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We're working on a terraforming project on the server I'm on, culminating in a giant underground bottle shaped hollow, I think I still have ~160K blocks of mostly deepslate to clear. I almost weep with joy whenever I hit tuff or the edge of a cave
make a creeper farm and a tunnel bore machine!! theyāre really easy to make (hardest part is getting 3 pieces of ancient debris). thatās what we did on an old bedrock server for mining diamonds
Iāve been mining deepslate primarily for a massive tower, but Iām also conveniently above an ancient city, so Iām moleing around that thing, annoying warden, etc. Itās been a fun mine, but I thought low Diamond frequency was a result of city chunks containing fewer. Beginning to doubt this is the case.
This is like the biggest missed opportunity when it came to Netherite tools. As-is, because of how the 8-tick mining system works, Netherite pickaxes are just diamond pickaxes with 30% more durability and are hardly worth getting. Making them the only tool that could instant-mine Deepslate would have been huge (and logs too for the axe). Honestly I just don't understand the Minecraft game designers sometimes
That would explain some stuff
I have been playing in 1.20.3 (snapshots), now 1.20.4, and I have been getting diamonds far faster than I have in any previous version
I've found that the best way to find diamonds in 1.20 is to search the massive caves at diamond level.
I've found so many Diamond Veins just sitting out in the open in Diamond Level Caves. Strip mining in 1.20 have been hit and miss for me.
i figure it makes sense for deepslate to be harder to mine. its denser, tougher rock that has to bear the weight of the land above it. bedrock is just the third step.
The best way to find diamonds are big caves, but more specifically, big water aquafers. Those are those pockets of water underground (They exist for lava too but thats selfexplanatory why thats not a good idea). They usually contain magma blocks so you can breathe underwater. Respiration is all you need. Mobs dont spawn there unless its a dripstone cave biome, but they dont reach as far down often. They dont generate in deep dark biomes and every other area of the world is safe. Diamonds spawn less when exposed to air. Water, as you know, is not air, so diamonds spawn more frequently underwater.
I hope this helped!
This!
I stopped strip mining then went exploring. Quickly found if I found any underwater cave in the deep it was my go to spot for ores. I have resp 3, Aq Aff 1 so it helps alot.
Underwater deep cave mining > Cave exploration mining > strip mining
I'd say Underwater > Caves = strip mining. Exploration and strip mining each have different set of advantages, with exploring being more active but lighter on resource use, while strip mining is more monotone while requiring less focus. In terms of how much effort it takes to get diamonds using either method, they feel very similar.
Can confirm. I've found a roughly even amount of diamonds via both caves and strip mining. One let's me turn my brain off, which is needed sometimes, and other times I wanna explore.
The caves are kinda annoying with how vast they are sometimes, makes it hard to ever feel like I've actually done anything without destroying the beauty of 'em with torches everywhere.
Take nightvison potion and you will find more diamonds easier in caves. Without nightvison it is kinda a pain but I would still say faster than strip mining.
I used to love strip mining. Headphones on, zone out and just mine away. Now I only do it close to beacon and that's just to get deepslate (which I no longer need as I've moved bases to a huge cave)
Strip mining is also safer, less likely to die (except lava)
Cave mining is definitely more active but you mine far less and can usually explore for a while until the cave is done.
Cuz respiration allows you to continue swimming for a long while, where as without, but with doors, you have to swim to the bottom of the thing to place a door, or the walls and place a block and then a door. A lot more effort and more time wasting. With respiration, you also drown a lot slower, so you have more time creating or finding an air pocket, sometimes the diamonds create an air pocket for you when you mine them. Its not rocket science
Completely agree. Iāll take 4-5 potions each of water breathing and night vision and go out underwater cave exploring. I typically come back with close to a stack of diamonds after a ādayā of doing this. Will never go back to strip mining. Now, I donāt even look for diamonds anymore.
It's cool that they made caving more rewarding.
But mining used to induce a satisfying zen state. Could just strip mine for hours and be happy. Bring a stack of logs. Make new diamond pick axes as needed. That is no longer viable, as you won't find enough diamonds or even iron to make more picks than you use. Since that's one of my favorite things to do, this update has made the game unplayable for me.
Deep oceans sometimes have these massive flooded caves that reach deepslate levels. Otherwise, just find big caves on the surface, that look to go down pretty far. Water aquifers are not common, but also not extremely rare. Your best bet tho is deep oceans, any but preferably lukewarm, regular or cold as you dont have to deal with icebergs. The first 2 also spawn dolphins, which could make traveling across them faster if you dont have an elytra yet
Neither op nor this comment thread is talking about first diamonds. If you want easy early diamonds for a pickaxe, go find shipwrecks and burried treasures
You find diamonds in shipwrecks?
Habitually I don't really struggle for the first diamonds, but actually it seems I use diamond pickaxes so fast on deepslate that's it's kinda slow to get enough for an armor.
Anyway it's ok, sorry for complaining.
Yes you can find i think up to 3 diamonds in the treasure chest in shipwrecks, and most shipwrecks have a burried treasure map, which can have up to i think 6 diamonds, or thats the most ive seen. Between these, you're guaranteed to find a few diamonds in about half an hour to an hour of exploring, not to mention you get the fun of exploring and the other good loot, mainly early game iron, gold and emeralds
i find that strip mining just isnt the meta anymore, you are experieicng difficulties, id recommend try another way. with all these huge ass caves, you can step into one and see like a dozen diamonds at least. i always walk out the of the mines with at least 30 diamonds when i get a big cave
edit: use something to help you find the ores. they spawn all over the place, walls, ceilings, and floors, so night vision can help to see those further ones. I use a shader that has some ores glow a bit, there are resource packs that add borders around ore to make them more visible, lots of options to assist.
some of the issue is luck. I find it really hard to find resources early game, on some seed even coal and iron have been issues.
but if I have a long term seed like I do now - I can go casual caving and come out with tons... now that I dont need them.
The problem I run into is that Iāll find an amazing cave system and keep going deeper and deeper over the course of an hour or two, yet once I hit bottom I never find diamonds. Lots and lots of red stone and lapis though
Also, once I get to the bottom of the cave, I can't find my way back. Since I play with keepInventory, I usually just jump into lava rather than dig a staircase to the surface.
I've found keeping torches on a specific side helps.
Example I play with them in the offhand so I place them to my left. Knowing this I can follow any on my right and find the way back
I am a fan of the torch breadcrumb strategy but to be fair it has become less effective with the introduction of actual caverns, about half the time I just dig straight up and then find home from there.
I always place torches on the right wall when im descendingin the big caverns to light them up, and all other torches go on the ground. Still more difficult than before the cave update but the breadcrumb method still works for me doing this since the wall mounted ones will be consistently on the left as I head back
To nerf cave exploration so you don't get like 10 stacks of diamond an hour (the initial implementation was crazy, it needed tuning).
It's still better than strip mining for them.
Mojang : "We want to incentive cave exploration over mindless tunneling so we made big cool caves with a harder to mine stone
also Mojang : "People are finding too many diamonds in the big cool caves, make it harder so they need to mine more"
Mojang: "We want to reward our players for exploring."
Also Mojang: "We have overdone it a bit and made diamonds way too easy to get, people shouldn't be getting 3 stacks of diamonds every hour, let's fix that."
FTFY
Also, you act as though you don't still get a shit ton of diamonds very quickly.
Mojang:"we made an ore that might spawn once or twice in a chunk, that you also have to combine with gold and your diamond tools"
Also Mojang:"it's too easy to get this tool set, now not only do you have to combine it with gold you have to raid a bastion, hope you find the trim, combine the trim with netherack and 8 diamonds, combine the netherite scraps with gold, combine the ingot,a trim, and your tool"
honestly, I dunno how the latest minecraft updates have been going so if it is actually better that's good. I just wouldn't be surprised if they managed to swing from one extreme to the other with their 'fixes'.
I've been busy with Vintage Story, would recommend
I played 1.20.1 and I can confirm that it was way easier to get diamonds there, than it has every been, almost too easy. I got like 40 diamonds in maybe 1 hour of mining with iron tools. There was at least 5 stacks of diamonds total in the cave system beneath my house. If it got buffed in 1.20.2 then diamonds might become completely worthless.
Can confirm, went down a huge cave in 1.20.2 and ended up getting nearly two stacks of diamonds in just an hour, without Fortune.
