A living cross-section of the world, drawn from the game's real worldgen odds. Drag to set your mining depth, click an ore column to inspect it.
Mine at Y 0 where the triangle batch peaks. The buried batch is deleted next to air, so closed-off branch mining beats caving.
100%Y 0. Every figure on this page is read from the 26.3 worldgen files the game itself ships, so it reflects what actually generates rather than a community estimate.
Lapis is the odd one out. Every other Overworld ore peaks either near the world floor or high in the mountains. Lapis peaks at Y 0, in a triangle running from Y -32 to Y 32, which puts its densest band right at the stone to deepslate transition.
A second batch, ore_lapis_buried, runs uniformly from Y -64 to Y 64 and sets discard_chance_on_air_exposure to 1.0, so those veins never generate against open air. As with diamonds, part of the lapis supply is deliberately sealed inside stone and will not be visible from a cave.
Because Y 0 is well above the diamond and redstone band, lapis does not share a trip with them. If you specifically need lapis for enchanting, it is worth a separate short tunnel rather than hoping to find it at Y -59.
Minecraft places ore in separate batches, each with its own count, height range and vein size. A discard value above zero means the game throws away veins that would touch open air, which is what decides whether caving or tunnelling is the better approach.
| Batch | Veins/chunk | Range | Vein size | Air discard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ore_lapis | 2 | triangle Y -32 to 32, peak Y 0 | 7 | none |
| ore_lapis_buriednever generates touching air | 4 | uniform Y -64 to 64 | 7 | 100% |
Lapis is centred on Y 0 rather than the world floor or the mountains. It is the one ore where the optimal level is neither of the two bands everything else uses.
The peak level differs for each ore, and a few of them share a band closely enough to mine on one trip. The full interactive chart is on the ore distribution hub.
| Ore | Best Y level |
|---|---|
| diamonds | Y -59 |
| netherite | Y 15 |
| iron | Y 16 underground, Y 232 in mountains |
| coal | Y 96, or anything above Y 136 |
| gold | Y -16, or anywhere in a badlands |
| redstone | Y -59 |
| lapis lazuli | Y 0 |
| copper | Y 48 |
| emeralds | Y 232, mountain biomes only |
| nether quartz | Any level from Y 10 to 117 |
| nether gold | Any level from Y 10 to 117 |
Y 0. The main lapis batch is a triangle from Y -32 to Y 32 peaking exactly at zero, which is unusual among Minecraft ores.
Some, but not efficiently. The diamond band at Y -59 is well below the lapis peak at Y 0, so a dedicated tunnel is better if lapis is what you need.
The buried batch sets discard_chance_on_air_exposure to 1.0, so those veins are only placed where they are fully enclosed by solid blocks.
Between 4 and 9 lapis lazuli, increased by Fortune. It is one of the more generous single-block drops in the game.
Related ore levels:
