Just a few things about the video :D 1. This was recorded in november hence the 150k by the end of the year, ty btw we smashed that :p I didn't release it until now because I didn't think it met the quality standards i've set for content. 2. This does not adress bed mining, swim mining or quarrying as the first doesn't apply in the overworld, the other two forgot lol 3. The outro was copyrighted so i removed it in youtube editor which sucks but is ok ig 4. ALSO this is like the most important thing for the actual data. IF you want a higher precentage of diamonds obviously you only have to mine the diamonds, I mined every ore I ran into. I also mined blocks like gravel and dirt with a pickaxe which may have slowed down mines at times.

Speedrunners: Oh, I need iron... What mining method should I use? *swings pickaxe at Iron Golem*

"Japanese Windmill Mining was invented by a Japanese player..." Yep, the floor is absolutely made out of floor

"What if I told you that you're mining wrong" PROCEEDS TO MINE DIAMONDS WITHOUT FORTUNE

The best mining method : "Mining off camera"

"never box mine" just wait until you need 30 double chests full of cobblestone and THEN come tell me how bad box mining is.

Would’ve been fine with a 5 second clip of you saying with a pickaxe

1.17 cave update be like: "im gonna end this man's whole career"

The fastest way is to “do it off camera” lol Edit: OMG tysm!!! For 2k likes

"What is the best way to mine in Minecraft?" vsauce music starts

I’d like to add a bit to this conversation that I don’t often see when “what’s the most effective method to mine” is discussed: It depends on what you have. The time loss on branch mining (compared to strait/adjacent strip) is much less when you’re only mining with an iron pick. Similarly when you have efficiently 5 diamond or netherite, the time penalty for turning to aim is much higher. This massively comes into play when looking for netherite. Since you can insta mine nether rack, swinging like a mad man is often faster than any direct line. But it comes at the cost of durability, meaning you have to end sooner to go mending up your pick. Like any good question, the answer is “It depends.” If you want diamond, most of the methods discussed (barring box mining) are good. The best depends on what tools and enchants you have as well as other factors (is return time counted? What about space efficiency for long running servers like Hermitcraft that have mined out a large amount of nearby diamond level. You don’t want to have to go out 50,000+ blocks to mine if a less effective method has left some diamonds under you, but not enough to justify mining in the same area again). If you want netherite, the answer changes. The ore veins are smaller, often just 1 block, and the instamine of netherrwck fundamentally changes the nature of the question (is it most in least time, most per pickaxe, or a combo? Biomes make a huge difference here. Plus the normal “does rerun type count” applies)

The best way to mine is to turn on a long calm playlist and loose yourself in the game , look at the clock and realize its been 5 hours

Not enough trials to be statistically meaningful

Wifies: The best way to mine is ... I dont know Me: Alright video over

Its it just me or does Japanese windmill mining sound like some sort of deadly karate move?

When you realize that X-Ray is the best mining method

''but ...what is the best way to mine?'' *starts Vsause music*

Me after seeing the Japanese windmill mining: It's the choosen one

Doctor Wifies: "Your grandpa will live." Me: "YES oh my god thank god." Dr. Wifies "K i n d o f"

There is so much wrong with this video, I'm not even sure where to start. You would need to do a whole answer video to address all. Let me keep it short: Mining all ores but counting only the diamonds at the end distorts your data by way more than you might think (yes you addressed the issue in your pinned comment, but way too briefly). Like when mining adjacently, big chunks of coal/iron/redstone are already missing in your new strip mine, which means you can concentrate more on the diamonds. They come in smaller chunks. Mining adjacently would produce basically the same amount of diamonds when leaving out all other ores (because logically, why wouldn't it? diamond chunks are very rarely wider than 2 blocks). What's also ridiculous is using the pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance you would want to mine to cover the same distance as before. That is because you do not actually move diagonally in a straight line but turn left and right all the time. The way better approach to this video would be to think about how many new blocks (potential diamond ore) can be revealed in comparison to the amount of blocks mined. And then, you could underline the theoretical approach by experiments covering _way_ further distance. Over the distance of your 500 blocks, few diamonds are found and therefore statistical fluctuations are high, distorting your results. Let me add to this that I usually adore your scientific minecraft content and this is not meant as hate but constructive criticism. There is always more to learn, and this time just more than other times.