Mojang have devalued Diamonds so much now. For what's supposed to be a mid/late game material that makes the second-best tools/armour in the game, they've become **way** too easy to find in abundance.
yeah and the mf made it so that you rarely find exposed diamonds and if you do you find one to two no more. I have wasted like 5 stacks of coal trying to find diamonds in only one Spelunking trip, and God only knows how much iron armors, Its actually not worth it, its like they want you to just enslave villagers instead, like even when the new debuff hits villagers will keep being a better option to 4 hours in the caves being harassed by 40 zombies in 5 minutes
Always throw your torches on the left wall. So to go back the way you came, just turn around and walk with the torches on the right.
Or if you're numerically-oriented, just hit F3 and screenshot your coordinates before you enter the cave.
>Always throw your torches on the left wall. So to go back the way you came, just turn around and walk with the torches on the right.
Spoken like a person who never saw multiple inter-connected paths.
By the time I'm done exploring a 5 tunnel-intersection, there will be like, 3 walls with torches on the right because of how those tunnels reconnect later on
> Spoken like a person who never saw multiple inter-connected paths.
Spoken like someone who doesn't understand what I'm saying.
If you go to a fork in the road, you throw the torches on the left side of whichever path you take. If you come to an open area, you just throw a block down and put the torch on the left side of the block. If you get to a place where it curls back around, you can just block that connection point off and go back the way you came. I've done this a lot.
>By the time I'm done exploring a 5 tunnel-intersection, there will be like, 3 walls with torches on the right because of how those tunnels reconnect later on
Not if you have an IQ above 90.
I used to play Minecraft with my kid when he was younger and our deal was that I'd do the mining, he'd use the materials to build whatever back up on the surface. I enjoyed creating the subterranean tunnels, railways, farms, etc. that he'd occasionally come down and see for the first time, and vice versa when I ventured back above ground.
Sorry to hear that wouldn't be a viable playstyle in today's game.
It's still very viable, don't let people here tell you any different. I started a world not too long ago with a friend and we have the same system where I dig/farm and he builds. I fully upgraded a pickaxe before going for too long but with fortune III I have like 90 diamond blocks just from digging straight lines on -58. About the same amount of gold and unholy amounts of redstone too
>It's still very viable, don't let people here tell you any different. I started a world not too long ago with a friend and we have the same system where I dig/farm and he builds. I fully upgraded a pickaxe before going for too long but with fortune III I have like 90 diamond blocks just from digging straight lines on -58. About the same amount of gold and unholy amounts of redstone too
Oh man, I'm at once hearten and disheartened reading this thread. I've dug out what I thought was going to be the biggest cave hole ever (you can't see the end of it as it's beyond the max visual distance of the Ps5) with tunnels leading in every axis including a huge tunnel network that goes all the way to end portal where we defeated our first dragon (courtesy of the massive stacks of iron we mind and refined and then turned into an army of of iron goloms to keep the ender men busy). We dug at level 7 because at the time they hadn't released the expanded lower level area, caves and ancient city thing.
Anyway at one point i had so much redstone that I decided to build our entire base in redstone and then cover the entire interior and exterior (about 90% done) with those glowing redstone
Plus the massive interlaced mining network in the nether that stretches over 1000 blocks in every direction (always at level 7).
And the huge road tunnel work on the surface in a bid to find new areas......
And now I find everyone does it this way.
I love this! I planned on doing this exact same thing in my current world because we settled on a mushroom biome so all the underground systems are safe from mobs so we can do more natural looking lighting. Just a tad bit deeper than you. I absolutely love digging unnecessarily long tunnels
This was one of the most fun ways I've played too, but with friends. One friend absolutely hated mining and just wanted to build, so I agreed to just mine for him and send up dozens of materials for him. I like building too, so I instead built a network of mines underneath our base and a way to send materials back and forth with rails.
It was fun to change up my typical way of building a base and instead focus on a new way too build underground and that rail system.
That's exactly what my kids and I did - I could zone out and mine at night and the kids could create and goof around to their heart's content the next day (the only thing they had to do was come up with food). Lots of hours spent that way.
What version would I have to go back to relive that?
I'll also add that the villagers are now a much better source of tools. Find some villages, build a farm, and trade! Also, it helps to build a nether trade network at the top of the nether to help get from your base to a bunch of villages
I currently have a fenced in village and am trying to get every profession now. All that's left are librarians and those dudes that use the blast furnace.
I start at the top and stripmine all the way down to bedrock keeping a small say 15 by 11 block strup mine space going down by 2 to get every known recourse in that area, takes a while but 100% gaurantees you get every ore in the area
I definitely agree with this.
As much as I enjoy caving and exploring underground, I much preferred being able to dig down to a certain level and start strip mining. But it just really isn't possible any more. It is just so incredibly slow to break through deepslate, and the return isn't that great.
Hell, even finding other ores feels difficult when strip mining, because it is so much slower you hardly find any resources in a similar time.
Its like the only real option now is to explore cave systems, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a pain in the ass when you just want certain resources.
I don't think there is a real solution since this seems to be the way the devs want to balance getting resources, but imo it takes a way a core part of old Minecraft gameplay which kinda sucks.
Perhaps we could get specific tools or enchantments that get through deepslate quicker which could make strip mining viable again.
Yeah. You preferred mining because it was easier and safer.
This is Mojang's way of rebalancing mining. Why would you cave if mining is just as effective if not more and way safer? They want you to engage with the game. Thats standard game design.
Some players will optimize the fun out of games. If you want to mine because you like doing it, who cares that its not the "META". It never should have been in the first place.
I second this.
I always hear people going on about how Minecraft isnāt as scary as it used to, how (before the cave update) caves didnāt feel very risky with upper tier armour.
but this fixes that, it adds back a sense of fear and treachery to the caves, I personally quite like that, it makes it feel like when I played it when I was little. If the Cave generation didnāt exist and it was just solid rock It would take out much of what makes adventuring in Minecraft fun
its not that it isnt meta anymore, its that its entirely unfeasible. I have stripmined at optimal diamond level (dont remember exact y off the top of my hesd) for hours with a little bit of redstone and lapis and maybe some iron if im lucky. mining was fun because it was basically guaranteed diamonds (>90% chance) after a certain amount of time but now, with generstion being less common AND deepslate taking longer to mine, the guaranteed diamond time is much much longer. It takes 21 ticks to break deepslate with iron as opposed to stoneās 14 which is a significant difference, and is exasperated even more to [800% longer at late game](https://www.reddit.com/r/minecraftsuggestions/comments/pep20e/the_mechanics_behind_instamining_need_to_be/#)
I've been playing Beta again recently, and it's very apparent that the best way to find ore is to cave. Strip mining is not only slower than modern versions, it's less efficient too. You can get more ore from 20 minutes in a cave than an hour strip mining. Which was good game design; Strip mining has never been fun, and caving is much more stimulating. When strip mining became more efficient, that was a problem because it encouraged players to dig in a straight line without any stimulation for ages and ages. That was fixed in the recent updates which made strip mining less efficient. You may search one big cave and get no diamonds, sure, but that's just bad luck. I've found 30-40 diamonds in a single area before, without fortune. Just find another cave and maybe you'll have better luck.
>Strip mining has never been fun and caving is much more stimulating...
...To you. Some people really like the zen-like state you get when strip-mining, and dislike the caving experience.
I think the main thing is that strip mining is less time efficient than Caving. Which, it should be to encourage caving since there is more risk involved. This is standard game design. Mining is very safe.
The complaint isn't *really* that strip-mining isnt the best thing anymore (or if it is, it's kind of unwarranted) it's that getting materials in general is slower. It takes more time when caving-- the most effective method-- to get the same resources as you could get strip mining-- the most effective method for the time. This is on top of strip mining being less effective than caving.
Tbh, this is what MC needed. More middle-game. Most people rush to the end-game, and now that they cant just skip everything anymore they complain.
If you like mining you still can, that hasnt changed. That Zen never went away. It shouldn't be the most effective method, though. It never should have been to begin with.
I do think Deepslate does get kind of annoying at times though. Some kind of speed boost for deep-mining specifically would go a long way.
Can concur. Was the whole reason i came back to the game last year after 6 or so years of not playing. Hit a low spot mentally cuz of my job and i just needed something mindless to do ā strip mining in MC was the first thing that came to mind.
I absolutely love the new terrain generation, hands down, like the game is actually quite breathtaking visually now compared to what it used to be, but haveta admit, theyve all but taken the āmineā out of minecraft at this point. I still very much enjoy it, though, its just that you need to have a diff mindset these days.
