Best Way To Find Diamonds Minecraft 1.9 & 1.8 Tutorial

This video will show you the best branch mining method for finding diamonds! We get right into the numbers and science and go over all the little details to make you as efficient a miner you can be :-)

Are Diamonds Found Closer To Lava? [Minecraft Myth Busting 48]

Guardfall 10,000 Items An Hour (Minecraft 1.8 Guardian Farm)

Links!

[creamsupreme]

Thank you xisumavoid, the only problem is, no matter how many diamonds i have, my wife still left me

[Plexiate]

I was branch mining on y 7, as soon as he said to do it on y 10, I dug up and found 4 diamond right apon entering y 10.

[FalseSymmetry]

Great tutorial Xisuma.. now I know your trick on getting soooo many diamonds on the server! xD

[ilmango]

I did some tests too. Beacon instamining is about 33-66% more effective than branchmining. Setting up the beacon takes only 5 minutes. Mining out the ~120x120x8 area (120, because 8 second haste cool-off) around the beacon sloppily takes about 60-90 minutes, depending on the frequency of lava lakes. With branchmining I got on average 40 diamonds/h, with instamining 60 diamonds/h, while collecting all the other ores too.

[gerbilseatyou]

Xisuma’s method: Branch mining.
Scicraft method: Automatic redstone flying machine quarry.

[din]

The problem with level 10 is that lava lakes are often in your face instead of at your feet, slowing down everything.

[Monkeypuzzle]

This is definitely super efficient, but, alas, leaving those itemized blocks floating in the ends of the pokeholes challenges my ocd.

[UnderWaterFilmsSock]

Wow! Thanks a crap ton. I had a strip mine that was at level 16 and 4, and was 6x4. I didn't find a SINGLE diamond, and we had LOADS of cobble from the mining. The first time I used this strategy, I found diamonds within literally 5 minutes. THANKS.

[conwayslife]

There is even a slightly better way, if you have an Elytra. If you fly into a 1.5 block tall tunnel with Elytra, you will somehow act as if you are 1 block tall. Then you can sprint into a 1 block tall tunnel. From then on, you can mine a 1x1 tunnel, making the ratio of blocks seen to blocks mined be 5:1, instead of 4:1.

[Skozzy]

This was an amazing video. I had expected to see just common sense and blather, but it was genuinely educational about the game

[elliotggames]

I'd recommend doing Y:11 due to you will be above the lava 99% of the time

[CharlesSprinkle]

Hi Xisuma,
I have recently done an analysis myself through creative testing to attempt to derive numerical values rating the efficiency of the mining, and actually came up with a slightly different idea I believe is key that you didn't quite go into-- time efficiency (finding diamonds faster), as opposed to mining efficiency (independent of time; tool durability conservative).
Conclusion: While strip mining with pokeholes (your method) remains the most mining efficient, here is the order of most to least time efficient: speed mining, strip mining, strip mining with pokeholes. (read further for how I derived it, and see the very end for numerical results)
Nonetheless, you did a very good job as always explaining things and presenting, and I always enjoy watching your videos (:

(this is the part where especially other viewers mentally prepare for a longer post, but remember it's the details and effort that make it more constructive!)
Here's what I thought in review, and my proposal with equations and results:
The key to what most of us universally consider "effective" branch mining, is not actually the total blocks (mined + exposed) to blocks mined ratio, however, that is still a very useful figure to know. (Henceforth, I'll reference to 'M' as mined blocks, and 'E' as exposed blocks as a result of the mined blocks) This ratio actually is what saves the most durability on the pickaxe since you "see" the most blocks for the amount you mined.  You are very correct in that pokeholes increase this ratio, I confirm from my own results.  The ratio that has been used to calculate this, is the total number of unique blocks *seen* by the player (M+E), to how many blocks were mined with the pickaxe (M), hence (M+E)/M.  In strip mining alone, we know this is 4:1, and counting pokeholes alone, it's 5:1.  The combined result, I agree yields a ratio slightly greater than 4:1 since you strip mine for 4 blocks, then pokehole on the 4th, and repeat.

But the idea we want to consider more so is "time efficiency"-- the idea that we wish to maximize diamond (or any other ore) output, for the amount of time input.  Even if the method is really conservative on durability (has a high (M+E)/M ratio-- 4.111:1 in the strip mine w/pokehole case), is it the most time efficient?

Efficiency
To correct for this time-independency, I constructed an equation with the same variables, but with an additional time variable.  Theoretically:
Given, the chance of finding an ore is determined not by how many unique blocks you have mined, but rather how many unique blocks you have *seen*, which includes blocks you have mined, and blocks you have exposed as a result of mining,
Let, M = blocks mined, E = Blocks exposed, Δt = time elapsed, be governing variables to determining ε, the time efficiency.
Then, ε = (E+M)/Δt is the equation for how time efficient a mining session is.  Higher values of ε means that the session is more time efficient, having seen more blocks per unit time, therefore an average increased rate of finding any ore, namely diamonds.

The time efficiencies of 3 methods of mining were tested in creative singleplayer:
(henceforth, each unique method will be enumerated with the same respective numbers)
[1] ≡ The method you proposed with pokeholes.
[2] ≡ Pure strip mining in 1 horizontal direction.
[3] ≡ Speed mining with a full-range haste II beacon.

