Amethyst budding blocks cannot be created or replaced, only generated upon world gen, and can't be picked up as blocks (even with silk touch). You find them where they are and use them, amethyst shards can only create normal blocks. This is to force players to spend time on geodes.
As such, you will just need to find new budding blocks. This does not necessarily mean you need a new geode if you have broken the exposed budding blocks in one you found; additional budding blocks spawn buried behind and inside the amethyst walls, out of sight of the exposed surface area. Expose these hidden budding blocks without breaking them, and you can grow a lot of amethyst, at a maximum of 6 shards per block. Less if the budding blocks spawn in adjacent (even 2D-queen-adjacent) groups.
Light up the geode very well so you can distinguish budding and normal amethyst blocks. Then use a wood or stone (slow speed) pickaxe to weed out and mine out the normal amethyst carefully until it reveals budding amethyst buried amidst it. Completely expose the budding blocks to maximize growth, you may need to remove calcite and perhaps basalt to do this. There should be only air in the six adjacent (rook adjacent) voxels to the budding amethyst blocks, no torches or anything.
Then leave the crystals to grow and put ladders or build stairs into the calcite and basalt to access everything. You may want to have catchment areas, or put water at the bottom, up to you as this is tough with both floor and ceiling hosting budding amethyst blocks alongside the walls.
If you want an example, I will send screenshots from a peaceful server where I hollowed a geode out in this way (took me 3 days and gave me enough blocks to build an amethyst-calcite-basalt tower). However, being in peaceful, fall damage was not considered important in the design of the 'amethyst farm'.
As a further thought, I don't know if amethyst shards can grow into otherwise unoccupied water or flowing water blocks aka "waterlogged amethyst shards".
If so, you can't semi-auto farm them with a redstone flood ceiling, unfortunately. Although I imagine you could destroy them with lava in the same way if you needed to get rid of the shards quickly to make space.
Maybe you can waterlog the geode and set up a active conduit nearby so that you can swim through the buds and break the crystals and have them float up.
Maybe you can waterlog the geode and set up a active conduit nearby so that you can swim through the buds and break the crystals and have them float up.
Incredibly clever idea! That reduces a lot of the difficulty, although I'm not sure it's worth the rarity of a conduit.Perhaps just one layer of water is sufficient to prevent falls without risking drowning. I will consider adding that to my geode.
Amethyst budding blocks cannot be created or replaced, only generated upon world gen, and can't be picked up as blocks (even with silk touch). You find them where they are and use them, amethyst shards can only create normal blocks. This is to force players to spend time on geodes.
As such, you will just need to find new budding blocks. This does not necessarily mean you need a new geode if you have broken the exposed budding blocks in one you found; additional budding blocks spawn buried behind and inside the amethyst walls, out of sight of the exposed surface area. Expose these hidden budding blocks without breaking them, and you can grow a lot of amethyst, at a maximum of 6 shards per block. Less if the budding blocks spawn in adjacent (even 2D-queen-adjacent) groups.
Light up the geode very well so you can distinguish budding and normal amethyst blocks. Then use a wood or stone (slow speed) pickaxe to weed out and mine out the normal amethyst carefully until it reveals budding amethyst buried amidst it. Completely expose the budding blocks to maximize growth, you may need to remove calcite and perhaps basalt to do this. There should be only air in the six adjacent (rook adjacent) voxels to the budding amethyst blocks, no torches or anything.
Then leave the crystals to grow and put ladders or build stairs into the calcite and basalt to access everything. You may want to have catchment areas, or put water at the bottom, up to you as this is tough with both floor and ceiling hosting budding amethyst blocks alongside the walls.
If you want an example, I will send screenshots from a peaceful server where I hollowed a geode out in this way (took me 3 days and gave me enough blocks to build an amethyst-calcite-basalt tower). However, being in peaceful, fall damage was not considered important in the design of the 'amethyst farm'.
As a further thought, I don't know if amethyst shards can grow into otherwise unoccupied water or flowing water blocks aka "waterlogged amethyst shards".
According to the wiki, they can. Waterlogging – Minecraft Wiki (fandom.com)
If so, you can't semi-auto farm them with a redstone flood ceiling, unfortunately. Although I imagine you could destroy them with lava in the same way if you needed to get rid of the shards quickly to make space.
Maybe you can waterlog the geode and set up a active conduit nearby so that you can swim through the buds and break the crystals and have them float up.
Incredibly clever idea! That reduces a lot of the difficulty, although I'm not sure it's worth the rarity of a conduit.Perhaps just one layer of water is sufficient to prevent falls without risking drowning. I will consider adding that to my geode.