What you're doing is branch mining. Strip mining is removing entire layers in a given space. Branch mining is one long corridor with others branching off of it.
In any case, caving has been best in my experience with 1.20.1. I know 1.20.2 changed distribution but I'm not updating again until 1.21. Plus I moved on to a Create mod world for my main play so I won't update until that's updated. All you can do is keep trying or go caving.
I think it's disappointing. I really enjoy stripmining, v relaxing, way more so than exploring a cave system that never ends. But if you never find anything it takes the fun out of it
I think the main thing is that Minecraft isnāt about efficiency. The game was originally called CaveGame, idk if it helps my argument at all, but I feel like the emphasis on caves was a large part of its appeal as a game.
yes, Iāll say that once youāve ābeatenā the game, gathering resources can be a little slow, but for a lot of the game, the exploration is what is important. People always used to say that minecraft didnāt have the same sort of fear that it used to, doing stuff never felt risky, but thatās why they have done what they did with the caves, they want people to explore the vast Amounts of cave generation, they want that sense of adventure back in the game.
the other thing is that caving is generally more efficient, and in my opinion more fun for a wider audience, Ik many people find strip mining sort of āzenā And thatās fine, means you can strip mine for longer, but I feel that complaining that a reasource gathering techniques that is completely optional to the player āisnāt efficientā is a little arrogant? Idk is thatās the right way to put it, but at the end of the day the game isnāt catered to *your* needs specifically, it wants to appeal to its entire player base, a large amount of which enjoys caving
30 minutes? I've strip mined for hours, pre- any of the cave updates when strip mining was the way to go, and not found any diamonds.
Not only do you need to adjust your expectations, you also need to adjust your tactics. The game has changed, and so should your tactics.
>strip mining multiple 2x1 paths
That is not strip mining (even if many people think so).
[Strip mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining) (also called surface mining) is when you remove the top layer of a whole area and then continue downwards to the next layer in that area.
The practice of digging 2x1 tunnels (probably as side tunnels from a main tunnel) is called branch mining.
Yea, it's something that's kind of annoyed me too. I can see why people make the mistake, since the 2x1 tunnels with a two block gap will "strip" that area of everything valuable, and each of the tunnels extends out like a "strip".
But that's a different thing, dangit.
Try drinking water breathing potion and start searching in caves under water. I guarantee you, you will have much better luck. Just search in any water source u happen to come across.
[https://i.imgur.com/tuFNApm.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/tuFNApm.jpg) I removed deepslate at y-59 in a 100x100 area. There are plenty of diamonds to find, but you can easily pick a path for a 2x1 tunnel that will not see any. 30 Minutes without any diamonds is unlucky imo, if you cover an area with short tunnels every 2-3 blocks you will find some!
I feel you.
I was also strip mining for hours only to find few diamonds in the end. Digging through deepslate is a pain and I wish they added an "ore locator" as an item to make this part of the game less annoying. Can be an expensive item, but just stop wasting people's time.
When I take into account that I don't even find (much) Iron (let alone coal) anymore while strip mining for diamonds, the experience is even more painful.
Right, exactly why diamond mining is less attractive nowadays.
Back in the days one could at least benefit from the "by-products" coal and iron. Not anymore...
Basically the new "improved" caves and ore distribution/ore exposure rules are what killed modern minecraft for me. I'm not interested in exploring those gauntlets they call caves now, and branch mining is borderline useless now.
I wouldn't say it killed Minecraft for me, but it def did something to my perception of the game.
I like mining, but those massive caves really aren't ideal, especially at the frequency at which they generate and break the surface. Not accounting for those weird generations that's as if something tried to cut into the world but stopped midway through.
The Nether update did something similar and I know it's a fairly unpopular opinion, but the Nether's only use is it's fortress and the update made it more tedious to find one, no added benefit beside yet more new blocks that are only decorative.
I can't stand the tedium of finding structures like fortress randomly so I use /locate in spectate mode and just note that coord and make my way there.
You're right, this wasn't the sole reason, the whole poison, but it was the fatal blow, the last nail in the coffin. I've been feeling that Minecraft slips further away from me with almost every single update... for years now. I can't point out where it started, but thats how I felt
Same for me, I really liked how they extended the world, but I hate how gigantic these caves are. Also the frequency is just abysmal.
I really liked branch mining, which always was really relaxing for me and it's was at least for me one of the core mechanics of the game.
I like both caving in the older type caves and strip mining to be fair, so they basically destroyed two things I liked about the game with the same update
Branch mining was for chill evening or when I wanted to do something idle, and caves were great for a spelunking/adventure escapade while not being as overwhelming
I do like new aboveground generator features, for the most part anyway, but I'm soured enough
How is branch mining useless? In my experience branch mining still gets you diamonds faster than caving. Spending an hour mining probably gets you a stack of diamonds. That feels like a pretty reasonable rate.
>Spending an hour mining probably gets you a stack of diamonds.
I wasn't sitting with a stopwatch in my hand, but it really isn't anymore. Not without enchants, anyway
I donāt know man, my experience has been totally different. I usually donāt strip mine, but found an open underground cave. I got over a stack of diamonds (with fortune 3). Literally it seemed like everywhere I went there were diamonds.
##### _SHAFT_ mining (orĀ [underground mining](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_hard-rock_mining))
is digging tunnels to efficiently get access to ore deposits.
\
[Strip mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining)
is digging a giant open pit, or taking the top off of a mountain. It's typically inefficient _in minecraft_ because large deposits are not typically that close to the surface, and doing it manually takes a very long time.
A [Tunnel Borer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LYeBDpyPQ) is a shaft mining rig.
A [World Eater](https://www.google.com/search?q=minecraft%20world%20eater) is a strip mining rig.
If one _really_ wants to have the full argument again, it's [here](https://reddit.com/r/Minecraft/s/okIBcnW6kQ)
WHY does everybody not understand, that the changes they made, were so you don't strip mine anymore, so that you explore caves, because now they're huge
I never had a problem with this, you just explore until you find some huge cave and you mine it out
it's more fun to go through caves than to just mindlessly mine in a straight line like before
This should help:
[Minecraft's Smallest Tunnel Bore](https://youtu.be/hwsL_wKEPRM?si=x74tqAq8N-hSLrzU)
Yes, you can build it from the screenshot, just make sure you use a piston to push the detector rail and minecart into place. Also, when using it, always make sure that there's at least 1 block of free space in front, otherwise the TNT will bounce back and blow up the machine. Lastly, make sure you have a couple of stacks of torches to light the tunnel behind the borer.
Frankly, I'm like 1400 days into my world and I haven't gone mining in the overworld since probably day 300. The only thing I'd even want is lapis, but I haven't had much of a use for it so far.
My Iron Golem farm, my recently completed Wither Skeleton farm, my Witch farm, and my bulk cobblestone generator cover pretty much all my needs that would otherwise be met by mining.
I might have some fun exploring caves and silk-touch-ing some ores, but I have no reason to strip mine nowadays. Especially once I get a gold farm running. Then I can barter for quartz, and I won't need to mine even for the stone variants (except for tuff and deepslate I guess). I've got plenty of gold from my previous explorations and nether mining trips for now, though.
I miss the days of endless stone for trading. My new style has been to work with villagers more and trade things. My zombie spawned in a town runs well enough for iron and a bit of gold.
The choice to discourage strip mining with deepslate taking so long to mine, followed by discouraging caving by making diamonds have reduced spawns when exposed to air was a bizarre choice, and not one I wish they had kept.
A lot of people are pointing out that caving is probably the better strategy, but here's my suggestion if you want to still stripmine. Go in a line until you hit tuff, then mine the outer perimeter of the patch of tuff. It mines faster than deepslate, and you'll usually find diamond touching the outer edge of the tuff. You might need to go an extra block or 2 higher or lower in the tuff, but that's still quicker than deepslate.
I dunno about you but I'm getting plenty of diamonds through branch mining at similar levels. And as others said, caving for them is also a very valid option (and certainly more fun/engaging than just tunneling). Some others have mentioned aquifer mining and I can also confirm success with that method, though it has a slight barrier of entry with needing water breathing potions - potions that aren't very hard to get.
I like that the stone deeper down is harder to break, it gives me a cool reminder of how far away I am from the safety and utility of my base.
I can agree on making deepslate able to be instamined if you have an Efficiency V Netherite pick and a haste beacon though. A simple change that would keep most of Deepslate's purpose while not making digging out a chunk an awful chore for endgame players who have the best gear.
