Placing torches on walls vs floors doesn't really make a difference. A combination of the two would be optimal because you can eliminate dark spots more easily than just one or the other. Wall placement can indicate direction of travel, so it's best out of the two regardless.
A more important fact that you don't list is light level; why care about how you place torches if stuff will still spawn? One torch at light level 1-3 will prevent any spawning between torches.
You also have inferior ways of dealing with lava.
-If you sink below the surface of lava, swim towards the wall near the opening; DO NOT PRESS FORWARD WITHOUT AIMING AT A WALL. This prevents you from getting trapped under obsidian.
-Don't mine blocks around lava with water flowing against them. This can push you into the lava, and turn the opening into obsidian.
-If you fall into lava do not panic. Keep your head above the surface with spacebar, and continually try to jump onto land (must be equal level to the lava surface).
-If you're kind of far away from the edge of lava, swim to the wall and aim your water bucket at it. This will turn the lava surface into obsidian and as long as your head is above the surface, you can jump out.
ALWAYS pour water and get in it (aim at feet or something) after going into lava. Fire will easily kill you otherwise.
The best way to avoid lava deaths is to be cautious. Listen for lava at all times, and never dig directly down if you hear it. Sometimes you don't even hear it, so try to avoid that if possible. If you're dumb, you will likely die, and deserve to because it'll make you learn the hard way.
A better way to deal with lava lakes is throwing gravel against a wall and elmininate source blocks. This gives you access to anything underneath without 45 minutes of mining for just a 10x6x3 area of obsidian to restrict any diamonds underneath (I prefer to branch mine for caves/shafts, lava is a common occurrence).
Dont mine through caves, Mine though strip mining.
To 987Theawesome
Realy there is no best way to mine its what you like and are good at so Issac was just making a guide about caving he never said anything about it being the best way to mine
Torch Placement
Honestly, this is not going to be a big deal for most people. But when I see Let’s Players on YouTube going caving, and they place their torches on the walls of caves instead of on the floor… I just hit the roof.
Just don’t place your torches on the walls of the cave. Place them on the floor. First off, a good reason for doing this is block lighting. If you place a torch on a wall of a cave, it’s not going to project much light to the floor. It’s going to light up the wall, but who cares? Mobs can’t spawn on a wall anyway! The part of a cave you want to light up is the floor, so that the mobs can’t spawn. Secondly, placing torches on the walls of caves takes a lot more time on placing them on the floor! This time is precious time that you could spend obtaining ores and having fun. When you place a torch on a cave wall, you have to stop and place it. But if you place a torch on the floor, you can just look down and place it while still sprinting along. It doesn’t stop your momentum, and it’s so easy that you don’t even have to think about it!
This is the only part I do not agree with, I place torches on the walls, I don't need to stop every time I place one, and there is a method to my madness. I ALWAYS place torches on the right hand wall of the cave. Why? Because when I am leaving the cave I just follow the torches on the left. I also know which direction I am headed, towards the surface, or towards bedrock. Rest of the guide is great though
Anyway, I don't see the need to bring stuff like potions; I mean, really? If you need health potions then you are doing something wrong (although if a witch poisons me and then drops one I'll drink it); good armor should be enough if you don't just dive into hordes of mobs without thinking. As for Fire Resistance, that's what a water bucket is for (and I've never experienced the sort of lag that makes obsidian suddenly revert back to lava, presumably only in multiplayer, which I don't play). Note that this includes pouring water down the sides of ravines as I venture out along the ledges high up (falling is no issue with Feather Falling and Protection IV armor).
Also, no need for flint and steel for silverfish; with only 8 health, a Sharpness V sword obliterates them (along with cave spiders) in just one hit, so they don't make more come.
Most significantly, using Fortune to mine ores is much better than Silk Touch as you didn't really consider how much space you save by making blocks; one block is 9 resources and the only ore that averages more is lapis, which is rare enough to make up a small portion of what I mine. Plus, using Silk Touch to mine ores then Fortune to get the drops means twice as much pickaxe wear, and these pickaxes don't come cheap (37 levels to repair an Efficiency V, Fortune III, Unbreaking III pickaxe with one diamond, which is not a problem with the XP I get from mining and mobs but add in one with Silk Touch and it is, requiring a mob farm to get enough XP; my playstyle lets me completely ignore mob farms).
Also, why is there no mention of an Ender chest? That allows me to mine thousands of ores per caving session (typically around 3,000 per play session and 2-3 play sessions per caving session) without having to return (especially since I modded it to have 54 slots, but even a 27 slot chest can store a lot; 27x64x9 = 15,552), I can also carry additional items in it, like a crafting table, furnaces, extra wood (I use so many torches that a stack of even logs, which make 2,048 torches per stack, isn't enough) and food, and an anvil plus extra diamonds for repairing my gear on the fly (I have to repair my pickaxe several times per session).
That said, I do agree with torch placement - just place them randomly on the ground as I go through a section of cave, then come back mining the ores out, and as for using them for markers, I don't need any sort of markers (lit-up and mined out plus memory is good enough), aside from pillars i make to mark where I exited a cave so I can easily find it again, using a map and coordinates to find the general area.
Of interest, here are some screenshots from my world (taken in Spectator mode; note that you only want to do this on a copy because of what happens when you load a world in a snapshot and go back) to show how I do things:
Torch placement in a (very) large cave; I pretty much just go through and place down torches without really looking at how far apart they are, but end up with good results:
A ravine; note the absence of any exposed lava and the use of cobblestone/dirt to fill in ledges/bridge across them:
A mineshaft; I take all ores, rails, and loot, plus cobwebs around spawners, although leave planks and fences in, and minecarts after I've found several:
A raided dungeon:
An overall look at a cave system; you can see a few areas I missed but overall I explore almost everything despite using no markers:
While I use no markers in caves themselves I do mark the surface where I left off as you can see here:
Ender chest contents after a couple play sessions; note that a stack of blocks is 576 resources, compared to just 64 ore per stack if mined with Silk Touch (note that coal nets around 2 drops per ore with Fortune after what I use, so that is about 288 ore per stack of blocks):
The coal you see is the equivalent of about 4,500 coal ore mined, while if mined with Silk Touch you'd need about 70 stacks to store that much (by comparison, I mined only about 83 lapis (averaging 13.2 per ore with Fortune), so that is no big deal as mentioned previously, and would need two stacks anyway as ore); also, how do you make torches with coal ore? You'd need another pickaxe either way, and it'd get more use than the Silk Touch pickaxe I use for my Ender chest, still around 50% durability after over two months of use and never having been repaired yet, which I can also do when it is nearly dead, unlike my extremely expensive main pickaxe or a Silk Touch equivalent)
Also, this is why I questioned the need for healing/fire resistance potions; I killed myself to show my score (in the copy I made, of course):
With a score like that (my modded game shows it in the inventory screen so I knew what it was already) you can see that I have no worries at all about dying (I have died a few times in my current world, but only due to rare freak circumstances, and never to lava, not since my first main world).
PRETTY
Amazing,Awesome Guide man
i have fun reading this
and one more thing...
its...
ADD some tips do NOT to do like:
Never Dig straight down
Never Sprint near lava..etc
so yeah and
Caving is the best way to mine. It's less mindless and more exciting. But isn't it technically called spelunking?
"Spelunking" is a term used by those who don't really cave:
In the 1960s, the terms spelunking and spelunker began to be considered déclassé among experienced enthusiasts. They began to convey the idea of inexperienced cavers, using unreliable light sources and cotton clothing. In 1985, Steve Knutson (editor of the National Speleological Society (NSS) publication American Caving Accidents) made the following distinction:
…Note that I use the term 'spelunker' to denote someone untrained and unknowledgeable in current exploration techniques, and 'caver' for those who are.
That's also why my forum name isn't "TheMasterSpelunker", which also just sounds weird to me, not to mention some people might have no idea what the world means, while most know what a cave is.
A more important fact that you don't list is light level; why care about how you place torches if stuff will still spawn? One torch at light level 1-3 will prevent any spawning between torches.
You also have inferior ways of dealing with lava.
-If you sink below the surface of lava, swim towards the wall near the opening; DO NOT PRESS FORWARD WITHOUT AIMING AT A WALL. This prevents you from getting trapped under obsidian.
-Don't mine blocks around lava with water flowing against them. This can push you into the lava, and turn the opening into obsidian.
-If you fall into lava do not panic. Keep your head above the surface with spacebar, and continually try to jump onto land (must be equal level to the lava surface).
-If you're kind of far away from the edge of lava, swim to the wall and aim your water bucket at it. This will turn the lava surface into obsidian and as long as your head is above the surface, you can jump out.
ALWAYS pour water and get in it (aim at feet or something) after going into lava. Fire will easily kill you otherwise.
The best way to avoid lava deaths is to be cautious. Listen for lava at all times, and never dig directly down if you hear it. Sometimes you don't even hear it, so try to avoid that if possible. If you're dumb, you will likely die, and deserve to because it'll make you learn the hard way.
A better way to deal with lava lakes is throwing gravel against a wall and elmininate source blocks. This gives you access to anything underneath without 45 minutes of mining for just a 10x6x3 area of obsidian to restrict any diamonds underneath (I prefer to branch mine for caves/shafts, lava is a common occurrence).
"it makes my rep-whoring self feel better about the time I put into these."
you're welcome
[Overused Signature Goes Here]
To 987Theawesome
Realy there is no best way to mine its what you like and are good at so Issac was just making a guide about caving he never said anything about it being the best way to mine
Shadow Wolf
This is the only part I do not agree with, I place torches on the walls, I don't need to stop every time I place one, and there is a method to my madness. I ALWAYS place torches on the right hand wall of the cave. Why? Because when I am leaving the cave I just follow the torches on the left. I also know which direction I am headed, towards the surface, or towards bedrock. Rest of the guide is great though
Anyway, I don't see the need to bring stuff like potions; I mean, really? If you need health potions then you are doing something wrong (although if a witch poisons me and then drops one I'll drink it); good armor should be enough if you don't just dive into hordes of mobs without thinking. As for Fire Resistance, that's what a water bucket is for (and I've never experienced the sort of lag that makes obsidian suddenly revert back to lava, presumably only in multiplayer, which I don't play). Note that this includes pouring water down the sides of ravines as I venture out along the ledges high up (falling is no issue with Feather Falling and Protection IV armor).
Also, no need for flint and steel for silverfish; with only 8 health, a Sharpness V sword obliterates them (along with cave spiders) in just one hit, so they don't make more come.
Most significantly, using Fortune to mine ores is much better than Silk Touch as you didn't really consider how much space you save by making blocks; one block is 9 resources and the only ore that averages more is lapis, which is rare enough to make up a small portion of what I mine. Plus, using Silk Touch to mine ores then Fortune to get the drops means twice as much pickaxe wear, and these pickaxes don't come cheap (37 levels to repair an Efficiency V, Fortune III, Unbreaking III pickaxe with one diamond, which is not a problem with the XP I get from mining and mobs but add in one with Silk Touch and it is, requiring a mob farm to get enough XP; my playstyle lets me completely ignore mob farms).
Also, why is there no mention of an Ender chest? That allows me to mine thousands of ores per caving session (typically around 3,000 per play session and 2-3 play sessions per caving session) without having to return (especially since I modded it to have 54 slots, but even a 27 slot chest can store a lot; 27x64x9 = 15,552), I can also carry additional items in it, like a crafting table, furnaces, extra wood (I use so many torches that a stack of even logs, which make 2,048 torches per stack, isn't enough) and food, and an anvil plus extra diamonds for repairing my gear on the fly (I have to repair my pickaxe several times per session).
That said, I do agree with torch placement - just place them randomly on the ground as I go through a section of cave, then come back mining the ores out, and as for using them for markers, I don't need any sort of markers (lit-up and mined out plus memory is good enough), aside from pillars i make to mark where I exited a cave so I can easily find it again, using a map and coordinates to find the general area.
Of interest, here are some screenshots from my world (taken in Spectator mode; note that you only want to do this on a copy because of what happens when you load a world in a snapshot and go back) to show how I do things:
A ravine; note the absence of any exposed lava and the use of cobblestone/dirt to fill in ledges/bridge across them:
A mineshaft; I take all ores, rails, and loot, plus cobwebs around spawners, although leave planks and fences in, and minecarts after I've found several:
A raided dungeon:
An overall look at a cave system; you can see a few areas I missed but overall I explore almost everything despite using no markers:
While I use no markers in caves themselves I do mark the surface where I left off as you can see here:
Ender chest contents after a couple play sessions; note that a stack of blocks is 576 resources, compared to just 64 ore per stack if mined with Silk Touch (note that coal nets around 2 drops per ore with Fortune after what I use, so that is about 288 ore per stack of blocks):
The coal you see is the equivalent of about 4,500 coal ore mined, while if mined with Silk Touch you'd need about 70 stacks to store that much (by comparison, I mined only about 83 lapis (averaging 13.2 per ore with Fortune), so that is no big deal as mentioned previously, and would need two stacks anyway as ore); also, how do you make torches with coal ore? You'd need another pickaxe either way, and it'd get more use than the Silk Touch pickaxe I use for my Ender chest, still around 50% durability after over two months of use and never having been repaired yet, which I can also do when it is nearly dead, unlike my extremely expensive main pickaxe or a Silk Touch equivalent)
Also, this is why I questioned the need for healing/fire resistance potions; I killed myself to show my score (in the copy I made, of course):
With a score like that (my modded game shows it in the inventory screen so I knew what it was already) you can see that I have no worries at all about dying (I have died a few times in my current world, but only due to rare freak circumstances, and never to lava, not since my first main world).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Amazing,Awesome Guide man
i have fun reading this
and one more thing...
its...
ADD some tips do NOT to do like:
Never Dig straight down
Never Sprint near lava..etc
so yeah and
+1
I'm just a very boring person.
"Spelunking" is a term used by those who don't really cave:
That's also why my forum name isn't "TheMasterSpelunker", which also just sounds weird to me, not to mention some people might have no idea what the world means, while most know what a cave is.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?