How to mine stone blocks almost instantly in Minecraft

A strip mine is the most common way for players to find diamonds but requires a lot of mining. Image via Minecraft
A strip mine is the most common way for players to find diamonds but requires a lot of mining. Image via Minecraft

Whether Minecraft players are strip mining or just gathering blocks, mining stone is one of the key activities that they do. Minecraft is full of different blocks, but stone is arguably the most common. The vast majority of underground blocks are stone, with a few other variations present as well.

When strip mining or gathering stone for a build, getting through it quickly is important. It's not particularly enjoyable to mine endlessly through one block, so the faster it is the better. There are ways to make it go faster in Minecraft, though.


How to mine stone blocks quickly in Minecraft

As always, each increased level of pickaxe gets faster and more efficient. They also get more durable, too. Here's how fast each type of pickaxe will mine through stone blocks:

  • Wooden pickaxe- 1.15 seconds
  • Stone pickaxe- 0.6 seconds
  • Iron pickaxe- 0.4 seconds
  • Diamond pickaxe- 0.3 seconds
  • Gold pickaxe- 0.2 seconds
  • Netherite- no data available
Netherite pickaxes are made from diamond pickaxes with a Netherite ingot. Image via Minecraft
Netherite pickaxes are made from diamond pickaxes with a Netherite ingot. Image via Minecraft

Obviously, gold pickaxes go through almost all blocks at a much faster rate, but they break extremely quickly, rendering them pretty useless. Diamond and subsequently Netherite would be far better in that regard.

Additionally, though those times are pretty fast for getting through stone blocks, they can be faster. Efficiency enchantments make pickaxes mine through things much faster, so the mine time can be even shorter.

The formula doesn't give exact times, but it does show how much faster they can get. If the item is enchanted with Efficiency, then the level squared plus 1 is added to the tool speed. Efficiency I adds 2 to the value, while Efficiency V adds 26. The Haste effect also increases the mining speed percentage by 20 times the level of haste added (which can be very high).

With Haste, even just one level, Efficiency and a diamond or Netherite pickaxe, going through stone will happen pretty much instantaneously.

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