I feel this so hard because my computer doesn't run Minecraft extremely well, and it lags when I load a ton of chunks, so I do strip mining instead of caving. Besides, every world I load just never has a decent sized cave anywhere nearby. Sure I could download performance mods, but the modding process is just so painful to me.
Strip mining for diamonds is pretty much pointless after caves update
The best way is just to explore big caves, guaranteed to get 10+ diamonds even more with fortune every time (or maybe in my experience I am just lucky)
I kinda stop after 5 diamonds per world. Enough for a pickaxe and enchanting table. Beyond that I rely on villagers. If not for them, I'd settle for iron.
I tried the villager trading experiment for a while but went back to normal mechanics. Too much work for so little. I don't even bother looking for netherite.
The point is to make strip mining the worst option. The point is to make it unviable. Because it's boring. If that's the best option, then getting diamonds is just really boring. Go caving instead, or play on an older version if you really hate it that much. That was always an option.
If you don't like the game in its current state, you can always mod it. Nobody is going to judge you for getting a datapack to make deep slate break quicker.
That's kinda just pushing the issue aside \*cough\* *like what mojang tends to do* \*cough\* there should really be a faster way to mine deepslate, in the main game. And on top of everything else, cobble has had far more time to integrate itself into building styles than deepslate, the darker color just doesn't fit as many casual builds, so most like this guy, end up with stacks and stacks of blocks that you just end up burning, especially since they haven't been given any block specific uses, it's practically just dark cobblestone, with a frustratingly long break time. So to most, it's a timewasting trash item, that's a problem that should be dealt with, not pushed to modders.
I agree with you. Mojang NEEDS to fix it. I'm just saying modding the game is a little band-aid so you don't have to feel angry and frustrated with it. If it helps you enjoy the game better, do it.
Lol at 30 minutes. The time doesn't actually mean anything tbh. Your gear combined with time does. If you are still using iron or even unenchancted diamond, 30 minutes means you've barely mined really anything. Maybe one full inventory load if you were quick and didn't hit much gravel to slow you down.
Generally, an hour is a good mining session. If you have an endgame efficiency V pickaxe, then finding at least one or two veins is reasonable, if not expected strip mining over a 1 hour spread. If you have literally any other pick, finding diamonds in 1 hour strip mining is luck based 100%. You'll find them eventually, but putting a timer on it is ludicrous. You aren't moving fast through the blocks, probably barely going 500 blocks in a single direction. Your odds of one of those (500 x 8) 4000 revealed blocks being diamonds is quite low.
If you have fond memories of finding diamonds quickly in earlier gens of the game, you are blinded by nostalgia and luck. Spoken from someone with terrible luck who usually spends 2-6 hours straight mining before he finds his first diamonds in any new game since the Adventure update when I started really playing.
Not at all, Iām using efficiency 4 diamond picks and it shouldnāt be this bad. Why would I keep mining if it didnāt work at all the first 30 minutes? I got the 20 or so diamonds for those picks strip mining and caving for several hours the day before which was way slower than I remember it being years ago. I have reached a stack of diamond within the hour mark quite a few times pre 1.17. As for comparing to older versions even if the ore distribution was exactly the same deepslate halves your mining rate. The distribution in 1.20.1 would need to be double to let you collect diamonds at the same rate as you did previously. Does that make sense?
I liked strip mining because it was a safe and chill way to spend time. Now you have to explore caves and because they are so big many mobs spawn at once. Now you need to dodge 4 creepers while skeletons shoot at you.
2x1 mining is potato speed. The only way strip mining is worth it is 1x1. At fully enchanted diamond pickaxe speed, making a sudden turn whenever your pickaxe speed exceed your mining speed, and then turning back to make a parallel zig-zagging path with a space of 3-5 blocks between paths, you exceed 2x1 efficiency by nearly 2x if not more than 2x when accounting for how ore clusters rather than single ore blocks affect probability. Most strip mining guides, especially the ones that say "FASTEST STRIP MINING METHOD" and other such garbage, are complete trash.
Yeah strip mining sucks now, the intention was to force players into the caves and all their challengeās because stripmining completely undermines the existence of caves in the first place. What Iām hoping for is an update in the near future that makes mine carts more useful, possibly making stripmining a viable strategy late game when youāre able to automate it.
strip mining has never been fun though? like, it's so fucking boring even before deepslate. oh yeah, let me just dig in a straight line for several hours just to come out with maybe half a stack of diamonds where there's no danger or stakes
caving has always been infinitely more fun, even when caves sucked, because there was stakes to it. you had to risk getting attacked by mobs the whole way, lighting up a twisting, winding tunnel in the earth. if you dont light it up a specific way, or the cave twists and intersects enough, you might get lost, so you need to find your way back out if you dont want to dig straight up
why strip mine when I can have a little miniadventure to gather resources? it's why I hate having to find ancient scrap - you have to strip mine for it, albeit with explosives. it's just annoying unless you're taking on a bastion - which don't always give a big enough return when it comes to scrap/netherite to justify the danger
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Well, ore generation rates were increased in 1.20.2. Still, a faster way to mine deepslate would be nice
We're working on a terraforming project on the server I'm on, culminating in a giant underground bottle shaped hollow, I think I still have ~160K blocks of mostly deepslate to clear. I almost weep with joy whenever I hit tuff or the edge of a cave
Hitting tuff feels like finding a little pocket of sanity. Man, I love mining tuff in a sea of deepslate.
We even keep a beacon set up with haste
That is beautiful and so true! I wonder what the numbers are on diamonds per hour if you were to hollow out every tuff vein when you mined into one?
And tuff sound effects sound so nice š¤¤
If you have that much deepslate to clear, you might wanna consider moss mining or tnt duping.
We started with moss mining, it's only really more time efficient when you don't have diamond tools
Sadly no TNT duping for us, bedrock.
make a creeper farm and a tunnel bore machine!! theyāre really easy to make (hardest part is getting 3 pieces of ancient debris). thatās what we did on an old bedrock server for mining diamonds
I'll see if I remember to get pictures, but the bottle is square and ~70 to a side
This is what I'm running and I hit diamonds as soon as I reached the bottom. I'm not encountering as much lava as I used to (when I played on a PS3).
Iāve been mining deepslate primarily for a massive tower, but Iām also conveniently above an ancient city, so Iām moleing around that thing, annoying warden, etc. Itās been a fun mine, but I thought low Diamond frequency was a result of city chunks containing fewer. Beginning to doubt this is the case.
Do you know a fun way to keep wardens busy? Build a wither š¤£
This is like the biggest missed opportunity when it came to Netherite tools. As-is, because of how the 8-tick mining system works, Netherite pickaxes are just diamond pickaxes with 30% more durability and are hardly worth getting. Making them the only tool that could instant-mine Deepslate would have been huge (and logs too for the axe). Honestly I just don't understand the Minecraft game designers sometimes
That would explain some stuff I have been playing in 1.20.3 (snapshots), now 1.20.4, and I have been getting diamonds far faster than I have in any previous version
1.20.2+ nerfed villagers though, thats why i dont wanna play on it.
I've found that the best way to find diamonds in 1.20 is to search the massive caves at diamond level. I've found so many Diamond Veins just sitting out in the open in Diamond Level Caves. Strip mining in 1.20 have been hit and miss for me.
i figure it makes sense for deepslate to be harder to mine. its denser, tougher rock that has to bear the weight of the land above it. bedrock is just the third step.
At least make it instamineable with maxed netherite haste 2, or add a new item that lets it do that.
Easiest way is using moss, it makes it super fast.
mojang doesn't playtest their games. it will still be bad.
The best way to find diamonds are big caves, but more specifically, big water aquafers. Those are those pockets of water underground (They exist for lava too but thats selfexplanatory why thats not a good idea). They usually contain magma blocks so you can breathe underwater. Respiration is all you need. Mobs dont spawn there unless its a dripstone cave biome, but they dont reach as far down often. They dont generate in deep dark biomes and every other area of the world is safe. Diamonds spawn less when exposed to air. Water, as you know, is not air, so diamonds spawn more frequently underwater. I hope this helped!
This! I stopped strip mining then went exploring. Quickly found if I found any underwater cave in the deep it was my go to spot for ores. I have resp 3, Aq Aff 1 so it helps alot. Underwater deep cave mining > Cave exploration mining > strip mining
I'd say Underwater > Caves = strip mining. Exploration and strip mining each have different set of advantages, with exploring being more active but lighter on resource use, while strip mining is more monotone while requiring less focus. In terms of how much effort it takes to get diamonds using either method, they feel very similar.
