment), rather than the ore itself. Diamonds can be used to make very strong tools and durable armor. However, diamonds are quite hard to find and are usually located from Y= 12 to Y=5. To mine diamond ore, a player will need an iron, diamond or Netherite pickaxe. To obtain the diamond ore block, it must be mined with an iron pickaxe or higher with the Silk Touch enchantment on it.

Often, a player will encounter underground dungeons while mining and can loot chests to find diamonds and other ores.

Mining

Diamond ores appear at layers below layer 16, but the highest concentration of diamond ore can be found between layers 5 through 12. There are many popular and efficient ways to find diamonds. One way is to "strip mine". Strip mining is when the player mines in a straight path and poking holes to the left and right in hopes of finding diamonds. It is also a good idea to enchant the pickaxe with Unbreaking or Efficiency before a player starts to dig.

Mining a diamond ore itself requires the silk touch enchantment. The ore can later be excavated with a Pickaxe with a Fortune I, II, or III enchantment for a chance to get more diamonds.

Diamond Ore requires an iron pickaxe or better to harvest, otherwise, it will drop nothing.

Tool
Hardness	3
Breaking time[note 1]
Default	15
Wood	7.5
Stone	3.75
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Netherite	0.5
Gold	1.25

1. ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds.

Trivia

• Like other ores, diamonds were about 50% more common in the quadrant south-west of the point (0,0) compared to the north-east quadrant. However, this was fixed in Beta 1.6.
• In some vein formations, ores can connect diagonally. Therefore, it is recommended to mine around diamond ore. This also permits checking for lava.
• Diamond ore, along with other ores, appears in the background on the achievement page.
• Diamonds are the third-rarest item in the game, the second being ancient debris and the first being emerald ore, which comes in smaller veins than diamond, usually only 1 ore blocks.
• Diamond ore is the most praised and used ore on Bedrock, Java, and Console Editions since the ore provides stronger armor, tools, and weapons. Diamonds can also be used to make netherite armor and tools.
• Like coal ore, Lapis Lazuli Ore, Redstone Ore, and Emerald Ore, diamond ore doesn't need to be smelted.
• Diamond ore is technically not an ore as it is a precious stone, rather than a malleable material or metal.
• Diamond ore veins can generate at most 10 diamond ores adjacent to each other.
  • However, due to the ability of ore veins colliding with each other, players will have an extremely rare chance of mining a diamond vein up to 12 diamonds.
• Diamond ore is most popular at layer 12 around lava or ravines.
  • This is because Diamond Ore is more open and easier to find around these areas.
• If a player is having trouble finding diamonds, make a strip mine at level 10, and it will cover layers 9 through 12.
• Notch has many times considered changing the diamond ore to look the same as emerald ore, but change its color to cyan instead of green.
  • This is sometimes common around lava pools.
• Oddly, Diamond Ore has less blast resistance than Stone or Cobblestone, even if it's used to make really powerful tools.

Gallery

Video

Diamonds - Minecraft Micro Guide

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