How to Collect Resources in Minecraft - For Dummies

You can collect resources in several ways for your Minecraft structure — some are more efficient than others. Here, you will find a few different ways to gather materials for your structure. You have a couple of different options when it comes to mining. Each one has its pros and cons, so it’s up to you to decide which one you want to use.

Quarrying

Quarrying is the easiest way to mine — you just dig a huge hole in the ground and keep digging it as deep as it will go. Mining out a quarry can take a while because you’re mining a lot of blocks at one time.

The good thing about quarries is that they grab every single resource from the patch of land you’re digging out. You don’t get as many valuable ores, but you gain tons of cobblestone and a nice spot for a future underground structure.

Here, every time the player dug out a layer of stone, he placed the next piece in a large stairwell so that he could get out of the quarry. You can do this too, with blocks, stairs, ladders, and so on.

Strip mining

Strip mining gets you a good amount of cobblestone and some valuable minerals. To start strip mining, follow these steps:

1. Dig deep underground.

   If you stay about 13 blocks above the bottom of the world — meaning if you press f3, your Y coordinate should read 13 — you can get the most valuable ores.

2. Dig straight in any direction.

   Place torches along the way so that you don’t get attacked by hostile mobs on your way back.

3. If a ravine or lava gets in your way, or you just don’t feel like going in a straight line anymore, move 3 blocks to the side and build a parallel tunnel.

   Your tunnels are separated by a gap that’s 2 blocks wide. This arrangement ensures that you can see any valuable minerals you come across without having to spend tons of time mining.

   

Cave mining

Cave mining is useful for getting valuable ores, but not so useful if you’re trying to get cobblestone. To start cave mining, find a big cave, explore it, and mine out all resources you see along the way. Be careful, though: You’ll probably run into enemies when you’re exploring dark caves. Make sure that you have a way to defend yourself.

When your cave is tapped out, you can switch to one of the other mining options.

Build a beacon with the Haste power-up to mine faster and get tons of stone and minerals.