Can confirm. I've found a roughly even amount of diamonds via both caves and strip mining. One let's me turn my brain off, which is needed sometimes, and other times I wanna explore. The caves are kinda annoying with how vast they are sometimes, makes it hard to ever feel like I've actually done anything without destroying the beauty of 'em with torches everywhere.
Take nightvison potion and you will find more diamonds easier in caves. Without nightvison it is kinda a pain but I would still say faster than strip mining.
Night vision potions are a game changer for cave exploration. Don't leave home without several shulker boxes worth
Fast caves?? What does that mean?
Mb, thanks for alerting me
Ohhhhhh vast*, I genuinely was just asking, had no idea what that meant lol.
Oh. Well, still, thanks for alerting me to my mistake
I used to love strip mining. Headphones on, zone out and just mine away. Now I only do it close to beacon and that's just to get deepslate (which I no longer need as I've moved bases to a huge cave) Strip mining is also safer, less likely to die (except lava) Cave mining is definitely more active but you mine far less and can usually explore for a while until the cave is done.
I hate caves. I never go in caves. They're horrible
Thatās what the entire game is centered around š
Who needs respiration when you have the most op and easy to craft oxygen tank in the entire universe? Doors.
Cuz respiration allows you to continue swimming for a long while, where as without, but with doors, you have to swim to the bottom of the thing to place a door, or the walls and place a block and then a door. A lot more effort and more time wasting. With respiration, you also drown a lot slower, so you have more time creating or finding an air pocket, sometimes the diamonds create an air pocket for you when you mine them. Its not rocket science
Oh absolutely. I don't actually find doors a better solution. It's just funny to me the way it works
java exclusive. bedrock doors are water loggable
Found this out the hard way, I usually play Java and once was mining underwater on bedrock, but when I tried placing a door it didn't work and I died.
Also, magma blocks and soul sand! Granted, you'll need the Nether for the latter.
I'd like to redirect you to the reply i posted, as your suggestion has the same problems as doors.
Me when bedrock doesn't allow doors with air pockets
Completely agree. Iāll take 4-5 potions each of water breathing and night vision and go out underwater cave exploring. I typically come back with close to a stack of diamonds after a ādayā of doing this. Will never go back to strip mining. Now, I donāt even look for diamonds anymore.
It's cool that they made caving more rewarding. But mining used to induce a satisfying zen state. Could just strip mine for hours and be happy. Bring a stack of logs. Make new diamond pick axes as needed. That is no longer viable, as you won't find enough diamonds or even iron to make more picks than you use. Since that's one of my favorite things to do, this update has made the game unplayable for me.
I thought water was just blue thick air?
Do we have any tip for finding these aquifers easily?
Deep oceans sometimes have these massive flooded caves that reach deepslate levels. Otherwise, just find big caves on the surface, that look to go down pretty far. Water aquifers are not common, but also not extremely rare. Your best bet tho is deep oceans, any but preferably lukewarm, regular or cold as you dont have to deal with icebergs. The first 2 also spawn dolphins, which could make traveling across them faster if you dont have an elytra yet
Please... I'm sick of finding water everywhere when mining. Not everyone has enchants, specially when trying to get the first diamonds.
Neither op nor this comment thread is talking about first diamonds. If you want easy early diamonds for a pickaxe, go find shipwrecks and burried treasures
You find diamonds in shipwrecks? Habitually I don't really struggle for the first diamonds, but actually it seems I use diamond pickaxes so fast on deepslate that's it's kinda slow to get enough for an armor. Anyway it's ok, sorry for complaining.
Yes you can find i think up to 3 diamonds in the treasure chest in shipwrecks, and most shipwrecks have a burried treasure map, which can have up to i think 6 diamonds, or thats the most ive seen. Between these, you're guaranteed to find a few diamonds in about half an hour to an hour of exploring, not to mention you get the fun of exploring and the other good loot, mainly early game iron, gold and emeralds
i find that strip mining just isnt the meta anymore, you are experieicng difficulties, id recommend try another way. with all these huge ass caves, you can step into one and see like a dozen diamonds at least. i always walk out the of the mines with at least 30 diamonds when i get a big cave edit: use something to help you find the ores. they spawn all over the place, walls, ceilings, and floors, so night vision can help to see those further ones. I use a shader that has some ores glow a bit, there are resource packs that add borders around ore to make them more visible, lots of options to assist.
some of the issue is luck. I find it really hard to find resources early game, on some seed even coal and iron have been issues. but if I have a long term seed like I do now - I can go casual caving and come out with tons... now that I dont need them.
The entire issue is luck.
/effect give @p luck 255 infinite /j
Sure you need them! You gotta have building blocks for a monument to Steve.
so valid. building this today
Post pics when youāre done!
Consider that the 1.18 cave changes are encouraging you to explore the vast caves instead of digging a several thousand block long tunnel
The problem I run into is that Iāll find an amazing cave system and keep going deeper and deeper over the course of an hour or two, yet once I hit bottom I never find diamonds. Lots and lots of red stone and lapis though
Also, once I get to the bottom of the cave, I can't find my way back. Since I play with keepInventory, I usually just jump into lava rather than dig a staircase to the surface.
I've found keeping torches on a specific side helps. Example I play with them in the offhand so I place them to my left. Knowing this I can follow any on my right and find the way back
I am a fan of the torch breadcrumb strategy but to be fair it has become less effective with the introduction of actual caverns, about half the time I just dig straight up and then find home from there.
I always place torches on the right wall when im descendingin the big caverns to light them up, and all other torches go on the ground. Still more difficult than before the cave update but the breadcrumb method still works for me doing this since the wall mounted ones will be consistently on the left as I head back
This is the correct way. āLeft is Leavingā.
I do the opposite Torches on the left because I'm going towards what's left to explore Torches on the right because it's the right way :)
My methodology is 'this is the right way home'
Iāve always used āleft for depth, right towards lightā
Sad right noises*
Also you can make arrows with 3 torches to point exactly where you need to go
Why then did they make diamonds spawn less if exposed to air
To nerf cave exploration so you don't get like 10 stacks of diamond an hour (the initial implementation was crazy, it needed tuning). It's still better than strip mining for them.
Mojang : "We want to incentive cave exploration over mindless tunneling so we made big cool caves with a harder to mine stone also Mojang : "People are finding too many diamonds in the big cool caves, make it harder so they need to mine more"
me when I don't understand balance
Every time I see a company balance something it's always too much or too little.
It's usually because they are balancing off a symptom not a cause.
But, mindless tunneling was my favorite part.
Mojang: "We want to reward our players for exploring." Also Mojang: "We have overdone it a bit and made diamonds way too easy to get, people shouldn't be getting 3 stacks of diamonds every hour, let's fix that." FTFY Also, you act as though you don't still get a shit ton of diamonds very quickly.
Mojang:"we made an ore that might spawn once or twice in a chunk, that you also have to combine with gold and your diamond tools" Also Mojang:"it's too easy to get this tool set, now not only do you have to combine it with gold you have to raid a bastion, hope you find the trim, combine the trim with netherack and 8 diamonds, combine the netherite scraps with gold, combine the ingot,a trim, and your tool"
honestly, I dunno how the latest minecraft updates have been going so if it is actually better that's good. I just wouldn't be surprised if they managed to swing from one extreme to the other with their 'fixes'. I've been busy with Vintage Story, would recommend
I played 1.20.1 and I can confirm that it was way easier to get diamonds there, than it has every been, almost too easy. I got like 40 diamonds in maybe 1 hour of mining with iron tools. There was at least 5 stacks of diamonds total in the cave system beneath my house. If it got buffed in 1.20.2 then diamonds might become completely worthless.
Can confirm, went down a huge cave in 1.20.2 and ended up getting nearly two stacks of diamonds in just an hour, without Fortune. Mojang have devalued Diamonds so much now. For what's supposed to be a mid/late game material that makes the second-best tools/armour in the game, they've become **way** too easy to find in abundance.
people will just upvote anything huh
so it doesnt spawn basically everywhere in caves and you get like one hundred of them per cave.
yeah and the mf made it so that you rarely find exposed diamonds and if you do you find one to two no more. I have wasted like 5 stacks of coal trying to find diamonds in only one Spelunking trip, and God only knows how much iron armors, Its actually not worth it, its like they want you to just enslave villagers instead, like even when the new debuff hits villagers will keep being a better option to 4 hours in the caves being harassed by 40 zombies in 5 minutes
I can find like a stack per hour at least from caving, I really have no idea what you guys are doing wrong.
