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VOOZH | about |
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VOOZH | about |
Ancient debris is one of the most valuable resources in Minecraft, due to it being a source of netherite scraps and thus netherite ingots. It is most commonly found in the Nether at Y=15, although mining at lower levels is safer due to a lower risk of mining into a lava ocean. While branch mining is still a potential and straightforward way of mining for ancient debris, using explosives is a lucrative possibility due to its high blast resistance and netherrack's low blast resistance. Furthermore, beds are commonly used, as they explode when used in Nether and are cheaper than other explosives. It is also possible to use ghasts or the wither to mine, however the player should be careful to not die by their explosions and not to break ancient debris with blue wither skulls.
The player should always mine around every single block once they have found an ancient debris block (netherrack, soul sand, blackstone, gravel, etc.), as ancient debris veins generate more spread out. The maximum amount of debris possible in a single vein is 3, unless multiple veins generate close enough to each other. If you can place two or more blocks between two blocks of ancient debris, the two blocks belong to separate veins and you should mine around both of them.
It's also easy to get lost in Nether tunnels as you would be in Overworld tunnels, so make sure to record the coordinates of your Nether portal (since one block in the Nether corresponds to eight in the overworld, building your own nether portals to return home in the Overworld can prove to be a big hassle)
While mining, it is recommended to fill your inventory with gold nuggets instead of letting netherrack clog it up, as you will need gold to craft netherite ingots after.
This video compares the methods to find ancient debris, between branch-mining, the bed method, and TNT method.
This video shows 5 different methods, with success rate for each method.
Using a diamond pickaxe with at least Efficiency II, the player can instantly mine the netherrack. With the proper angle, this makes it possible to mine while maintaining sprint.
It is recommended to have Mending and Unbreaking III on the pickaxe. This way, the player can mend their pickaxe by mining the quartz and nether gold ore found along the way. This allows for the player to mine for ancient debris for as long as they have food.
It is recommended to have a full set of Protection IV armor, as they can allow the player to be in lava for a prolonged amount of time before they burn to death, even without Fire Resistance. With good health management, the player could significantly cut down their food usage with the armor while mining.
A resource pack to make ancient debris more visibly distinct from the other blocks can also be used, as ancient debris can be tiring to mine and you could miss some if you let your guard down.
The player may go in one direction until they hit lava, and proceed to mine in another direction. However, it is highly recommended to have multiple potions of Fire Resistance, as it is possible for the player to accidentally run directly into lava. Compared to using beds or TNT, traditional mining is resource-efficient, as only tools and food are strictly needed. This method allows you to mine about 12 blocks per second.
Combining beds with branch mining is also a useful method.
The player can also "cycle" their crosshair through the netherrack quickly to make big tunnels (known as "spam mining" or "random mining" and expose more debris in a less amount of time (note that this consumes a lot of durability, a Mending pickaxe and tons of bottles o' enchanting is recommended for this method)
It is recommended to bring diamond sets of armor if the player fears dying during prolonged debris mining sessions (Note: Diamond armor takes durability damage from lava so just skip to the Netherite tier in Hardcore), as diamond armor and enchants are easily renewable end-game from villagers[until Villager Trade Rebalance]. The same logic can be applied to bread and golden carrots, as they're easily obtainable in decent amounts from farmer villagers.
This method utilizes the fact that beds, when used in alternate dimensions, explode with a larger blast radius than TNT. It is easy to do, as you don't need to mine a lot. You will, however, use up many beds, requiring reliable wool and wood resources. Furthermore, given the extremely large amount of damage bed explosions deal and the presence of underground lava pools, it may be advisable to bring totems of undying, armor enchanted with Blast Protection, and potions of Fire Resistance to protect yourself. However, these are not required.
Mine all the way to Y = 15, as there is the highest concentration of ancient debris in the exposed blocks.
Place a crafting table and craft a good number of beds. If your inventory is full, put unused wool and planks in a barrel or other storage. If there are any piglins nearby, don't use chests, barrels, or any other similar container blocks, as they can become angered and come attack you!
Start mining a tunnel. At every 16th block, mine 1×1×5 tunnels (1 block wide, 1 block high, and 5 blocks long) perpendicular to your main tunnel at eye level.
Place a bed at the end of the side tunnel. Then, after carefully positioning yourself, right-click on the bed to trigger the explosion.
After the explosion, you may find up to 3 ancient debris in exposed blocks. Nearby nether gold ore might also break, dropping gold nuggets you can collect, and many more unbroken blocks are most likely revealed by the blast. You can mine these out if you like, but note that any nearby piglins will become angered if the blocks you mined are nether gold ore.
This video explains the process of exploding beds for ancient debris. It also suggests a second explosion which is not necessary, but can increase the chance of getting ancient debris.
Repeat these steps on the other side until you have no beds (or food).
Ancient debris doesn't typically generate anywhere visible without mining due to the fact that it can't generate next to air. However, ancient debris can generate underneath lava, where it can easily be seen and mined. To quickly find a small amount of ancient debris, a fire resistance potion can be used to swim in lava. From here, the player may see through the lava by swimming in the gap between flowing lava and a block above it and setting their FOV to 30. Alternatively, by creating a 3-block gap between 2 lava sources and swimming underneath a block in the middle, the player may see through lava on higher FOVs.
There is a common misconception that ancient debris generates more often at chunk borders, or that mining at chunk borders is a more efficient way to find debris. This is not true.
While there is the possibility for a debris vein in one chunk to "cross the border" and so result in a chunk having both its own debris and the crossed-over vein, this is balanced out by the fact that the chunk's own vein cannot generate outside of the border to cross back in.
Another thing to consider is that while mining at a chunk border does allow you to see parts of twice as many chunks, you see fewer blocks in each chunk, so the chance of finding ancient debris balances out.
At best, being aware of chunks might allow you to skip using TNT on the rest of the chunk if you find the large vein early on.
For this method, you need a cheats-on copy of your world. In that copy, enter the Nether, go into spectator mode, fly ~20 blocks into an area of netherrack near some place you have already traveled, preferably away from a lava ocean, and use the command /fill ~+10 ~+10 ~+10 ~-10 ~-10 ~-10 air replace netherrack[verify for Java Edition].
From there, enter creative mode, block off all the lava, and look for ancient debris. Write the coordinates of any that you find outside the game. Repeat this process until you have found enough ancient debris, then leave the scouting world and return to the survival mode world.
At this point, you can return to your survival world and mine directly to the coordinates of the ancient debris that you have written.
