Minecraft Forums

With so many different methods of mining, I've got to know which one is generally considered the best. Branch mining, is of course, a universally accepted method, but there are others. And, it also matters how you get to the bottom.

I mine naked.

I begin to mine in a corner and make a hexagon going diagonally down until I hit a natural cave Or until I feel like expanding it more in hopes to find diamond.

I make a spiral staircase down to the bedrock layer and then build 1x2 tunnels all over the place. Then if I run out of torches I just make all the tunnels bigger like either 2x2 or 3x3 or something.

I just do diagonal stairs, 3 blocks wide until i hit a natural cave.
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1X2 mineshaft down to bedrock, go up until level 8-10, then branch off. When im done, build a road/path from base and start again.

I personally think strip/branch mining is the best, because you basically clean up the underground of all that nice stuff, which would be :Diamond:. =O

Straight down with ladders about 20 blocks. then a room like such

7x10x3

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if i find a good amount of ore, i continue on this level. otherwise dig lower and do the same. only takes 4 torches in the corners to light it all up

I make a sort of stair case to the bedrock by click mining







until I find a cave. if i don't I just branch off one of the stairs until and repeat until i do find a cave, or enough iron to do stuff

That about sums it up.

I make an 11x11 shaft with three torches per side every 5 vertical levels. There is a staircase. I fully explore all natural caves. To make sure I don't miss anything, I mine essentially a 3x3x3 cube around an ore before mining it.The entrance is concealed in my base, close to the exit and the bank.

Usually I just do natural cave systems until I'm rich on supplies, and when I really wanna go for the gold I go creeper huntin' and try to make TNT and I make a spiral staircase straight to bedrock, from there I make a larger hole and dig a hallway 2 blocks high 1 block wide pretty far from the staircase and I start putting down some TNT, usually 5. I just do this over time while I do other stuff/creeper hunt.

Most of the time vertical strip. It's not as bad as everyone says, never fell into lava once.

Lately, though, I've been carving out 3x3 stair cases. Though, I have a nasty habit of ending up in LARGE cave systems and getting lost.

I explore large, natural caves, if I can find them. I've found several caves with entrances on the surface that lead (eventually) down to the diamond levels. I found 22 diamonds in my most recent cave system, in addition to more coal and iron than I know what to do with. If I can't find an entrance to such a cave from the surface, I'll dig a staircase down into the ground until I hear mobs moving around, and then I'll follow their noises until I break into a new cave system.

I mine 1x2. Once I touch the bottom of the map. I mine a huge square room and I put some half stone on the ground. No torches needed, nobody can spawn on half block. I just put some light in order to see if there is good stuff to mine.

Easy...

p.s.
I never go in the natural mines. Too much monsters, too dangerous.

If you aren't spelunking you are missing out on a huge part of the game!

I start at around sea level and dig a stairway down until I get pretty deep. I listen carefully for any sounds such as water or the creepy cave noises or mob noises. Then I follow the noise until I find the cave and explore it as far down as possible. Cave systems way down deep are a great way to find diamonds and iron. I will often leave with an inventory full of picks, torches, shovels and porkchops and come up with 5 or so diamonds, a stack or more of iron, two stacks of coal (i get sick of picking it up), 10 gold and the rest of my inventory full of cobble for projects. It seems to work well for me. I also use a grappling hook mod which really helps get around the world a lot easier.

Surface caves are great too and you can almost always get them down to lava levels. Sometimes you need to dig a little or clear away gravel to find the rest of the cave. Once you find a good cave system, you can spend hours in it. It is especially lucrative if the cave is around diamond level with lots of large exposed rooms.

Remember, when you think your cave is empty - follow your ears. I have had some pretty neat experiences of popping up into the bottom of a waterfall in a hidden branch of a large cave and swimming up in total darkness until I surface in a completely dark cavern with monsters coming at me!

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Straight down. Glass to cover it up so I get natural lighting and torches every 5 levels. The denotes a block with a ladder on it. The other side every 2 blocks vertically is dirt with nothing in between so grass is available at whatever level I need it. And the water block is the top of a water ladder.

Once I hit bedrock, I count upto level 11 and start branch mining. I usually find more than enough material this way. If I find natural caves when branch mining, I explore those and when done getting everything out of it, I block it off so it doesn't pollute the branch mine with monsters. When I get bored, I go exploring and mine a natural cave that I might stumble across.

by mining a 12 x 12 quarry to the bedrock layer usually results in tons of resources. Tons of coal, plenty iron, some gold, and a few diamonds. Very successful, but time consuming and needs an open space.

So far, I just construct a diagonal staircase on a -45º and keep going until I hit a natural cave. Although, the natural caves scare the hell out of me because of the dark areas with spawning creepers :ohmy.gif: Usually, I just try to light up the place as fast as I can... but they still get meh anyway :sad.gif:

I think in the future after I'm done with this cave (although it's a big one, so it might be a while...) I'll start making bigger, more elaborate staircases that spiral downward and branch off at different levels. Minecraft X-ray helps, too :tongue.gif:

I f I want diamonds I mine just above bedrock. If I want gold I go spelunking. For some reason I don't get much gold at bedrock, and spelunking is more fun. Mining can get boring fast though. We need more content so there's a reason to explore the world. I've got enough diamonds :tongue.gif:

Edit- I tried strip mining once. It's a very inefficiant way to mine, but with the massive hole i had after, I built a huge monster spawner/death trap. I'll never run out of arrows or tnt again! =) Now if only I got get chickens to stop laying eggs in it :tongue.gif: