Amethyst Cluster — Minecraft block

Overview

An amethyst cluster is the fully grown crystal that budding amethyst produces, and it is where amethyst shards actually come from. Growth runs through four stages — small bud, medium bud, large bud and finally the cluster — and only the last stage is worth harvesting: a fully grown cluster broken with a pickaxe drops 4 shards, multiplied by Fortune, while breaking it with anything other than a pickaxe gives only 2. Silk Touch collects the cluster block intact, which is the only way to move one for decoration, since a cluster placed on any block will not continue to grow — only budding amethyst grows them. Clusters emit light level 5, which is dim but real, and they can be waterlogged, which makes them one of the more useful decorative blocks for underwater and cave builds. Because budding amethyst regrows them forever, a geode with a piston-and-observer harvester is a fully automatic shard farm, and shards are the ingredient for spyglasses, tinted glass, calibrated sculk sensors and amethyst blocks. Because the harvest is non-destructive to the budding block underneath, a well-built geode farm never runs out and never needs restocking.

Amethyst shards for spyglasses, tinted glass, calibrated sculk sensors and amethyst blocks, plus a waterloggable decorative crystal that emits light level 5 and chimes when broken.

In Minecraft 1.21.4, Amethyst Cluster is a stone-family block. There is no way to craft it; you have to find it and mine it. Its hardness of 1.5 makes it a normal, unhurried block to mine.

What you actually collect is Amethyst Shard. Light level 5 is decorative rather than functional — mobs can still spawn beside it. Light passes through it, so it will not darken the space behind it.

It offers almost no protection from explosions (1.5 blast resistance). A full stack holds 64. It is not used in any crafting recipe.

About the amethyst set

How to get it

Break a fully grown cluster with a pickaxe for 4 shards, or with any other tool for 2. Clusters grow only on budding amethyst inside geodes, which generate between Y -58 and Y 30.

Tips

Wait for the full cluster stage — the 3 bud stages drop nothing useful and reset the growth if broken.
A pickaxe gives 4 shards, anything else gives 2, and Fortune III multiplies the pickaxe result substantially.
Silk Touch collects the cluster whole for decoration, but a placed cluster never grows again.
Clusters can be waterlogged, which makes them one of the better decorative blocks for an aquarium.

How long it takes to break

At a hardness of 1.5, Amethyst Cluster takes 2.3 seconds to punch out and 0.25 seconds with a netherite-tier tool of the correct class.

Iron manages 0.4 seconds and diamond 0.3, which makes diamond the tier that changes how this block feels.

No particular tool tier is required: any tool, or none at all, still yields the drop, so the table below is about speed rather than about whether you get anything.

Efficiency contributes its level squared plus one to tool speed, which makes Efficiency V roughly 2.5 times faster than the plain tool.

Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand	2.3 s	2.3 s	2.3 s
Wooden	1.2 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Stone	0.6 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Iron	0.4 s	0.15 s	0.1 s
Diamond	0.3 s	0.15 s	0.1 s
Netherite	0.25 s	0.15 s	0.1 s
Golden	0.2 s	0.15 s	0.1 s

Properties

Blast resistance on Amethyst Cluster is 1.5, so any explosion nearby takes it out. It lets light pass and gives off light level 5. A single slot takes 64, the usual full stack. A pickaxe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for. Broken normally it drops Amethyst Shard rather than itself; Silk Touch is what returns the block, and Fortune raises the ordinary drop instead.

Transparent: Yes
Required tool: Any

Where it generates

Amethyst clusters grow through four stages on budding amethyst inside geodes, and a fully grown cluster mined with a pickaxe drops four shards, multiplied by Fortune. Because budding amethyst regrows clusters indefinitely and cannot be moved, a geode is a permanent renewable farm rather than a deposit to strip. Shards make spyglasses, tinted glass, and the calibrated sculk sensor, and amethyst blocks chime when walked on.

Amethyst is not an ore vein. It grows on budding amethyst inside geodes, which generate uniformly anywhere in this range with no density peak, occasionally breaking the ocean floor or a cliff face.

Generation range: Y -58 … Y 30
Best Y level: Y -20
Dimension: Overworld
Experience dropped: 0–0