Wifies be like: wood pickaxes have less durability than netherite. . . Or do they...

The best way to mine: Having fun while mining

The results aren’t different enough from each-other to prove anything with this many trials. There’s just too much bias to make proper conclusions

I actually learned about the windmill method about a year ago. The biggest advantage is the way it scales. With each leap getting longer, the place you stopped mining in is not significantly further away, so it doesn't take that much time to come back where you left. Besides - a 50+ leaps windmill looks really cool on spectator mode.

This isn’t a scientific test, as world generation is random so you need like 500 trials for a accurate Monte Carlo test

What about making the player fit into a 1 block tall space?

I would recommend next time you have a picture of the mining blueprint on screen the whole time while discussing a method, so everyone can visually analyze while listening to your commentary. Thanks!

as soon as he said "Japanese Windmill Mining" i knew this would be a good video to watch

"never box mine" hermitcraft:

Wifies: _does like 2 tests_ Also Wifies: *yUP tHis iS RelIaBLe*

Wifies : Minecraft Vsauce

This is such a good video man, thanks for doing it! Currently I'm playing in 1.18 version but though I didn't check I believe these methods still work as good. The only difference now is the new heights for each ore and having in mind that deepslate can't be insta-mined. Those are my conclussions. Good luck finding those ores everyone!

Actually, there's some theory behind how you should be mining to get diamonds efficiently. Diamond ore vines attempt to spawn at the rate of 1 per chunk. A chunk is 16x16 blocks. Diamonds spawn below Y level 16, so that gives us a cube of 16x16x16 blocks in which a diamond ore is located. We could even say that there's one diamond ore every 16 blocks. By pressing F3+G you can actually see the chunk borders. You may want to see them as if you find a diamond ore in one chunk, you won't be able to find another until the next chunk. So, how should you be mining to get the most out of your time? First of all you may want to get to Y level 11 as lava pools spawn at this level, so that you don't run into lava as you are mining. Second, you should press F3+G so that chunk borders are shown. Now that they are visible you might not see them at first, well, that's because you may be at the middle of one, so, your next task is to get yourself at the border of the chunk you are looking diamonds trough. Mine a straight line that gets from one border to the other. Now that you've visualized your chunk borders, and have hallway at them it's time to mine! Start one strip located two blocks apart from the border, mine all the wet trough to the other border. If nothing comes up, repeat the process by mining another strip, two blocks apart from the first and so on. ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ ◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️◻️◼️◻️ Your strips should look something like this, (from a top, 2D POV) If you find one diamond ore vine in any of your strips, congratulations! Now, don't waste your time mining in that chunk any more, continue with the one next to it. I know it's kinda confusing, but I've been able to get up to 24 diamonds every 30 minutes or so (no fortune 3 pickaxe) If you've got any questions, I'd be happy to help

when everyone refers to "branch mining" as "strip mining" and nobody even realizes

thanks a lot, I just started my first survival world so this really helps!

Actually the most efficient way is clay counting in a swamp. The clay basically shows you where to dig

"hey, Wsauce, Wifies Here. Well actually I'm busy strip mining... Or am I? In fact what IS the best way to mine?"

Actually, mining in y12 is... Pretty dumb. When you do that, you're gonna have a field of view of y12 floor), y13 and y14 (Walls), and y15 (ceiling), which are mostly pretty low on the chart. The best is at y11 or y10, because on both you see y12, because the other blocks you see are going to be on coordinates with generally more diamonds

