Learn how to strip mine in Minecraft!
If you are new to the game and feel like farming for resources can take a long time, worry not because we will show you the best and most efficient method that will help you save time and farm tons of diamonds while you are at it. Yes, you heard that right, we will show you how to strip mine in Minecraft to make your farming easier.
This method is extremely popular and all Minecraft veterans use it when they want to gather tons of materials in a short duration of time. Getting used to this method can take some time if you are doing it for the first time but with enough patience and practice, you’ll get there in no time.
Strip mining is an efficient method used for mining where you make a small, blocky base and then extend the base in a horizontal manner digging in strips while using ladders to efficiently traverse through them.
How to Strip Mine in Minecraft?
Now that you know what strip mining is, let’s take a look at how you can effectively do it even if you are a new player. First things first, dig and make an underground base where you will come and store all of the materials you gather. You can make a base similar to what is seen in the image above. The best method to do this is to dig until you reach the y 5 (where Bedrock starts to form) coordinate.
From there, dig the area 3 blocks wide by 9 blocks long by 4 blocks high. Alternatively, you can also dig till y 12 instead of 5 so that you aren’t surprised by lava while digging.
Now that you’ve dug the area, continue ahead by making a door that is about 2 blocks high so you can walk through it. Plus, making it just 1 block wide will ensure that you aren’t surprised by any random mobs from the sides. Make sure that you create this doorway at every fourth block to ensure maximum productivity.
If you are confused, you should have three doorways on the bottom and two at the top. However, make sure that you put a lot of torches so that mobs don’t spawn. Otherwise, you’ll have a tough time evading them in such a tight space. Speaking from experience, you’ll die a lot if you do not effectively make use of the torches when you are doing this.
Once you have successfully made some doorways, start digging through them until you find what you are looking for. The reason why this method is so effective is that you cannot possibly miss any block within the doorway. So, you are certain to find the diamond vein sooner or later. This method is far more faster and effective than regular digging.
Usually, diamond veins start appearing around the y 12 or y 16 areas depending on what version you are playing. From here, you can either start digging down below or continue moving forward through the doors you made. Just make sure that you follow the same pattern if you want to dig downwards so that you do not miss any block that might potentially contain a diamond.
Eventually, you’ll also want to use a lot of ladders so that you can move up or down and go through the desired doorway. Over time, your strip mining operation will grow immensely and you can cover a lot of ground this way. Also, as aforementioned, make sure that you place a torch or any other light source after at least 7 to 10 blocks. Otherwise, there are chances of random mobs to spawn.
Finally, don’t dig too far from your base or your travel time will increase a lot. If it takes you a long time to go forward and back to your base, you’ll be wasting potential time that you can spend digging and finding diamonds.
If you want to farm emeralds, you will have to use the strip mining method underneath a mountain since they only tend to form underneath mountains. The exact same method can be done there as well without any issues. Regardless of the resource that you want to collect, this is by far the safest, most efficient, and most effective method to farm in Minecraft.
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