Just wanted to share this with y'all... From my prior non-360 experience in MC, this mine has worked wonders for me in harvesting massive amounts of every ore you can think of, as well as huge stockpiles of cobblestone. While reading, keep in mind that most of the huge lava pools are on layer 10 and below, and the best zone for diamond is 6-15ish. All other ore (gold, iron, coal, etc.) will be found with the same frequency using this technique as it would on any other layer. The efficiency of this mine comes from the fact that you'll be examining every available surface within the key diamond-zone, minimizing digging and maximizing results.
That being said, here's what you do:
Grab a few stacks of wood planks, some cobblestone, a sharp pick, a bucket or two of water, and some food supplies. Then, go pick your spot to mine.
Dig a 2x2 hole straight-down until you hit bedrock, then fill back up 9 levels. Assuming the top-layer of bedrock is layer 2 (for MC360 only), this puts your feet on layer 11. This area will be your "work room" - expand the work room to a 6x6 square, build a few chests, crafting bench, and furnace.
In the middle of each wall, dig a 2w x 3h starter-tunnel. This will be where each of your main "spokes" emerges from the work room.
When you're ready to start mining, pick one of the spokes and dig a 2w x 3h tunnel four blocks deep. At the end, plop a torch down, turn to your right, then start digging another 2w x 3h tunnel - this is your first branch. The length of your branches is up to you - I've been putting a torch on the wall whenever I can't see the wall I'm digging into, and stopping on the 8th torch.
As you're digging your branch, only worry about 1 block to your left/right, and be cautious when digging into ceilings! Have your bucket and a spare stack of dirt/stone at the ready. Why only worry about 1 block to left/right? Because, when you finish this branch and move-on to the next, 2 blocks into the wall on your right will be the wall that's on your left! This is where the efficiency comes in. You essentially are examining every open block, left/right/up/down, in a huge square area.
After the first branch (8 torches deep), go back, dig another 4 blocks out from the work room, then start another branch to your right. If you always dig to the right, you'll create this pinwheel pattern the mine is named after. My mines end up with 11 branches off of each spoke, which covers an insanely large square area (about 1/4th of the 360 map size).
When you're done with the mine, make a bunch of ladders and climb your way out!
Following this pattern, you can expect around 1 stack of diamond, several stacks of gold, even more iron, etc. You get the picture. What's more, slimes seem to enjoy spawning in these mines so you'll find ooze as well! Keep your furnaces running while you go back to work in order to keep things moving. The great thing about this mine is that you can continually expand it without ever running into your own tunnels!
Tips:
Use stone picks. I know it's a pain, but you find SO much cobblestone that it's just a waste of iron. You'll also want to keep one diamond pick with you at all times. I break the stone with a stone pick, and use the diamond pick for "valuable" blocks (ore).
If you break into a cavern/tunnel, seal the entrance with dirt and flag it with a redstone torch; come back later to explore. There will be times where one or more of your branches open into a tunnel/cavern, and that's okay... Just be sure to seal the entrance so mobs don't come wandering in to your mine.
Be sure to space your torches out (in the branches) just far enough to light the areas, but close enough so there are no dark spots where mobs could spawn.
Hope this helps you all! I have 2 of these mines, covering roughly 1/2 the map, and haven't needed to mine for any more resources for quite a while now. If you want a visual, check out my Excel, top-down view of the pinwheel branch mine that I build (torches are represented by dots).
Just a head up, the 360 version only has 2 layers of bedrock (or atleast I have only ever witnessed it 2 layers deep) unlike the pc version which has the 5 layers you speak of.
Just a head up, the 360 version only has 2 layers of bedrock (or atleast I have only ever witnessed it 2 layers deep) unlike the pc version which has the 5 layers you speak of.
Rrealy... Well, that changes things. So, I guess you back-fill 9 layers then instead of 6. I'll have to do some research.
I start with a staircase down 52 layers from sea level (torch every three steps down for 17 torches, then one more step down), then turn to my left and dig a straight tunnel all the way to the edge of the map... then dig four blocks to the left and turn around. When I hit the other edge of the map (108 torches), I dig four blocks to the right and turn around. I repeat this until I get sick of it, then mine a straight path back to the first tunnel and walk back to my staircase. I place a torch every eight blocks as I go through the tunnels, and there's near-zero risk of a lava flow - I do find lava, but it's a step or two down, so I'm safe. (Looking at this chart, however, perhaps I'd be even better off a little higher up.) At some point I will probably start using mine carts or something, but I keep getting distracted by the idea of building above-ground structures. I've basically never done a damn thing with redstone or mine carts, because I'm still playing with the basic "build **** with blocks" elements of the game.
But when you start doing the math on this system, if you don't discover any ore, it's no less effective than the pinwheel strategy. You have to walk just as far and you uncover exactly as many new blocks for every block mined, no matter which strategy you use. And when you actually do find ore, the chance of running into the same vein you've already mined almost completely disappears, making the strategy slightly more efficient.
