User:Holroy/Mining Strategies

This tutorial will cover some various mining strategies in the Overworld, and continue to describe one in particular which seems to be one of the most versatile and efficient mining strategies. However, let us start with some basic related to what to mine, where to mine, which tools to use, and so on.

Ores to Mine
The following table will present the various ores found in Minecraft Pocket Edition, and some characteristics properties related to them. All ores are found in the Overworld, with the exception of Nether Quarts which are found in the Nether.

The columns in the table are mostly self explanatory, but note the following:
 * The F stands for the Fortune level of the pickaxe. The looting level increases in most cases the drop count.
 * The pickaxe type listed is the minimum required to get the ore. If less, the blocks usually break leaving nothing at all. If the Silk Touch enchantment has been used, the ore itself is dropped.
 * In the Item column, either the actual item dropped when mining is listed, or the corresponding ingot which is produced when smelting the ore.

Some more notes related to this table:
 * Note that two ores can be related to a Biome. The Gold Ore which can be found a most elevations within the Mesa Biome, and the Emerald Ore which can only be found naturally in the Extreme Hills biome (or very close to this biome)
 * All ores can be smelted, but will then only generate one item. In other words, it is not wise to smelt for example Diamond Ore, as mining it with an Fortune produces more items.

Various mining strategies
These are the main strategies to locate and mine ores:


 * Exploring Caves – When exploring Caves, ores will often be exposed in the wall. Depending on the depth of the cave, various ores might be exposed. This is often an easy way to get Coal and Iron. It does however require some navigational aids, to avoid getting lost.
 * Quarry mining – In quarry mining, the Player excavates a large quarry or pit, mining out a really big hole in the ground. Usually this is not advisable, as it mostly generates a lot of stone blocks and not a lot of ores. In addition, if done starting at the surface level most of the valuable ores are scarce or none-existent.
 * TNT Mining – Use TNT to blast an area, and pick up the ores afterwards. There has been made contraptions to automate TNT mining, but since the drop count of ores are reduced when being blown up, using TNT for mining is not very efficient. It can however, be fun to watch.
 * Abandoned mineshafts – The Abandoned Mineshafts are also a good way to locate ores, as the shafts exposes a lot of ores. In addition there are usually some Monster Spawners in or nearby the mineshaft. The downside is that they are a bit hard to find, and it is easy to get lost if you don't have a good method to mark where you've been or not.
 * Branch mining – Instead of mining each and every block, this method relies on making shafts and tunnels in various patterns, to reduce the amount of stone mined whilst still exposing sufficient amount of ores. Branch mining can be done in a multitude of alternatives: Vertical branches, spiral branches, horizontal branches, windmill shaped branches, Staircase branches, pinwheel or windmill branches, and so on...

In the following we're going to focus on a relatively simple scheme of having an access shaft down to a given level, a main access shaft and side branches from this access shaft.

> Stuff to do below here

Tools to use
Stone, iron and diamond pickaxes with/without enchantments. Water buckets Block of you choice, to block lava...