How to always find diamonds in minecraft

IGN's Minecraft Wiki guide will walk you through the process of finding and mining Diamond Ore successfully. While also detailing several helpful tips and tricks that will make the progress of finding these shiny blue gems just that much easier!

Diamonds are the most sought-after commodity in Minecraft because they are incredibly rare and have many practical uses. One of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences in Minecraft is the search for these shiny blue gems.

advertisement

Looking for something specific about finding diamonds? Click the links below to jump to...

Diamonds are a rare mineral in Minecraft and can be sure to make some of the best gear in the game. Sometimes you get lucky and find a handful all in one location. Other times, you'll just find one. A great tip for mining them is to enchant your axe with Fortune so that more than one will drop when you mine diamonds. Diamonds can be used to craft a series of different items.
Listed below are all the items you can craft with Diamonds.

  • Block of Diamond
  • Diamond Armor
  • Diamond Tools
  • Diamond Weapons
  • Enchanting Table
  • Firework Star
  • Fireworks
  • Jukebox

Diamond can also be used to craft netherite armor, tools, and weapons. Netherite is primarily used for end-game situations, raids, or PvP.

advertisement

Before starting your adventure, know that you need the right tools to get the job done. You'll need an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe to mine a Diamond. A Wood, Stone, or Gold Pickaxe won't do the trick as you'll simply mine through the Diamond Ore, and no Diamonds will be mined. What a waste!

The 1.18 Caves and Cliffs update added more underground layers in the Overworld. Now players can dig even further underground without hitting bedrock. Usually, Diamond is found under layer 12, but now if you get to these -Y levels, the odds of finding diamond significantly increase: -50, -64, -59, and -58.

It's important to mention that bedrock now appears at Y level -60.

Players can also find Diamonds in Generated Structures. Listed below are the locations Diamonds spawn in Java, the chances of finding them, how many, and where they're located.

Bastion Remnant Treasure Chest 2-6 15.8%
Buried Treasure Chest 1 46.9%
Desert Temple Chest 1-3 6.3%
End City Chest 2-7 21.2%
Jungle Temple Chest 1-3 12.8%
Mineshaft Chest 1-2 8.9%
Nether Fortress Chest 1-3 19%
Shipwreck Treasure Chest 1 14.1%
Stronghold Altar Chest 1-3 7.1%
Village Tools Smith Chest 1-3 9.9%
Village Weapons Smiths Chest 1-3 16.2%

Listed below are all the locations Diamonds spawn in Bedrock with the chances of finding them, how many, and where they're located.

advertisement

Bastion Remnant Treasure Chest 1-2 8.9%
Buried Treasure Chest 1-2 59.9%
Desert Temple Chest 1-3 6.3%
End City Chest 2-7 21.2%
Jungle Temple Chest 1-3 12.9%
Mineshaft Chest 1-2 8.9%
Nether Fortress Chest 1-3 19%
Shipwreck Treasure Chest 1 14.1%
Stronghold Altar Chest 1-3 7.3%
Village Tools Smith Chest 1-3 9.9%
Village Weapons Smiths Chest 1-3 16.2%
  • Don't get too excited and quickly mine Diamond Ore. Make sure you check the surrounding blocks, first. If you don't, you might find yourself surprised by a Lava flow and lose your treasure, or worse, your life.
  • Always bring lots of Torches. Mining is a dark job. If you want to ensure you can see, bring the necessary tools.
  • Lava does not guarantee Diamonds. Many players associate Lava with finding rare Ore, but that's not the truth. Because Lava is most common in the same place that Diamonds are found, there is often a crossover.

Was this guide helpful?

In This Wiki Guide

How to always find diamonds in minecraft

How to always find diamonds in minecraft

Disney+ has released a new trailer for Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning August 17, the new comedy series stars Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. Directed by Kat Coiro (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9) and Anu Valia (Episodes 5, 6, 7) with Jessica Gao as head writer, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law follows Jennifer Walters as she navigates the complicated life of a single, 30-something attorney who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk. The nine-episode series welcomes a host of MCU vets, including Mark Ruffalo as Smart Hulk, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/the Abomination, and Benedict Wong as Wong. The cast also includes Ginger Gonzaga, Josh Segarra, Jameela Jamil, Jon Bass and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Kat Coiro and Jessica Gao. Co-executive producers are Wendy Jacobson and Jennifer Booth.

