Mine, Expand, and Thrive

Once you have enough food to get by, it’s sensible to expand your mining operation. Gather more Stone and keep searching for more Iron. If you have enough Iron, it’s possible to make armor for your character. This makes it much harder for monsters to hurt you. Leather and Iron are both used for armor, so hunting enough Cows early on can get you decent armor long before you can spare the Iron for defensive purposes.

Goal #10: Make a Tunnel Down to the Bottom of the World

When you’re digging down into the earth, don’t go randomly in any direction. Instead, make a single path that leads down into the depths. On the PC, you can press F3 to see how deep you are. About 30 blocks up from the bottom, you start getting a chance to find Gold. 15 Blocks from the bottom, you can find Diamond—the real prize!

You won’t want to spend minutes getting to these lower levels every time you go down there. One way to keep this process fast and efficient is to mine a set of steps that leads from your house all the way to the bottom. The straighter your tunnel, the less time you waste getting down there.

Next, make Stone or Wooden steps. Adding these to your downward tunnel makes getting around faster, especially during the climb back to the surface. Also, stairs reduce the amount of hunger you incur from this trip. Jumping back to the surface takes a great deal of energy; climbing the stairs isn’t nearly as bad. So the sooner you make real steps, the better off you are. Here is a picture of the recipe for stairs—use whatever material you like, depending on whether you have more Wood or Stone.

As you grow more comfortable with the game, start to read our next chapter about more advanced techniques. You can build water systems, railways, and other transportation routes to improve your mining efficiency.

For now, though, it’s fine to simply dig deep and start making tunnels until you find good ore. Just remember a few rules.

Mining Tips and Warnings

• Most good minerals are found in veins; if you see one piece of Iron, Coal, Gold, or other good materials, there are probably more! Dig out the entire area around each special mineral to make sure you get everything.
• Always bring food, Wood, Torches, and tools on your mining expeditions.
• If you hear bubbling lava or monster noises, you are likely getting close to a dangerous cavern; proceed slowly and carefully.
• Never dig straight down unless you have a death wish; one day, you will fall to your death or drop into lava.
• Don’t dig out huge caverns to find ore. Make lots of narrow tunnels to maximize your search area.
• Leave precious ores and materials in chests that you keep inside your home. Don’t carry everything with you, or you might lose it all if your character dies.
• Once you have a Bucket, keep some water with you at all times (for putting out fires, cooling lava, etc.).
• Always put Torches on the same side of a new tunnel. If you get turned around, you’ll always know which direction leads toward home.