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.
Bed mine or TNT mine at Y 15, the center of the main batch. Debris is blast proof, so explosions clear netherrack and leave it intact.
88%Y 15. 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.
Netherite comes from ancient debris, which generates only in the Nether and only in five biomes: Nether Wastes, Crimson Forest, Warped Forest, Soul Sand Valley and Basalt Deltas. There is no ancient debris in the Overworld or the End at any level.
Two batches place it. The larger one uses a triangular distribution between Y 8 and Y 24, peaking at Y 16. The smaller one is spread uniformly from Y 8 to Y 119, so a stray block can turn up almost anywhere in the Nether, but at a much lower rate. Y 15 sits inside the peak of the main batch and is the level most players settle on.
Both batches set discard_chance_on_air_exposure to 1.0. Ancient debris is never generated touching an open block, without exception. This is the reason it does not appear in the walls of lava lakes or open caverns, and it is why bed blasting and TNT tunnelling work so much better than exploring.
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_ancient_debris_largenever generates touching air | 1 | triangle Y 8 to 24, peak Y 16 | 3 | 100% |
| ore_debris_smallnever generates touching air | 1 | uniform Y 8 to 119 | 2 | 100% |
Both ancient debris batches discard 100% of air-exposed veins. Unlike every Overworld ore, you cannot find it by looking. Blast a tunnel at Y 15 or do not bother.
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 15. The main ancient debris batch is a triangle between Y 8 and Y 24 peaking at Y 16, so Y 15 puts a two-block tunnel across the densest part of the range.
Because the game deletes it there. Both ancient debris features set discard_chance_on_air_exposure to 1.0, so any vein that would be exposed to an open block is discarded before generation.
Roughly one vein from each of the two batches, with vein sizes of 3 and 2 blocks. Expect a handful of blocks per chunk at most, which is why it is the rarest ore in the game.
It spawns in Nether Wastes, Crimson Forest, Warped Forest, Soul Sand Valley and Basalt Deltas, which covers every standard Nether biome.
Related ore levels:
