I tend to branch-mine for my diamonds.
That there is 24 tunnels spanning north to south across the whole map Sitting on a stack and a half of legit diamond blocks thanks to fortune III.
Wow, I knew what strip mining is in the real world, but I didn't know what people meant by "strip mining" in minecraft until I saw the pic that Foxtrot posted. People do that to look for stuff? Don't get me wrong, I've dug out enormous rooms like that plenty of times, but only when digging out slime farms etc. No need to do that if you're just looking for resources. The way I've always done it, is apparently called branch mining. Leave only two blocks between tunnels so no chance of missing anything, same principle vertically, too, although I've only once exhausted a world entirely (xbox 864x864) at one level and had to move up to another level.
It looks like a lot, and quite frankly it is. I always like going down there and knowing that this massively open area I created, was once all stone and ore. Plus, some of my strip mining was necessary for simple stone resources. After I blew thru my first 12 double chests of stone making a castle, I needed more, so I went back to strip mining for the simple fact that I needed more stone.
And those pictures don't quite do it justice. It''s even bigger than it looks. In the first strip mining pic, the lava coming out of the wall on the left side, is actually the edge of the world. Same goes for the lighter part of the right side of the 2nd pic, same lava is creating that light. At that point, I extended in both directions, hitting both corners of the world. I wish I still could video capture from my xbox because a video would show the extent of mining of done.
I tend to branch mine at every 10 layers. (Ie I dig down to say, layer 40, then 30, then 20, then 10, then to bedrock. Thats how I branch mine since it's become a branch mine thread...
I personally, go down to level 11 and set up a Haste 2 beacon. I then chug a night vision and fire resist potion, and grab a efficiency V diamond pick, and start mining with my FOV set to quake pro. It's kinda expensive, and you do need to have killed the wither, but you find diamonds extremely quick! Also note, setting your FOV to quake pro isn't required. Happy mining!
When I am doing any kind of survival world, multiplayer or singleplayer (although usually multiplayer), my primary focus is getting a nice base built, therefore stone first diamonds second. I achieve stone by mining it (duh) at the typical level twelve, because that has yielded the most resources other than stone for me. I end up with these giant rooms, and if I don't use them a typical mining trip will yield close to ten diamonds (might not sound like a lot, but I get cobble stone on demand, not for surplus. It keeps the economy going like it should in the server I play on).
I branch mine now, just to keep cobblestone accumulation down now, but I used to strip mine at layer 12.
Branch mine
Strip mine
I still don't really consider this to be strip mining (as in the IRL sense), since the overburden (surface layers) are not stripped away. This is probably more like actual "room and pillar" mining - although such huge rooms without supporting pillars are not possible IRL due to real stone being responsive to gravity.
I tend to do a bit of caving with a bit of branch mining at layer 12 (layer 13 in some areas when I seem to encounter too much lava in the walls at layer 12). I also tend to keep track of the chunk in which I locate diamonds, so I move into a "fresh" chunks when I work my way down from layer 12 through layer 5. It seems to me that I saw somewhere that diamonds tend to spawn only in one vein in each chunk, so I reason that if I've already located diamonds in that chunk, I'm less likely to locate more diamonds in that same chunk on a different layer.
@UpUp_Away95, Yeah, it's not really strip mining since the surface layers are intact, but when you're looking for resources, why collect all that dirt and useless stuff anymore than you are going to by just doing a dig down to 12.
I decided to try and get my capture software to work again, succeeded for the most part, just don't have any editing software to shrink down the file size. I'll see if I can't capture my 2 worlds mines and keep it small enough to upload to youtube. Damn 2gb file size limit.
@UpUp_Away95, Yeah, it's not really strip mining since the surface layers are intact, but when you're looking for resources, why collect all that dirt and useless stuff anymore than you are going to by just doing a dig down to 12.
I decided to try and get my capture software to work again, succeeded for the most part, just don't have any editing software to shrink down the file size. I'll see if I can't capture my 2 worlds mines and keep it small enough to upload to youtube. Damn 2gb file size limit.
Agree, that's why I would never truly "strip mine" in Minecraft. I also don't intensively branch mine (as in taking out every 2nd or 3rd row over huge areas) either. However, neither do I just stick to mining visible resources in cave walls. There is little doubt that the combined methods I use can and doesleave significant numbers of diamonds unmined, the real point is that I generally find more than enough to play the game.
I do branch mining as well only with walls of two blocks width.
But first I try to find a cavern that hopefully leads to a lava lake or ravine. But then I have to deal with bunch of falling creepers.
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Retired StaffI tend to branch-mine for my diamonds.
That there is 24 tunnels spanning north to south across the whole map
Keep yourself up to date with the Minecraft Forum rules!
It looks like a lot, and quite frankly it is. I always like going down there and knowing that this massively open area I created, was once all stone and ore. Plus, some of my strip mining was necessary for simple stone resources. After I blew thru my first 12 double chests of stone making a castle, I needed more, so I went back to strip mining for the simple fact that I needed more stone.
And those pictures don't quite do it justice. It''s even bigger than it looks. In the first strip mining pic, the lava coming out of the wall on the left side, is actually the edge of the world. Same goes for the lighter part of the right side of the 2nd pic, same lava is creating that light. At that point, I extended in both directions, hitting both corners of the world. I wish I still could video capture from my xbox because a video would show the extent of mining of done.
Get some wood make wood pickaxe.
Get some stone and coal make stone pick axe.
Get some iron and make iron pickaxe.
Follow a cave down, you'll find a ravine that goes to 12 with this update, might take about 10 minutes if you've gone spelunking before.
Walk around.
Oh look diamonds.
But I usually just run around in caves
I still don't really consider this to be strip mining (as in the IRL sense), since the overburden (surface layers) are not stripped away. This is probably more like actual "room and pillar" mining - although such huge rooms without supporting pillars are not possible IRL due to real stone being responsive to gravity.
I tend to do a bit of caving with a bit of branch mining at layer 12 (layer 13 in some areas when I seem to encounter too much lava in the walls at layer 12). I also tend to keep track of the chunk in which I locate diamonds, so I move into a "fresh" chunks when I work my way down from layer 12 through layer 5. It seems to me that I saw somewhere that diamonds tend to spawn only in one vein in each chunk, so I reason that if I've already located diamonds in that chunk, I'm less likely to locate more diamonds in that same chunk on a different layer.
I decided to try and get my capture software to work again, succeeded for the most part, just don't have any editing software to shrink down the file size. I'll see if I can't capture my 2 worlds mines and keep it small enough to upload to youtube. Damn 2gb file size limit.
Agree, that's why I would never truly "strip mine" in Minecraft. I also don't intensively branch mine (as in taking out every 2nd or 3rd row over huge areas) either. However, neither do I just stick to mining visible resources in cave walls. There is little doubt that the combined methods I use can and doesleave significant numbers of diamonds unmined, the real point is that I generally find more than enough to play the game.
But first I try to find a cavern that hopefully leads to a lava lake or ravine. But then I have to deal with bunch of falling creepers.