Considering things, I think tests like this should be done in the same spot on the same seed, just recreated every time. It would isolate the results from the RNG factors of terrain and ore generation. I mean, is it really the mining methods fault if the world generation places less diamonds in the direction you go? What if you went the other direction, how does it change? And that's beyond the issues I've seen others point out, like diamonds only generating in one vein per chunk. For proper testing, generate identical worlds for each method. Same seed, starting from the same point, same direction. Then give yourself a limit to go by, either a time limit or a resource limit. I personally think the best would be to go through a single pickaxe following that method. That would also keep total blocks mined the same. Then you see how long it took to manage, and how many diamonds you got with that method. This removes external factors like smaller veins, as you're getting the exact same generation mined, same access to the same veins, and thus you can actually see the difference. Do this for a few different worlds, or use the same seed and worlds, just teleport a few thousand blocks away and try again there. A few attempts like that would be far more accurate. Again, though, this is all dependent on how much you pay attention to generation. If only one diamond vein spawns per chunk, then obviously mining out every block in a box would be the least efficient, unless you do so per chunk and stop when you find the vein, then start fresh in a new chunk. Strip mining as its labelled in the video would give the most possible veins, as it would cover the most different chunks, each having their own vein to find, but you'd barely search them. Adjacent branches would give the next most, since it covers a lot of different chunks as well, and covers more of each chunk. Windmill gives the most efficient coverage per chunk while still covering more chunks than clearing the whole thing out. The little alcove method doesn't seem like it would be best. Maybe purely in terms of time. It covers more of the chunk than a single branch would, while covering more chunks than adjacent branches. But... it misses a lot of space thanks to you missing what would be the floor of a different branch. There's too many places where you could miss an entire vein by a single block, while adjacent branches would get it all. Personally, I think a spiral method would work well. Essentially a simplified Japanese windmill. Using a spacing of 3 as an example, mine 3 blocks out, turn right, mine 3 blocks out, turn right, mine 6 blocks out, turn right, mine 6 blocks. The pattern continues like that, adding on your spacing number every two turns. Assuming I'm explaining properly, you would just spiral outwards from your starting point, with whatever spacing you picked between each segment of the tunnel. I'm not good with explanations, but its pretty simple so hopefully it makes sense.

I appreciate the work you put into this, I learned some new things. Next time can you base the data on how many patches you found instead of diamonds? Every youtube video seems to do this too and I'm not sure why. I dont really care about the exact number you found, I want to know how many times you found them

Ok, I severely disagree with this video, and here is why: When talking about statistics the best way to insure your results are valid is to run the highest number of tests possible. Considering that the amount of diamonds that exist in a minecraft world is so absurdly inferior to the amount of stone and other ores combined, you would need and absurd amount of results to get and average and even consider saying that one method is better than the other, in this case, at least 200 different tests for every method used. For this example I will name two random mining strategies, "mining A" and "mining B", and let's say that I already did 500 different tests with both of them and got the following average results: "mining A" gets you 50 diamonds per hour, while "mining B" gets you 100 diamonds per hour. In this case "mining B" has double the wield of "mining A", but since the ratio of diamonds to stone is so low, the results are very inconsistent, and I could easily use "mining A" twice and get 78 diamonds in the first attempt, and for example 90 in the second attempt, and then follow up by trying "mining B" twice and getting 50 diamonds in the first attempt, and 60 in the second. That would tell me that "mining a" is way better than "mining B", when it's not actually true. Since diamond generation in minecraft is completely random and doesn't change because of biome or other reasons (caves disconsidered), the best method to mine will always be the method that makes you mine the most amount of blocks per minute while keeping things efficient (not mining adjacent blocks, because mining adjacent blocks reveal less area), and that would be all variations of strip mining, the best one being brench mining, because it has the highest ratio of blocks mined per area revealed of all methods. Also one more thing, when considering insta-mine with efficiency 5 and haste 2 on a beacon, you stop being able to run forwards in a strip mine as fast as you mine, so you don't get the max effect of the insta-mine, in this specific case, box mining (looking around, not following one block radius lines) will always hinder you the best results, because you remove every block you even look at, absurdly outperforming the other methods of mining even though it has the least block mined per area revealed ratio.

The best mining is the one you make to get to Wifies' heart.

I like how you dont just say: Guys do this method for this and this one for that but also went ahead and explained your reasoning. Very educational

Interesting video concept and something I've been wondering about for a while. I understand that finding out information like this takes a decent investment of time, and I also think you overall did a good job! The sample sizes struck me as small, though, and liable to considerable deviations from what the actual values for each method of mining might be throughout your study. Not a complaint necessarily, but just food for thought!

The answer... Depends... As a veteran I usually mine the classic way. TNT or Beds or usually best for Netherite, but bad for quartz or gold. Strip mining which is usually refers to the classic Diamond method is the go to. Caving is best for the more common Iron Coal Gold etc Creating big open caves with haste or no haste is also great, but you will need to devote a lot of time. Finally X ray... Yes it’s hacks, but it is technically the quickest. To be honest if you’re like you just like mining because it’s fun.

People who beat minecraft without mining: *my goals are beyond your understanding*

your literally the vsauce of minecraft great content!

Benefits to take into account with the windmill mining, you can get back to your starting point and/or continue to mine quicker, as you just run the diagonal all the way back to centre when you're done, no matter what corner you're at. I'm pretty sure you dig into more chunks and dig more blocks while staying closer to chest. Also, it saves a bit of torches, as the strips kinda borrow the landmark torches placed previously. What's more, with adjacent strip mining you gotta run back at some point to the main hall to start the next strip. With the windmill method, you never really have to stop mining, even with an efficiency 5 pickaxe

From what I've seen, box mining becomes more viable when you have a haste beacon and a maxed out efficiency pickaxe, just because everything is so fast at that point that worry about mining strategically can somewhat slow you down. Though I do wonder if strip mining and the like might still be feasible with that kind of late-game speed, still outperforming box mining

Most forms of mining could be more efficient if you take advantage of there only being one diamond vein per chunk. Once you find the vein in the chunk, no need to continue windmill, box, branch, or diagonal mining through it. Just mine to the next chunk and continue.

Fitting into a one-block-tall mine is a good tactic, since you reveal four blocks on every side for every one block you mine (up, down, left and right), as opposed to two-block-tall mining where you mine two blocks (foot level & eye level) and reveal six blocks (up, down, top left, bottom left, top right and bottom right) - meaning you reveal three blocks for every one you mine. The only downside to this is that you crawl slowly, meaning exiting the mine takes a while - so I only recommend using this strategy if you have patience and plan on mining for a while. It also means that you travel slower while mining, to the point where I'm not even sure if it's worth it, to be honest. Do this by placing a trap door, opening it, standing in front of it (where it would be if it were closed), then closing it. You can then crawl into the mine.

What I like to do is just make adjacent strip mines with torches placed down every ten blocks with a strip mine every ten blocks and then just complete the grid once I feel like it, just because it is fast to properly light up to prevent monsters from spawning. If I want to get more resources, I can still just create another grid offset by 5 blocks in both directions. Has a nice rythm and doesn't consume too many torches, it's just aggrevating when you eventually mess up one torch placement and subsequent others, though that is what coordinates are for

The moment you find something blue in a gray screen. Me: "my precious!"

you seem dangerously confident in your results considering the amount of testing you have done. Branch mining is easily the best method used in the video and although I do not think it is the most optimal mining strategy (because there are slight patterns in the distribution of diamond ores), it is certainly leagues above diagonal mining. I appreciate the time and work gone into this video but I believe the result is incorrect.

Tip: When you find a lava pool in a cave use ctrl+f5 then at the left there is "Targeted block" then you look at the pool of lava and you see there are some kind of "minecraft:stone_block" for example and it's like some x-ray to find diamonds under the lava

the japanese windmill sounds like a move used in adult film

Watch: I'm calling it now. Next video title: What is the Best Way to CRAFT in Minecraft?

00:36 I thought that sounded suspiciously like vsauce, then the music hit... freaking excellent job

Love the video, but liked and subbed for the Vsauce music!

