Ores

This page is an overview page over the ores found in Minetest Game. It is accurate for version 0.4.16. Later versions may differ!

General facts

All ores are generated by replacing stone at a certain height and always are formed in clusters.

Underground ores

The underground ore generation is simple: The deeper you get, the more you find. Ores generate at a height of Y = 64 or lower, starting with coal ore and becoming more and more valuable as you go deeper. At a height of Y = -1024 or lower, all ores can be found at their peak probability. All ores (except mese blocks) are generated in 2 variants: small cluster and big cluster. The small cluster variant has clusters with a few ores and is usually less likely to appear and is found in the underground at a higher height. The big cluster variant has usually more ores per cluster and is more likely to appear, but found deeper.

Sky ores

All ores can also be generated in large numbers at Y=1025 or above (i.e. high in the skies), as long there is stone. Unlike the underground ore generation ores will not gradually become more common as you go higher because they are common at Y=1025 or above already.

Note that ores still require stone to be generated at all. This means you won't find any ores in the map generators v5, v6, v7, valleys and flat at default settings because no stone is generated so high. But if you use custom map generator settings, a custom modded map generator or the fractals map generator which generates stone at these extreme heights, you can find plenty of all ores at this height.

Ore-free zone

No ores are generated between Y = 65 and Y = 1024 inclusive.

Ores overview

Default ore distribution

This is the ore distribution for all mapgens except v6, as of version 5.1.0:

	Ore type		Drops		Weakest required tool	Ores in cluster	Small at Y ≤	Big at Y ≤	Sky at Y ≥	Small chance	Big chance
	Coal Ore		1 Coal Lump		Wooden Pickaxe	8-30	64	0	1025	0.59%	0.41%
	Copper Ore		1 Copper Lump		Stone Pickaxe	4-5	−64	−128	1025	0.14%	0.41%
	Tin Ore		1 Tin Lump		Stone Pickaxe	4-5	−64	−128	1025	0.14%	0.41%
	Iron Ore		1 Iron Lump		Stone Pickaxe	5-29	−128	−256	1025	0.41%	0.06%
	Gold Ore		1 Gold Lump		Stone Pickaxe	3-5	−256	−512	1025	0.06%	0.03%
	Mese Ore		1 Mese Crystal		Steel Pickaxe	3-5	−512	−1024	1025	0.03%	0.11%
	Diamond Ore		1 Diamond		Steel Pickaxe	4	−1024	−2048	1025	0.11%	0.09%
	Mese Block		1 Mese Block		Steel Pickaxe	3-5	−2048	-4096	1025	0.09%	0.01%

v6

These are the ore distributions for the v6 mapgen, as of 5.1.0. These also the ore distribution that was used in version 0.4.16 and 0.4.17 in all mapgens.

	Ore type		Drops		Weakest required tool	Ores in cluster	Small at Y ≤	Big at Y ≤	Sky at Y ≥	Small chance	Big chance
	Coal Ore		1 Coal Lump		Wooden Pickaxe	8-27	64	0	1025	0.59%	0.12%
	Iron Ore		1 Iron Lump		Stone Pickaxe	5-27	0	−64	1025	0.12%	0.41%
	Copper Ore		1 Copper Lump		Stone Pickaxe	4-5	−16	−64	1025	0.17%	0.41%
	Tin Ore		1 Tin Lump		Stone Pickaxe	4-5	−32	−128	1025	0.14%	0.06%
	Gold Ore		1 Gold Lump		Stone Pickaxe	3-5	−64	−256	1025	0.41%	0.11%
	Mese Ore		1 Mese Crystal		Steel Pickaxe	3-5	−64	−256	1025	0.41%	0.11%
	Diamond Ore		1 Diamond		Steel Pickaxe	4	−128	−256	1025	0.06%	0.11%
	Mese Block		1 Mese Block		Steel Pickaxe	3	−1024	N/A	1025	0.002%	N/A