Gold Ingot

Overview

Gold is the Nether's currency and the Overworld's disappointment. Gold tools break almost immediately and gold armour is weak, so its real uses are elsewhere: bartering with piglins, which turns ingots into ender pearls, obsidian, fire charges, soul speed books and string; crafting Golden Carrots and Golden Apples, the two best consumables in the game; powered rails; clocks; and the netherite upgrade, which needs 4 gold ingots per ingot of netherite. Supply is much easier in the Nether than at home. Nether gold ore drops 2 to 6 nuggets per block and generates everywhere in the dimension, and zombified piglin farms produce ingots and nuggets continuously. In the Overworld, gold ore peaks around Y -16 and generates in badlands at unusually high rates near the surface, which makes a badlands mesa the best Overworld gold biome by a wide margin. Nine nuggets make an ingot and nine ingots make a block, so nugget-heavy Nether income converts cleanly once you are home. Treat it as trade goods rather than as equipment and the Nether starts paying for itself very quickly indeed.

Bartering with piglins, crafting golden carrots and golden apples, powering rails, and supplying the 4 ingots each netherite ingot needs. One material, four unrelated late-game systems.

In Minecraft, Gold Ingot is a crafting material item. A full stack holds 64. It drops from Zombified Piglin.

Chest loot in Desert Pyramid, Jungle Pyramid, Woodland Mansion, Shipwreck and 8 more can contain it. The recipe calls for Block of Gold. It is smelted from Deepslate Gold Ore.

Its main value is as a crafting ingredient: 14 recipes need it, Clock, Golden Apple, Golden Axe and 11 more among them.

How to get it

Smelt raw gold, or mine nether gold ore for 2 to 6 nuggets a block. Overworld gold peaks around Y -16 and is unusually common near the surface in badlands biomes.

Tips

Barter rather than craft: 1 ingot traded to a piglin returns pearls, obsidian and fire charges worth far more.
Badlands mesas generate gold ore near the surface, which makes them the fastest Overworld gold biome.
Wear at least 1 piece of gold armour in the Nether so piglins stay neutral while you gather.
Keep 4 ingots aside per netherite ingot you plan to make; the smithing recipe needs them alongside the scrap.

Properties

One inventory slot holds 64, so a double chest holds 3,456.

Stack size: 64
Renewable: Yes
Category: Materials

How to get it

Crafting Table

Shapeless recipe

Gold Ingot ×9

Crafting Table

Gold Ingot

Furnace · 10s · 1 XP

Deepslate Gold Ore

Gold Ingot

Also works in: Blast Furnace

Furnace · 10s · 1 XP

Gold Ore

Gold Ingot

Also works in: Blast Furnace

Furnace · 10s · 1 XP

Nether Gold Ore

Gold Ingot

Also works in: Blast Furnace

Furnace · 10s · 1 XP

Raw Gold

Gold Ingot

Also works in: Blast Furnace

Dropped by

1 mobs drop Gold Ingot: Zombified Piglin. Looting raises the maximum on most of them.

Zombified Piglin

Found in

Gold Ingot is in the loot tables of Desert Pyramid, Jungle Pyramid, Woodland Mansion, Shipwreck, Buried Treasure, Stronghold and 2 more.

Desert Pyramid — A sandstone temple with an orange-and-blue terracotta motif on its floor, always with a hidden shaft under the centre tile.
Jungle Pyramid — A mossy cobblestone temple buried in jungle canopy, and the only structure in the game built around an actual redstone puzzle.
Woodland Mansion — An enormous three-storey house of dark oak and cobblestone, generated only in dark forests and typically tens of thousands of blocks from spawn, which makes a woodland explorer map from a cartographer villager the practical way to find one.
Shipwreck — A wrecked sailing ship, generated upright, capsized, or broken in two, on the sea floor or beached on the sand.
Buried Treasure — A single chest buried beneath a beach or shallow sea bed, findable only with a buried treasure map from a shipwreck or ocean ruin.
Stronghold — A sprawling underground maze of stone brick corridors, spiral staircases, storerooms, prison cells and libraries, and the only place the End portal exists.
Abandoned Mineshaft — Long branching wooden corridors with rails, minecarts, support beams and floating sections over ravines and caves.
Ruined Portal (Overworld) — A broken nether portal frame of crumbling obsidian and blackstone, with lava, netherrack and gold blocks scattered around it, plus a chest.

Used to craft

Gold Ingot is an ingredient in 16 recipes, producing Clock, Block of Gold, Gold Nugget, Golden Apple, Golden Axe, Golden Boots, Golden Chestplate, Golden Helmet, Golden Hoe, Golden Leggings, Golden Pickaxe, Golden Shovel, Golden Sword, Light Weighted Pressure Plate, Netherite Ingot, and Powered Rail.