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While gold might not be as useful as iron, it would be unwise to deem it an unimportant resource for Minecraft survival. Gold can be used to make powered rails, golden apples, and netherite ingots, making it essential for late-game survival. There are a surprising number of ways to collect gold, as well as better areas to mine than others while prospecting.
Everything players need to know about effectively mining for gold, as well as finding it as loot, can be found in detail below.
The best ways to get gold in Minecraft 1.21
How to mine gold
The best levels for overworld gold
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In the majority of the overworld, gold is most common at Y level -18, becoming rarer as players go up and down from this point. When mined, a piece of ore will drop a single piece of raw gold. However, this can be increased all the way up to four with a maxed-out fortune III Minecraft enchantment.
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That said, this isn't the most efficient way to mine for gold. One of the most unique properties of badlands biomes is that gold is incredibly common in them. There's an equal chance for gold ore to generate from Y levels 32 to 256. Additionally, the cliffs and mineshafts in these areas often help to expose this Minecraft ore, making it even easier to get gold from them.
Nether gold
Gold is the only overworld metal that players can find as natural ore in the Nether. Gold ore is quite common in the dimension, though it drops two to six gold nuggets rather than raw ore. As with other ores, these drops are increased by fortune, all the way up to a maximum of 24 nuggets with fortune III.
While it's not technically an ore, gilded blackstone will also drop golden nuggets occasionally when mined. Unlike with gold ore, this drop is unaffected by fortune and will only ever give two to five nuggets at a 10% chance.
Other ways to get gold
Gold nuggets
Looted gold nuggets are also a great way to collect large quantities of gold. Since these nuggets can be combined directly into ingots, this allows players to skip having to smelt any ore. They are a guaranteed drop from zombified piglins, which makes farming these mobs an incredible way to build up a stockpile of gold.
These items are also found as loot within a plethora of different structures. In the overworld, gold nuggets can be found in igloos, ocean ruins, shipwrecks, Minecraft trail ruins, ruined portals, and even villages. Bastion remnants and ruined portals in the nether can also house gold nuggets.
Players can also get gold nuggets by smelting down golden gear, such as tools, weapons, armor, and horse armor. A full list of the structures that contain these items is found below.
Gold ingots
Gold ingots can also be found in a number of different structures, similar to golden gear. While this can save players from having to spend Minecraft fuel to smelt ore, it's much more efficient to mine gold with a fortune pickaxe than it is to loot structures for the material. Here is a full list of structures where gold ingots can be found as loot.
- Monster rooms
- Mineshafts
- Bastion remnants
- Buried treasures
- Desert pyramids
- End cities
- Jungle pyramids
- Nether fortresses
- Ruined portals
- Shipwrecks
- Strongholds
- Villages
- Woodland Mansions
Blocks of gold
Players wanting to quickly kickstart a gold collection can also visit ocean monuments. Each one of these Minecraft structures has a central room containing eight blocks of gold, which can then be turned into 72 total ingots. Ruined portals and bastions can also generate gold blocks as part of their terrain, in varying quantities.
Both of these structures can also contain blocks of gold as chest loot. Minecraft bastions, depending on the type, will contain anywhere from one to five blocks of gold, while ruined portals can have one to two blocks.
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