Want to know how to find Diamonds easily in Minecraft? Finding Diamonds always used to involve doing the same thing no matter which version of Minecraft you were playing on. Since then, however, there have been some updates which drastically change how world generation (and Diamond spawning) works in any Minecraft world.

Read on to find out how to find Diamonds in Minecraft 1.19, as well as how to find Diamonds in earlier versions of Minecraft. We'll also go over the best methods for mining and farming Diamonds so you can kit yourself out in the shiniest weapons and armour in the game as quickly as possible.

On this page:

To find Diamonds in Minecraft 1.19, you need to dig down below Y=15. After this point, the further down you go, the higher your chances of finding Diamonds.

Minecraft 1.18 made several very important changes to Minecraft's world generation. If you're playing Minecraft 1.18 or later, you can go down below Y=0 and into negative figures. Below Y=0, you'll find all the usual ores, including Diamonds, embedded in Deepslate blocks instead of regular Stone blocks.

See the below graph of ore distributions for details on where you can find the highest concentration of Diamonds and other resources:

How to always find diamonds in minecraft
This graph showcases the distributions of various types of ore in Minecraft 1.18+ (left), compared with 1.17 and earlier (right).

Diamond starts generating at Y=15, and increases linearly in frequency the further down you go. To know what Y-Level you're on, hit F3 to bring up the coordinates display. The second number next to "XYZ" is the current level of the bottom half of your body.

However, if a Diamond is about to be placed next to an open air block during world generation, it has a chance of not spawning. This makes it harder to find diamonds in caves, so you'll need to spend some time digging tunnels through the deepslate if you want to maximise your chances of finding diamonds.

So, in summary: to find diamonds quickly, head as far down as you can go until you hit bedrock, then start strip-mining!

How to always find diamonds in minecraft
Hit F3 to bring up the debug overlay. You can use this overlay to find out your current Y-Level, which will help you to find Diamonds more easily.

How to find Diamonds in Minecraft 1.17 and earlier

If you're still playing on Minecraft 1.17 or earlier, then you can find Diamond Ore in every Overworld biome between Y-levels 1-15. They spawn most often at levels 5-12, so if you want to maximise your chances of finding Diamonds, stay between these two levels.

No matter what version of Minecraft you're playing on, Diamonds will spawn in small veins of up to 9 blocks at a time, although very occasionally you'll find larger veins that are made up of multiple veins touching each other. So even at the right levels, Diamonds are pretty rare.

Best method for mining Diamonds in Minecraft

Diamond Ore can only be mined with an Iron Pickaxe or better. As of 1.18, Diamonds are far less common in open spaces like caves, which means to maximise your chances of finding Diamonds in Minecraft you should strip-mine in straight lines in all directions.

The best method for mining Diamonds in Minecraft 1.19 is to dig down to level -57 and dig a long 2-block-tall tunnel in any direction. Then start to mine out to either side in more 2x1 tunnels, leaving a 2-block-wide gap between each new tunnel.

Once you're satisfied you've strip-mined all Diamonds on that level, repeat the whole process at level -53. If you dig in this way at both level -57 and -53, then you'll be able to see all Diamonds that spawn between levels -58 and -51. This gives you the highest concentration of Diamonds without intermittently running into blocks of Bedrock that may otherwise hinder your strip-mining progress.

If you're playing on Minecraft 1.17 or earlier, you can use this exact same method but using levels 6 and 10.

How to always find diamonds in minecraft

While mining, it's a good idea to keep a Water Bucket with you, because pockets of lava are fairly common at these levels. Remember also to bring plenty of torches to light your way and prevent mobs from spawning in your tunnels. Alternatively you could light your way using Night Vision potions - though this won't prevent mobs from spawning.

If you're struggling to find Diamonds in Minecraft even after reading this guide, you may want to check out our best Minecraft texture packs list, because some of these packs may help with visibility. You can also check out our list of the best Minecraft seeds for certain world spawns that have easy access to Diamonds. Elsewhere there's our best Minecraft shaders list, to help improve the lighting of your worlds.