I had to do diagonal mining to get to a village (Underground rail system) and racked up a lot of diamonds, it honestly shocked me. It's now a nice go-to method to mining for me.

with your extensor indicis (index finger) expanding and retracting to tap left click sending a signal to the computer to activate the break block function

So, here are a few tips: I'm pretty sure that you would get a more accurate result if you take the blocks that you uncovered (including those you mined, counting every block not only ores) and then compare this number, because otherwise there are things like luck or if you mined at a chunk border. If you want to Show the diamonds you can expect to get from those methods, just multipy the number of uncovered blocks with the average diamond spawn chance. This would be a whole lot harder tho. Anyways, its still a nice and fun to watch video :D this is just what came to my mind and I dont know how you would be able to count the blocks so yeah, its just an idea

I personally have alot of success with branch mining but also use what essential is bore mining, digging down to Y - 11 then proceed to dig in a 3x3 grid in a straight line similar to how hills etc are bored out IRL, Pretty consistant and does yield alot of diamond especially with a F3 Pickaxe

when you tried diagonal mining, you didn't mine 500 blocks, but 706: you went in 353 blocks in each direction, and so the result has to be divided by sqrt(2). 11:19 You have to take into consideration diamonds on the floor/ceiling, with an appropriately reduced coefficient. In that case, y=6 and y=10 are generally the best choices.

That vsauce music just tells you that this is serious business

best way of mining : "x-ray" worst way of mining: "not mine at all"

Very informative and I definitely learned a few things. I’d like to see how the Gopher Holes method compares to these (adjacent strip mining at y=5 with vertical tunnels upward every 2-3 blocks forward). I’ve found that it’s a bit more dangerous with potential gravel drops or lava deposits, but it’s also very effective. I’d also imagine it’d synergize well with the windmill method as a base

My go-to has always been that I dig down to level 11, then dig out a 10x10 room. Then strip mine from all the walls with a spacing of 4 blocks. It has done me well. I will dig out to around 200 or so blocks. Once I have "finished" this mine, I pick a random tunnel, go to the end, dig about 200-500 blocks further, then dig another 10x10 room and start over. On my current heavily modded server that I play around on, I have a caves mod that creates a lot of beautiful caves and have found that caving is the most efficient with the modded caves. Dig down to level 11, dig out in a random direction until a cave is found, then explore. Most of the caves in the modded world are connected so you can spend a lot of time caving without having to dig hardly any stone. For those curious, the cave mod in question is called "YUNG's Better Caves". I play a heavily modified 1.12.2 server that I personally think is way better than even modern Minecraft. Between the caves mod, open terrain generator, and biomes o plenty, the world generation is amazing. Add in all the tech mods, magic mods, enchantments mods, serene seasons, and various ambiance mods, it's a real winner in my opinion. All in all, my modded setup is almost 200 forge mods with the server having almost 200 forge mods and a handful of Spigot plugins. Yes, the server software I use can run forge mods and Spigot/Bukkit plugins.

"you mined before I'm sure of it" people who don't play mc : 👁️ 👄 👁️

There weren't nearly enough tests for this to be accurate.

Correlation between clay spots in swamps and diamond location in the underground in the same chunk. Because Devs used the same piece of code in both "decoration of the world" algorithms

7:48 - Box Mining is my go to. Then I also have a underground space to a base and so.

"what is the best way to mine?" Abuse villagers... Obviously

"Box mining takes a lot of time" People with Beacons: *laughs in Haste 2*

Even if you don’t read this, i love your videos, your intro and your facts, please keep up this insane content because i love to watch this

I've always parallel-strip-mined, to good results. I'll try the diagonal mining just for the sake of knowledge (and saltiness if it happens to be more efficient). Several people pointed the various biases and error in the experiments. I'll add that you didn't take mental effort into account. Strip mining at level 12 allows you to be less concentrated and to, for example, watch something on a second screen. In a way it is more efficient since you can do it and something else at the same time. A contrario, the diagonal mining requires concentration and more keyboard and mouse movements.

When you calculated the diagonal you used the pythagorean theorem to calculate the amount of blocks mined... That doesn't really work as it is the same exact number of blocks as side A and B. Pythagorean theorem is good for measuring distance but number of blocks does not work so your math might be way off

that one kid who always plays creative in superflat: Quick edit: brach mining 6:29

Love the v-sauce style format.

standardizing the time or blocks mined so that you can put it into the mann whitney test (would require 20+ trials per minting style) but would allow you to see how much of your data was related to luck and hopefully cut out a bit of the rng

From all these vids of your im going to question what millisecond I breathe while playing minecraft.

me: hears the music that vsauce use my brain: hey vsauce, Wifies here

Me and my fringe have a minecraft survival world and this was super helpful!

