This article is about Diamond ore. For the block, see Diamond (Block). For the gem, see Diamond (Gem).
A naturally occurring diamond vein.
Diamond ore is generally considered to be the most valuable and elusive block in the game. It can be mined for a diamond gem using an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe.
Uses
Diamonds can be used to make Shovels, Pickaxes, Axes, Hoes, Swords, and Armor of the highest quality. It is also a requisite ingredient in Jukeboxes, and solid diamond blocks.
Prospecting
Diamond Ore can be found veins of 1-8 blocks (with larger concentrations being more rare). Diamond shows up at elevations ranging from 1 to 20 blocks above the bottom of the map.
- Below elevation 18, it occurs in roughly 0.09% of rock.
- This calculates to approximately 4 diamond ore per chunk.
- Mining 771 blocks below elevation 18 has a 50% chance of finding at least one diamond ore.
- There is never more than one vein of diamond ore per chunk. However, the area in which the vein can be located is offset from its chunk by +8 on both the X and Z axes. So, each vein has its own 16x16 area centered on the intersection of four chunks. This principle can be exploited to make mining more efficient i.e. whenever you find a diamond vein, start searching in a different 16x16 area.
Trivia
- When diamond was first introduced, it was called emerald.[1]
- If diamond ore is obtained via inventory hacking, smelting it will give the diamond gem.
- Diamond, like other ores, is easier to find in caves and empty lava pools, as this gives more surface area.
- Like other ores, diamond was 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 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 considered to be the rarest item in the game, but, due to a bug in 1.6 (and only 1.6), Clay was the rarest material in the game.
- Diamond ore cannot be found or placed in Classic as of version 0.30.
References
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