With the Caves & Cliffs Update, exciting new features have emerged in Minecraft. During some of your cave explorations, you may have noticed spherical areas with a purple block emitting a wondrous chime. These are Amethyst Geodes, a feature of Minecraft’s new cave generation and a structure that provides you with unique blocks. Especially for creative players, seeking out these geodes is highly recommended! The geodes consist of beautifully crafted blocks that you can use for your constructions. Today, we’ll take a closer look at Amethyst Geodes and provide tips for farming Amethyst Shards.
Finding Amethyst Geodes Underground
First, you need to find one of these geodes to make use of the unique blocks. Fortunately, they are not too rare, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble.
Geodes can be found between Y-Level 30 and -58, covering almost the entire underground. Each chunk has a probability of just over 4 percent to contain such a structure. They are not confined to any biome, neither above ground nor underground. You have the same chances of encountering geodes in every section of your world. Their size can vary, ranging from a diameter of 10 to 20 blocks.
Most Amethyst Geodes have an opening into an adjacent cave, so you will likely stumble upon one sooner or later. Only about 5 percent of all geodes are completely enclosed, though they can still connect to a cave. In the following section, we’ll show you how to easily recognize geodes!
Structure and Components of the Amethyst Geode
The underground structures follow the same pattern and are therefore quite easy to recognize. Even in caves, these unique blocks should stand out, as they differ significantly from the surrounding blocks.
Smooth Basalt: On the outside, there is a layer of smooth basalt, a block found only in geodes and ancient sites. You can also craft it yourself by smelting regular basalt from the Nether in a furnace. There are no additional recipes such as slabs or stairs.
Calcite: Following the basalt is a layer of white calcite. This block resembles diorite and is found in geodes and stony mountain chains. There are no additional recipes for this block, but it is great for decorations.
Amethyst Block: These purple blocks are likely the main attraction of a geode, as they not only look beautiful but also emit chiming sounds. Amethyst blocks can only be found here and must be mined with a pickaxe. They are perfect for decoration, especially for floors. Whenever you walk over them, they produce a chime.
Budding Amethyst Block: These blocks are visually similar but are essential for Amethyst Shards. Unlike regular amethyst blocks, these cannot be mined (even with Silk Touch) or moved with a piston. Buds grow from the cracks on each side, eventually maturing into amethyst clusters that can be harvested.
- Amethyst Clusters: From the budding amethyst blocks, shards grow on all six sides, maturing in four stages. You can harvest each stage with Silk Touch and place it as decoration on any block. However, only the final stage yields Amethyst Shards. You receive 2 pieces with a piston, but 4 shards directly with a pickaxe. With the “Fortune” enchantment, you can increase this to up to 16 shards per cluster.
Applications of Amethyst Shards
These shards are what you aim to obtain when searching for a geode. They allow you to craft various blocks and items that will be useful in your Minecraft world.
Amethyst Block: With four shards, you can easily form a block, if you do not wish to mine them directly from the geode.
Spyglass: With two copper ingots and a shard, you can craft a spyglass. For those who have used Optifine before, this function will be familiar. The spyglass zooms in to a tenth of your set field of view, allowing you to see distant blocks. On a PC, you can press F1 to hide the HUD for a better view.
Tinted Glass: This glass is incredibly practical as it does not let light through. It is beneficial for monster traps and other building projects. Additionally, you can dismantle it by hand without Silk Touch, unlike regular glass.
Calibrated Sculk Sensor: For certain Redstone projects, it may be worthwhile to create this block that reacts to sounds in its vicinity.
Armor Decoration: With smithing templates and a smithing table, you can add purple accents to your armor using Amethyst Shards!
Allay (Helper Spirit): Helper spirits are useful little creatures that you can breed with Amethyst Shards. They must dance to a jukebox and then split using a shard. The cooldown period is five minutes.
Effectively Farming Amethyst Shards
But how can you gather enough shards? Automatic farms are difficult to implement for amethysts since the budding blocks cannot be mined or moved. As a result, they cannot be properly arranged and are hard to integrate into Redstone projects. Furthermore, you receive fewer shards if you automatically harvest amethyst clusters with a piston.
Your best option is to have an Amethyst Geode near your base. You might even find several geodes within a certain radius to manually harvest.
An effective farm works as follows:
First, expose all sides of the budding amethyst blocks so the buds have space to grow. During each “tick” in the game, a random side is selected for a bud to sprout or grow a stage.
Considering the mentioned ticks, it takes approximately two hours and 16 minutes for all sides of a budding block to fully mature into amethyst clusters. This is nearly seven days in Minecraft.
Once the buds have reached the fourth stage, manually harvest them with a pickaxe enchanted with “Fortune 3”. This will yield an average of 8–9 Amethyst Shards.
Conclusion on Amethyst Geodes in Minecraft
Amethyst Geodes can be found underground and contain beautiful blocks for decoration. They are the only place where you can farm Amethyst Shards for spyglasses or tinted glass. You can rent your own Minecraft server with us and search for these underground structures with your friends. It’s worth converting at least one geode into a manual farm and regularly harvesting it. Amethyst blocks are also a fantastic block for your constructions, especially with their lovely soundscape.
