How to mine large areas in Minecraft

Mining is at the core of Minecraft. As soon as you enter a new world, you will start mining various kinds of rocks or head into caves for rare materials like gold, diamonds, and more. With these materials, you can easily progress further in the game. However, when you are down in the mines, you will need to have some of the best tools and efficient techniques to get the most out of a large area.

Here are a few methods and tips to efficiently mine larger areas in Minecraft.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely rely on the writers opinions.

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Tips to mine larger areas in Minecraft

Enchantments needed to mine large areas efficiently

Your pickaxe should have decent enchantments on it (Image via Mojang Studios)

Before you head underground to mine valuables, you must first check whether you have a decent pickaxe. For starters, the pickaxe should at least be made out of iron and should also have some useful enchantments.

One of the best enchantments to have on a pickaxe is efficiency, as it increases the mining speed, making it easier for you to plow through large areas quickly.

With efficiency, you should also have an unbreaking enchantment on the pickaxe so that it does not break easily while you mine large areas. This will prevent you from going back up to the base and crafting new pickaxes more frequently.

The third most important enchantment is fortune. When you mine an important ore block, you would want it to yield as many valuable minerals as possible. With an unenchanted pickaxe, you will only get one ore from a block. With fortune equipped, however, the chances of getting multiple ores from a single block will increase.

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Branch mining technique

Branch mining is one of the best ways to mine large areas (Image via Mojang Studios)

Once you have a decent tool, you can head underground to start mining. One of the best ways to mine a large area is to branch out.

In branch mining, you can start mining in a certain direction for a long time to create the main mineshaft. After that, you can start mining left and right on that very mineshaft, creating various branches. The branches can be long or short, depending on the amount of area players want to mine.

One important point to note while branch mining is that the branches should be two blocks apart so that you do not miss ore blocks that could have been generated in between.

If you want a change of pace, you can head out from the mine and start digging another area as well.

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Strip mining technique

Strip mining means mining in a straight line in a particular direction (Image via Mojang Studios)

This is another method that is much more straightforward compared to branch mining. You can simply head underground and start strip mining in various directions. Strip mining means mining non-stop in a particular direction.

Though this is much simpler, it can be quite tedious and sometimes boring. However, if you continue to strip mine in all four directions, there are good chances of you finding valuable ores.

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