How to mine Amethyst in Minecraft 1.17 update

Amethyst is one of the items that was recently added in the Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update. Players can easily spot amethyst due to its beautiful bright purple or lavender color.

After months of waiting for all of the caves and cliffs content, players are finally able to explore some of it. Part one of the update was released a few days ago on June 8th, and players were able to discover all the new blocks.

Amethyst is one of the blocks that players can find in new Minecraft caves. This item may have been seen in the beta, and players have gotten to play around with it a little before the full part one of the update was released.

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Amethyst in Minecraft: How to get it & What it does

How to mine it

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Amethyst in Minecraft is pretty easy to mine. Amethyst clusters are mined using a pickaxe, however, the player must have the silk touch enchantment placed on the tool to get the full amount of materials.

If Amethyst is mined using a fist, or a pickaxe that is not enchanted with silk touch, only two shards will drop from it, and the player will just waste the resource. Only fully grown Amethyst clusters will drop Amethyst shards. If players mine it too early before it is fully developed, nothing will drop.

Players can get up to four shards when breaking an Amethyst cluster with a pickaxe enchanted with silk touch. However, if fortune is placed on the pickaxe, players can gain more shards from the cluster.

Fortune enchantment on the pickaxe can quadruple the amount of shards dropped and allow the player to get a maximum of 16 shards when using a fully enchanted fortune and silk touch pickaxe.

What can it be used for

(Image via Minecraft)

Amethyst can be resourceful in the game. Players can use Amethyst as a light source. Since the material is so bright, it can be used as an excellent back-up light source in the game if the player has no other one.

Amethyst gives off a light level of 5. This is not that much light, especially compared to lava with a light level of 15, and torches with a light level of 14. However, players can use Amethyst for light if they have nothing else.

The 1.17 update also introduced players to telescopes. Players can also use Amethyst as a crafting ingredient in the new telescopes (skyglass) in Minecraft.

In order to craft a telescope, players must have Amethyst shards and two copper ores, which is also a newly added block in the game during the 1.17 update.

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