Diamonds are one of the most precious minerals you can find in Minecraft. They are most commonly used in high-tier equipment and various enchanting pursuits. However, their rarity severely limits the total diamond supply you can have.
This article will explain how you can find diamonds on your Minecraft map.
Mining for Diamonds
The primary way to obtain diamonds is to go underground and mine for it. Mining is the simplest solution, and you can quickly get better at it through trial and error.
While exploring caves, diamond ore is light blue and easily differentiated from more common ores such as iron or coal.
To mine diamond ore, you need an iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe. Trying to mine a diamond from the ore with a wood, stone, or even gold pickaxe will just waste the ore altogether.
As a rule of thumb, diamond ore can be found below level 16 but is most common between levels five and 12. You can press F3 (which opens the debug console) to check your current depth and make sure you’re in the right spot for diamonds.
Before going on a diamond mining expedition, make sure to have spare pickaxes. Also, use lower grade pickaxes to go through rock deposits on your way down to save on your better pickaxe’s durability. Use the iron pickaxe to mine the rarer minerals you find.
It is also advisable to carry sticks and torches at all times. Having a steady supply of torches will make sure hostile mobs don’t spawn while you’re trying to mine, and spare sticks can be used to craft more pickaxes (if you carry the crafting table with you).
Spelunking
Exploring caves can be easier than mining for diamonds. Because caves are mainly open, you can easily spot diamond ore from far away and don’t need to use your pickaxe to go through vast amounts of stone beforehand.
However, caves pose an inherent risk of hidden mobs, and they are much harder to keep alight. When exploring caves, make sure to pack a lot of torches with you, and bring a sword to deal with any enemies along the way.
If you find lava pools while exploring, it’s best that you’re at the right depth for finding diamonds. If you find diamond ore close to lava, flood the lava with a water bucket to ensure that you’re safe while mining. Flooding the lava also prevents it from destroying the newly dropped diamond.
Branch Mining
Branch mining is considered a safer alternative to exploring caves, but you will need more mining resources. We recommend you have:
- A full set of armor, and a shield, for protection against mobs
- At least four stacks of torches
- Several pickaxes for various ores and stone
- Sticks (to prepare more pickaxes)
- A crafting table
- A water bucket to prevent lava damage
- Optionally, take a furnace for smelting
You can choose to enchant your equipment before going mining, but if it’s your first time searching for diamonds, you won’t have access to an enchanting table.
First, you need to make a vertical shaft down to the required level to mine diamonds. When digging down, be sure to mine at least two blocks wide. Standing on the block you’re currently digging through will cause you to fall into lava if it happens to be under the mined block. Having a wider mine shaft means you can stand on the other block and prevent death by lava.
When you reach the desired depth, start mining outwards. Most players prefer to go to level 11, as going any deeper means that lava will be above head level. Make sure that your mine tunnels are two blocks high and at least one block long. You will encounter diamond ore sooner or later, and will stock up on other ores in the process.
Branch mining will often intersect with caves, which can be a benefit or a downside. Caves have more mobs to defend against, but they are also easier to go through and search for precious ore.
Villager Trading
If you encounter a village, you can obtain a diamond tool by trading with certain villagers, such as a toolsmith, weaponsmith, or armorer. Additionally, a village chest may contain diamonds in their pure form for you to take.
Ocean Exploration
If you want to explore the oceans, shipwrecks can contain buried treasure maps in their chests, and buried treasure will often include diamonds. In Minecraft Java Edition, shipwreck chests can also directly have diamonds as well.
To find a shipwreck, you need to build a boat and go exploring around the ocean. Shipwrecks will usually appear on the ocean floor but sometimes can appear on the shore or in icebergs as well.
Buried treasure chests are the ones most likely to contain diamonds out of all chests occurring on the map. Searching for shipwrecks can be a time consuming but rewarding process to find more diamonds for your stash.
Blow Everything Up
If you’ve fought enough creepers to obtain gunpowder, you can blow large swathes of the ground at once with TNT. In Minecraft Java Edition, TNT explosions will cause all nearby items to drop on the ground, but this method is not viable on Bedrock Edition.
Other Overworld Locations
Other than mining and shipwrecks, diamonds can appear in chests found in mineshafts, jungle temples, desert temples, and strongholds. All of these can naturally occur on the map, and you can find them simply by exploring. While the chests aren’t too likely to contain diamonds, the loot and adventure along the way can be just as good.
Other Locations
If you’ve built an obsidian portal and gone to the Nether, you can find diamonds in the Nether stronghold. Additionally, if you’ve gone to the End dimension, you can get the most valuable loot, including diamonds, by reaching an End City.
However, these are more advanced tactics that we will leave you to discover and investigate on your own.
Shine Like a Diamond
Now that you know how to find diamonds, you can equip yourself to go on a mining or spelunking trip to obtain them. Diamonds are incredibly useful and form some of the most powerful equipment and enchanting items in the game.
Have you been on many diamond expeditions in Minecraft? Let us know if you’ve been successful using the above methods and which one worked best for you.
