Fritter's Guide to Spelunking
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:15 pm
I have decided to write a guide on spelunking (cave exploring) in MineCraft. Spelunking is a great alternative to strip mining, providing some excitement and adventure, as well as the chance to acquire some some pretty sweet loot.
Spelunking
Part I: Required Gear
Part II: Finding Caves
Part III: Exploring Caves
Part IV: Further Strategies and Afterword
Part I: Required Gear
Obviously, you will require some items to go spelunking. Here is a good list of necessary things to bring:
Iron or Diamond picks, preferably with a lvl 1 enchant (efficiency I or Unbreaking I)
Torches (at least 3 stacks)
Water bucket
Iron pick with Silk Touch I
Dirt (2 stacks)
Iron or Diamond shovels, preferably with a lvl 1 enchant (efficiency I or Unbreaking I)
Wooden chest
Iron/Diamond picks are for general earth removal, as well as iron, coal, and gold. The silk touch iron pick is for diamond ore. The torches are (obviously) for illumination, and the water bucket is for putting out lava pools and making areas safer. Dirt is for reaching high places and building walls against monsters/water/lava. Wooden chest is for safe storage during the early stages of spelunking.
Now, you see I don't say to bring weapons, food, or Fortune III picks. I do all my mining at 5 hearts, and rarely run into a monster outside of a dungeon. As for lack of weapons, Diamond and iron picks do plenty of damage for taking out the occasional zombie or skeleton. Finally, Fortune III picks are completely unnecessary in spelunking. If you die with them, you take at least 5000rc with you. Much easier to use a 500rc silk touch iron pick to take the diamond ore, then use the Fortune III pick at home (or just sell it as ore).
Part II: Finding Caves
Ok, so you have your gear, now where do you find these caves? Good question. I'm going to tell you to break the cardinal rule of minecraft: Never mine straight down.
So, grab your gear and head out into the wilderness. Anywhere more than 300 blocks from civilization it is generally fairly safe to assume that it hasn't already been mined or explored. Listen for cave sounds, or the sounds of monsters, or running water. Try to stand above them. Place all your belongings in a chest nearby, with the exception of a shovel, a pick, a stack of dirt, and a couple torches. Then start digging straight down. If you don't hear any cave sounds, just try randomly. You have ~50% chance of hitting a cavern or tunnel. Dig till you hit a cavern or tunnel, then use dirt to get back to the surface. Get the rest of your gear, then head down again. If you have a blind hole (no cave) try listening again for any sounds, or simply head back to the surface, move 25 blocks in a direction and try again.
Part III: Exploring Caves
So now you've found your cave. Now where is all this delicious loot that should be lying around? Time to explore a bit.
{A well lit ravine. Also, me checking out the upper level of the ravine after clearing the bottom first}
Firstly, LIGHT. You want torches EVERYWHERE. You brought them this far for a reason, time to start using the damned things. The goal here is to light the cave enough to A) tell where you have been and where you haven't, and B) prevent monsters from spawning and eating you like the tender little morsel of flesh that you are.
Start exploring. Try to ignore branches that seem to go constantly up, because if you are anywhere above Y:20, you'll want to be traveling lower. If you find Iron/Coal/Gold/etc, don't leave it. Cave networks can be big enough that you want to sweep through them in one go, not doubling back to get loot you left behind earlier. If you hit a dead end, make some observations. If the dead end is gravel, grab your shovel and start digging, as it probably just caved in and blocked off the tunnel. If it is a stone dead end, try digging 5 or 6 blocks further, if you find nothing, try somewhere else instead. Keep and ear out for running water, popping lava, and mob sounds. Running water and lava is very common in caves, and you should be able to easily locate other caves from the sounds. Be VERY careful while digging towards sounds, and stay a couple blocks back from where you are digging. You never know when you might puncture a lava pocket and your tunnel will be filled with liquid brimstone with a side of death.
Large lava pools are a constant threat and should not be left unattended. Use your water bucket to harden them in to obsidian pathways. However, obsidian has a very poor lighting index, so you will require more torches to light large areas of obsidian.
{A well lit spawner, also some nice loot in the inventory}
Monster spawners often open out onto caves. If you hear a lot of groaning or clinking bones, take it as a precaution. It may be best to leave and wait for them to despawn than try to take on a number of monsters. Make sure to light up the cave outside the spawner too; even if the spawner is surrounded by torches, they could spawn in dark corners of the cave.
When you find diamonds or gold, the first thing you should do is excavate them. Dig all the dirt/rock out from around them until they are freestanding (and preferably floating). If they are on or beneath a lava pool, use dirt or cobble to make a safe platform for the block to land with no chance of them flying in to lava. Be extremely careful when dealing with diamonds in obsidian, as their is most likely still lava trapped underneath the obsidian layer.
Try to stick to low ground. This may seem a bad idea due to lava/water concentrations, but their are several reasons why it is safer. First of all, the obvious hazard of falling. Falling damage in minecraft is fairly substantial, and could easily kill you if you fell from the top of a ravine if you already had half health. Secondly, due to the monster's AI, it is safer to remain below them than above them. Monsters are now exceptionally good at climbing (finding ways to climb up to you), however the AI will not let them walk off ledges that will result in fall damage. So in unlit ravines, it is safer to remain at the bottom of the ravine than in the middle near the connecting tunnels.
Part IV: Further Strategies and Afterword
A strategy which I have tested and found to work (albeit rather poorly), is using fire resistance potions, then swimming to the bottom of lava pits to find diamonds or gold. While this does work, I don't recommend it, as your visibility in lava is much lower than your visibility in water, which makes it quite difficult to find what you're looking for.
I'm going to bring up courtesy here as well. If you see someone's house on public land, don't go and clean out all the caves under it. Take the ideas of hunting and apply them to spelunking: If you're gonna kill it, make sure you get good use out of it. Don't go and just mine out the gold and diamonds and leave the iron and coal. Because some poor person is going to come along later, mine it thoroughly, and not find anything because you've already grabbed the most valuable stuff and run away.
This guide was written as just a rough guideline and general idea sheet for people looking to obtain resources more efficiently. I hope that people can take some tips from it, and maybe post some of their own.
~Fritter
Spelunking
Part I: Required Gear
Part II: Finding Caves
Part III: Exploring Caves
Part IV: Further Strategies and Afterword
Part I: Required Gear
Obviously, you will require some items to go spelunking. Here is a good list of necessary things to bring:
Iron or Diamond picks, preferably with a lvl 1 enchant (efficiency I or Unbreaking I)
Torches (at least 3 stacks)
Water bucket
Iron pick with Silk Touch I
Dirt (2 stacks)
Iron or Diamond shovels, preferably with a lvl 1 enchant (efficiency I or Unbreaking I)
Wooden chest
Iron/Diamond picks are for general earth removal, as well as iron, coal, and gold. The silk touch iron pick is for diamond ore. The torches are (obviously) for illumination, and the water bucket is for putting out lava pools and making areas safer. Dirt is for reaching high places and building walls against monsters/water/lava. Wooden chest is for safe storage during the early stages of spelunking.
Now, you see I don't say to bring weapons, food, or Fortune III picks. I do all my mining at 5 hearts, and rarely run into a monster outside of a dungeon. As for lack of weapons, Diamond and iron picks do plenty of damage for taking out the occasional zombie or skeleton. Finally, Fortune III picks are completely unnecessary in spelunking. If you die with them, you take at least 5000rc with you. Much easier to use a 500rc silk touch iron pick to take the diamond ore, then use the Fortune III pick at home (or just sell it as ore).
Part II: Finding Caves
Ok, so you have your gear, now where do you find these caves? Good question. I'm going to tell you to break the cardinal rule of minecraft: Never mine straight down.
So, grab your gear and head out into the wilderness. Anywhere more than 300 blocks from civilization it is generally fairly safe to assume that it hasn't already been mined or explored. Listen for cave sounds, or the sounds of monsters, or running water. Try to stand above them. Place all your belongings in a chest nearby, with the exception of a shovel, a pick, a stack of dirt, and a couple torches. Then start digging straight down. If you don't hear any cave sounds, just try randomly. You have ~50% chance of hitting a cavern or tunnel. Dig till you hit a cavern or tunnel, then use dirt to get back to the surface. Get the rest of your gear, then head down again. If you have a blind hole (no cave) try listening again for any sounds, or simply head back to the surface, move 25 blocks in a direction and try again.
Part III: Exploring Caves
So now you've found your cave. Now where is all this delicious loot that should be lying around? Time to explore a bit.
{A well lit ravine. Also, me checking out the upper level of the ravine after clearing the bottom first}
Firstly, LIGHT. You want torches EVERYWHERE. You brought them this far for a reason, time to start using the damned things. The goal here is to light the cave enough to A) tell where you have been and where you haven't, and B) prevent monsters from spawning and eating you like the tender little morsel of flesh that you are.
Start exploring. Try to ignore branches that seem to go constantly up, because if you are anywhere above Y:20, you'll want to be traveling lower. If you find Iron/Coal/Gold/etc, don't leave it. Cave networks can be big enough that you want to sweep through them in one go, not doubling back to get loot you left behind earlier. If you hit a dead end, make some observations. If the dead end is gravel, grab your shovel and start digging, as it probably just caved in and blocked off the tunnel. If it is a stone dead end, try digging 5 or 6 blocks further, if you find nothing, try somewhere else instead. Keep and ear out for running water, popping lava, and mob sounds. Running water and lava is very common in caves, and you should be able to easily locate other caves from the sounds. Be VERY careful while digging towards sounds, and stay a couple blocks back from where you are digging. You never know when you might puncture a lava pocket and your tunnel will be filled with liquid brimstone with a side of death.
Large lava pools are a constant threat and should not be left unattended. Use your water bucket to harden them in to obsidian pathways. However, obsidian has a very poor lighting index, so you will require more torches to light large areas of obsidian.
{A well lit spawner, also some nice loot in the inventory}
Monster spawners often open out onto caves. If you hear a lot of groaning or clinking bones, take it as a precaution. It may be best to leave and wait for them to despawn than try to take on a number of monsters. Make sure to light up the cave outside the spawner too; even if the spawner is surrounded by torches, they could spawn in dark corners of the cave.
When you find diamonds or gold, the first thing you should do is excavate them. Dig all the dirt/rock out from around them until they are freestanding (and preferably floating). If they are on or beneath a lava pool, use dirt or cobble to make a safe platform for the block to land with no chance of them flying in to lava. Be extremely careful when dealing with diamonds in obsidian, as their is most likely still lava trapped underneath the obsidian layer.
Try to stick to low ground. This may seem a bad idea due to lava/water concentrations, but their are several reasons why it is safer. First of all, the obvious hazard of falling. Falling damage in minecraft is fairly substantial, and could easily kill you if you fell from the top of a ravine if you already had half health. Secondly, due to the monster's AI, it is safer to remain below them than above them. Monsters are now exceptionally good at climbing (finding ways to climb up to you), however the AI will not let them walk off ledges that will result in fall damage. So in unlit ravines, it is safer to remain at the bottom of the ravine than in the middle near the connecting tunnels.
Part IV: Further Strategies and Afterword
A strategy which I have tested and found to work (albeit rather poorly), is using fire resistance potions, then swimming to the bottom of lava pits to find diamonds or gold. While this does work, I don't recommend it, as your visibility in lava is much lower than your visibility in water, which makes it quite difficult to find what you're looking for.
I'm going to bring up courtesy here as well. If you see someone's house on public land, don't go and clean out all the caves under it. Take the ideas of hunting and apply them to spelunking: If you're gonna kill it, make sure you get good use out of it. Don't go and just mine out the gold and diamonds and leave the iron and coal. Because some poor person is going to come along later, mine it thoroughly, and not find anything because you've already grabbed the most valuable stuff and run away.
This guide was written as just a rough guideline and general idea sheet for people looking to obtain resources more efficiently. I hope that people can take some tips from it, and maybe post some of their own.
~Fritter