Diamonds are a major milestone for Minecraft players. While Netherite may have eclipsed diamonds in terms of power and usefulness, diamonds are still an invaluable material for any player’s efforts in the game.
Obtaining diamonds means access to enchanting, better tools, accessing the Nether for the most part, and building powerful contraptions. The sooner diamond is accessed the more productive and efficient a player’s time will be. Here are some tips for how to find diamonds quickly in the beginning, and ways to find them quickly later on.
Updated May 17th, 2022 by Jacqueline Zalace: The Caves and Cliffs update of Minecraft has shaken things up a bit, with new ore distribution that affects where you will be able to find diamonds. Because of this, we’ve updated this guide to provide the most accurate tips.
10 Searching At The Right Level
The most important thing to know while searching for diamonds is where they are. Diamonds are most commonly found between Y: 16 and Y: -64. Mining at this level will give you the highest chance of encountering diamonds. Overall, the best place to find diamonds is around Y: -59.
This is pretty deep, and you may run into several bodies of lava while diamond hunting. We recommend bringing a stack of blocks to help you bridge and tower your way to any diamonds that you see.
9 Using The Staircase Method
Above, you might have noticed how deep the optimal level for diamonds is. If you are still on the surface, you are pretty far away from the diamonds, so let’s take a quick look at how to safely and efficiently get down to Y: -59.
One of the first rules of Minecraft is to never dig straight down. That being said, it is the single fastest way to reach the lower levels of the world where diamonds are found. For players wanting the fastest route to diamonds, nothing beats a straight line.
To make it a bit safer at the cost of some efficiency, we recommend building a simple staircase all the way down to the desired level. This will allow you to see any dangerous mobs or areas.
If you choose to do this, make sure that you have an easy way to get back to the surface!
8 Quick Access To Bedrock
Having a quick way to travel underground is essential for quickly finding diamonds. Having to constantly travel nearly 100 blocks vertically takes time, so we recommend building a bubble elevator to help you quickly travel from diamond level to the surface in no time. For more information on bubble elevators, be sure to check out our guide on how to make one.
If you don’t want to travel too often, you can also build a small base underground, filled with chests, furnaces, and a bed. A sustainable underground area means you never have to travel to the surface and can spend more time mining.
7 Searching In Caves
Caves are a great way to quickly find diamonds if they generate at the right levels. They create massive pockets of air that expose a large number of blocks. You can simply traipse through the caves planting torches along the way and see if you find any exposed diamonds.
Even a surface-level cave can be helpful. You can quickly use it to get as far down as possible before mining a staircase down to bedrock. The right cave network can bypass a dozen or more layers’ worth of material you would normally have to mine through.
Overall, caves are one of the most efficient ways to find diamonds, especially after their rework due to the Caves and Cliffs update. Now, caves can go on forever, exposing a lot of surface area where diamonds may appear. If you discover a massive underground cavern, be sure to search every nook and cranny for diamonds before leaving.
6 Finding Abandoned Mineshafts
Abandoned Mineshafts are great finds when looking for diamonds. They’re often found at diamond levels and expose a large number of blocks thanks to the tunnels. It’s like a cave, but the premade tunnels and shafts are much more efficient for traveling and mining.
Sometimes, Abandoned Mineshafts will have diamonds lying around. You can come across minecart chests that have a very rare chance of containing diamonds. There is no trick to finding a mineshaft, but they aren’t too rare so after a bit of caving, you might stumble across one.
5 Have Higher Tier Pickaxes
To mine for diamonds, you will need to bring an iron pickaxe. This is the lowest tier of a pickaxe that can mine through diamonds. If you were to bring a stone or wood pickaxe, you wouldn’t be able to gather diamonds, and you definitely don’t want that to happen.
If you are looking to mine fast, consider making yourself a Netherite pickaxe. Experiments by gamers have discovered that Netherite is almost twice as fast as iron when it comes to mining. Additionally, this fire-proof material lasts longer. Iron pickaxes have 250 uses, diamond has 1,563, and Netherite has 2,031 uses before breaking. More uses means more time mining and less time replacing tools.
4 Using Enchanted Pickaxes
In addition to having a stronger Pickaxe, it’s immensely helpful to have the best enchantments. Pickaxes can be enchanted to have all kinds of abilities, but for the sake of finding diamonds, we recommend using the following enhancements.
Chance to increase the number of diamonds dropped from one ore
Increases the speed at which a pickaxe will break blocks
Causes your pickaxe to be repaired whenever XP giving ores are mined
Increases durability and allows the tool to be used longer
Overall, we recommend trying to get a pickaxe with Fortune as soon as possible. There are three levels to this enchantment, with Fortune III giving up to four diamonds per node. This means that if you were to find a diamond vein made of just three ores, you have the potential to get 12 diamonds, rather than just three.
3 Managing Your Inventory
While mining, you will inevitably gather a lot of items in your inventory. If you find your inventory getting packed with unimportant blocks, then it’s definitely time to start managing your inventory.
To quickly solve this problem, you can simply toss items out onto the ground. This is helpful for items like cobblestone since you will get stacks of this while mining.
If you want to keep all the materials that you are mining, try using shulker boxes. These are boxes made from the shells of shulkers, a mob in the End that live in End Cities. This mob can be quite annoying to deal with since they shoot bullets that can cause you to levitate, but their shells are quite valuable. You are able to put items in a shulker box, and then pick it up with all the materials inside.
2 Branch Mining
In addition to searching caves, branch mining is one of the most efficient methods to find diamonds. To branch mine, create a long tunnel then mine little side tunnels that branch off. All tunnels should be two blocks high and one block horizontal, spaced three blocks apart from each other.
The reason for this is to minimize how many blocks are mined in order to find a diamond vein. It cuts down on overall mining time, minimizes resource waste, and allows you to cover a lot of ground faster. A single block of diamond might be overlooked, but you will find the three to five diamond block veins faster to offset this.
1 Using A Hasty Beacon
Lastly, to speed up your mining time, you can use a beacon with hasty effects. Haste will increase mining speed by ten percent at level one to 20 percent at level two. This beacon can be quite expensive though since this requires a level four pyramid under their beacon.
A level four pyramid requires 164 mineral blocks — iron is strongly recommended as it’s more cost-effective than gold, emerald, diamond, or Netherite. Gathering 144 iron blocks and the Nether Star to craft the Beacon is no easy feat, so be sure to check out our guides on building a beacon and creating an iron farm.
