Amethyst is a recent addition to the game of Minecraft (added in the 1.17 update) and allows the player to create a few new items including a spyglass, a brand-new item to the game that allows a player to zoom in on distant objects without installing any mods. The question of course is, where the heck do you find this new material, and once you do, what all exactly can you do with it?
Finding Amethyst
The only place in Minecraft you’ll be able to locate amethyst is inside a geode located in the overworld dimension of your Minecraft world. These geodes will spawn in the underground portion of any biome, and also in some oceans at or below level 70 (level 64 is sea level for reference). Obviously, if you’re playing in an old world, you will have to locate an area of new chunk generation in order to get access to geodes and other new content from the 1.17 update as they only spawn into the world upon initial chunk generation.
One of the easiest methods for finding a geode is to travel along a beach and look out for a round structure of smooth basalt sticking up out of the sand. The dark color of the basalt material contrasts sharply with the light-colored sand making them easy to spot, even at a distance.
Alternatively, you could go for a swim in an ocean and look out for them peeking out of the ocean floor, or underwater hills and ravines. They’re a little harder to spot this way, but the smooth round structure tends to give them away, especially once the initial darkness of being underwater begins to fade.
Once You’ve Found a Geode
When you do manage to locate a geode, there’s a good chance (95% in fact) that there will be a crack in its exterior somewhere through which you may enter. If there is no crack, or it’s not exposed in the direction you’re trying to enter, you’ll have to mine your way in to get at the amethyst. Make sure you’re using a pickaxe to ensure what you mine drops as a block rather than simply breaking. The outermost layer is smooth basalt, a cool new dark-colored block that should add some extra detail to those moody builds.
Just inside the basalt is calcite, a new light-colored block that can only be found inside geodes and in strips in the stony peaks biome. As it stands this block is purely decorative, but Minecraft is always changing and you never know when blocks like this will be given a new purpose. Also, as it has no infinite generation mechanic meaning calcite is a finite material in the game, making it a valuable commodity.
Finally, inside the calcite, you’ll find your amethyst blocks and budding amethyst, with amethyst buds and amethyst clusters scattered throughout on the various surfaces. It won’t hurt you at all to mine up all the amethyst blocks, amethyst buds, and amethyst clusters you find inside the geode. Be sure to use a silk touch pick on the amethyst buds or they will drop nothing when broken.
However, if you want a renewable source of amethyst crystals to use for decoration or crafting tinted glass, you’ll want to leave the budding amethyst blocks intact. Over time, these blocks will generate new amethyst crystals, growing them larger, and larger until they reach their full potential, allowing you to grab them and craft them into blocks or other items.
The budding amethyst unfortunately cannot be moved in survival, not even with the Silk Touch enchantment or by pushing it with a piston so hopefully, you’re able to find a geode near to where you’ve set up camp in your Minecraft world.
What to Do with Your Amethyst
If you have access to a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment you can mine amethyst buds (the first three stages of amethyst growth) off budding amethyst blocks to place around as decoration. You can also mine amethyst clusters (the final growth stage of amethyst) for the same purpose. All of these will produce light when placed in the world (light levels 1, 2, 4, and 5 depending on the growth stage of the amethyst).
Alternatively, you can use any method to break amethyst clusters causing them to drop amethyst shards, although a pickaxe is more efficient and will drop 4 shards compared to just 2 from any other tool.
The Fortune enchantment can also be used to increase the number of amethyst shards dropped to a maximum of 16 (though the average is around 8 with Fortune III). These shards can be used in three different crafting recipes.
Amethyst Blocks
The first recipe is the amethyst block. It’s crafted by placing 4 amethyst shards in the crafting grid in a square pattern. The amethyst block is currently used only for decoration, adding a cool crystalline look to your builds.
Tinted Glass
Amethyst shards are also used to create tinted glass and they behave a little bit differently than stained glass. Tinted glass blocks are made by placing a block of glass in the center of the crafting grid and 4 amethyst shards around it on all sides (above, below, left, and right). The tinted glass blocks behave for the player like normal glass, allowing light to pass through so you can see. However, as far as the game engine is concerned the blocks are opaque preventing things underneath to register as being exposed to light from sources on the other side of the tinted glass.
The Spyglass
Made by placing a single amethyst shard in the top center slot and 2 copper ingots in the two other slots in the same column (center slot and bottom center slot), the spyglass allows the player to zoom in on distant objects and locations in vanilla Minecraft. This zooming effect slows movement and extremely narrows the field of vision while the spyglass is in use so be careful not to use this if hostile mobs could sneak up on you.
That my friends is the story on amethyst. I hope that now all this new information is crystal clear for you … Hopefully it really calcifies in your brain, allowing you to find and make good use of those amethyst geodes.
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