How to Find Iron in Minecraft

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posted on 12 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Iron is the next tier of tools and weapons, specifically swords, in Minecraft after stone. It is relatively common, making it an adequate and preferred material for tools and weapons. Not only that, but iron is used in many crafting recipes later in-game. Without iron, you cannot progress to the next tiers. Here is a simple guide on how to find iron in Minecraft.

Steps

Get yourself a wooden pickaxe. The first pickaxe you will craft will be made out of wood, which will be used to mine stone.

Get yourself a stone pickaxe. The stone will be necessary to break the iron blocks down in order to get the material. To craft one, place three cobblestones (mined from stone with a wooden pickaxe) on the top row of the crafting table, and place 2 sticks below it, resembling the shape of a pickaxe.

Get torches. You will need to bring some torches with you, as it can get dark and impossible to see. To do this, you place one stick on your crafting area/table and one piece of coal or charcoal above it.

Get a lot of dirt. You might not always need it, but if you're ever in a sticky situation while mining, you're going to need cheap and abundant dirt to get yourself out of it.

Find a suitable cave. Caves are the best way to find iron ores. They usually appear in veins at a time. Stop wasting your time digging down from the surface, as this will only yield a small chance of success.

Investigate all blocks surrounding any iron you find. Iron occurs in veins, or groups, so if you find one, there is likely more nearby. Check diagonal blocks as well. The usual size of a vein is 2x2x2 blocks. Iron looks like peach or pink-ish splotches on grey stone.

Place torches as necessary. Recover them when you can, but only if it's a one-time mining trip. Otherwise, keep it there or else monsters will spawn in the dark.

Mind your vertical level. Using your map or the debug mode, check out the "Y" axis: this indicates your elevation. Remember that iron ore only occurs from levels 1-63.

Use a furnace to turn the iron ore into ingots. Iron ore is almost of no benefit to you, and only the iron ingots are useful.

Use the iron to make better tools and armor. Enjoy! If you like, you can create servers to play with your friends or other Minecraft users. For instance, the Minecraft pocket edition server allows players from different devices to join the same Minecraft world. You can even create large servers to play minigames with many players.

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