Iron is easy enough to find that there's no point in not using it as soon as you find it.
Then I try to get enchanting going before switching to diamond full time.
The first 5 diamonds go to a pick for obsidian and to the enchanting table itself.
Then I try to keep diamond ore marked up but unmined until I can get Fortune III
And I don't use a diamond pick for general mining (or at least don't make another) until I can put Unbreaking on it.
As for armor I don't find that the extra protection from diamond outweighs the risk of losing it when I get killed, so I wait until I can get Protection on it so I don't get killed so often.
I enjoy mining and so I end up with more diamonds than I need so I have made a couple of diamond hoes but I can never remember to leave them at the farm and don't want them taking up inventory slots while mining and caving so I wouldn't bother again unless I was going to start an enormous farm (and why bother with that?).
Because I don't like mining in cave, I dig down to layer 8 and make my mine, so I have to have at least 3 spare iron ingots so that I never find diamonds without an iron pickaxe.
And because of doing that, finding iron is not really easy for me (found 1 stack after 4 hours of mining), but diamonds are easy to find (enough to craft full diamond set and a diamond pickaxe after 4 hours of mining)
I always start by digging a stairway straight down to level 5 or 11 and branch mine and usually find my first iron before reaching the bottom.
(If I find a cave on the way down I may, very, very carefully, explore it even before getting full armor but I don't do much caving until then.)
It seems odd that you aren't finding more iron.
Iron does wear out a lot faster than diamond but I never had any trouble finding enough iron to keep making pickaxes, diamond on the other hand I have the idea that an unenchanted diamond pickaxe didn't always last long enough to find the diamonds to replace it.
Oh that number of iron doesn't include about half a stack I used to make pickaxes and 24 ingots I used to craft rails. And I use diamond pickaxe whenever I have one, but I don't craft many diamond pickaxes. I use it until it has 18 uses left.
Btw, I usually find enough diamonds to craft a new pickaxe before the current one breaks, even if it's unenchanted.
And I miscalculated the time. It's less than 2 hours, include the time I spent outside.
Iron is easy enough to find that there's no point in not using it as soon as you find it.
Then I try to get enchanting going before switching to diamond full time.
The first 5 diamonds go to a pick for obsidian and to the enchanting table itself.
Then I try to keep diamond ore marked up but unmined until I can get Fortune III
And I don't use a diamond pick for general mining (or at least don't make another) until I can put Unbreaking on it.
As for armor I don't find that the extra protection from diamond outweighs the risk of losing it when I get killed, so I wait until I can get Protection on it so I don't get killed so often.
Great minds think alike. That's what I used to do.
However, more recently I've tried rushing the Nether to see if I can find diamonds and obsidian for an enchanting table, before I mine any diamonds at all. Both can be found in fortress loot chests, and in the past I have found them and made an enchanting table without mining a single diamond. It's an interesting challenge, but it does require some daring and skill (adventuring in the nether with nothing more than unenchanted iron gear).
My last attempt was in the new 1.13 world generated on the Broken Laptop server, and it was a bust. I did manage to find what appeared to be a very large fortress and thought I was good to go. The fortress turned out to be a troll. After searching it for hours I only found 3 loot chests, and all contained crap (mostly saddles and gold horse armor). And there was only a single blaze spawner as well, but at least I did get some blaze rods.
But now you're probably thinking, wait a minute, CM, how did you get to the nether without mining obsidian for the portal?
Well, first you make a bucket or two, then find some water and a pool of lava (at least 10 lava).
Next, you make a frame out of any block in the shape of a portal (hole below is optional, but it helps control the water).
Then you place 2 water source blocks at the top of the portal frame.
Place lava against the 2 bottom blocks of the portal frame.
From the bottom up, work your way up the sides...
Until you place the last 2 where the water sources are.
The water will drain away.
Leaving you with an obsidian nether portal frame, ready to light.
So, light it up!
And head on into the nether.
Find a nether fortress
Find obsidian
Find diamonds
And that's how you can make an enchanting table before mining any diamonds.
I still mainly use stone for all my normal tools, as I can easily replace them anytime, anywhere. In the game it's a relaxation anyway, and I don't feel under time constraints to "get it done". I generally use iron for all my enchanted tools due to the time needed for XP to make them, but never felt the need to make any diamond tools except a pick for obsidian mining.
Other than that I basically mirror Hexolabular in when I actually start using Diamonds. I don't actually start using my Diamond Pick until I have Fortune 3 on it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
Since i usually play with many vanilla-friendly mods, it's kinda impossible for me to go from the "Iron Age" directly to the "Diamond Age". I have a total of 10 mining levels with each ore/gem having their own mining level to prevent rushing from Iron to Diamonds in just 5 minutes.
In order for me to get Diamonds in the first place, i need to first start off with wooden/stone tools (Lv0), then go to copper (Lv1), then tin/topaz (Lv2), then iron/amethyst (Lv3), then silver/sapphire (Lv4), then gold/emerald (Lv5), then platinum/ruby (Lv6) and then finally diamonds (Lv7).
There's no way for me to skip something except for the gems, which only serve the purpose as a rarer alternative to their metal ore counterparts. They have pretty similar but overall slightly higher stats but are around 75% rarer compared to the metal ores. The remaining mining levels are for the nether and then i can use these to finally get the strongest ore of them all, which can be found in the end.
Tool progression is very slow compared to vanilla or other modpacks, but really that's how i prefer it. Pretty much everything has a purpose and must be mined for their tools and general equipment.
I usually stick with the same tier of tools when i know i have plenty of it. If let's say i have much silver but barely any gold, i just stick with silver until i get more from the other. Same goes for armor, if my armor is barely damaged, i'll just stick using it until it's almost broken and i have enough materials for a better one.
Since my modpack is pretty hardcore in terms of difficulty, it is very important for me to have all these possibilities for tools and armor, because pretty much every mob causes 1,5 or 2 times as much damage and has 2 times more health with an additional speed and sight range bonus. (I play on hard difficulty too, which makes the damage dealt from some mobs incredibly high.)
I make an iron pickaxe as soon as I find iron and same for diamond (after using up the stone/iron one; I do not use up wood though since it is too slow), and don't even bother with Fortune on diamonds since they are easy to find for the amount that you need and the effort spent enchanting is better spent elsewhere (that said, I do prefer Fortune for my mod's much rarer amethyst ore, of which I only found 22 compared to 91 diamond while branch-mining in my last world, the latter more than twice what I'd need for all of my gear), though I don't go "full diamond" until the "end-game", when I start caving (iron armor is enough for even the End, where I've only ever died because I was knocked into the void, and not at all in a long time).
I have placed 'Mending" and "Nonbreaking III" on most of my tools that are enchanted and thus never use them up. If I have to use one on something that doesn't give XP to repair it I just wait and later when XP producing use comes around, it gets fixed. As for the enchantments, I haven't used the Enchanting Table in this world since I built it. Everything has been done on the anvil with stuff fished up AFK and the XP to do the work also.
Only thing I don't have mending on is the bow as I prefer "Infinity" instead
Well, as of the last couple Worlds (here's another factor: about 50 major Worlds in almost-7 Years), my First thing I Craft, from Iron (other than maybe 2 for Shears if Sheep are handy, for a Bed, and /or 1 for a Shield, if Skeletons are especially-frequent), Used to be 3 for a Bucket (for Water mostly, but later - when found - Lava, for Fuel, as it Saves-on [Char occasionally ]Coal [which I can Save-better in Coal Blocks, last couple Years, than Any-other kind of Fuel]). Now it's 3 for an Iron Pick: it Mines-faster, which means I can more-often Mine While Caving, in Hard Mode, Instead of having basically-all Stone equipment (and sometimes not-even [24 for] Iron Armor), and Having To ALWAYS Torch EVERYTHING, First(!).
It's still dangerous, of course, but I do it at least occasionally, anyway, and it helps keep Mining as-"Boring" (heh, Mining Pun, re-cycled from previous-Game) as it is, from being Too-much, Too-often. But then the next thing, lately, is generally an Iron Sword (so 3, then 2 for this, Iron Ingots), Because it only takes about-3 hits to kill an average Hostile Mob, instead of about-4 (depending on Jump-hitting, and /or not), which since the (v. #?) Combat Update's meant that I can't just Swing-wildly "As Fast As I Can," Click, Besides-which, there's a "Sword-Slashing," effect, which's my main-reason I'm Not-using my Axe, for this (the-Least, hits required, even if slightly-slower, to Fight).
As for Diamond, I Always make a D Pick, First, so-that I can Mine the-next Obsidian, and use my next 2 (after the 3, Pick-again) (Diamonds), for an Enchantment Table. Generally, I get Exp. Pt's. faster than I can Enchant-stuff (which I only-ever use Iron or-Diamond, for), And, when I get a Cow Farm (for Leather, Books, and so Bookcases, for Enchanting-Max'ing. [I never bother under Level 30, saving that for rarely Anvil usage, but mostly dying ]), my Exp. Pt's. (generally get Another-Farm, First, given relative-availability of various Farm-able, Animals) are-Already through the roof, So it's really just a matter of avoiding embarrassment of "dying at Level [X]," Every time.
I use my first bits of iron to get a bucket, shears, and flint n steel, after that I'll get the iron pick (gotta have it to get redstone and diamond) and get compass and maps squared away. After that, iron generally goes to hoppers/redstoning, golems, and beacon bases as well as more buckets/shears/flint n steel. I never make any more iron picks, and I never make any iron axes/shovels/hoes at all
When I find diamonds, I make the enchanting table and one diamond pick IF I hadn't previously gotten lucky enough to find obsidian at a blacksmith. All other uses of obsidian can be done in-world without involving diamonds, so once those couple obsidian are obtained the diamond pick goes on hiatus for nearly forever (I always keep it on hand, however, to deal with random obsidian blockage when mining). Any diamonds I collect stay in chests until I go enchanting crazy, which I'm having to do less and less due to endbusting and oceanic fun.
I don't bother with armor at all, other than random pieces dropped by mobs.
Initially I only make a wood pick and make do with stone tools. My first Iron when caving use for: a shield, a bucket and shears - and if there's enough left over for an iron pick (Depending on how much I find) then and Iron pick so I can mine coal and iron faster. So after the first few nights I will get an Iron pick just for ease of said coal, iron and any other ore.
When I have an abundance of Iron, I will only replace my stone sword when it runs out, maybe the axe, maybe not due to all the picking up of the crafting table (I'm not one to make one and leave them all over the world) but generally I might keep a stone axe and shovel for the rest of the world.. Only in my main world (My advanced one) do I like to have all diamond tools, especially efficiency ones for big builds, but it depends on the kind of play style you have. I will always generally stick to only stone hoes, but in a new worlds I'd just have a diamond pick for diamonds (fortune III) and obsidian, not general mining.
Like Minecraft forums or interested in my world? Try My message board, it's better moderated because I run it directly and have run Internet message boards for 21+ years! Better software and I have much more control to keep the content more up to date. Free to join, 13 years+.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
10/21/2012
Posts:
253
Member Details
Always interesting to see how other people play!
I start by digging down to y=12 and starting a mine; I nearly always have a full set of iron gear (including armor and a bucket or two) by the time I reach the bottom. And then, once I start clearing out the space at the bottom that will become the workroom/mine storage (and, if I decide to stay and build a "real" house at my starting location, possibly a minecart station) it doesn't usually take too long to find my first dieamonds... Pickaxe, sword, enchanting table (once i find lava for obsidian). I don't really start playing until I have at least some diamond gear, and once I upgrade to diamond I pretty much never look back.
All my new worlds are hardcore, so I create and use diamond equipment as soon as possible. First thing I do is mine to Y=12 and start branch mining.
It's basically a race to Protection IV diamond armor for me. No diamond hording at all. Immediate use. Pick, table, chest, legs, helmet, boots.
After you've done it a few times, you see how much of a waste in time and materials it is to "save" diamonds and diamond equipment in actual game play. I try to get Unbreaking, Fortune and Mending on my pick ASAP, but I'll use it until I do.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
I usually play survival with a friend and we both take on different jobs. I love building so at the start of every survival we ever do I spend the first couple of hours making a base with stone tools. After that's done there's usually a lot of iron from my friend mining for me to get a full set of iron tools and maybe armour (I usually don't bother with armour until I'm done with the base).
Usually I don't start using diamond tools until I can enchant them decently. I usually only make 1 set of diamond armour, which is the god set I'll be using for the rest of the game.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
5/30/2018
Posts:
95
Minecraft:
TheAuraMC
Xbox:
N/A
PSN:
N/A
Nintendo:
N/A
Member Details
I head into the mines as soon as I have enough wood and food, then I mine until I have 5 diamonds, then I make an diamond pick, get obsidian, get some leather and sugar cane, make it into an enchantment table, then using the remaining books I make bookshelfs for slightly better enchants. Then I put basic low - level enchants on my gear before making a small cow and sugar cane farm to get more bookshelves. I wait until I have enough for a level 30 enchant then I go back to the mines, find 3 more diamonds and some obsidian. Then I go to the nether and mine quartz for XP, when I have around about 39 levels I go back and try and get fortune 3 on my pick (preferably with efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3) then I go back down and get enough diamonds for armour and tools. From there I might go back to the nether for quartz or build a XP farm to enchant those items.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no evil weapons, only evil people” - Someone, I guess?
Just curious. When do you decide to use Iron Pickaxe instead of Stone Pickaxe to mine and when do you use Diamond Pickaxe?
With me, I use Iron Pickaxe when I have 6 Iron Ingots and I use Diamond Pickaxe whenever I have one.
ewe
Iron is easy enough to find that there's no point in not using it as soon as you find it.
Then I try to get enchanting going before switching to diamond full time.
The first 5 diamonds go to a pick for obsidian and to the enchanting table itself.
Then I try to keep diamond ore marked up but unmined until I can get Fortune III
And I don't use a diamond pick for general mining (or at least don't make another) until I can put Unbreaking on it.
As for armor I don't find that the extra protection from diamond outweighs the risk of losing it when I get killed, so I wait until I can get Protection on it so I don't get killed so often.
I enjoy mining and so I end up with more diamonds than I need so I have made a couple of diamond hoes but I can never remember to leave them at the farm and don't want them taking up inventory slots while mining and caving so I wouldn't bother again unless I was going to start an enormous farm (and why bother with that?).
Just testing.
Because I don't like mining in cave, I dig down to layer 8 and make my mine, so I have to have at least 3 spare iron ingots so that I never find diamonds without an iron pickaxe.
And because of doing that, finding iron is not really easy for me (found 1 stack after 4 hours of mining), but diamonds are easy to find (enough to craft full diamond set and a diamond pickaxe after 4 hours of mining)
ewe
I always start by digging a stairway straight down to level 5 or 11 and branch mine and usually find my first iron before reaching the bottom.
(If I find a cave on the way down I may, very, very carefully, explore it even before getting full armor but I don't do much caving until then.)
It seems odd that you aren't finding more iron.
Iron does wear out a lot faster than diamond but I never had any trouble finding enough iron to keep making pickaxes, diamond on the other hand I have the idea that an unenchanted diamond pickaxe didn't always last long enough to find the diamonds to replace it.
Just testing.
Oh that number of iron doesn't include about half a stack I used to make pickaxes and 24 ingots I used to craft rails. And I use diamond pickaxe whenever I have one, but I don't craft many diamond pickaxes. I use it until it has 18 uses left.
Btw, I usually find enough diamonds to craft a new pickaxe before the current one breaks, even if it's unenchanted.
And I miscalculated the time. It's less than 2 hours, include the time I spent outside.
ewe
Great minds think alike. That's what I used to do.
However, more recently I've tried rushing the Nether to see if I can find diamonds and obsidian for an enchanting table, before I mine any diamonds at all. Both can be found in fortress loot chests, and in the past I have found them and made an enchanting table without mining a single diamond. It's an interesting challenge, but it does require some daring and skill (adventuring in the nether with nothing more than unenchanted iron gear).
My last attempt was in the new 1.13 world generated on the Broken Laptop server, and it was a bust. I did manage to find what appeared to be a very large fortress and thought I was good to go. The fortress turned out to be a troll. After searching it for hours I only found 3 loot chests, and all contained crap (mostly saddles and gold horse armor). And there was only a single blaze spawner as well, but at least I did get some blaze rods.
But now you're probably thinking, wait a minute, CM, how did you get to the nether without mining obsidian for the portal?
Well, first you make a bucket or two, then find some water and a pool of lava (at least 10 lava).
Next, you make a frame out of any block in the shape of a portal (hole below is optional, but it helps control the water).
Then you place 2 water source blocks at the top of the portal frame.
Place lava against the 2 bottom blocks of the portal frame.
From the bottom up, work your way up the sides...
Until you place the last 2 where the water sources are.
The water will drain away.
Leaving you with an obsidian nether portal frame, ready to light.
So, light it up!
And head on into the nether.
And that's how you can make an enchanting table before mining any diamonds.
Click the spoiler to see...
I still mainly use stone for all my normal tools, as I can easily replace them anytime, anywhere. In the game it's a relaxation anyway, and I don't feel under time constraints to "get it done". I generally use iron for all my enchanted tools due to the time needed for XP to make them, but never felt the need to make any diamond tools except a pick for obsidian mining.
Learn something new each day
I play similar to everyone else here, really.
I use stone tools to find iron. Iron to find diamond while gathering materials for builds and projects.
When I feel comfortable with my state in the game, I make full diamond gear.
Where I differ, is on the projects I use the tools on.
No one like to feel like the tool that broke a diamond pick digging a basement in a house you're going to abandon later because it's too small.
I use my diamond tools for larger projects where going back to the crafting table every 3 - 10 minutes is a pain, like guardian farms or ender enders.
Nowadays if I'm anywhere near an ocean I spend the first day or so scrounging shipwrecks and buried treasure. You can be on Iron and even Diamond gear relatively quickly using that method. If I have to mine for it then I get an Iron Pick the first day if possible and immediately get to level 12 to mine using Phoenix's X-Mine, which is the most efficient mine design I have seen for getting as many resources as possible within a set area.
Other than that I basically mirror Hexolabular in when I actually start using Diamonds. I don't actually start using my Diamond Pick until I have Fortune 3 on it.
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/2775557-guidelines-for-the-suggestions-forum
Since i usually play with many vanilla-friendly mods, it's kinda impossible for me to go from the "Iron Age" directly to the "Diamond Age". I have a total of 10 mining levels with each ore/gem having their own mining level to prevent rushing from Iron to Diamonds in just 5 minutes.
In order for me to get Diamonds in the first place, i need to first start off with wooden/stone tools (Lv0), then go to copper (Lv1), then tin/topaz (Lv2), then iron/amethyst (Lv3), then silver/sapphire (Lv4), then gold/emerald (Lv5), then platinum/ruby (Lv6) and then finally diamonds (Lv7).
There's no way for me to skip something except for the gems, which only serve the purpose as a rarer alternative to their metal ore counterparts. They have pretty similar but overall slightly higher stats but are around 75% rarer compared to the metal ores. The remaining mining levels are for the nether and then i can use these to finally get the strongest ore of them all, which can be found in the end.
Tool progression is very slow compared to vanilla or other modpacks, but really that's how i prefer it. Pretty much everything has a purpose and must be mined for their tools and general equipment.
I usually stick with the same tier of tools when i know i have plenty of it. If let's say i have much silver but barely any gold, i just stick with silver until i get more from the other. Same goes for armor, if my armor is barely damaged, i'll just stick using it until it's almost broken and i have enough materials for a better one.
Since my modpack is pretty hardcore in terms of difficulty, it is very important for me to have all these possibilities for tools and armor, because pretty much every mob causes 1,5 or 2 times as much damage and has 2 times more health with an additional speed and sight range bonus. (I play on hard difficulty too, which makes the damage dealt from some mobs incredibly high.)
I make an iron pickaxe as soon as I find iron and same for diamond (after using up the stone/iron one; I do not use up wood though since it is too slow), and don't even bother with Fortune on diamonds since they are easy to find for the amount that you need and the effort spent enchanting is better spent elsewhere (that said, I do prefer Fortune for my mod's much rarer amethyst ore, of which I only found 22 compared to 91 diamond while branch-mining in my last world, the latter more than twice what I'd need for all of my gear), though I don't go "full diamond" until the "end-game", when I start caving (iron armor is enough for even the End, where I've only ever died because I was knocked into the void, and not at all in a long time).
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?
I have placed 'Mending" and "Nonbreaking III" on most of my tools that are enchanted and thus never use them up. If I have to use one on something that doesn't give XP to repair it I just wait and later when XP producing use comes around, it gets fixed. As for the enchantments, I haven't used the Enchanting Table in this world since I built it. Everything has been done on the anvil with stuff fished up AFK and the XP to do the work also.
Only thing I don't have mending on is the bow as I prefer "Infinity" instead
Learn something new each day
Well, as of the last couple Worlds (here's another factor: about 50 major Worlds in almost-7 Years), my First thing I Craft, from Iron (other than maybe 2 for Shears if Sheep are handy, for a Bed, and /or 1 for a Shield, if Skeletons are especially-frequent), Used to be 3 for a Bucket (for Water mostly, but later - when found - Lava, for Fuel, as it Saves-on [Char occasionally ]Coal [which I can Save-better in Coal Blocks, last couple Years, than Any-other kind of Fuel]). Now it's 3 for an Iron Pick: it Mines-faster, which means I can more-often Mine While Caving, in Hard Mode, Instead of having basically-all Stone equipment (and sometimes not-even [24 for] Iron Armor), and Having To ALWAYS Torch EVERYTHING, First(!).
It's still dangerous, of course, but I do it at least occasionally, anyway, and it helps keep Mining as-"Boring" (heh, Mining Pun, re-cycled from previous-Game) as it is, from being Too-much, Too-often. But then the next thing, lately, is generally an Iron Sword (so 3, then 2 for this, Iron Ingots), Because it only takes about-3 hits to kill an average Hostile Mob, instead of about-4 (depending on Jump-hitting, and /or not), which since the (v. #?) Combat Update's meant that I can't just Swing-wildly "As Fast As I Can," Click, Besides-which, there's a "Sword-Slashing," effect, which's my main-reason I'm Not-using my Axe, for this (the-Least, hits required, even if slightly-slower, to Fight).
As for Diamond, I Always make a D Pick, First, so-that I can Mine the-next Obsidian, and use my next 2 (after the 3, Pick-again) (Diamonds), for an Enchantment Table. Generally, I get Exp. Pt's. faster than I can Enchant-stuff (which I only-ever use Iron or-Diamond, for), And, when I get a Cow Farm (for Leather, Books, and so Bookcases, for Enchanting-Max'ing. [I never bother under Level 30, saving that for rarely Anvil usage, but mostly dying ]), my Exp. Pt's. (generally get Another-Farm, First, given relative-availability of various Farm-able, Animals) are-Already through the roof, So it's really just a matter of avoiding embarrassment of "dying at Level [X]," Every time.
I use my first bits of iron to get a bucket, shears, and flint n steel, after that I'll get the iron pick (gotta have it to get redstone and diamond) and get compass and maps squared away. After that, iron generally goes to hoppers/redstoning, golems, and beacon bases as well as more buckets/shears/flint n steel. I never make any more iron picks, and I never make any iron axes/shovels/hoes at all
When I find diamonds, I make the enchanting table and one diamond pick IF I hadn't previously gotten lucky enough to find obsidian at a blacksmith. All other uses of obsidian can be done in-world without involving diamonds, so once those couple obsidian are obtained the diamond pick goes on hiatus for nearly forever (I always keep it on hand, however, to deal with random obsidian blockage when mining). Any diamonds I collect stay in chests until I go enchanting crazy, which I'm having to do less and less due to endbusting and oceanic fun.
I don't bother with armor at all, other than random pieces dropped by mobs.
Initially I only make a wood pick and make do with stone tools. My first Iron when caving use for: a shield, a bucket and shears - and if there's enough left over for an iron pick (Depending on how much I find) then and Iron pick so I can mine coal and iron faster. So after the first few nights I will get an Iron pick just for ease of said coal, iron and any other ore.
When I have an abundance of Iron, I will only replace my stone sword when it runs out, maybe the axe, maybe not due to all the picking up of the crafting table (I'm not one to make one and leave them all over the world) but generally I might keep a stone axe and shovel for the rest of the world.. Only in my main world (My advanced one) do I like to have all diamond tools, especially efficiency ones for big builds, but it depends on the kind of play style you have. I will always generally stick to only stone hoes, but in a new worlds I'd just have a diamond pick for diamonds (fortune III) and obsidian, not general mining.
Closed old thread
Like Minecraft forums or interested in my world? Try My message board, it's better moderated because I run it directly and have run Internet message boards for 21+ years! Better software and I have much more control to keep the content more up to date. Free to join, 13 years+.
16yrs+ only
Always interesting to see how other people play!
I start by digging down to y=12 and starting a mine; I nearly always have a full set of iron gear (including armor and a bucket or two) by the time I reach the bottom. And then, once I start clearing out the space at the bottom that will become the workroom/mine storage (and, if I decide to stay and build a "real" house at my starting location, possibly a minecart station) it doesn't usually take too long to find my first dieamonds... Pickaxe, sword, enchanting table (once i find lava for obsidian). I don't really start playing until I have at least some diamond gear, and once I upgrade to diamond I pretty much never look back.
All my new worlds are hardcore, so I create and use diamond equipment as soon as possible. First thing I do is mine to Y=12 and start branch mining.
It's basically a race to Protection IV diamond armor for me. No diamond hording at all. Immediate use. Pick, table, chest, legs, helmet, boots.
After you've done it a few times, you see how much of a waste in time and materials it is to "save" diamonds and diamond equipment in actual game play. I try to get Unbreaking, Fortune and Mending on my pick ASAP, but I'll use it until I do.
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
I usually play survival with a friend and we both take on different jobs. I love building so at the start of every survival we ever do I spend the first couple of hours making a base with stone tools. After that's done there's usually a lot of iron from my friend mining for me to get a full set of iron tools and maybe armour (I usually don't bother with armour until I'm done with the base).
Usually I don't start using diamond tools until I can enchant them decently. I usually only make 1 set of diamond armour, which is the god set I'll be using for the rest of the game.
I head into the mines as soon as I have enough wood and food, then I mine until I have 5 diamonds, then I make an diamond pick, get obsidian, get some leather and sugar cane, make it into an enchantment table, then using the remaining books I make bookshelfs for slightly better enchants. Then I put basic low - level enchants on my gear before making a small cow and sugar cane farm to get more bookshelves. I wait until I have enough for a level 30 enchant then I go back to the mines, find 3 more diamonds and some obsidian. Then I go to the nether and mine quartz for XP, when I have around about 39 levels I go back and try and get fortune 3 on my pick (preferably with efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3) then I go back down and get enough diamonds for armour and tools. From there I might go back to the nether for quartz or build a XP farm to enchant those items.
“There are no evil weapons, only evil people” - Someone, I guess?