Amethyst Geode

Overview

An amethyst geode is a farm you find rather than build, and it is permanent as long as you do not damage it. The hollow centre is lined with amethyst blocks and budding amethyst, and budding amethyst is the part that matters: it grows clusters on any face over time and cannot be collected by any means, Silk Touch included, so a geode you leave intact will keep producing amethyst shards for the rest of the world's life. Break a budding block and that growth site is gone for ever. Harvest only fully grown clusters, and use a pickaxe — a mature cluster mined with a pickaxe gives 4 Amethyst Shards, while breaking it by hand or with the wrong tool halves that, and Fortune raises it further. Partly grown buds drop nothing at all unless you use Silk Touch, which also lets you relocate them into a compact farm. Light the interior before you start, because the hollow is dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn inside while you work, and geodes frequently intersect flooded caves, so expect water on the far side of the calcite shell.

Renewable amethyst shards for spyglasses, tinted glass and calibrated sculk sensors, plus amethyst blocks that chime when walked on. Calcite and smooth basalt from the shell are two of the cleanest building materials in the game and are hard to obtain elsewhere.

A hollow spherical cavity with three concentric shells: smooth basalt outside, calcite inside that, and a lining of amethyst blocks and budding amethyst around a chiming hollow centre. Budding amethyst grows amethyst clusters over time and cannot be mined, even with Silk Touch, which makes an untouched geode a permanent renewable farm. Break clusters only at full growth and only with a pickaxe, or use Silk Touch to move partly grown ones. Geodes also occasionally intersect the ocean floor and open to the surface.

It is common in the Overworld, and it generates between about Y=-58 and Y=30, most often deep underground.

How to get it

Geodes are common underground between roughly Y=-58 and Y=30, in any Overworld biome, and are recognisable from a tunnel by their 3 concentric shells of smooth basalt, calcite and amethyst. They occasionally break the ocean floor, which is the only time you will spot one from the surface.

Tips

• Never break budding amethyst. It cannot be picked up even with Silk Touch and every block you destroy is a growth site gone permanently.
• Mine mature clusters with a pickaxe for 4 shards each; hands or the wrong tool cut that in half for no reason.
• Light the hollow interior first, because an unlit geode spawns hostile mobs that reach you while you are facing a wall.
• Use Silk Touch to relocate partly grown clusters if you want a compact farm rather than working inside the geode itself.

Version notes

Added in 1.17 with copper and deepslate. Calibrated sculk sensors in 1.20 gave amethyst a second serious use beyond spyglasses and tinted glass.

Properties

It generates in the Overworld, which is the only dimension with a day-night cycle and weather, and the one every distance in the game is measured against. In a world with cheats on, /locate structure minecraft:amethyst_geode gives the coordinates of the nearest one. Without cheats, an explorer map from a cartographer villager is the reliable route for the structures that have one; everything else is exploration.

Notable loot

Its loot includes Amethyst Shard, Block of Amethyst, Budding Amethyst, Calcite, and Smooth Basalt. These are the notable entries rather than the full loot table — the common filler (bread, coal, iron nuggets) is omitted, and in some structures the best of it comes from a vault or a spawner rather than a chest.

Amethyst ShardBlock of AmethystBudding AmethystCalciteSmooth Basalt

What to watch out for

3 things to prepare for before you go in:

• Hostile mobs spawn inside the unlit hollow
• Breaking budding amethyst destroys it permanently
• Often opens into flooded caves

Guides and tools that cover this

• GuidesEvery Structure in Minecraft and What Loot It Holds→
• GuidesHow to Fight Every Hostile Mob in Minecraft→

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

Structures that share Amethyst Geode's loot, its mobs or its biomes — not simply the next few in the list.

Buried TreasureDungeon (Monster Room)Ocean RuinsShipwreckVillage