Diamonds are the most important resource in Minecraft. Our guide will tell you how to best search for diamonds and mine them effectively.
Diamonds are among the most sought-after and important resources in Minecraft. This is no wonder, as they can be used to craft the best equipment – whether as armor to protect the character or in the form of tools that are especially effective and have great durability.
However, the search for diamonds can take many hours in Minecraft, and if you use the wrong method, you will waste a lot of time. This is why we are going to reveal one of the most effective methods to find diamonds.
This article was updated on 23.01.2025 to the status of Patch 1.21.4.
At what height can you find diamonds?
Where can you find diamonds? Diamonds can primarily be found in the “Overworld” of Minecraft, which is the main world where you start. Here they appear as natural deposits, just like many other ores. You cannot find them in this form in the Nether or the End.
Diamonds appear at very low heights, from level 15 and lower down to level -64. The greatest deposits of diamonds are found between levels -50 and -60. So you need to dig very deep if you want to come across diamonds.
Also, keep in mind that diamond ore below level 0 usually appears as deep slate type. You will obtain the same resource (diamonds), but mining will take a bit longer.
How to display your height in Minecraft: Your current level (and thus your “height”) can be seen in the PC version of Minecraft by pressing the “F3” key. Don’t be alarmed, your screen will be full of information. Look for the line “XYZ:” and check the second number there. That is the Y-coordinate, and thus the level you are currently at.
On consoles like PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Switch, you can easily enable coordinate display in the “Options” menu, and it will be shown permanently at the edge of the screen.
What do you need to mine diamonds? To mine diamonds, you need at least an iron pickaxe or better. If you use one made of wood or stone, not only will the process take a long time, but the diamond block will simply be destroyed without yielding a diamond! So use iron, diamond, or netherite to mine diamonds.
Diamonds in special places: Additionally, you can sometimes find diamonds in various chests throughout the game world or during archaeology. Diamonds can be found in chests in various temples, shipwrecks, NPC villages, mine shafts, and nether fortresses. However, since these are all very rare and often quite dangerous places, these methods can be overlooked. But keep it in mind if you accidentally encounter one of these locations.
However, if you want more “action”, you can easily get diamonds by exploring the Nether or looting shipwrecks. Here, a night vision potion is worthwhile, as it provides clear visibility even underwater (and in the Nether), regardless of the lighting conditions.
Tips and tricks for mining diamonds
Use the right enchantments when mining: Once you have found diamonds, you should not mine them with a regular pickaxe. Instead, you should use a pickaxe that has been enchanted with “Luck III”. This way, you can obtain up to 4 diamonds from a single diamond vein instead of just one. That’s an increase of up to 300%.
For regular block mining, you should also use an enchanted pickaxe – “Efficiency IV” combined with “Unbreaking III” is a good choice here. This way, you can mine blocks almost instantly and blast through stone and deep slate walls. However, getting the right combination of enchantments may require some attempts. All tips and tricks for enchanting can be found in our extensive enchanting guide.
Fully expose the diamond block: Another important rule is to fully expose a diamond block before you mine it. Nothing is more frustrating than the disappointment of mining a diamond only to see it fall directly into the lava lake below and burn. So, when mining diamonds, make sure everything is free “around it”.
“Silk Touch” can help: If you do not yet have a pickaxe with “Luck III”, you might have received one with “Silk Touch” during enchanting. If you mine diamonds with this enchantment, you will get the whole block in your inventory. You can then place the diamond block somewhere else and mine it later when you have a pickaxe with Luck.
This is how you can be perfectly prepared: Diamonds can only be found in depth, and this is often associated with further temptations and dangers. Therefore, if you encounter caves while digging, you should always weigh whether the exploration is worth it or if you want to bring your hard-earned loot back to safety first. Often, only a few seconds lie between “I’ll explore this one cave” and an exploding creeper throwing all your loot into the lava – even though of course there are sometimes nice creepers. And we don’t want you to throw your gamepad out of anger.
In addition to a portion of caution, you should always have the following with you:
- A lot of food, preferably a stack of cooked meat. This way, you won’t starve and can regenerate during battles down below.
- A furnace, to smelt ores and craft tools in case of emergency. You will find the necessary coal while farming diamonds almost by accident.
- A bucket of water to turn lava into obsidian and extinguish yourself.
- A fire resistance potion (preferably in the quick selection), in case you fall into lava.
- A chest: It’s always better to secure rare materials in a chest first before bravely entering a lava cave.
- A stack of ladders for emergencies. If you get lost, you can at least dig a direct way up from the rocks with ladders without wasting much time.
- A pickaxe as a spare (at least iron!) to free yourself from any mountain.
The best farming method for diamonds in Minecraft
In Minecraft forums and on Reddit, there are many discussions about the most effective method for farming diamonds. Some players swear by simply removing all blocks at low levels. While this definitely captures every diamond, it consumes an extreme amount of time – it is not efficient. We focus on a technique called “Branch Mining”, which means digging shafts with many branches. Behind it is a system that, once memorized, yields the greatest efficiency.
First, go to level -59. This is your starting level. Most diamonds can be found on levels -57 to -60, while avoiding a large portion of the lava lakes down below.
Building the main shaft: Go to level -59 and create a thicker tunnel – 2-4 blocks wide. This is your “main shaft”. The thickness of the tunnel is simply for orientation. In large mining systems, it’s easy to get lost. A wider shaft helps to identify: Here is the entrance and exit.
Then place torches on both sides of the main shaft on every 12th block (leaving a gap of 11 blocks between the torches).
The blocks marked by the torches will be the “entrances” to the smaller shafts you will be digging later.
Excavate the first “branches”: Now start digging tunnels into the rock at the spots marked by the torches – these are the so-called “branches”. The tunnels should only be 1 block wide and 2 blocks high, so your character can fit perfectly through them. Every 4 blocks in the new tunnel, place another torch on the floor for light and marking.
Whenever you place a torch in these tunnels, turn to your left and right and dig 5 blocks into the rock at head height of your character, creating “peek holes”. This way, you can take a good look into the rock and see if there are valuable ores present.
A dug tunnel with branching “branches” would look like this from above:
To clarify this further, we have color-coded the different areas in this image:
- Purple is your main shaft. Here you place a torch every 11 blocks apart.
- Red are your “branches”. Here you place a torch on every 4th block.
- Yellow are your “peek holes”. Here you have only dug the blocks at the head height of the character.
This method is basically suitable for all types of ores and can also be applied to gold, iron, or other stones. The method is slightly less effective for emeralds.
Why is this method so effective? To achieve maximum efficiency while mining, it is crucial to expose as many blocks with as little effort as possible. With the introduced “Branch Mining” variant, you can expose an average of 4.11 additional blocks per mined block. Or in other words: You mine 1 block and can see if there are diamonds within more than 4 blocks.
Since diamonds most often appear in some form within a 2x2x2 block, branch mining covers all combinations and maximizes your chances of discovering diamonds.
If you keep these tips and the following methods in mind, you should soon be able to find a large amount of diamonds in as little time as possible.
But always remember: No method is as effective as simply sneaking in and stealing diamonds from your fellow players’ chests… but we would, of course, never recommend that.
Do you have another method for quickly finding many diamonds? How do you go about it?
