Diamonds: a survivor’s friend or hidden foe?

Here you are, sitting at your computer late at night, fingers hurting from clicking. Going through endless amounts of stone and dirt, falling into caves – or worse, lava… looking for that glint of blue within the dark depths. And just when you find your long-awaited reward, it is either a mislabelled lapis, a single diamond block, or surrounded by lava and in a dark and far-off corner of your world! Does that sound at least vaguely familiar?

I can’t neglect the amazing qualities of the diamond ore, like its strenght and durability in armour, tools and weapons. But is it always worth it? Are those hours spent mining claustrophobic tunnels and breaking pickaxes enough to justify the result? Maybe, which is why in this post I’ll be exploring some pros and cons of mining for diamonds!

Advantages of diamonds

• Must have if you want an enchanting table! This stands out as the main advantage and good long-term use of diamonds. Because for example, I’d say iron is much easier to find and cheaper in EXP, but can be just as powerful once enchanted!
• To add to the above, the diamond pickaxe is also the only way to mine obsidian, which is needed for the enchanting table. Other than that, there are workarounds like finding obsidian in chests and making obsidian nether portals with water and lava buckets.
• Diamond items provide the best durability, strenght, attack damage and speed in the game. Specifically, a diamond sword is your main and only choice against the Dragon, Wither or on PVP servers.
• Diamonds give you that feeling of power and accomplishment you had always strived for in your Minecraft world! And looks pretty, or at least pretty impressive (and painful if you count the effort).

Disadvantages of diamonds

• The diamond ore is rare! It exists around height level 15, spawns sparsely, and is commonly surrounded by lava lakes. You’ve an equally low chance of finding any meaningful amount from naturally generating chests.
• Diamond items expensive, so you’ll find yourself stressing out on any adventure, especially to the Nether. Don’t want to lose all that hard work over a silly accidental misclick! You will also quite possibly be targeted on survival servers.
• In contrast, I will again point out that iron is much easier to find yet perfectly good for most jobs like mining or basic defence.
• You could cheat for diamonds if cheats are enabled in the world, neglecting all the hard work needed to get them legitimately. Also, many item duplication glitches exist, such as on console by using a dropper and console crafting grid! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6G3XSwrmXQ

Overall, I’d say diamonds pay off, but only for the enchanting table and advanced PVP. Unless you plan to spend hours in the mines (or cheat) and use your diamond items wisely of course, as I can’t stop you there! And while I’m more of a builder, iron has always been my go-to ore in survival and hasn’t disappointed me as a reliable alternative for tools, armor and more. But the end decision is yours – feel free to share your own thoughts below, and let the Gods of mining be with you! (Notch, is that you?)