No matter which mining method you use, I'd often recommend mining around the ore veins until they float in the air and no longer touch blocks (not even diagonally). At least if you don't have to worry about other players collecting your ores before you, or some other exceptions that I haven't found yet. For me, this has always been worth my time since I'd find exponentially more resources that I'd not have found otherwise (I still haven't found any diamonds, but there are much more important resources like Iron and Redstone, which I found more of this way). This also makes me think that single-strip mining is worth it if you do this, since I'd end up with corridors that are at many points wider than even 2 blocks.

"Never boxmine." Someone doesnt build castles, huh?

Imagine he dies in lava while testing

Me who memorized how to mine using swamp and river clay patches: pffft...amateurs! (also end raiding is more efficient than all methods mentioned here, except you get no redstone, lapiz, or coal with this method while using clay patches gives all of them)

Finally the wifies video i needed. ive been looking for like 4 years!

Wifies: trys box mining Wifies: decides that box mining is terrible Insta mine: am i a joke to you

This has a very big Vsauce vibe AND I LOVE IT!!

Branch mining is much more effective if you find the middle of the chunk using a chunk finder, then dig out from there through each chunk. The idea with branch mining is to uncover as many potential ore veins, diamond or otherwise, while mining the least amount of blocks. You should branch out every five blocks though, every three blocks is unnecessary because if you, for example, uncover an iron vein in one branch, then dig another three blocks down, you're gonna find the same iron vein. While doing it every five blocks, you have the same chances of finding ore while mining almost half the blocks. Best done at level 12. This method has been by far the most effective in my many many years of playing Minecraft, and I always recommend it.

Shot in the dark, there was a video about ravones and water that copies diagonally. It has to do something with world generation from seeds for chunks. Maybe that's why you have a better chance finding it

Tbh since I've tried the windwill for the first time, I've never looked back. It's efficient, super simple once used to, looks good and you can't get lost in it. Plus you don't have thousands of blocks to walk back to base. It's perfect for chilled strip mining.

I was a bit disappointed by the math in this video, some of your logic didn't quite make sense. First and foremost, you need to mine a lot more than 500 blocks per test if you want a accurate result from just counting diamonds mined. You also said you used the pythagoran theorem to figure out your distance for diagonal mining, but that's not really how minecraft physics works, you aren't actually mining a straight line diagonally, you're mining one block in one direction then one block in the other, so you cover a lot more blocks than you would think. When people say block mining they most likely mean mining with a beacon, this method is good later game because you can mine blocks extremely quickly, it obviously won't work very well without a beacon.

I do a type of mining that i think i created called Combined Mining, which is a strip mining/branch mining, you start in a box, do some branch mining and go strip mining every 6 blocks, and you make some "mine centers" every 500 blocks, blocks,with a furnace and chests, and then you simply go repeating that, i found 20 diamonds in average, but it is in old gen console, i dont know if it still works

The huge oversight of this is that caving is an insanely effective method. Branch mining's strength is in its ability to reveal caves, not just blocks/min.

the title: what is the best way to mine in minecraft? E X P L O S I O N S its not super effective but its fun to blow things up

I mean, the sample size for this was so small. It seemed like with the diagonal mining you got extremely lucky on having big ore veins, you likely would get far fewer if you repeated the same test.

I've recently learned a branch variant, the vertical branch, go to Y=5, every third block, mine UP. do this every 3rd block horizontally like a strip mine. the biggest risk, of course, is lava above you, and in your path. so, water bucket and cobble handy for plugging holes. and...I mean...there's also redstone contraption mining, too. let's not forget TNT duping explosion mining. it's...super effective and clears THE ENTIRE area. 100% minerals gained.

I finally learnt what I do to mine is called. Its kinda a mix of windmill and strip. I get lost in it so much since its a labyrinth of boxes and you cand even reliably get into the middle where I started because I had no strategy involved I just go one direction on a whim. Sometimes its efficient sometimes its not. Its a gamble.