Best way to dig down? - Alpha - Survival Single Player - Alpha - Archive - Minecraft Forum (2024)

I have seen that some do a shaft straight down using ladders and some do a Step Tunnel.

What do you think is the best way?

I want to try to find some diamonds and have had little luck with my currant mine. I have made tunnels all over the place. I have tried different levels. I have a total of 9 diamond for 2 days of mining. So I thought I would make a brand new mine in a brand new area and see if this makes a difference.

Thanks!

I never dig straight down just in case I end up hitting lava.

My current favourite method is to dig a diagonal tunnel downwards.

Quote from XenoXilus »

I never dig straight down just in case I end up hitting lava.

My current favourite method is to dig a diagonal tunnel downwards.

See Also

How to Make Spiral Staircase in Minecraft - Gameophobic

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I like a 3x3 shaft with a sunroof.

Tho when I just want to "Dive" i will do a 2x1 shaft with a ladder and torches whenever it gets too dark. That way I cannot fall into an unexplored cave, or lava

I think that this should sum up the methods:

Quote from TCoZ »

Side view (where stick = ladder):

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and so on. This removes all risk of falling into lava when you dig it, and allows you to quickly fall on the way down but safely climb up the ladder on the way up.

Quote from K_Kinnison »

I like a 3x3 shaft with a sunroof.
Tho when I just want to "Dive" i will do a 2x1 shaft with a ladder and torches whenever it gets too dark. That way I cannot fall into an unexplored cave, or lava

Also, my favorite is simply a 2x2 spiral shaft. Allows for quick decent and kinda fast ascent.

Quote from Shimshai »

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I usually bring some ladders, stand in the middle of the two blocks while digging down, making a 2x1 shaft until i hit bedrock, or cave or lava. It's pretty fast and it's a safe way to dig down as I've always got a block under me. From there I usually mine horizontally, or I climb up a few levels to reduce the chances of hitting lava while mining.

This is the method I use as well. If I want to make a really elaborate mine shaft I use a "X-Light 9000", shown at about 3:40 in this vid:

Quote from comrade.seawolf »

Quote from Shimshai »

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I usually bring some ladders, stand in the middle of the two blocks while digging down, making a 2x1 shaft until i hit bedrock, or cave or lava. It's pretty fast and it's a safe way to dig down as I've always got a block under me. From there I usually mine horizontally, or I climb up a few levels to reduce the chances of hitting lava while mining.

This is the method I use as well. If I want to make a really elaborate mine shaft I use a "X-Light 9000", shown at about 3:40 in this vid:

Same here.

2x1 straight down has never failed me and it is really fast.

Bring ladders.

Since my first mineshaft always turns out to be a spiral staircase, what I do is the following:

(Let n be how wide we want our spiral staircase to be)

1. Dig straight down 4 or 5 blocks.
2. Look north and mine out the following blocks in front of me: one above eye level, the one at eye level, the one at ground level, and one below that.
3. Go forward and do the same thing 4-6 times except at the last one I do not mine out the one below ground level. This is because the last one is a corner of the spiral staircase and since stairs do not corner you cannot put a stair there anyways.
4. Stand at the corner and repeat steps 2-3 except this time looking east.
5. Keep doing this until I find bedrock.

Of course, this is very slow, but it is much safer and it gives you a wider area (for finding more minerals or caves) and you can turn it into a pretty sweet staircase when you are done.

I've started a few worlds now and I seem to have developed a pattern. My first mine is a diagonal "step" mine so that I can get started gathering resources quickly and usually find a cave system or two to explore. After that, I dig a handful of 5x5 tunnels straight down to bedrock (cap it with glass for daylight) and hoard all the stone I gather to use on big projects. When I start to run out of resources I choose one of my vertical shafts, go down near the bottom and start branch mining for diamond, gold, iron, coal, and cobble. After that, I usually don't dig any more mines from the surface unless it's to bring sunlight down to a hub of the branch mine.

I like the vertical shafts the best for the daylight issue, and so that I can quickly jump all the way to the bottom. I normally use ladders for getting out, but there are a few methods to make climbing out quicker if you think it's worth the time investment to build them.

I typically dig down in a 3x3 spiral (minimum) this way I can make a spiral staircase back up. I avoid using ladders because wood is at a premium on my solo game and yet I have a

of stone.