Overview
Nether quartz ore is the easiest ore in the game to gather: it generates uniformly through the Nether between Y 10 and Y 117 with no peak to hunt for, it stands out as bright white speckles against red netherrack, and it needs only a wooden pickaxe. One block drops 1 quartz and gives 2 to 5 experience, which incidentally makes a quartz mining trip one of the better experience sources in the game outside a mob farm. Basalt deltas get an extra generation pass and are substantially richer than the other Nether biomes, though they are also the most dangerous to walk across. Quartz matters for two separate reasons. Mechanically it is the ingredient in observers, comparators and daylight sensors, so a redstone builder cannot avoid the Nether. Aesthetically, quartz blocks — plain, smooth, chiseled and pillar — are one of the few pure white building materials in the game, and the only one that is not snow, and they are the standard choice for clean modern builds. Quartz bricks and the stonecutter make the whole family cheap to work with.
Observers, comparators and daylight sensors for redstone, and the white quartz block family — smooth, chiseled and pillar — for clean building. Quartz also brews nothing and smelts into nothing, so its uses are exactly those two.
Nether Quartz Ore counts as a stone-family block in Minecraft 1.21.4. It has no crafting recipe — you collect it by mining it where it generates. Hardness 3 puts it in the middle of the pack for mining speed.
Mine it with a wooden pickaxe or better, or you get no drop at all. Instead of dropping itself it yields Nether Quartz. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot.
The one thing it makes is Nether Quartz.
How to get it
Mine it with any pickaxe anywhere in the Nether between Y 10 and Y 117. Basalt deltas generate substantially more of it than other biomes, and each block gives 2 to 5 experience.
Tips
- Quartz gives 2 to 5 experience per block, which makes a Nether mining trip a decent way to reach level 30.
- Basalt deltas are the richest biome for it, but bring Fire Resistance — the terrain there is worse than the mobs.
- Use a stonecutter for quartz stairs and slabs: it saves a third of the material compared with a crafting table.
- Any pickaxe works, including wood, so a quartz trip needs no preparation beyond survival gear.
How long it takes to break
Hardness 3 puts Nether Quartz Ore at 15 seconds a block bare-handed, or 0.5 seconds with the right tool at netherite tier.
Iron manages 0.75 seconds and diamond 0.6, which makes iron the tier that changes how this block feels.
It will break below wooden, and you will get nothing for it. That combination of time spent and drop lost is the classic mining mistake.
The Efficiency formula is level² + 1 added to tool speed — at V that is about 3.3 times the unenchanted rate.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand * | 15 s | 15 s | 15 s |
| Wooden | 2.3 s | 0.4 s | 0.2 s |
| Stone | 1.2 s | 0.35 s | 0.15 s |
| Iron | 0.75 s | 0.3 s | 0.15 s |
| Diamond | 0.6 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Netherite | 0.5 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Golden | 0.4 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
Properties
Nether Quartz Ore resists blasts at 3, which usually is not enough when something explodes nearby. Light does not pass through it, and it emits none of its own. 64 fit in a slot — a full stack. It is not renewable: what the world has is all it will ever have. The fastest tool for it is a pickaxe; any other kind of tool mines it no faster than a bare hand does, because the speed bonus only applies to the tool class the block is tagged for. Broken normally it drops Nether Quartz rather than itself; Silk Touch is what returns the block, and Fortune raises the ordinary drop instead.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Wooden Pickaxe
- Renewable
- No
Where it generates
Quartz is everywhere in the Nether, easy to spot as white speckles against red netherrack, and needs only a wooden pickaxe. It is the crafting ingredient for observers, comparators and daylight sensors, and quartz blocks are one of the cleanest building materials in the game. Basalt deltas are the best biome to farm it in, though they are also the most dangerous to move through.
Uniform throughout the Nether at these levels, with no peak. Basalt deltas generate substantially more quartz than other Nether biomes.
- Generation range
- Y 10 … Y 117
- Best Y level
- Y 15
- Dimension
- The Nether
- Experience dropped
- 2–5
Drops
Nether Quartz Ore drops Nether Quartz.
Used to craft
Nether Quartz Ore is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Nether Quartz.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Nether Quartz Ore in Minecraft?
Nether Quartz Ore generates naturally in the world; breaking it yields Nether Quartz.
What tool do you need to break Nether Quartz Ore?
Wooden Pickaxe or better is required; anything weaker destroys the block without dropping it.
Is Nether Quartz Ore blast resistant?
Nether Quartz Ore has a blast resistance of 3, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Nether Quartz Ore fit in one stack?
A stack is 64, and a double chest of them comes to 3,456.
Is Nether Quartz Ore renewable?
Not renewable: once the world's Nether Quartz Ore is used up, no more can be produced.
How long does Nether Quartz Ore take to break?
About 0.5 seconds if you bring the correct netherite tool; 15 seconds with your fists.
