5 unwritten rules of mining in Minecraft

Mining is a very important part of Minecraft, which is probably a given due to taking up half of the name. It is probably the best and most consistent way to gain access to many of the game's best resources. And since the game is more than 10 years old, the community has had a lot of time to develop unspoken habits to make mining easier.

Detailed below are five very useful unwritten rules to keep in mind while mining to make more efficient use of time.

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5 useful unwritten Minecraft mining rules

1) Don't dig straight down

The single most important rule of mining in Minecraft, and one that's never written down anymore as it's so well known, is to never dig straight down. Doing so might drop a player straight into an inescapable lava pool, resulting in an entire inventory of Minecraft's best items being lost forever.

In fact, not digging straight down is such a famous rule that it's known across gaming as a whole and is often employed in other titles.

It might not actually be as dangerous as the rule makes it sound, but not digging straight down is always safer. There are better ways to get into the ground to mine.

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2) Different Y levels give different resources

Setting up tiers of mine is a great way to handle this (Image via Mojang)

One of the biggest changes to come with Caves & Cliffs outside of the terrain generation updates was a similar revamp of Minecraft's ore distribution. Since the world was both deeper and taller than it used to be, it made sense to scrap the old system and implement a new one.

The new ore distribution is set up in such a way that there are objectively "best" levels for mining for particular resources. The full list of the best Y levels for each resource is:

Ore	Best Y Level
Redstone	Constant supply from 14 to -32; then becomes more common as Y level decreases
Lapis Lazuli	0
Coal	96
Iron	16
Diamond	-64 (More common as Y level decreases; mine as low as possible)
Gold	-16
Copper	48
Emerald (Mountain Biomes Only)	256 (More common as Y level increases; mine as high as a mountain allows)

That said, it's worth keeping in mind that, since the addition of larger caves, it's almost always faster to go caving than it is to strip mine; especially if the cave is underwater, as there will also be none of Minecraft's dangerous, hostile mobs.

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3) Try and save ores

Saving ores isn't easy but it's so satisfying to do (Image via Mojang)

Saving ores might seem counterintuitive, especially in the early game when resources are much scarcer, but it can be a good strategy. Leaving ores in the wall or collecting them with silk touch can be a great idea due to the fortune enchantment, one of Minecraft's best.

Fortune will massively increase the drops from ores. This means that taking only the bare minimum and saving the rest can actually be a better idea in the long run.

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4) Place torches consistently

Consistently placing torches can save huge headaches getting lost (Image via Mojang)

Torch placement seems like a completely arbitrary thing, and to be fair, it is. However, adding a system to how torches are placed can be very useful for not getting lost. If a player only places torches on either the left or right wall, then there's almost a flow or pattern to a mine. Following backward torches should always eventually lead to a way out, which is very useful since caves can be huge.

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5) Beds are actually better than pickaxes...

...but only in the Nether (Image via Mojang)

It might seem strange, but beds are actually great mining tools. This is due to beds exploding when used in the Nether. This can be exploited in a wonderfully useful way, though. Digging a long tunnel by hand is a great way to search for Netherite, but it can then be expanded on by using bed explosions and blocking the explosion to survive. This will mine out huge chunks in next to no time at all.

This can make finding enough Netherite to upgrade a full set of tools and armor so much quicker and easier than it otherwise would be. That said, the strategy might be too risky to justify using in a Minecraft hardcore world due to any mistakes essentially guaranteeing death.