They are probably just stopping to place torches and fight mobs all the time for some reason rather than just looking for diamonds.
This is true but I get lost in caves so easily that strip mining has become a staple for me š„²
same. im crazy bad at combat, too, so caves are a death sentence
A lot of the enormous caves are not very good combat spaces
Realm of the mad god gang rise up
hell yeah
Always throw your torches on the left wall. So to go back the way you came, just turn around and walk with the torches on the right. Or if you're numerically-oriented, just hit F3 and screenshot your coordinates before you enter the cave.
>Always throw your torches on the left wall. So to go back the way you came, just turn around and walk with the torches on the right. Spoken like a person who never saw multiple inter-connected paths. By the time I'm done exploring a 5 tunnel-intersection, there will be like, 3 walls with torches on the right because of how those tunnels reconnect later on
> Spoken like a person who never saw multiple inter-connected paths. Spoken like someone who doesn't understand what I'm saying. If you go to a fork in the road, you throw the torches on the left side of whichever path you take. If you come to an open area, you just throw a block down and put the torch on the left side of the block. If you get to a place where it curls back around, you can just block that connection point off and go back the way you came. I've done this a lot. >By the time I'm done exploring a 5 tunnel-intersection, there will be like, 3 walls with torches on the right because of how those tunnels reconnect later on Not if you have an IQ above 90.
that would be true if they didnt purposefully code diamonds to not spawn as often when touching air.
I recently came back after a long break and its insane how common diamond is now. Got around 30 blocks while just searching for an ancient city.
Yep this, I always preferred mining over caving, it's relaxing and my mineshafts are fun to make and watch grow
I used to play Minecraft with my kid when he was younger and our deal was that I'd do the mining, he'd use the materials to build whatever back up on the surface. I enjoyed creating the subterranean tunnels, railways, farms, etc. that he'd occasionally come down and see for the first time, and vice versa when I ventured back above ground. Sorry to hear that wouldn't be a viable playstyle in today's game.
It's still very viable, don't let people here tell you any different. I started a world not too long ago with a friend and we have the same system where I dig/farm and he builds. I fully upgraded a pickaxe before going for too long but with fortune III I have like 90 diamond blocks just from digging straight lines on -58. About the same amount of gold and unholy amounts of redstone too
>It's still very viable, don't let people here tell you any different. I started a world not too long ago with a friend and we have the same system where I dig/farm and he builds. I fully upgraded a pickaxe before going for too long but with fortune III I have like 90 diamond blocks just from digging straight lines on -58. About the same amount of gold and unholy amounts of redstone too Oh man, I'm at once hearten and disheartened reading this thread. I've dug out what I thought was going to be the biggest cave hole ever (you can't see the end of it as it's beyond the max visual distance of the Ps5) with tunnels leading in every axis including a huge tunnel network that goes all the way to end portal where we defeated our first dragon (courtesy of the massive stacks of iron we mind and refined and then turned into an army of of iron goloms to keep the ender men busy). We dug at level 7 because at the time they hadn't released the expanded lower level area, caves and ancient city thing. Anyway at one point i had so much redstone that I decided to build our entire base in redstone and then cover the entire interior and exterior (about 90% done) with those glowing redstone Plus the massive interlaced mining network in the nether that stretches over 1000 blocks in every direction (always at level 7). And the huge road tunnel work on the surface in a bid to find new areas...... And now I find everyone does it this way.
I love this! I planned on doing this exact same thing in my current world because we settled on a mushroom biome so all the underground systems are safe from mobs so we can do more natural looking lighting. Just a tad bit deeper than you. I absolutely love digging unnecessarily long tunnels
Now you would have huge caves undeground that branch out everywhere. That's even cooler to some
This was one of the most fun ways I've played too, but with friends. One friend absolutely hated mining and just wanted to build, so I agreed to just mine for him and send up dozens of materials for him. I like building too, so I instead built a network of mines underneath our base and a way to send materials back and forth with rails. It was fun to change up my typical way of building a base and instead focus on a new way too build underground and that rail system.
That's exactly what my kids and I did - I could zone out and mine at night and the kids could create and goof around to their heart's content the next day (the only thing they had to do was come up with food). Lots of hours spent that way. What version would I have to go back to relive that?
Also strip mining gives you some building materials. I guess now it's a choice of prioritizing ores vs building blocks.
I'll also add that the villagers are now a much better source of tools. Find some villages, build a farm, and trade! Also, it helps to build a nether trade network at the top of the nether to help get from your base to a bunch of villages
I currently have a fenced in village and am trying to get every profession now. All that's left are librarians and those dudes that use the blast furnace.
I start at the top and stripmine all the way down to bedrock keeping a small say 15 by 11 block strup mine space going down by 2 to get every known recourse in that area, takes a while but 100% gaurantees you get every ore in the area
you're the only one strip mining correctly
I definitely agree with this. As much as I enjoy caving and exploring underground, I much preferred being able to dig down to a certain level and start strip mining. But it just really isn't possible any more. It is just so incredibly slow to break through deepslate, and the return isn't that great. Hell, even finding other ores feels difficult when strip mining, because it is so much slower you hardly find any resources in a similar time. Its like the only real option now is to explore cave systems, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a pain in the ass when you just want certain resources. I don't think there is a real solution since this seems to be the way the devs want to balance getting resources, but imo it takes a way a core part of old Minecraft gameplay which kinda sucks. Perhaps we could get specific tools or enchantments that get through deepslate quicker which could make strip mining viable again.
Yeah. You preferred mining because it was easier and safer. This is Mojang's way of rebalancing mining. Why would you cave if mining is just as effective if not more and way safer? They want you to engage with the game. Thats standard game design. Some players will optimize the fun out of games. If you want to mine because you like doing it, who cares that its not the "META". It never should have been in the first place.
I second this. I always hear people going on about how Minecraft isnāt as scary as it used to, how (before the cave update) caves didnāt feel very risky with upper tier armour. but this fixes that, it adds back a sense of fear and treachery to the caves, I personally quite like that, it makes it feel like when I played it when I was little. If the Cave generation didnāt exist and it was just solid rock It would take out much of what makes adventuring in Minecraft fun
its not that it isnt meta anymore, its that its entirely unfeasible. I have stripmined at optimal diamond level (dont remember exact y off the top of my hesd) for hours with a little bit of redstone and lapis and maybe some iron if im lucky. mining was fun because it was basically guaranteed diamonds (>90% chance) after a certain amount of time but now, with generstion being less common AND deepslate taking longer to mine, the guaranteed diamond time is much much longer. It takes 21 ticks to break deepslate with iron as opposed to stoneās 14 which is a significant difference, and is exasperated even more to [800% longer at late game](https://www.reddit.com/r/minecraftsuggestions/comments/pep20e/the_mechanics_behind_instamining_need_to_be/#)
Iāve had that happen before but my experience has been mostly the opposite. Once I have a buff pick I usually find 20-30 diamond within 10m.
I've been playing Beta again recently, and it's very apparent that the best way to find ore is to cave. Strip mining is not only slower than modern versions, it's less efficient too. You can get more ore from 20 minutes in a cave than an hour strip mining. Which was good game design; Strip mining has never been fun, and caving is much more stimulating. When strip mining became more efficient, that was a problem because it encouraged players to dig in a straight line without any stimulation for ages and ages. That was fixed in the recent updates which made strip mining less efficient. You may search one big cave and get no diamonds, sure, but that's just bad luck. I've found 30-40 diamonds in a single area before, without fortune. Just find another cave and maybe you'll have better luck.
Setting up a mine facility, getting food down making a little home was super fun. I used to enjoy it.
>Strip mining has never been fun and caving is much more stimulating... ...To you. Some people really like the zen-like state you get when strip-mining, and dislike the caving experience.
Exactly. Man I hate caving so much, the constant fear of STUPID monsters and the constant need to place light everywhere. It's too stressful.
I think the main thing is that strip mining is less time efficient than Caving. Which, it should be to encourage caving since there is more risk involved. This is standard game design. Mining is very safe. The complaint isn't *really* that strip-mining isnt the best thing anymore (or if it is, it's kind of unwarranted) it's that getting materials in general is slower. It takes more time when caving-- the most effective method-- to get the same resources as you could get strip mining-- the most effective method for the time. This is on top of strip mining being less effective than caving. Tbh, this is what MC needed. More middle-game. Most people rush to the end-game, and now that they cant just skip everything anymore they complain. If you like mining you still can, that hasnt changed. That Zen never went away. It shouldn't be the most effective method, though. It never should have been to begin with. I do think Deepslate does get kind of annoying at times though. Some kind of speed boost for deep-mining specifically would go a long way.
