Top 5 interesting facts about ores in Minecraft

One of the most sought-after Minecraft resources is the many ores found throughout the game. These ores include lapis lazuli, diamond, redstone, gold, and iron. Players will need to hunt for these ores throughout the entire game for things such as enchanting fuel, armor, and tool crafting, and farm components such as hoppers and observers.

While the use of these ores is primarily utilitarian, some interesting trivia surrounds much of the game’s ores and materials. Five of the most interesting facts surrounding Minecraft ores are discussed below.

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5) Mountains are great for emerald and coal

A mountain range where players can find emeralds and coal (Image via Minecraft)

Despite emeralds having a rarity of “rare,” most players swear to them being the hardest ore to find in the entire game. This is for a good reason, as while emerald ore may only be considered rare, it is only generated in mountain biomes.

It also spawns in a very scattered way, meaning players will only find one or two ore at a time, rather than the six or seven diamonds that players can find in a vein.

Another interesting fact centered around mountains is how useful they are for getting coal ore in 1.19. With the terrain generation changes that made up 1.18, coal ore is abundant location has changed.

Where before, players could find plenty of coal deep in the world while looking for diamonds, now coal is mainly found higher up in the world. This means that mountains are great spots to look for coal.

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4) Gold is worse than wood

Wood is a better material than gold (Image via Minecraft)

Gold is the saddest material in all of Minecraft. It is rare, not used in many different crafting recipes, and has by far the worst tools in the game. While gold tools in the game are infamous for their low durability and lack of speed, their durability is lacking to the extent that most players might not be aware.

The numbers used in this example will be for a golden pickaxe, and while the numbers might vary slightly, the general concept will be the same.

A wooden pickaxe, typically the first tool a player will make on a world, only has a durability of 59. A player might expect that a golden pickaxe has more durability than this. However, it does not. A golden pickaxe only has 32 durabilities, almost half a wooden pick.

Gold does not even make up for this low durability with mining speed. While they can be faster than diamonds, the time added by inventory management due to them breaking so quickly makes them slower to mine.

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3) Emerald was almost ruby

When Mojang was looking for a gemstone to add to the game to facilitate players trading with villagers in update 1.3, the gemstone of choice was the ruby. This would be a red ore, similar to redstone, though the item itself would be a circular gem.

However, due to developer Dinnerbone's red-green colorblindness, making it nearly impossible to see the difference between rubies and redstone, the gemstone was changed to emerald, and the ore was given a unique texture to differentiate it from the other ores in the game.

Interestingly enough, ruby eventually made it into an official Minecraft release, just not the main game. They were a premium currency in the now defunct AR game Minecraft Earth, where they featured a very different texture than their original game counterparts.

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2) Raw ore is affected by fortune

Raw iron scattered around a base (Image via Minecraft)

For a long time, the entire history of the game pre-1.17 to be precise, gold and iron ore were not affected by the fortune enchantment. This was a direct result of the fact that these ores did not drop a separate item, instead dropping as ore blocks that players needed to smelt in a furnace.

However, update 1.17 added raw iron and gold to the game, which now drop from ores by default instead of the ore blocks. The ore blocks can still drop via the silk touch enchantment. However, now that the ore blocks drop a different item, they can be affected by the fortune enchantment. This means that a single iron or gold ore can potentially drop up to four raw ores.

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1) Piglins attack players that mine gold in their sight

One thing that most players probably know about piglins is that they are obsessed with gold. Their bastions often have huge amounts of gold found within, they wear gold armor, and they will attack players who are not wearing any gold.

However, the true depth of this obsession runs deeper than many players might expect. If a player breaks any gold block within 16 blocks of the piglin’s feet, without regard for a line of sight, the piglin will become moderately aggravated. Piglins, under moderate aggravation, can still be distracted by throwing gold on the ground.

The full list of gold blocks players should avoid breaking near piglins is blocks of gold, gold ore, gilded blackstone, nether gold ore, blocks of raw gold, and deepslate gold ore.