Top 5 rarest ores in Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update

Grab a pickaxe and get ready to dig — ores in Minecraft are becoming more difficult to find.

In terms of ore generation, not too much has changed so far since the addition of the brand new copper ore with the Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update. Along with iron, copper is a fairly common ore to come by in any given Minecraft world. However, there will be major differences regarding ores in the upcoming Part Two of the latest update.

Minecraft players should be prepared to dig much deeper than ever before for the most valuable of ores. Spawn levels and other factors will be changing drastically for ore blocks, potentially changing many game strategies.

This article will list which ores are the rarest to find in the Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update, both Part One and Part Two considered.

Rarest Minecraft ores in the Caves & Cliffs update

#5 - Lapis Lazuli

When Cave & Cliffs Part Two is launched, this dazzling blue ore will no longer be classified as rare, just uncommon.

Lapis lazuli is important to find if a player wants to enchant their items, as it is required to use an enchanting table. Lapis ores are most commonly found in caves, and in Caves & Cliffs Part Two, they can be found anywhere between Y levels -64 to 64.

#4 - Redstone

Redstone ore is not experiencing much change with the Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update. It will still share roughly the same generation as diamonds and is still uncommon to find. It is not classified as rare, although the Y level range at which it can be found is slimmer than that of lapis lazuli, making it slightly more difficult to find.

Redstone is a highly sought after ore due to the creative possibilities of redstone builds. The ore itself can also act as a convenient natural light source when mining underground.

#3 - Gold

Gold ore was already uncommon in the game, but unfortunately for the gold lovers out there, it will become rare in the Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update Part Two. Gold ore can likely be found in caves or mineshafts between Y levels -64 to 30 in any given biome.

There is one exception, however, and that is the badlands biome. In the badlands, gold ores generate frequently and players are sure to find a healthy supply within the biome. Despite this, badlands is one of the rarest biomes to find, which nearly makes gold ore just as difficult to come across in the overworld regardless.

Although technically a separate ore, players who wish to mine gold can visit the nether instead, where nether gold ore is quite common.

#2 - Emerald

In the Caves & Cliffs update Part Two, a major change will make emerald ore no longer classified as rare but rather just uncommon. However, it can still only be found in the mountain biome, still making emerald ore that much more difficult to come across.

Minecraft players can always dig underground in any biome to search for gold or other ores, but they will need to locate a mountain biome in order to find emerald ore specifically. Hopefully the change from rare to uncommon makes emerald ore much easier to find.

#1 - Diamond

Excluding ancient debris because it is found in an entirely different realm with different spawning rules than the rest of the ores, diamonds are still the rarest of the ores in the Minecraft overworld. With the changes being applied in the Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update Part Two, diamond ore may be even harder to find than ever before.

Diamonds will be most commonly found Y level -59 instead of the 5 to 12 range, which is notably an extreme difference. This means Minecraft players will have to dig much deeper than they did before to find diamond ores. Just like redstone, Part Two of the update will make diamond ore generation range between Y levels -64 to 16. When Part Two of the Caves & Cliffs update hits, players will most likely find the most diamond well below level 0.