Best Y level for every ore after the world height change
Diamonds are not at Y=11 any more. Each ore now has a triangular distribution with its own peak, and a few have a second band. Here are the real numbers from worldgen.
Since the world was extended down to Y=-64, ore generation stopped being "a flat band at this depth" and became a triangular distribution: rare at the edges, most common at a peak, tapering off both ways. Mining at the peak is worth a lot more than mining "deep".
The peaks that matter
| Ore | Peak Y | Useful range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond | -59 | -64 → 16 | More common the deeper you go; -59 is the floor of the useful band |
| Redstone | -59 | -64 → 15 | Same shape as diamond |
| Lapis | 0 | -64 → 64 | Plus a second uniform band |
| Gold | -16 | -64 → 32 | Separate badlands band up at Y 32–256 |
| Iron | 15 and 232 | -64 → 320 | Two peaks — the upper one is mountains |
| Copper | 48 | -16 → 112 | Doubled in dripstone caves |
| Emerald | 236 | -16 → 320 | Mountains only, higher is strictly better |
| Coal | 96 | 0 → 320 | Very common, rarely worth targeting |
Y=-59, not Y=-58
Diamond's distribution keeps rising all the way down, but deepslate below Y=-59 starts giving way to bedrock, and bedrock blobs eat mining time. Y=-59 is the deepest level where you still get a full, flat, bedrock-free tunnel. That is why the number is oddly specific.
Air exposure changed the whole calculation
Diamond ore no longer generates next to air in most cases — the game actively reduces exposed diamonds. That has two consequences:
- Cave mining for diamonds is worse than it used to be. The ore you can see is the
ore the game tried not to place.
- Branch mining came back. Strip tunnels at Y=-59 hit unexposed ore that cave
exploring will never show you.
Branch spacing
Diamond veins are 1–10 blocks. A tunnel sees 1 block either side, so tunnels 3 apart (two blocks of stone between) catch essentially everything without wasting picks. Tighter than 3 is redundant; wider than 4 starts missing small veins.
The exception: deepslate is slower
Everything below Y=0 is deepslate, which takes roughly twice as long to break as stone. An Efficiency V diamond pickaxe with Haste II makes that irrelevant; without enchantments, mining at Y=-59 is genuinely slow going, and Y=-16 for gold may pay better per minute.
Drag to any depth in the Ore Distribution chart — it draws the real worldgen curves rather than the flat pre-1.18 bands most tables still show.