Minecraft Forums

Mining, obviously, is quite possibly the biggest element of the game. And although there are many ways you can maximise your ore output, most seem either ugly (Pit mining), time consuming to set up (strip mining, though that might just be me), or else inferior. So I'd like to know how you guys mine. Are you in favour of maximising ore outputs and sacrificing looks, or do you prefer to not use guides and have your own personal mining system?

I know this may have been posted before, but none seem active and I'd like to see how many of you like unconventional methods.

Personally, I have an extremely unethical, fun and sometimes dangerous approach to my mines: Making a labyrinth that stretches for chunks on end, littered with occasional landmarks and supply caches. It doesn't make much sense, and is annoying when you find yourself running in circles, but it adds a sense of atmosphere to the game.

well i make stairs until i reach bedrock then i do branches

Mining in a notch head is the way I do it basicly you mine but at the end it makes a huge I got like 50 diamonds from this once

Quote from dgosling »

well i make stairs until i reach bedrock then i do branches

I do the same thing, only with better grammar. All joking aside, I find more diamond than I can use on tools alone, which makes me happy because it's not a rush to gather tool making materials after the first 4-7 or so diamonds that I find.
If I find a cave I'll explore it, harvest it's resources and then block it off so nothing spawns in areas I didn't see.
Branch mining is quite possibly the safest, easiest and most efficient form of mining.
I crunched the numbers and, if the theory that there is 1 diamond vein per chunk is correct, then you only need to mine about 400 blocks to have a very high chance of diamond vein discovery.

Make a little shaft to layer 13. Make that into a boatavator, make a long tunnel 3x3, then start branching off.
73 diamonds, 3 stacks of redstone, stack of iron.....

I am a dwarf
Diggy hole
diggy diggy hole
diggy diggy hole

You beat me to it.


And, yet another yogscast reference.

3x3 stair down to bedrock, and clear out a massive area to get ores and cobble. ( probably around 60x60 ++ ) then i do som strip-mining.

i dunno what mining technique is the most efficient, so i just do strip-mining. ^^

I make a tunnel in my "base/home" with doors to keep monsters out then i dig straight down till bedrock and spread out. also ince you are so low down you can use tnt. then i place ladders to climb up and down the mine. Efficient for me and clean looking.

~Colby

Well at the beggining i just make a staircase to bedrock and then make a 2x2 tunnel but after that i need stone so i mine in a quarry about the size of a chunk.

I usually make a 2x2 tunnel in my first house, then keep going down until I reach a lava cave, then decide what to do from there, like explore around that cave.

This is my current mining style- and upgrade from how Coestar does his in his video. The server I'm currently playing in is economy based, so I purchased a 20x20 lot, with rights from cloud level to bedrock. So this was the most efficient design for my needs.



It's 20x20, and is currently about 55 blocks deep, with plans to go straight to bedrock. I make glass portholes along the top to allow sun to pour in during the day and help brighten the area up.

I take tools, wood, chests, lava, water, and some other stuff.

then, i mine in a tight spiral downward and when i hit bedrock, i start branching along the spiral' leaving a down ward slope.

this design allows me to flood the place when i'm done or not currently using it because of mobs.(i like to keep my torches )

I have a small 3x3 pit to bedrock, then I start branch mining and stuff. For some strange reason though, I can set one of these bad boys up ANYWHERE and not hit a cave. I can miss by a few blocks, but I've never dug straight into a cave.

Currently though, I've got a mob tower going to work making TNT, so I can start doing some extreme TNT mining at bedrock. I've got a small desert biome that I'm clearing of sand for the massive amounts I want.

Strip Mine or Mineshaft, or like a 3x3 big staircase to bedrock.

I go cave spelunking. I let the game clear out all the rubble for me so I can get right to the ores I'm looking for. :ohmy.gif:)

I dig a 3x3 mineshaft to a cave and spelunk, as inefficient as it is.

I mine out an extremely long tunnel, and every two blocks, dig out as far as I can. This is how it looks from the top:

[]
[]
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
[]
[]
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
[]
[]

I can't show it very well in these forums, essentially, every two blocks, I dig the top of the two blocks to my right side as far as I can, and if I don't see anything, I keep going. If I run into something, I continue the branch from that area where the ore was.

Quote from Erollinus »

This is my current mining style- and upgrade from how Coestar does his in his video. The server I'm currently playing in is economy based, so I purchased a 20x20 lot, with rights from cloud level to bedrock. So this was the most efficient design for my needs.



It's 20x20, and is currently about 55 blocks deep, with plans to go straight to bedrock. I make glass portholes along the top to allow sun to pour in during the day and help brighten the area up.

I did this, it was the same dimensions as yours. I think it took me 4 diamond pick and half a diamond shovel. It's a long drop.