Finding Geodes in Minecraft's 1.1.7 update: All you need to know

Minecraft's 1.1.7 "Caves and Cliffs" update has plenty of new content for aspiring cave explorers, including large Geodes filled to the brim with Amethyst and Calcite.

One of Minecraft's most aggressively generated structures, Geodes can even override cave, ravine, and abandoned mineshaft generation along with other structures.

Geodes can even generate so forcefully that they break the bedrock if they spawn close enough. Despite this, they can still be tricky to find, as they can generate anywhere underground between sea level and bedrock.

Players looking to find Geodes should bring plenty of pickaxes, ideally of iron quality or higher. It's going to take a significant amount of digging.

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Minecraft: Finding Geodes and how to harvest their contents

Image via Mojang

Some Minecraft players may count themselves lucky in their particular world seed, as Geodes can sometimes be spotted from the surface level. However, for the most part, Geodes will be found at block level 70 or lower.

They will be noticeable relatively quickly based on their spherical shape as well as having an outer shell of Smooth Basalt. The Basalt itself will crack easily when broken with a pickaxe, but players will want to ensure they have an iron pickaxe or stronger as they progress in the Geode.

Once Minecraft players have the right mining equipment, they can proceed to harvesting Calcite and Amethyst. Calcite will appear as a slightly cracked white block, while Amethyst can be found either in solid blocks or clusters of various growth stages. Once mined, Amethyst will shatter into shards.

So what can players do with these materials?

At the moment, Calcite blocks are only suitable for decoration. When it comes to Amethyst Shards, however, players can use the material to craft both the Spyglass or Tinted Glass. The shards can also be assembled into Amethyst blocks for decoration purposes.

Image via Mojang

Image via Mojang

Spyglasses are incredibly helpful for zooming a player's sight in on faraway distances. When searching for certain things in particular, say a village or temple structure, having an extended line of sight from a Spyglass can be incredibly helpful.

Meanwhile, Tinted Glass is unique compared to standard glass blocks, as it does not allow light to travel through it. This blocking of light leaves the side behind the glass significantly darker, which may give potential utility for those wanting to spawn hostile mobs, in particular.

Whatever Minecraft players choose to do with their materials, Geodes are a welcome addition to the 1.1.7 update, and their content should only become more useful in future content additions.