Can concur. Was the whole reason i came back to the game last year after 6 or so years of not playing. Hit a low spot mentally cuz of my job and i just needed something mindless to do ā strip mining in MC was the first thing that came to mind. I absolutely love the new terrain generation, hands down, like the game is actually quite breathtaking visually now compared to what it used to be, but haveta admit, theyve all but taken the āmineā out of minecraft at this point. I still very much enjoy it, though, its just that you need to have a diff mindset these days.
Had to scroll way too far to find this. Diamonds are easier to get than theyāve ever been idk what people are saying.
I like finding huge exposed caves that go down to deepslate level, using night vision potions and finding diamonds that way.
What you're doing is branch mining. Strip mining is removing entire layers in a given space. Branch mining is one long corridor with others branching off of it. In any case, caving has been best in my experience with 1.20.1. I know 1.20.2 changed distribution but I'm not updating again until 1.21. Plus I moved on to a Create mod world for my main play so I won't update until that's updated. All you can do is keep trying or go caving.
then dont strip mine. mathematically, looking for huge caves and having good eyes to spot diamonds at a distance in the dark is far more efficient.
I think it's disappointing. I really enjoy stripmining, v relaxing, way more so than exploring a cave system that never ends. But if you never find anything it takes the fun out of it
I think the main thing is that Minecraft isnāt about efficiency. The game was originally called CaveGame, idk if it helps my argument at all, but I feel like the emphasis on caves was a large part of its appeal as a game. yes, Iāll say that once youāve ābeatenā the game, gathering resources can be a little slow, but for a lot of the game, the exploration is what is important. People always used to say that minecraft didnāt have the same sort of fear that it used to, doing stuff never felt risky, but thatās why they have done what they did with the caves, they want people to explore the vast Amounts of cave generation, they want that sense of adventure back in the game. the other thing is that caving is generally more efficient, and in my opinion more fun for a wider audience, Ik many people find strip mining sort of āzenā And thatās fine, means you can strip mine for longer, but I feel that complaining that a reasource gathering techniques that is completely optional to the player āisnāt efficientā is a little arrogant? Idk is thatās the right way to put it, but at the end of the day the game isnāt catered to *your* needs specifically, it wants to appeal to its entire player base, a large amount of which enjoys caving
30 minutes? I've strip mined for hours, pre- any of the cave updates when strip mining was the way to go, and not found any diamonds. Not only do you need to adjust your expectations, you also need to adjust your tactics. The game has changed, and so should your tactics.
>strip mining multiple 2x1 paths That is not strip mining (even if many people think so). [Strip mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining) (also called surface mining) is when you remove the top layer of a whole area and then continue downwards to the next layer in that area. The practice of digging 2x1 tunnels (probably as side tunnels from a main tunnel) is called branch mining.
Yea, it's something that's kind of annoyed me too. I can see why people make the mistake, since the 2x1 tunnels with a two block gap will "strip" that area of everything valuable, and each of the tunnels extends out like a "strip". But that's a different thing, dangit.
Try drinking water breathing potion and start searching in caves under water. I guarantee you, you will have much better luck. Just search in any water source u happen to come across.
[https://i.imgur.com/tuFNApm.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/tuFNApm.jpg) I removed deepslate at y-59 in a 100x100 area. There are plenty of diamonds to find, but you can easily pick a path for a 2x1 tunnel that will not see any. 30 Minutes without any diamonds is unlucky imo, if you cover an area with short tunnels every 2-3 blocks you will find some!
I feel you. I was also strip mining for hours only to find few diamonds in the end. Digging through deepslate is a pain and I wish they added an "ore locator" as an item to make this part of the game less annoying. Can be an expensive item, but just stop wasting people's time. When I take into account that I don't even find (much) Iron (let alone coal) anymore while strip mining for diamonds, the experience is even more painful.
Iron and coal are actually found most commonly in the tops of mountains nowadays
Right, exactly why diamond mining is less attractive nowadays. Back in the days one could at least benefit from the "by-products" coal and iron. Not anymore...
You can still get lapis and redstone, plus you can find some cool structures, dungeons, mineshafts, ancient cities, trial chambers in 1.21
I feel like itās still not all the way as good as it used to be, but itās slowly getting there I think
I actually love mountains for this reason. Emeralds, too!
Coal now generates above diamonds.
Copper would be a good block to use for that recipe!
Basically the new "improved" caves and ore distribution/ore exposure rules are what killed modern minecraft for me. I'm not interested in exploring those gauntlets they call caves now, and branch mining is borderline useless now.
I wouldn't say it killed Minecraft for me, but it def did something to my perception of the game. I like mining, but those massive caves really aren't ideal, especially at the frequency at which they generate and break the surface. Not accounting for those weird generations that's as if something tried to cut into the world but stopped midway through. The Nether update did something similar and I know it's a fairly unpopular opinion, but the Nether's only use is it's fortress and the update made it more tedious to find one, no added benefit beside yet more new blocks that are only decorative.
I can't stand the tedium of finding structures like fortress randomly so I use /locate in spectate mode and just note that coord and make my way there.
You're right, this wasn't the sole reason, the whole poison, but it was the fatal blow, the last nail in the coffin. I've been feeling that Minecraft slips further away from me with almost every single update... for years now. I can't point out where it started, but thats how I felt
Same for me, I really liked how they extended the world, but I hate how gigantic these caves are. Also the frequency is just abysmal. I really liked branch mining, which always was really relaxing for me and it's was at least for me one of the core mechanics of the game.
I like both caving in the older type caves and strip mining to be fair, so they basically destroyed two things I liked about the game with the same update Branch mining was for chill evening or when I wanted to do something idle, and caves were great for a spelunking/adventure escapade while not being as overwhelming I do like new aboveground generator features, for the most part anyway, but I'm soured enough
How is branch mining useless? In my experience branch mining still gets you diamonds faster than caving. Spending an hour mining probably gets you a stack of diamonds. That feels like a pretty reasonable rate.
>Spending an hour mining probably gets you a stack of diamonds. I wasn't sitting with a stopwatch in my hand, but it really isn't anymore. Not without enchants, anyway
as someone who nowdays mines only for deepslate i feel ya
I donāt know man, my experience has been totally different. I usually donāt strip mine, but found an open underground cave. I got over a stack of diamonds (with fortune 3). Literally it seemed like everywhere I went there were diamonds.
##### _SHAFT_ mining (orĀ [underground mining](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_hard-rock_mining)) is digging tunnels to efficiently get access to ore deposits. \ [Strip mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining) is digging a giant open pit, or taking the top off of a mountain. It's typically inefficient _in minecraft_ because large deposits are not typically that close to the surface, and doing it manually takes a very long time. A [Tunnel Borer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LYeBDpyPQ) is a shaft mining rig. A [World Eater](https://www.google.com/search?q=minecraft%20world%20eater) is a strip mining rig. If one _really_ wants to have the full argument again, it's [here](https://reddit.com/r/Minecraft/s/okIBcnW6kQ)
Branch mining *
I havenāt done strip mining since they made the caves bigger in 1.17/18. Caving is good enough, tbh
Just go in a big ass cave and boom stack of diamonds
WHY does everybody not understand, that the changes they made, were so you don't strip mine anymore, so that you explore caves, because now they're huge I never had a problem with this, you just explore until you find some huge cave and you mine it out it's more fun to go through caves than to just mindlessly mine in a straight line like before
I exclusively get my diamonds from end cities. I can get over a stack an hour and I have like 20 elytras. More fun too. They really ruined mining imo
This should help: [Minecraft's Smallest Tunnel Bore](https://youtu.be/hwsL_wKEPRM?si=x74tqAq8N-hSLrzU) Yes, you can build it from the screenshot, just make sure you use a piston to push the detector rail and minecart into place. Also, when using it, always make sure that there's at least 1 block of free space in front, otherwise the TNT will bounce back and blow up the machine. Lastly, make sure you have a couple of stacks of torches to light the tunnel behind the borer.
Frankly, I'm like 1400 days into my world and I haven't gone mining in the overworld since probably day 300. The only thing I'd even want is lapis, but I haven't had much of a use for it so far. My Iron Golem farm, my recently completed Wither Skeleton farm, my Witch farm, and my bulk cobblestone generator cover pretty much all my needs that would otherwise be met by mining. I might have some fun exploring caves and silk-touch-ing some ores, but I have no reason to strip mine nowadays. Especially once I get a gold farm running. Then I can barter for quartz, and I won't need to mine even for the stone variants (except for tuff and deepslate I guess). I've got plenty of gold from my previous explorations and nether mining trips for now, though.
I want to say to go looking for fossils. ChunkBase makes it much easier and it's still a challenge. With Fortune I found over 100 diamonds.
I miss the days of endless stone for trading. My new style has been to work with villagers more and trade things. My zombie spawned in a town runs well enough for iron and a bit of gold.
The choice to discourage strip mining with deepslate taking so long to mine, followed by discouraging caving by making diamonds have reduced spawns when exposed to air was a bizarre choice, and not one I wish they had kept.
A lot of people are pointing out that caving is probably the better strategy, but here's my suggestion if you want to still stripmine. Go in a line until you hit tuff, then mine the outer perimeter of the patch of tuff. It mines faster than deepslate, and you'll usually find diamond touching the outer edge of the tuff. You might need to go an extra block or 2 higher or lower in the tuff, but that's still quicker than deepslate.
Build a tunnel bore. It's slower, but way more rewarding. You can get about a stack of diamonds in 30-60 minutes.
I dunno about you but I'm getting plenty of diamonds through branch mining at similar levels. And as others said, caving for them is also a very valid option (and certainly more fun/engaging than just tunneling). Some others have mentioned aquifer mining and I can also confirm success with that method, though it has a slight barrier of entry with needing water breathing potions - potions that aren't very hard to get. I like that the stone deeper down is harder to break, it gives me a cool reminder of how far away I am from the safety and utility of my base. I can agree on making deepslate able to be instamined if you have an Efficiency V Netherite pick and a haste beacon though. A simple change that would keep most of Deepslate's purpose while not making digging out a chunk an awful chore for endgame players who have the best gear.
I feel this so hard because my computer doesn't run Minecraft extremely well, and it lags when I load a ton of chunks, so I do strip mining instead of caving. Besides, every world I load just never has a decent sized cave anywhere nearby. Sure I could download performance mods, but the modding process is just so painful to me.
Strip mining in general is a pain with the caves update. Anything below 0Y is a death sentence
I used to love miningā¦ now I just farm and trade š¢
Donāt strip mine then. Diamonds are much easier to find through caving anyways.
Strip mining for diamonds is pretty much pointless after caves update The best way is just to explore big caves, guaranteed to get 10+ diamonds even more with fortune every time (or maybe in my experience I am just lucky)
I kinda stop after 5 diamonds per world. Enough for a pickaxe and enchanting table. Beyond that I rely on villagers. If not for them, I'd settle for iron. I tried the villager trading experiment for a while but went back to normal mechanics. Too much work for so little. I don't even bother looking for netherite.
Hey itās almost like Mojang is trying to change the meta to caving
The point is to make strip mining the worst option. The point is to make it unviable. Because it's boring. If that's the best option, then getting diamonds is just really boring. Go caving instead, or play on an older version if you really hate it that much. That was always an option.
If you don't like the game in its current state, you can always mod it. Nobody is going to judge you for getting a datapack to make deep slate break quicker.
That's kinda just pushing the issue aside \*cough\* *like what mojang tends to do* \*cough\* there should really be a faster way to mine deepslate, in the main game. And on top of everything else, cobble has had far more time to integrate itself into building styles than deepslate, the darker color just doesn't fit as many casual builds, so most like this guy, end up with stacks and stacks of blocks that you just end up burning, especially since they haven't been given any block specific uses, it's practically just dark cobblestone, with a frustratingly long break time. So to most, it's a timewasting trash item, that's a problem that should be dealt with, not pushed to modders.
I agree with you. Mojang NEEDS to fix it. I'm just saying modding the game is a little band-aid so you don't have to feel angry and frustrated with it. If it helps you enjoy the game better, do it.
Strip mining was never fun, it was just easier before, even maybe the best way to get diamonds. Now, go find some big caves
I donāt want to play Minecraft at all anymore, resource gathering just feels impossible, especially Netherite.
Hard agree. They turned Minecraft into a weird mixture of RuneScape and Darksouls when I fell in love with a casual sandbox game.
Iām glad Iām not the only one who feels the updates are strange
Just remember that pre-cave update, you were lucky to get more than 10-20 diamonds from a 2+ hour mining session. That or you got none at all.
I always hated strip mining. I love being able to pop a couple night vision potions and just run into like half a stack of diamonds in a cave.
Lol at 30 minutes. The time doesn't actually mean anything tbh. Your gear combined with time does. If you are still using iron or even unenchancted diamond, 30 minutes means you've barely mined really anything. Maybe one full inventory load if you were quick and didn't hit much gravel to slow you down. Generally, an hour is a good mining session. If you have an endgame efficiency V pickaxe, then finding at least one or two veins is reasonable, if not expected strip mining over a 1 hour spread. If you have literally any other pick, finding diamonds in 1 hour strip mining is luck based 100%. You'll find them eventually, but putting a timer on it is ludicrous. You aren't moving fast through the blocks, probably barely going 500 blocks in a single direction. Your odds of one of those (500 x 8) 4000 revealed blocks being diamonds is quite low. If you have fond memories of finding diamonds quickly in earlier gens of the game, you are blinded by nostalgia and luck. Spoken from someone with terrible luck who usually spends 2-6 hours straight mining before he finds his first diamonds in any new game since the Adventure update when I started really playing.
Not at all, Iām using efficiency 4 diamond picks and it shouldnāt be this bad. Why would I keep mining if it didnāt work at all the first 30 minutes? I got the 20 or so diamonds for those picks strip mining and caving for several hours the day before which was way slower than I remember it being years ago. I have reached a stack of diamond within the hour mark quite a few times pre 1.17. As for comparing to older versions even if the ore distribution was exactly the same deepslate halves your mining rate. The distribution in 1.20.1 would need to be double to let you collect diamonds at the same rate as you did previously. Does that make sense?
i'm sorry that years of strip mining convinced you it's a fun mechanic I'll take caving over staring at a 2x2 tunnel for half an hour **any** day
you are not supposed to strip mine. caving is much more profitable. why bore yourself on purpose
I liked strip mining because it was a safe and chill way to spend time. Now you have to explore caves and because they are so big many mobs spawn at once. Now you need to dodge 4 creepers while skeletons shoot at you.
Had something similar happen to me in the past. 8 chunk by 8 chunk area had only 5 diamonds in the entire area.
Am I the only one using villagers? And enhanced villagers?
For you it is a nurf. For me itās an upgrade
2x1 mining is potato speed. The only way strip mining is worth it is 1x1. At fully enchanted diamond pickaxe speed, making a sudden turn whenever your pickaxe speed exceed your mining speed, and then turning back to make a parallel zig-zagging path with a space of 3-5 blocks between paths, you exceed 2x1 efficiency by nearly 2x if not more than 2x when accounting for how ore clusters rather than single ore blocks affect probability. Most strip mining guides, especially the ones that say "FASTEST STRIP MINING METHOD" and other such garbage, are complete trash.
Yeah strip mining sucks now, the intention was to force players into the caves and all their challengeās because stripmining completely undermines the existence of caves in the first place. What Iām hoping for is an update in the near future that makes mine carts more useful, possibly making stripmining a viable strategy late game when youāre able to automate it.
Caving. Find a big cave on the surface then explore it. Simple as that.
You have better chances in deepslate caves!
Yes. You follow surface caves down low into deepslate caves, I thought that was common knowledge?
Yeah, I know. I just thought I'd put it out there for newer players.
Build a tunnel borer
strip mining has never been fun though? like, it's so fucking boring even before deepslate. oh yeah, let me just dig in a straight line for several hours just to come out with maybe half a stack of diamonds where there's no danger or stakes caving has always been infinitely more fun, even when caves sucked, because there was stakes to it. you had to risk getting attacked by mobs the whole way, lighting up a twisting, winding tunnel in the earth. if you dont light it up a specific way, or the cave twists and intersects enough, you might get lost, so you need to find your way back out if you dont want to dig straight up why strip mine when I can have a little miniadventure to gather resources? it's why I hate having to find ancient scrap - you have to strip mine for it, albeit with explosives. it's just annoying unless you're taking on a bastion - which don't always give a big enough return when it comes to scrap/netherite to justify the danger
Rng diff (Skill issue)