The following methodologies were used in each unique method, respectively:
[1] A strip of size 2 high, 1 wide, and 4 deep, then the 4th deep is has identical pokeholes to the right and left each *5* deep. (In your video you only did 4 when the pick could go 5 deep).  This process was repeated in series, 9 more times for a total of 10.
[2] A strip mine was done in one direction horizontally 2 high, 1 wide, and 100 blocks deep.
[3] A 101x101x2 block volume was mined out (minus minor errors), centered at the beacon, since the beacon range is 50 square-radius (as opposed to circular; thank you for that informative beacon range video!)

Data & Calculation-- M, E, and M+E values; time elapsed, Δt:
[1] I calculated the M and E values for one, single sequence before a pattern forms.  Straight section: 2x1x4 = 8 blocks. 1 Pokehole = 1x1x5 = 5 blocks.  (2 pokeholes = 10 blocks).  The total then becomes M=18.  Counting each unique exposed block, is an additional E=58.  So, M+E = 76.  So in my series of 10, this comes out to M+E= 76*10=760.  Time elapsed for all 10 was 1.5 minutes.
[2] This one is really simple-- M = 2x1x100 = 200. 6 blocks revealed per distance of travel, so E = 6x100 = 600.  E+M = 200+600 = 800.  Time elapsed was 1.5 minutes.
[3] This is a rectangular prism, so M is the volume, and E is the surface area of all the walls/floor/ceiling revealed.  M = 101x101x2 = 20, 402. For E, the six sides are: (101x101)x2 + (101x2)x4 = 21, 210.  So, M+E = 41, 612.  Time elapsed was 45 minutes.


Results for both mining efficiency, and the theorized time efficiency:
Recall mining efficiency is (M+E)/M, while time efficiency is ε = (E+M)/t.
[1] (M+E)/M = 4.22; ε = (E+M)/Δt = 507 blocks/minute
[2] (M+E)/M = 4.00; ε = (E+M)/Δt = 533 blocks/minute
[3] (M+E)/M = 2.04; ε = (E+M)/Δt = 925 blocks/minute


Conclusions:
Method 1, the strip mine with pokeholes, yielded the highest blocks seen to blocks mined ratio at 4.22:1, slightly higher than the 4.11 from the video (probably because you did 4 deep pokeholes), and of course higher than the 4.00:1 by method 2, regular strip mining.  Both of these methods were about twice as efficient on pick durability as speed mining, because mining out a volume is very wasteful of durability.
However, the more important conclusion I believe, is that the results were reversed for time efficiency.  The highest, as expected, is method 3 (speed mining) with an astounding 925 blocks seen per minute on average.  Methods 1 and 2 were indeed very close as expected, but method 2 *without pokeholes* yielded greater time efficiency with 533 blocks seen per minute on average, compared to a slightly less 507 blocks/minute with pokeholes. (I feel like more testing needs to be done for a better average and comparison-- perhaps a technical video on time efficiency?)
Higher time efficiency is crutial to finding diamonds (or any other ore) more rapidly due to the fact that "seeing" a block is analagous to 'picking a marble' in marbles in a jar. The faster you 'pick marbles' from the jar, the faster you will find which marble you seek, in this case, diamonds.

Regardless, I thought it was rather brilliant how you found a way to increase mining efficiency with the pokeholes.  If you're being durability conservative versus time conservative, there you go!

[micmastodon]

While this video is great, isn't it missing the final step? Blocks seen per blocks mined isn't the measure of efficiency. Blocks seen per second is.

It's probably slower to turn and do the poke holes and then turn back to continue the tunnel than it would be to just plow straight ahead. And is that reduction in speed greater than the efficiency gain in blocks seen per blocks mined?

[vibeguy_]

Being a physics major I feel like I should've figured this out by now! Thanks so much for uploading this branch mining technique!

Also, good luck on starting the new hermitcraft server soon! I've been here since a little before hermittown 2, and it is a little sad to see such big projects (the wastelands, guardfall, your base, the horse track, etc) go.... but I think the new world is going to shape up great :) With the amplified terrain I think mine-carts are going to have to be the main source of travel between bases/in hermittown... lol can't wait to see :D

[kcechoxzar]

I stay on y11 as lava lakes usually spawn at y10, this means they'll be at floor level and not flood your tunnels

[perfectinsanity]

Personal preference but I like to mine at Y11 doing so keeps the lava below your feet. Makes it much easier to drop a water bucket and keep going without anything gushing out at you, also I carry Golden Carrots with me as well as cooked beef, I usually top off with the carrot cause it keeps you full the longest.

[ThGamngChnnel]

xisumavoid This is by far the best tutorial I've seen. I got 2 stacks of diamond within 2 hours of using this method. (1 stack with fortune 3 enchantment.)

[joshcucjen]

Thanks for the explanation Xisuma! I already knew the best way to branch mine from when you talked about it in your Hermitcraft series, but the science was very appreciated!

[jroseallister]

Well, color me impressed! I had joined a new server and spent my first three days branch mining in my usual way (2x1 on lvl 11, 2 blocks apart) and zero diamonds. Switched to Xisuma's poke hole method, went back into one of my original branches, and uncovered 2 diamond veins within 10 minutes. Thank you!

[andrewandrew]

Best diamond-finding tutorial I've ever seen!  Another great video!