Diamonds aren't rare, and you don't need to hoard them like a dragon with its gold

[u/_amongstreality]

People have talked about jukebox being expensive for a long time, and I saw this mentioned many times since the last snapshot released, so I just wanted to explain why from my point of view it's simply not true.

First of all, let's establish the use cases diamonds actually have in Minecraft:

• Tools
• Weapons
• Armor
• Templates duplication
• Enchanting table crafting
• Jukeboxes

With Mending being a thing, once you craft your tools, weapons and armor, you almost never need to replace them, and if you do - you can buy new tools, weapons and armor from vilalgers and disenchant it to put the enchantments you need on them, so you don't actually need diamonds for that, it's a one time investment at most.

So the player doesn't need that many diamonds before they become mostly irrelevant to them as a resource in the game.

But how do you actually find diamonds, and is it hard to do?

Simple and short answer is that finding diamonds isn't hard at all.

Long answer is, finding diamonds is easy, because there's a lot of ways to do that. The most obvious is going to a cave and just looking around, you'll find tons of them very reliably, and if you have Fortune on your pickaxe, as one should, you'll be literally drowning in them. Simply find an opening to a big cave on the surface, go down, and there's so many of them, you'll be catching yourself missing multiple veins of diamonds, because you notice a different vein and went to it.

But what's there other than caves? Well, there's lots and lots of structures. You can find diamonds in shipwrecks, and shipwrecks have maps that lead you to buried chests, that also have diamonds in them. There's also diamonds in villages, abandoned mineshafts, desert temples, trial chambers, stronghold, and now also abandoned camps.

And it doesn't stop with the overworld, there's diamonds in bastions, nether fortresses, and end cities. Especially end cities, there's loads of them in the end cities.

All you have to do is explore the world.

Conclusion

I have no issues with the jukebox using a single diamond in its crafting recipe, because I don't need these diamonds anyway, and I always find more and more of them. And if you'd ever leave your base? So would you.

Mojang is very clearly aiming to add more things for players to explore, but I notice that a lot of players just stick to sitting at their base forever, never leaving to explore the world, which in some cases leads to players having a very hard time gathering any resources, not just diamonds, hence everything seems "too expensive".

Maybe I'm wrong, because I never needed and never intend to need 10000 jukeboxes for any build, I see it as more of a complementary decorative block, maybe something subtle to use for a wall, but not something I would ever need hundreds and thousands of, hence why the crafting recipe doesn't bother me. I could craft a few stacks and have enough for decorations in my builds for months.

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[u/StarGuardianAshe]

I honestly have a harder time finding iron than finding diamonds and I don't know why

[u/_amongstreality → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Probably just perception difference, because you actually use iron for a lot of things, and diamonds you basically just collect.

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/_amongstreality]

But iron is too easy to farm tho. Midway in the game iron is just another easily renewable resource.

[u/just-a-nerd- → u/QuickSilver010]

That’s why I don’t farm it lol. There’s lots in caves, one of the core features of Minecraft and my favourite part of the game

[u/Family_Hashira117 → u/just-a-nerd-]

I just find some stony Peaks biomes and mine iron to my hearts content. With a Fortune 3 Pickaxe and a blast furnace going in a central locations while Im busy mining a few more stacks of ore is a good bet. After I get my diamond tools I have the majority of my iron supply be used for trading with blacksmiths

[u/just-a-nerd- → u/Family_Hashira117]

It’s kind of baffling to me how many people don’t engage with caves. I adore the post-1.18 caves and they always feel novel to me. I love getting lost and being down there for hours on end. I love bringing two bundles and a shulker box down and having to stop to manage my inventory every so often

[u/Stressedpage → u/just-a-nerd-]

I agree but I guess everyone plays the way they want. Me personally, if I see iron in tuff I'm spending like 2 hrs mining it dry while I drop stacks into a furnace. I cannot resist the tuff/iron veins. Sometimes I'll forget what I was caving for because I have to get it all lol.

[u/WhaleSexOdyssey → u/Family_Hashira117]

I wish I had done this instead of spending probably 10 combined hours trying to make a workable iron farm

[u/YearMountain3773 → u/just-a-nerd-]

Untill you need thousands of it.

[u/Jackesfox → u/QuickSilver010]

this is an unfair comparison since iron farms are technically and abuse of game mechanics. Diamonds are only obtainable through mining (even if diamond made itens are tradable)

[u/Bluevette1437 → u/Jackesfox]

Isn’t like every farm outside of manually farming crops and trees an “abuse” of game mechanics?

[u/BaconIsntThatGood → u/Bluevette1437]

Yea I'd love to know where they think the line between "abusing" and "engaging" game mechanics is.

[u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo → u/BaconIsntThatGood]

We can debate the precise word used, but I think we understand the point being communicated: iron farms are players deliberately exploiting villager mechanics in an unintended way that most players won't find naturally and that Mojang isn't balancing ore distribution around.

[u/Excalibur54 → u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo]

It's not even fair to call it unintentional. When Mojang changed village mechanics in 1.14, technical players complained directly to the Mojang employees they are friends with, telling them that the new iron farming mechanics were overly simplistic, not allowing for interesting design iteration (that's why all iron farms look the same) and Mojang didn't change anything.

They wanted iron farms to be exactly the way they are.

[u/wafflelauncher → u/BaconIsntThatGood]

It's not really abuse unless you're role-playing, in which case you can make the argument that a good player character wouldn't kill villagers and iron golems. You could also argue that the infinite spawning behavior of iron golems is game-breaking in a game about mining. But those are obviously artificial constraints imposed by the player, rather than bugs in the game.

[u/BaconIsntThatGood → u/wafflelauncher]

Maybe I want to roleplay an evil genius who the villages just remain blind to my misdeeds of caging them up in stalls and having a magic iron golem factory in the sky.

[u/GormanOnGore → u/wafflelauncher]

I’ve never built an iron farm because I feel bad killing iron golems.

I don’t like that most folks act like we have to. Just put more ore in the game!

[u/Wrydfell → u/Bluevette1437]

I mean, i know your point is more 'farms aren't really an abuse of game mechanics', but i want to throw my more in depth logic into it as well. Take witches for example. You can just level the area around a witch hut and manually kill them for redstone. The next logical step is pulling the witches into one place to kill them. The next: increasing spawns (light levels, spawnproofing) and the next: pushing the witches to a place they die automatically. It's not an 'abuse' of game mechanics, it's more, pulling the understanding of said mechanics together in a way that does what you want. It's actively a creative thing to do that incentivises understanding the game

[u/Bluevette1437 → u/Wrydfell]

Yea it’s really just an evolution of testing and optimization for better rates. The people who design these farms are incredible

[u/Jackesfox → u/Bluevette1437]

yes, that's why its *technically*, but its still a sandbox game.

[u/welpthishappened1 → u/Jackesfox]

Abuse? Its minecraft, there are no rules

[u/GamerNumba100 → u/welpthishappened1]

That’s a fair complaint about his word choice, but since we’re talking about the balance of the resources and how easy they are to get, it’s worth saying mojang probably isn’t balancing around iron farms. New players don’t use them anyway. Maybe Mojang should be

[u/welpthishappened1 → u/GamerNumba100]

If mojang wanted to get rid of iron farms they would. They are surely well aware of them

[u/arahman81 → u/welpthishappened1]

They made iron farms easier.

[u/rilian4 → u/Jackesfox]

Diamonds are only obtainable through mining

Sunken ships can have them as can end city chests.

[u/Jackesfox → u/rilian4]

Yeah loot in chest or whatever, you cant drop it from mobs or make a farm for it, thats my point

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/Jackesfox]

this is an unfair comparison since iron farms are technically and abuse of game mechanics.

Abuse? Of a sandbox game? All game mechanics in a sandbox is for you to use.

[u/SharpClaw007 → u/Jackesfox]

By that logic, every farm is an “abuse”. I personally would draw the line at actual glitches, like block ID swapping or something

[u/I_love_my_fish_ → u/QuickSilver010]

I wouldn’t even consider an iron farm a middle game farm, I’d consider it an early game. I just started a world that I’m prepping a gold and iron farm around day 30 (separate farms of course). Trying to hold off on even finding the strong hold though cause I want to make a world reliant on horses and minecarts

[u/narrill → u/I_love_my_fish_]

Even "early game" is understating it, IMO. You can make an iron farm within an hour of starting a new world.

[u/rainstorm0T → u/QuickSilver010]

if you make an iron farm, sure, but a lot of players don't like doing that.

[u/thinjester → u/QuickSilver010]

on bedrock you need 20 villagers so it’s a bit of a hassle getting it set up.

my base is a castle so i have a tower up there with a room of 20 villagers, beds, and a gollum killer. since its at my base i have an ungodly amount of iron now, so i built a vault into the mountain to display my mounds of it in the open, and even that is filling up.

maybe it’s soon time to free the villagers up there.

[u/DiverseUniverse24 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Lol sometimes the same, and I use a lot of hoppers. But I've got chests full of everything diamond (raiding end cities also helped this but I've made a lot of back up sets. Well, back ups to back ups, which are already a back up to the back ups of the back ups).

[u/LoudKaleidoscope7713 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Diamonds have greater contrast against deepslate and generate most abundantly at the bottom of the world (i.e., where you would expect to find them), whereas iron has lower contrast and generates according to a more complicated formula that privileges the lower stone layer (y = 16) and mountain tops (y = 32) with the occasional super-vein in the deepslate layer.

[u/Collistoralo → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Iron is used in far more things and they made it rarer when they changed the world generation a while back. Hope to find an iron vein or make a golem farm.

[u/CantFindAName000 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

The trick for finding iron is to mine a little higher up in the world at regular stone level, I've found. I personally do separate iron and diamond strip mines at y 16 and y -45 respectively

[u/TheGreatDaniel3 → u/CantFindAName000]

You can also find a lot of iron high up on mountains, and massive iron ore veins generate below Y=-8

[u/Omelooo → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Iron spawns higher than most people are (still) used to

[u/kityrel → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Diamonds are more common the deeper down you dig (like, y=-58).

Iron is most common at approx y=16, so not as deep. Also can be found in mountains (above y=80, peaking the higher you go, like y=200).

For reference, sea level is about y=63 or 64.

Other ores like copper, gold, redstone, etc, have other ranges.

[u/RockyNonce → u/kityrel]

I still think of y=11 for diamonds lol

[u/Eeekpenguin → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Yeah iron used to be a byproduct of any diamond mining either caving or strip mining but they moved it up higher so you have to do a dedicated y level strip mine for them or get them on top of mountains. On the flip side, you can now fortune 3 them and get an honestly absurd amount of iron ingots if you dedicated some time to mine them efficiently. Early game iron and coal are definitely harder to get before caves and cliffs update tho.

[u/Candy_Squid → u/StarGuardianAshe]

If you don't have an iron farm, mining at y level 16 gets you iron pretty quick in a bind

[u/Infinite_Bench_593 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

It's because iron and diamonds are not found at the same rate at the same layers anymore.

[u/EnderBookwyrm → u/StarGuardianAshe]

What y levels have you been mining at? Iron spawns a bit higher up.

[u/IWillDevourYourToes → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Maybe because you always go into deep caves?

[u/NuclearPilot101 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Are you digging?

[u/scb074 → u/StarGuardianAshe]

Stoney mountain tops have lots of iron ore right on the surface.

[u/Least-Theory-781]

You make many wonderful and valid points however, counterpoint: dragons are cool and hoarding treasure while pretending to be one is equally as cool

[u/Valuable-Garbage → u/Least-Theory-781]

my over complicated vault that you have to go through two redstone doors down a redstone elevator through another redstone door then do a jumping puzzle to get to just so I can look at a few hundred blocks of diamond and gold would agree lol

[u/Ponderkitten → u/Valuable-Garbage]

Its on a singleplayer world with no chance of anyone stealing it, isnt it

[u/Valuable-Garbage → u/Ponderkitten]

I open to lan sometimes to mess around with friends but yup 99.9% of the time it's just me haha

[u/_amongstreality → u/Least-Theory-781]

Valid point

[u/Dooyamum → u/Least-Theory-781]

Unless you’re Jeff Bazos

[u/lilacstar72]

The music discs are probably harder to acquire than the diamond for a jukebox.

[u/Jayzhee → u/lilacstar72]

I built a farm specifically to get a few copies of Lava Chicken to troll my kids.

[u/_amongstreality → u/Jayzhee]

I hate you for reminding me about this song, because now I'll be listening to Jack Black's singing for hours

[u/lilacstar72 → u/Jayzhee]

I have a zombie spawner farm for xp and got a lucky chicken jockey spawn.

[u/Impressive_Pin8761]

people talk about the game as if we never moved from 1.12 and any new updates anyone even mildly dislikes are immediately discarded

[u/FluffyPhoenix → u/Impressive_Pin8761]

Everything past 1.12.2 is just modded 1.12.2, duh.

[u/DragonTheOnes-spirit → u/Impressive_Pin8761]

In my mind. Y13 is still the best value to mine for diamonds

[u/IronCat_2500]

EXACTLY!

Just strip mining with decent enchantments gets you  at least half a stack of ore per hour and you can buy an infinite amount of diamond gear from villagers

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/IronCat_2500]

Forget strip mining. Since the large cave update, I walk out of every cave with 2 stacks of diamond ores. It's ridiculous how much diamond you can find in just an hour.

[u/XygenSS → u/QuickSilver010]

WATER CAVES.

Diamonds avoid being air-exposed, but they are fine with being water-exposed.

Just bring doors, you'll be fine.

[u/QuaintBlasphemy → u/XygenSS]

My understanding is that diamonds don’t avoid being exposed to air, they just don’t spawn in large clusters when exposed to air very often. That’s why we often find veins of 1-2 exposed to air and larger veins completely buried or underwater.

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/XygenSS]

I've seen a lot of air exposed diamonds tho.

[u/XygenSS → u/QuickSilver010]

they're usually from map specials excavating an area and revealing the ore.

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/XygenSS]

What's map specials?

[u/Excalibur54 → u/QuickSilver010]

Because they do generate exposed to air, they just have between a 50% and 100% chance to fail to generate when exposed to air, depending on the generation batch.

[u/betazoid_cuck → u/XygenSS]

water caving with a nautilus is really cool. still need doors, and maybe a water breathing potion or two, but getting around becomes a breeze. especially if you find a big enough cave system.

[u/HellboundLunatic → u/betazoid_cuck]

turtle helmet lets you regain your breath instantly after being exposed to air for a nanosecond, so something like a bucket or a torch can let you live forever too

[u/SniperHusky_1 → u/QuickSilver010]

I wish I had your luck. I can go cave exploring for hours and maybe find 10

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/SniperHusky_1]

Are you looking in the massively exposed high roof caves or small ones?

[u/Irrstern]

jukeboxes using diamonds to make also just makes perfect sense because real life record players also use diamonds for the needle.

removing it from the crafting recipe would also remove this connection to the real world inspiration of the block.

[u/OK1526 → u/Irrstern]

Huh, didn't know that.

I thought it was crafted like that because you need to insert money to turn them on lol

[u/librarysage]

But if I waste all my precious diamonds on silly things like jukeboxes, how will I be able to build my array of diamond block beacons?

[u/Xaxiel9106 → u/librarysage]

Diamand is so 1.15. Netherite block beacons are the way now.

[u/c_dubs063]

Lies! I shall never mine my shulker boxes filled with deepslate diamond ore! They are my precious! The fruits of my labor! Normal diamonds can be found elsewhere!

[u/FlorianFlash]

r/HerNameIsJean and she doesn't even hoard any gold. She just protects her only child.

[u/MegamiCookie → u/FlorianFlash]

You made a whole sub for that lmao, I applaud the dedication

[u/Longjumping-Name-744]

Once you have fortune III on your picaxe, diamonds aren’t special anymore. It’s the netherite that becomes special

[u/once-was-hill-folk]

I don't know what was up with my world generation but until fairly recently, I had more gold and diamonds than iron.

[u/agitatedandroid]

People think Jukeboxes are expensive?

I had no idea this was even something people fretted about.

[u/_amongstreality → u/agitatedandroid]

I made a post yesterday, about the new texture and playlist feature, and got a few comments saying that jukeboxes are expensive, and pretty much under every post that talks about jukeboxes and had some engagement, has comments about jukeboxes being too expensive

[u/agitatedandroid → u/_amongstreality]

Maybe this is why I'm poor. I just don't properly appreciate the value of a diamond. I guess?

[u/Candy_Squid → u/agitatedandroid]

I think some people just feel nostalgic for how important diamonds used to feel and just pretend they still are tbh

[u/Good-Solution3081]

Counterpoint: duplicating trims costs a lot of diamonds

[u/The_Champ_Son]

Expensive is a relative term based on something’s worth. $100 for a new car is insanely cheap. $100 for a loaf of bread is insanely expensive. A diamond for something that is more or less just there and not being used makes it more expensive than something like you will use a lot like a tool or armor

[u/lilacstar72 → u/The_Champ_Son]

Why make a jukebox and not use it though? You pointed out the expensive is relative. Tools and armour have limited durability which cost more diamonds or resources to maintain. If you want to play music discs, you spend 1 diamond on 1 block and can play any disc whenever you want forever.

[u/antwanlb → u/lilacstar72]

Playing music discs is a novelty though. Mall is a bop, but i still wouldnt go out of my way to listen to it over and over. Nobody actually uses a jukebox more than once, because you cant even play the game due to limited range. Having spotify on the side is free and better.

[u/lordberric → u/antwanlb]

"Nobody actually uses a jukebox more than once"

My girlfriend and I basically constantly have the jukebox going if we're close by. Which is fairly often. It makes exploration super fun too because every music disk we find is a cool new addition to our rotation.

Statements that make a claim about how EVERYBODY plays should be avoided when you're talking about the most popular game in the world. In general I think minecraft players need some perspective on the massive variety of ways people play the game.

I first noticed this with the copper armor. Half of the comments I saw were people saying "Oh my god, this is amazing, I never have enough iron so this will be really useful" and the other half were people saying "Just make a day 1 iron farm, what's the point of this shit?". 

As someone who usually plays fast paced with farms and big builds, playing with my girlfriend has shown me just how much better a lot of the most ridiculed new mechanics are when you just engage with them casually.

[u/AlienZaye → u/The_Champ_Son]

And once one hits a certain point, I'd rather save diamonds to make more netherite upgrade templates

[u/lordberric → u/The_Champ_Son]

If you would never use the jukebox anyway then why do you care that it costs a diamond?

[u/The_Champ_Son → u/lordberric]

If it was a piece of iron or copper I would make one all the time

[u/seanyseanyseanyseany → u/The_Champ_Son]

I don't think the example holds up because in real life you can't go to y -56 and find £100

[u/The_Champ_Son → u/seanyseanyseanyseany]

No but you can go to work instead of taking off to earn money

[u/hellhound74]

I argue the contrary, but this is because i like to collect armor trims, and make extra sets of armor using them, so i do in fact need to hoard diamonds, but this is also not the norm

[u/hoopopotamus]

I really don’t find that I accumulate a ton of diamonds.  And I do find them to be rare which I’m pretty sure is confirmed by their distribution overall compared to most other ores.

I like to explore and build in this game more than just branch mining for stuff, which can be weirdly relaxing sometimes but is also a chore.

At least it’s not as bad as netherite…

[u/Floatingpenguin87]

The first diamond I get in a world goes into a jukebox, we blast cat in this house

[u/WheatleyBr]

people mean more it's expensive relative to Noteblocks which have the same recipe but made of Redstone instead which is far more abundant, and actively renewable.

[u/Candy_Squid → u/WheatleyBr]

Diamonds are technically renewable, just need alot of accounts and a trail chamber (not worth it but technically true)

[u/Xygen8]

I occasionally go spelunking for less than an hour with a Fortune 3 pick and an elytra + rockets and will usually come back with 2+ stacks of diamonds.

I have like 3 stacks of diamond blocks, what am I even supposed to do with them? It's all the other materials that I never have enough of.

[u/gutwyrming]

I've never understood the argument that it's expensive. I usually get my first diamond within an hour of starting a new world. Not that I would spend that first diamond on a jukebox, but it's not like they're insanely rare and hard to get.

Plus, the inclusion of a diamond in the recipe is based on reality. Record players and jukeboxes in real life often have diamond-tipped needles. It's not like the recipe is arbitrary just to make them more expensive to craft.

[u/PM_ME_ABOUT_DnD → u/gutwyrming]

Not that I would spend that first diamond on a jukebox,

And now you should. Next world goal. Cross it off the bucket list, do some flexing in backwards order. 

[u/gutwyrming → u/PM_ME_ABOUT_DnD]

That's a really fun idea, actually. Get all sorts of "silly/useless" stuff before actually upgrading my gear 

[u/Mr_Placeholder_ → u/gutwyrming]

Silence armor trim on leather 

[u/DragonTheOnes-spirit → u/gutwyrming]

A lot of people don't instantly go into mining. I don't and tbh after finding one humongous cave I already had around like 50 diamonds

[u/sock--puppet → u/gutwyrming]

A lot of people are just bad at minecraft (in terms of min-maxing commonly needed resources, for which there is objectively best ways to do)

[u/powerman123]

Who is getting a few music discs, and wanting to use them, before getting a diamond to make this 😭

[u/Kind_Focus5839]

Well, twice in the last 6 months I’ve died and lost my weapons and armour. It’s definitely worth having enough diamonds around to make replacements.

[u/Frostgaurdian0]

Diamonds became very easy to find when their rates improved and caves got better topology. You don't need to do strip mines just be patient and you will find a good sum underground.

I myself used to do square room mining where i do mine an entire wall just to find Diamonds, safe and can bring you slimes but boring. I say that it is better to gather courage and explore the mines is more fun. I just wish we get newer underground biomes over time

[u/SacredGeometry9]

Ah, but consider; dragonlike hoarding is fun

[u/Defense-Unit-42]

Naw, I will hoard ALL the ores. I'm like Smaug, or Elon Musk, if they hoarded more than just one type of item.

[u/Mastergame_Angel]

Diamonds have only 3 uses.

Enchanting table before the end, Jukebox and Duping Trim Templates.

Everything else can be adquired with villagers and/or is unnecesary to get more than 2 sets

[u/bostar-mcman]

natural watermelons are rarer than diamonds.

[u/SniperHusky_1 → u/bostar-mcman]

Funny bc I find way more watermelons than diamonds

[u/Superman_720]

Once you have mending Diamond are irrelevant...

[u/nmheath03]

I have horrible luck finding diamonds. Doesn't matter if I'm going through a big cave or strip mining, I somehow always end up with like 12 diamonds max to my name. I had one instance back on a modded 1.16.5 world where strip mining actually worked and it never did after that, just broken pick after broken pick.

[u/Physical-Procedure42]

Cheaper than a hoe.

[u/LordOFtheNoldor]

I dono dude they're pretty rare, like 2 diamonds for every 100 iron and I always need them I have no idea how to do "mending"

[u/_amongstreality → u/LordOFtheNoldor]

Basically, villagers sell enchanted books, if you haven't bought anything from a villager, you can break their profession block (lectern in case with a librarian), place it again, and roll their trades. Eventually you'll see a mending book. When you enchant an item with mending, it will be absorbing xp, instead of it going towards your level, if you hold or wear an item that has mending enchantment.

So basically any time you mine an ore that drops xp, or kill mobs, your items will be fixing themselves.

[u/LordOFtheNoldor → u/_amongstreality]

Okay that is very helpful, I didn't know any of that

[u/LengthinessTop7097]

I have trouble finding diamonds but jukeboxes are fun to have around+ yeah it's pretty cheap I get like 4 extra from fortune

[u/Masbin420m]

I've actually ignored diamond ore later into the game, so yeah.
Still didn't manage to get silence

[u/One_Economist_3761]

Two bits of advice on finding diamonds:
1. Diamonds generate more frequently in proximity to large iron ore veins so mine those out and you will find tons of diamonds. (Currently nearly complete with my second double chest of stacks of deepslate diamond ore).

1. Dig out gravel pits y=-58 to y= - 53). Every couple of times the gravel pits reveal diamonds.

I usually mine at y=-54 because that’s where the lava lakes occur. I also quite frequently find diamonds on the banks of lava lakes. So I mine out a 1x2 corridor around lava lakes and usually find diamonds.

Conclusion: I agree with OP. Diamonds are really not hard to find.

[u/WorldsMostDad]

The ultimate Minecraft does is using juke boxes as furnace fuel to smelt copper ore.

[u/SniperHusky_1]

Step 1: have enough luck on your side to find “tons of” diamonds and mending/fortune books

I’m failing at step 1

[u/BeanBeno]

Also the only actual use for the jukebox will be in the ancient city, where diamonds are fkn everywhere

[u/_Spade_99]

Counterpoint: if I plan to make netherite I need all the diamonds I can get because it’s expensive to duplicate templates

[u/Cocoatrice]

I haven't had issues with finding diamonds since 1.0+, I don't remember exactly when. But people treat diamonds like they are super rare or something. Netherite is rare. Diamonds, not so.

[u/_DavidWasHere_]

Id rather have it that more items require diamonds to make because basically all of the items that require them only have to be crafted once.

[u/kman42097]

I firmly disagree. I just checked the statistics of my latest world on 1.21, and out of 4 thousand-ish stone based blocks mined, I’ve been rewarded with a grand total of... 16 diamonds. Maybe it's just this world but even walking around the massive caves I hardly find any.

[u/xboxer214]

Id imagine alot of people who hoard diamonds are old heads because diamonds were way more rare back then.

Now diamonds are so abundant, and fortune 3 helps so much too, so once you get mending, you pretty much never have to worry about using diamonds for tools and armor again, making any extra diamond you get to just sits in a chest.

[u/TemporaryFig8587]

Amethyst is just thematically better, since it has musical qualities to it, even if it might actually be more annoying to find.

Also like... Lodestone has its recipe changed to a pre-existing, renewable resource in a later update.

[u/BunnyHopThrowaway]

People want this game to be baby friendly I swear to god

[u/Inzora]

Like a what?

[u/MemeBoiCrep → u/Inzora]

like a 10 year joint

[u/Extension_Today2537]

you underestimate my armor trim addiction

[u/AliciaTries]

It's certainly not too expensive, but it's more expensive than most other building materials.

[u/_amongstreality → u/AliciaTries]

Thing is, it's not a building material, it's meant to be more of a decoration, rather than something like planks, or bricks

[u/AliciaTries → u/_amongstreality]

If someone wants to use it as a building material, then it's a building material. Besides, decorations are built too, so the things you use to build such decorations are building materials.

In any case, whether or not it is called a building material doesn't matter here.

[u/The__Earl]

I disagree, your argument is that one diamond isn’t expensive, and that’s correct in isolation, but it just doesn’t make sense for a jukebox. I don’t care if the recipe never changes, but it at least oughta have redstone somewhere in there. Maybe a stick to imply a record scratch (I forget what the exact piece that makes contact with the disc is called.)

[u/_amongstreality → u/The__Earl]

Someone in the comments here mentioned that record players and jukeboes in real life often have diamond-tipped needles, so it actually does make sense to have a diamond there.

Also, I explained why it's not expensive even if you don't craft just one, but stacks of it, in the post.

[u/easternhobo]

Once the villagers are set, diamonds become pretty insignificant.

[u/Scouttrooper195]

What if I don’t want to use villagers as it takes the enjoyment out of the game for me

[u/TheShadowKick]

I'm on an SMP with some friends and I ended up with a stack and a half of diamond blocks just from mining tons of redstone for a build. My friends act like it's some huge accomplishment to have so many diamonds and I'm just sitting here like what do I do with all these?

Anyway the server is never running out of diamond armor.

[u/ictu]

For tools, weapons and armors, I just level up toolsmith, weaponsmith and armorer to max. I'm selling them iron from the farm. That's also nice XP source. Add melon & pumpkin farm and few farmers and you have source of more emeralds than you can use. To the point you can start crafting them into blocks and use for building.

So unless you limir yourself to not building farms and trading hall, diamonds are mainly needed for building blocks and netherite templates. And for that you get enough after strip mining for like 15 minutes every now and then or just spelunkig for a bit.

Edit: And note blocks doesn't use diamonds sharing the same pattern as the old jukebox

[u/jgames09]

there are diamonds in bastions? I thought there were only diamond pickaxes and shovels

[u/_amongstreality → u/jgames09]

There's way more than just pickaxes and shovels. You pretty much can get a full diamond set with tools and weapons from bastions alone. Heck, you can find netherite ingots there

[u/Banjo-Hellpuppy]

I thought the point of Minecraft was just to hoard materials. Why do I have all these barrels then?!!?!

[u/Lzinger]

Went mining once, made my set of armor and still have 1.5 stacks left over

[u/Casual_Yet_almost]

🚧IRON SUPREMACY!🚧

[u/HourAfterHour]

Did anyone really complain about that?!
Haven't seen any complaints yet.

[u/BeginningAwareness74]

Yes I need to hoard it like a dragon with its gold

[u/RealTurboVortexXD]

I've had more issues with not having enough coal than diamonds. I'm at a point where I get more excited finding coal.

[u/Massive_Pangolin_218]

as I started playing in the newer versions I started realising how easy they are to find, I mean, just find a cave in an ocean and voila. and for a long time I've considered my old habit of thinking about diamonds as rare a foolish state of mind that I used to have when I was young and probably was a result of not having much exprerience in survival.

then a month ago I joined a 1.8.9 server and suddenly I had to strip mine for an hour to get a few diamonds and it all made sense to me:
they used to be rare for so long, they started to have this rarity in my head, but as newer versions came, and ores started generating in bigger clusters under water, villagers' deals became better and caves became much bigger and more frequent, they became easier to obtain.
once they got easier to obtain, they didn't have much value to me but I think some people still live in the old state of mind.

or maybe they just suck at mining IDK

[u/SquilliamAfton818]

diamonds are way easier to find ever since caves and cliffs.

[u/MsSobi]

I found a villager that does fortune 3 as their first enchanted book I've literally gotten so many diamonds i use them to gather EXP

[u/Squirtdoggz]

dont even need to craft tools ever just use villagers. only use for them is templates and jukeboxes. also don tneed enchantment table because... villagers

[u/physicalcat282]

I started Minecraft on Xbox before they had creative mode and because of the limited world size I'd go so far as to mine 5 diamonds and then leave the rest until I got Fortune 3.

Since then not one of the updates mentioned anything about diamonds being less expensive and I'm not about to start thinking that now.

However, you are right and I should actually make the jukebox more often.

[u/vivam0rt]

I mean that used to be true, before they made netherite take 7 diamonds per piece to upgrade

[u/NukeL3AR]

Ok but imagine if they replaced the diamond in the recipe with amethyst, suddenly we have a new use for amethyst that makes sense and would make people feel less bad about crafting a jukebox

[u/MemeBoiCrep]

like a what???????????

[u/JohnnyRelentless]

you'll be literally drowning in them.

No, not literally.

[u/Ninnifer]

But I am a dragon.
I must also be unlucky cuz I hardly ever find diamonds.. Tons of iron and gold, but rarely diamonds

[u/Smooth-Scratch-2271]

In my create mod modpack i just have a big ass mechanucallynopening vault where i have like 30 stacks of diamonds, gold and emeralds. I just do it for fun lol

[u/hellohowdyworld]

The only thing in the game that genuinely expensive is netherite and blue ice lol

[u/IAmNotModest]

Caves and Cliffs messed up the ore rarity.

[u/Baldazzer]

Wait you guys are being serious about diamonds being hard to find? Too many wrapped up in your beacon?

[u/dylzim]

Yeah, I go mining for diamonds typically three times in a world. Once without Fortune, once with for Armor/Extra tools, and then once later on for diamonds to duplicate trims and netherite upgrades with. Anything more than that is just extra diamonds really.

[u/BunchesOfCrunches]

As soon as I get a music disc I like, you bet your ass I’m making a jukebox. First 5 diamonds are essential, everything after that is commodity.

[u/Frogdwarf]

First six diamonds - Order of operations: Enchantment table (2) Diamond pick (3) Jukebox (1)

Whats the point in picking up record disks if you're not gonna use em?

[u/CarolineJohnson]

The most amount of Diamonds I've ever found in a single world were 4, and I've never found a Fortune book so getting a pick with it wouldn't be possible until AFTER I've stopped finding diamonds at all but also used them all up.

[u/RobinoPerkino]

Personally, my main hangup over having to spend straight diamonds is that they're not renewable at all (last I checked). If you run out of places to find them (and/or have the misfortune to actually lose them) it becomes continuously more difficult to replace them. (I also personally dread running the whole world out, even though I know it's basically impossible to actually do that.)

[u/Narwalacorn]

They’re expensive for what they are.

[u/Expensive_Pain]

You don't even need to involve Mending in your point. I play without Mending, so I'm always crafting new diamond tools, and I'd still not sweat crafting a stack of jukeboxes.

[u/flubbynubbs]

one of the FIRST cds i found was fucking 13 😭😂 that shit scared me so much i never used the jukebox again. my sister knows more about minecraft and she was like "its a good song". she also told me to name my dog dinnerbone when i found a nametag 🤦‍♀️

[u/dlc-Emerald]

truth nuke: diamonds are mid and wood tools are the only s tier tools cause theyre so insanely cheap that you never need to use another tool type, diamonds are only good to make netherite armor and jukeboxes

edit: also for weapons use mace and bows

[u/Idislikepurplecheese]

Having insanely bad luck is actually what put me off Minecraft for a while. I used to spend half a day mining and get at most ten diamonds... and look over at my brother's screen, and he stopped mining two hours ago after getting a couple stacks. I played for eight years and my luck never changed, so I put it down for a while and got addicted to monster hunter, where I had worse luck

[u/LongFluffyDragon]

Gold is so overrated

[u/VergeofAtlanticism]

diamonds are so common compared to how they used to be, it’s truly not that expensive

[u/luigiZard]

I know they aren't... Still I hoard them like a dragon with it's gold

[u/lilbignoodleboy]

easy, y level -56 1 by 1 grid strip mine rows

[u/CubeEthan]

You underestimate how cheap I am. I use stone tools and hoard deepslate

[u/CallMeHuckle]

I turn them all into blocks then slowly replace the dirt house I built, that’s only purpose is to house my bed. Because I have a hoard of chests outside, as I chose I giant first build and never finish it. Diamond house is a win.

[u/EndlessZone123]

Getting a few diamonds is so easy lol. A permanent 1 diamond cost is *nothing* compared to making armor or tools.

Minecraft has added random bits of places to find treasure that will have a few diamonds.

Its far easier to get diamond armor and tools from villagers by trading for pieces rather than crafting.

People want cool things like a jukebox they gotta actually play the game and explore mechanics.

[u/MAkrbrakenumbers]

Diamonds have lost their flair now it’s all about netherite and the wings

[u/Cass0wary_399]

When armor trims exists having a bunch of jukeboxes around a big base doesn’t seem that that expensive anymore.

[u/FlyByPC]

Shoot, the Elytra ladder at West End Tower is a build-limit stack of diamond blocks because I wanted to do something with them. I mine for iron for the railroad (peaceful Survival), but mining diamonds helps repair the pickaxe with mending, so I go for them, coal, and lapis, too.

[u/imNOTsmile]

I usually get full diamond armour in 20 minutes 🥀(if I find large cave. If I dont, it can extend for 40 minutes)

[u/ChesTwitch]

Unless you are playing skyblock. But then again everything is expensive in skyblock.

[u/_phantastik_]

Man, being excited about diamonds, feeling like they're so rare, the excitement around them, is a core part of this game's experience. Why you trying to buzzkill?

[u/Professional_Art6343]

i feel like people kindaa remember the legacy console diamond generation, but i love how easy they are to find now! back in the days of my ps3 world i never even managed to make diamond armor because they were SO rare :(

this is random but i have a tradition of making a jukebox with my first ever diamond!

[u/Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess-]

diamonds are more common than ever after the cave update

[u/DarthLinx]

" if you have Fortune..." I don't even.

[u/Ok_Worldliness_5592]

Since i started playing back in 1.12.2 i had full diamond armour TWICE, and never mined netherite. Most of the time i get leather armour faster than iron, becouse i cant find any (yes, even in huge caves)