5 best Minecraft ore mining tips everyone should know

Minecraft is all about mining, which is why it makes up half of the game's title. It's a very important thing to master, so there are several tips and tricks that seasoned Minecraft players utilize. There are also a few things that everyone should know regardless of status.

Mining ores is probably the most helpful activity players can do in Minecraft, so here are five things everyone should know before doing it.

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What all Minecraft players should know before mining ores

5) Level of pickaxe

This may seem basic, but it's extremely important. All players should know which pickaxes are needed for which items. Gold, emerald, redstone, lapis lazuli and diamond have to be mined by an iron pickaxe or better, or else they'll just break with nothing to drop in their place.

Diamond ore has to be mined with iron or better (Image via Minecraft)

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4) Which ores give XP

This is especially useful to know if Minecraft players have a Mending pickaxe. Coal, diamond, emerald, redstone and lapis lazuli will drop the actual item as well as XP (without using Silk Touch). Everything else will drop the raw version of itself that will need to be smelted.

Redstone drops XP as well as the item (Image via Minecraft)

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3) Keep a water bucket

Water buckets are extremely useful for mining in Minecraft. If players are strip mining or in a cave, lava can show up out of nowhere. For starters, the water is helpful to keep players from burning to death, but it also removes the lava by making obsidian, which can be walked on.

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2) Crouch

This is especially true for strip mining. Minecraft players should always be crouched because at any moment, those next two blocks could give way to a lava pool and players can fall in and lose everything they've worked for. It's a heartbreaking way to die, too, because all of the items get destroyed in the lava, so crouching is an easy way to avoid it.

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1) Where to find them

Most ores can spawn in all places, but there are a few places that have better chances of certain ores spawning. Diamonds are found most frequently in caves but also at Y level -59 after the 1.18 update. Emeralds are found only in mountainous biomes. Gold is in most places, but is most commonly found in the Badlands. Iron, coal and copper are found pretty much everywhere.

Emerald ore will only spawn in mountain biomes (Image via Minecraft)

Which of these is the most useful tip?