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This article is about the ore. For the item, see Diamond. For the mineral block, see Block of Diamond.

Duncan Geere Mojang avatar

There is one block in Minecraft that reliably quickens the breath whenever you see it (no offence, gravel, but it's definitely not you). One block that elicits a little "whoop!" of joy when you lay eyes on it, and the longest of "noooooooooooo"s when it falls into lava. Yes, you guessed it (probably by reading the title) – it's diamond ore!

Duncan Geere[1]

Diamond ore is a rare ore that is the only reliable source of diamonds.

Natural generation

Diamond ore appears below Y level 16, and can be found in veins of 1–10.[note 1] One diamond ore vein generates per chunk; this vein or part of it may be overwritten by generated structures such as caves, leaving the player without any diamonds in the said chunk. Also, because of the way chunks are populated the vein "belonging" to a chunk can actually be generated in a neighboring chunk leading to some chunks with two or more veins and others with none. There is an average of about 3.7 diamond ore per chunk-sized area. The highest concentration of diamonds occurs in levels 5–12. Because of the lava lakes, there is slightly less diamond ore in the middle of that range (around layer 8).

Chunk of Diamond Ores

Vein of diamond ore.

Obtaining

The diamond ore block itself (rather than its diamond drops) can be obtained by mining it with an iron or diamond pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.

Block Diamond Ore
Hardness 3
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default 15
Wooden 7.5
Stone 3.75
Iron 0.75
Diamond 0.6
Netherite 0.5
Golden 1.25
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Usage

Diamond ore drops 1 diamond and 3 to 7 experience when mined with an iron or diamond pickaxe. Mining with a Fortune enchanted pickaxe increases possible yields by 1 per level, up to 4 diamonds per ore with level 3.

Smelting ingredient

Name Ingredients Smelting recipe
Diamond Diamond Ore +
Any fuel


This recipe awards 1 experience.

History

indev
0.3120100129File:Diamond Ore Revision 1.png Added diamond ore. Initially, it was referred to as "emerald ore".
20100130Emerald ore from the previous version is now referred to as diamond ore.
infdev
20100227Diamond ore no longer generates.
20100320Diamond ore veins now generate, but differently.
20100327Diamond ore now regenerates after the world is reloaded, assuming that the positions of the ore blocks were replaced by stone.
beta
1.6?Before this update, diamond was about 50% rarer in the north-east quadrant of the point (0,0) compared to the quadrant to the south-west. In this update, clay blocks are now more rare than diamond due to a glitch.
1.8?Diamond ore has now become about 25% rarer.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4Diamond ore can now be collected with Silk Touch, dropping the block itself.
Diamond ore now drops extra diamonds with the Fortune enchantment.
1.3.112w22aMining diamond ore now drops experience orbs.
Inventory sprites for blocks have now been flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 56.
2018Diamond Ore TextureUpdate Revision 1 A new texture for diamond ore texture is proposed in the beta Texture Update resource pack.
1.1418w43aFile:Diamond Ore Revision 2.png Changed the texture of diamond ore.
19w08aFile:Diamond Ore Revision 3.png Changed the texture of diamond ore again.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0File:Diamond Ore Revision 1.png Added diamond ore.
0.3.2Diamond ore is now obtainable.
0.12.1build 1Mining diamond ore now drops experience orbs.
Diamond ore can now be collected with Silk Touch, dropping the block itself.
Diamond ore now drops extra diamonds with the Fortune enchantment.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3File:Diamond Ore Revision 2.png Changed the texture of diamond ore.
1.11.0beta 1.11.0.5File:Diamond Ore Revision 3.png Changed the texture of diamond ore again.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 11.0.1File:Diamond Ore Revision 1.png Added diamond ore.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90File:Diamond Ore Revision 2.png Changed the texture of diamond ore.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0File:Diamond Ore Revision 1.png Added diamond ore.

Issues

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

Trivia

  • In some vein formations, ores connect diagonally.
  • In real life, the rarity of diamonds is highly exaggerated. Gemstone quality diamonds, whose qualities are mirrored by the game's mechanics, need to be cut and processed very carefully, and therefore need to be found in very large pieces. Industry-grade diamonds, which are used in the manufacturing of most diamond-based tools, are relatively plentiful and much more affordable.

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. The maximum is a 2×2×2 cube with 1 extra ore on top and 1 on the bottom (in opposite corners); sometimes two veins can generate together, producing a larger clump.

References

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