Minecraft is all about surviving the game long enough to reach the End, where the player gets to kill the Ender Dragon. And to be able to survive, a player needs to gather materials to craft their tools, weapons, and equipment. One such particular armor equipment is the netherite armor set in Minecraft. The armor set crafted out of netherite is among, if not the most powerful and most durable armor pieces in the game.
Essentially, a player should have one chest plate armor, one helmet, one pair of leggings, and a pair of boots. Each piece of armor is crafted individually by the player on a crafting table, and each armor can be created out of different sets of materials. Wearing armor greatly reduces the damage players receive when taking damage from mobs, incredibly hostile ones. A great way to utilize the armor is for players to equip each piece of their armor with powerful enchantments to make them stronger and better at keeping the players alive. Initially, grabbing the basic sets of armor, such as the leather armor set and the chainmail armor set, is relatively simple enough even for beginners. But as the armor set’s tier goes higher, obtaining their respective crafting ingredients becomes trickier as the materials increase and the ingredients are harder to obtain. And for the netherite armor set—which is the strongest available armor set in the game—obtaining the materials alone is the hardest part, making this an equally challenging task.
To obtain a full set of Netherite armor, players will need to get their hands on netherite ingots used to craft each armor piece. Once the player obtains a full set of netherite armor, the advancement called the “cover me in debris” advancement is unlocked. To get this advancement, you will need to find the core material needed to begin crafting the strongest piece of armor in the game.
Materials Needed
- Ancient Debris: The core of creating a netherite armor piece, ancient debris is a special ore that can only be found in the Nether. This ore is scarce and extremely blast resistant, making this one of the hardest ores to locate.
- Gold Ingots: Gold ingots are crafting materials used to craft gold-related items such as gold armor, gold weapons, etc. Gold can be mined in both the overworld and in the Nether. Gold ore generates below the ground in levels -64 to 32 in all overworld biomes. Mining gold ore will drop a single raw gold which can then be smelted into gold ingots. At the same time, nine gold nuggets may also be crafted into a single gold ingot by placing them in the grid of the crafting table.
- Diamond Pickaxe: The diamond pickaxe will be used to mine ancient debris in the Nether. An ancient debris block will not drop as an item if it is mined with any other pickaxe of a lower-tier than diamond.
- Furnace: The furnace will be used to smelt ancient debris into netherite scraps and raw gold into gold ingots.
- Crafting Table: The crafting table will be used to craft netherite ingot, the main ingredient in creating a netherite armor set.
- Diamond Armor: The diamond armor will be transformed into netherite armor once the player obtains a netherite ingot.
How To Obtain Ancient Debris in Minecraft
To start crafting your first netherite armor piece, you must first obtain ancient debris. Ancient debris is a scarce ore that is only obtainable in the Nether. This ore is special, and due to its high blast resistance makes the ore immune to regular explosions such as TNT. What makes this ore extremely rare is that it only generates up to 2 blobs per chunk, with each chunk forming from 1 to 4 ancient debris blocks. Furthermore, you can only mine ancient debris between Y level 8 to level 119. You may even go mining for miles without ever finding a single block of ancient debris. But luckily, the highest layer in which ancient debris is commonly found is on Y level 15. So if players take advantage of this information and start mining on layer 15 in the Nether, they may surely get lucky and find ancient debris. A good way to start mining for ancient debris is to do the staircase method going down towards Y layer 15, start doing the branch mining method or the strip mining method once you reach that layer.
Strip Mining Method for Ancient Debris
Strip mining is a time-consuming but extremely rewarding method. To start strip mining, you have to dig up everything in sight until you find what you are looking for. You will need to bring extra pickaxes for this method. To start, dig around until you create a room. This method will ensure you will find ancient debris and still reward you by collecting the most resources such as netherrack, quartz, and gold. It will also leave you with a large open space for you to build in.
Branch Mining Method for Ancient Debris
The second effective way to mine for ancient debris is using the branch mining method. You will need to dig out 2×2 tunnels from a central area and then dig each of those tunnels to create “branches.” This ensures you can cover more ground while searching for ancient debris and will most likely get the best results. In this way, you won’t have to waste inventory space, pickaxe durability and still cover a lot more ground quickly with this method.
Blast Mining for Ancient Debris
One of the most effective ways to search for ancient debris in the Nether is to do the blast mining technique. This uses either a regular set of TNT and flint and steel or utilizes the blast mechanic of a bed in the Nether. Using TNT to blast mine will consume more resources, especially gunpowder, and cover less ground as it only explodes in a small radius around itself. Still, if you can do so, you may use this method. Using beds to blast mine will get better results as, technically, beds have a larger blast radius than TNT. Since ancient debris is extremely blast resistant, you may be able to locate them better by using explosives.
How To Craft Netherite Ingots in Minecraft
Once you have your ancient debris ready, it is time to start smelting them. Place the ancient debris on the empty ingredient slot inside the furnace and place a fuel source below it. You can use any fuel source available, but it is best to use a bucket of lava to maximize the smelting process and make it even more efficient. The ancient debris block will turn into a netherite scrap when the smelting process is completed. Note that single ancient debris can only be smelted into one netherite scrap, so you will need to collect more to craft a full set of armor.
Once you have at least four netherite scraps and four gold ingots, follow the steps below to craft a netherite bar:
- Open the crafting table menu by pressing right-click on it to start creating netherite ingots.
- On the topmost row of the 3×3 crafting grid, place a netherite scrap on all three empty slots.
- On the middle row of the 3×3 crafting grid, place a netherite scrap on the leftmost slot and a gold ingot on the rightmost slot while leaving the center slot empty.
- On the bottom row of the 3×3 crafting grid, place a gold ingot on all 3 empty slots.
- Once the netherite ingot appears on the results slot, click and drag it into your inventory to complete the crafting process.
How To Craft Netherite Armor in Minecraft
To start crafting netherite armor, you will need a netherite ingot for each diamond armor piece. This means that you will need one netherite ingot for your diamond chest plate, one for your diamond leggings, one for your diamond helmet, and one for your diamond boots for a total of 4 netherite ingots in all. You can craft a netherite armor by placing a netherite ingot and a diamond armor piece on the crafting grid of the crafting table. This will turn the diamond armor into a netherite armor piece while keeping all the enchantments that you currently have on your diamond armor intact.
How To Unlock The “Cover Me in Debris” Advancement
The main task in unlocking the “cover me in debris” advancement is simple: you will need to obtain all four pieces of netherite armor in the game inside your inventory. Therefore, once you finish crafting all your diamond armor pieces into netherite armor pieces, the advancement message will pop up, and you will obtain the reward for the advancement. Do the following steps above and change the entire diamond armor into netherite armor.