The probabilities turn out slightly different, but if you mine straight through the chunk, you get to see 128 blocks of that chunk on 4 layers - 48 on each of the two layers you mined through, and 32 more above and below that. Since we already know there's only one vein of diamond per chunk, located somewhere in the bottom 4096 blocks, and representing about 4 blocks on the average, each new block you see in this area has a 1/1024 chance of being the start of this diamond vein. So mining out 128 blocks of the level gives you a 128/1024 = 1/8 = 12.5% chance of finding the diamonds. But if you don't find them, mining out another 128 blocks of that chunk will only give you a 128/896 = 1/7 = 14.3% chance of finding the diamonds. And when you actually find the diamonds, which is an average of 68.75% likely if you mine the chunk thoroughly in this fashion (all on the same layers, but revealing all blocks in the two centre layers), your chance of finding more in the same chunk immediately drops to zero.
This is where the math starts getting complicated, but I'm pretty sure that when you get it all perfect, the "single tunnel" system performs identically to the pinwheel system. Except you never had to get the math and the probabilities perfect - it's just second to the right and straight on till morning. I therefore dub this the "Neverland" mining system:
The birds were flown. "Second to the right, and straight on till morning." That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to Neverland.
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That being said, here's what you do:
- Grab a few stacks of wood planks, some cobblestone, a sharp pick, a bucket or two of water, and some food supplies. Then, go pick your spot to mine.
- Dig a 2x2 hole straight-down until you hit bedrock, then fill back up 9 levels. Assuming the top-layer of bedrock is layer 2 (for MC360 only), this puts your feet on layer 11. This area will be your "work room" - expand the work room to a 6x6 square, build a few chests, crafting bench, and furnace.
- In the middle of each wall, dig a 2w x 3h starter-tunnel. This will be where each of your main "spokes" emerges from the work room.
- When you're ready to start mining, pick one of the spokes and dig a 2w x 3h tunnel four blocks deep. At the end, plop a torch down, turn to your right, then start digging another 2w x 3h tunnel - this is your first branch. The length of your branches is up to you - I've been putting a torch on the wall whenever I can't see the wall I'm digging into, and stopping on the 8th torch.
- As you're digging your branch, only worry about 1 block to your left/right, and be cautious when digging into ceilings! Have your bucket and a spare stack of dirt/stone at the ready. Why only worry about 1 block to left/right? Because, when you finish this branch and move-on to the next, 2 blocks into the wall on your right will be the wall that's on your left! This is where the efficiency comes in. You essentially are examining every open block, left/right/up/down, in a huge square area.
- After the first branch (8 torches deep), go back, dig another 4 blocks out from the work room, then start another branch to your right. If you always dig to the right, you'll create this pinwheel pattern the mine is named after. My mines end up with 11 branches off of each spoke, which covers an insanely large square area (about 1/4th of the 360 map size).
- When you're done with the mine, make a bunch of ladders and climb your way out!
Following this pattern, you can expect around 1 stack of diamond, several stacks of gold, even more iron, etc. You get the picture. What's more, slimes seem to enjoy spawning in these mines so you'll find ooze as well! Keep your furnaces running while you go back to work in order to keep things moving. The great thing about this mine is that you can continually expand it without ever running into your own tunnels!Tips:
- Use stone picks. I know it's a pain, but you find SO much cobblestone that it's just a waste of iron. You'll also want to keep one diamond pick with you at all times. I break the stone with a stone pick, and use the diamond pick for "valuable" blocks (ore).
- If you break into a cavern/tunnel, seal the entrance with dirt and flag it with a redstone torch; come back later to explore. There will be times where one or more of your branches open into a tunnel/cavern, and that's okay... Just be sure to seal the entrance so mobs don't come wandering in to your mine.
- Be sure to space your torches out (in the branches) just far enough to light the areas, but close enough so there are no dark spots where mobs could spawn.
Hope this helps you all! I have 2 of these mines, covering roughly 1/2 the map, and haven't needed to mine for any more resources for quite a while now. If you want a visual, check out my Excel, top-down view of the pinwheel branch mine that I build (torches are represented by dots).Rrealy... Well, that changes things. So, I guess you back-fill 9 layers then instead of 6. I'll have to do some research.
Cool, thx for the tip. Edited my post to reflect the change.
But when you start doing the math on this system, if you don't discover any ore, it's no less effective than the pinwheel strategy. You have to walk just as far and you uncover exactly as many new blocks for every block mined, no matter which strategy you use. And when you actually do find ore, the chance of running into the same vein you've already mined almost completely disappears, making the strategy slightly more efficient.
The probabilities turn out slightly different, but if you mine straight through the chunk, you get to see 128 blocks of that chunk on 4 layers - 48 on each of the two layers you mined through, and 32 more above and below that. Since we already know there's only one vein of diamond per chunk, located somewhere in the bottom 4096 blocks, and representing about 4 blocks on the average, each new block you see in this area has a 1/1024 chance of being the start of this diamond vein. So mining out 128 blocks of the level gives you a 128/1024 = 1/8 = 12.5% chance of finding the diamonds. But if you don't find them, mining out another 128 blocks of that chunk will only give you a 128/896 = 1/7 = 14.3% chance of finding the diamonds. And when you actually find the diamonds, which is an average of 68.75% likely if you mine the chunk thoroughly in this fashion (all on the same layers, but revealing all blocks in the two centre layers), your chance of finding more in the same chunk immediately drops to zero.
This is where the math starts getting complicated, but I'm pretty sure that when you get it all perfect, the "single tunnel" system performs identically to the pinwheel system. Except you never had to get the math and the probabilities perfect - it's just second to the right and straight on till morning. I therefore dub this the "Neverland" mining system: