An Ore is a type of Block naturally found in Minecraft. Ores are primarily collected for crafting purposes, to make items such as Tools, Armor, and more. Redstone from Redstone Ore is used as a type of wiring which ca be used to create redstone circuits, Compasses, Clocks, and other items. Coal from Coal Ore can be used to smelt other ores, such as Gold and Iron for storage purposes or building. Since layer 0 is the lowest layer and consists of only Bedrock, no ore can be found there. It can, however, be spawned very close to the bottom of the map, at layer 1. Certain ores have the habit of spawning at any layer.
An ore block looks like a usual Stone block with different colored shards or gems embedded into it. They are always the same color on each ore of a kind, but not different ores.
In order to get a drop from an ore, a player must have the right type of Pickaxe or better. If they do not, the mining will take ridiculously long and a player won't get the ore drop.
Overworld Ores
Overworld ore is ore embedded within stone. The majority of ores in-game have real-life equivalents. All ore has realistic depths in which they can be found. However, generation per-biome is not completely as truthful to reality.
Coal Ore
- Main article: Coal Ore
Coal Ore is a very common ore that can be found underground or in rock formations such as mountains (at y<132), in relatively large deposits. Coal is mined from coal ore and can be used as Furnace fuel, or crafted with a Stick to create Torches. Coal ore can be successfully mined using any type of pickaxe.
Iron Ore
- Main article: Iron Ore
Iron Ore is most commonly found underground in small veins, but can be found in rock formations such as mountains. It can be smelted into iron ingots, which can be used to craft many useful items, including armor, Weapons, tools and Minecarts, as well as their Rails. Iron ore can be found at y<68. Iron can only be harvested with a Stone pickaxe or better.
Redstone Ore
- Main article: Redstone Ore
Redstone Ore is a type of ore found at y<16. Added in the third Seecret Friday update, redstone ore is more common than coal if at the correct layer. Redstone ore must be mined with an iron pickaxe or better. When destroyed, several piles of Redstone Dust will appear, a property unique to redstone.
Redstone dust is currently used in the construction of various traps, mechanisms, and contraptions dependent on simple circuits. After 1.9 pre-release 3, redstone dust can be used for brewing.
If there is a block or entity update adjacent to a redstone ore block, it will transform into a technical block called Glowing Redstone Ore, which emits a light level of 9 and some particle effects, similar to that of a Nether Portal, only red, and will emit a redstone signal.
Gold Ore
- Main article: Gold Ore
Gold Ore can be found at y<34 in small veins. It can be smelted to make Gold Ingots which can make a variety of Tools and Weapons. Gold is a very soft material, similar to in real life, and is generally considered a bad choice for crafting due to its low durability. A gold tool only has the strength of a wooden tool. It wears out much quicker, despite mining at a rapid speed.
Gold is mainly used in decorations and the crafting of Powered Rails. Nine gold Ingots can be placed in a crafting square to make a Gold Block, and the Gold Block can turn back into nine ingots, making for a practical "storage unit". Otherwise, gold ore is somewhat overshadowed by other ores. It can only be successfully mined with an iron or better pickaxe. A gold pickaxe can't even mine its own ore.
Lapis Lazuli Ore
- Main article: Lapis Lazuli (Ore)
Lapis Lazuli Ore (sometimes called Lapis or Lazuli) is a rare ore block that can be found at y<34. It is common in Abandoned Mine Shafts. When harvested, it turns into four or five Lapis Lazuli dyes, which can be used to dye dog collars blue, Wool or a Sheep to turn it blue, used for enchanting things, or creating a decorative Lapis Lazuli Block. For a drop, a player must mine the ore with a stone or better pickaxe.
Diamond Ore
- Main article: Diamond Ore
Diamond Ore is an extremely rare, valuable ore only found very deep underground and in sparse veins, which can spawn diagonally. In order to drop a Diamond, this ore can be mined by using an iron or better pickaxe.
Diamonds can be used to create diamond tools, which have the strongest durability and most possible uses in the game. A diamond pickaxe is the only pickaxe that can mine Obsidian without the block breaking and dropping nothing.
Emerald Ore
- Main article: Emerald Ore
Emerald Ore is the rarest ore to date in Minecraft, 25 times more so than diamond ore. It almost always spawns in only one-block veins. When mined with an iron pickaxe or higher, it drops an Emerald; the only implemented uses of emeralds to date is for trading with Villagers or crafting blocks of emerald which can be used in making the beacon pyramid. An easier way to get emeralds is to create a Cow or Pig farm, collect the drops, and go to the nearest butcher. Butcher villagers only accept them raw, though.
Ruby Ore
- Main article: Emerald Ore#History
Ruby Ore was added during the 1.3 snapshots, but was shortly replaced by emerald ore. It was scrapped because Dinnerbone was colorblind at the time, and Dinnerbone couldn't find the difference between ruby and redstone. This ore is currently non-existent. However, some mods use this old texture.
Nether Ores
Nether Quartz Ore
- Main article: Nether Quartz Ore
Nether Quartz is a crystal ore found in the Nether, appearing in the 13w01a snapshot for the 1.5 update. Nether quartz is used in making the redstone comparator and blocks of quartz.
Ore Vein
An Ore Vein is a naturally generated structure found underground that is almost always encased in stone blocks. Ore veins look like block structures with bulbous bits randomly coming out along it. Sometimes they are just cube-shaped, but some of them look extremely odd.
Trivia
- Smelting ores without a pickaxe with Silk Touch will always yield ingots.
- Gold is the only pickaxe that can't mine its own ore.
- Ores used to be mined with the player's hand.
Gallery
External links
- Ores of Minecraft Wiki - A wiki about Minecraft's Ores (mostly talking about modded ones).
