Minecraft Amethyst Shards are found through geodes, shallow occurrences while mining that can be cracked open and leave a subtle light to make them even easier to notice and home in on. Amethyst Shards themselves are useful objects that players can use to make Tinted Glass or a Spyglass, so if you're inclined to take a telescope on your adventures, here's how to find and get Amethyst in Minecraft, as well as how to use it sensibly.
Where to find Amethyst Geodes in Minecraft
To find an Amethyst Geode in Minecraft, it’s best to just go underground and start mining. You don’t necessarily have to go deep though: Amethyst geodes can spawn between Y-level -64 and Y-level 30. Geodes are not that hard to spot either as they're very big and often cracked, which means that you might see the faint glowing light from a distance.
Keep an eye out for smooth basalt while mining. This is the dark outer layer of an Amethyst Geode. Break through this first layer to find calcite, and then continue to find the amethyst. Inside, you’ll find Blocks of Amethyst, Budding Amethyst, Amethyst Buds, and Amethyst Clusters. Let’s go over which is which:
How to get Amethyst Shards in Minecraft from Amethyst Clusters
Minecraft Netherite is very valuable but a lot harder to get that Amesthyst Shards!
Amethyst Shards are dropped from the growing amethyst crystals called Amethyst Clusters. These clusters can be found inside Amethyst Geodes. If you mine amethyst clusters, you get Minecraft Amethyst Shards in return, and they can be used to craft a few particular items.
It’s important to only mine the fully grown ones, as the smaller Minecraft Amethyst Buds won’t drop any Amethyst Shards. There are three growth stages before an Amethyst Bud becomes an Amethyst Cluster. Take a look at the picture above to distinguish them!
Fully formed Amethyst Clusters drop two Minecraft Amethyst Shards when broken with any other tool, and four when mined with a pickaxe. The number of Amethyst Shards that drop can further increase by using the Fortune enchantment. If you want to collect the cluster itself, use a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.
Minecraft Amethyst Clusters and Buds grow on Budding Amethyst blocks. You can recognize them by the cross-shape on their sides. Note that you can’t mine Budding Amethyst, but you can come back to find newly-spawned Amethyst Buds. The other solid amethyst block is called a ‘Block of Amethyst’, and can only be mined with a pickaxe. This block is purely decorative, and cannot grow Amethyst Buds. You can use Amethyst Shards to create more Minecraft Blocks of Amethyst if you want to use them as a building material.
What you can craft with Minecraft Amethyst Shards
Besides being a posh new building material, Amethyst Shards can be used to craft the following items:
- Spyglass: One Amethyst Shard placed on top of two Copper Ingots makes a Spyglass. Spyglasses can be used to zoom in to see far objects.
- Tinted Glass: One block of glass with an Amethyst Shard above, below and on either side will create two blocks of Tinted Glass. Tinted Glass is a building material which blocks all light (but you can still see through it). It can’t suffocate mobs, but it can be reused when broken.
- Block of Amethyst: As mentioned before, this is purely decorative. You can craft a Block of Amethyst using four Amethyst Shards.
Time to dig up some Amethyst Shards and build that luxurious amethyst mansion!
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