Minecraft: How to Get Amethyst

If you’re wondering how to get Amethyst in Minecraft, our guide tells you the best places to look for Geodes, as well as how to find shards and what they’re used for. Added in the 1.17 update, Amethyst Geodes aren’t terribly hard to discover, with outcroppings usually generating them in one out of every 53 chunks. But there are some locations that make finding them easier.

You’ll want to seek out Amethyst, too, because of what you can craft with it, specifically Tinted Glass and the Spyglass. You can also use it in armor dye and while building structures throughout the Overworld and beyond.

How to Find Amethyst Geodes in Minecraft

Amethyst geodes may generate at any Y coordinates from 0 to 70. This means that you may find them underground or on the surface of the overworld. They also tend to appear in these locations:

• Ocean biomes
• Savanna and desert biomes
• Ravines and caves

You should check these locations before going underground for Amethyst Geodes. If you can’t find them on the surface, look in:

• Abandoned mineshafts
• Dungeons with mob spawners
• Underground ravines and caves
• Strongholds
• Underground ruined portals

Lastly, you can use our Minecraft seeds to get the exact coordinates of the Amethyst Geodes locations in the dedicated world seeds.

What Amethyst Geodes are Used For

Amethyst geodes are a source of the following Amethyst blocks:

• Smooth Basalt
• Calcite
• Amethyst Cluster
• Amethyst Bud
• Amethyst Shard
• Spyglass
• Budding Amethyst
• Block of Amethyst
• Tinted Glass

While Smooth Basalt and Calcite are purely decorative blocks, other amethyst blocks have special and unique functions.

Amethyst buds and clusters radiate low levels of light that can be used in dark areas:

• Small buds give light Level 1
• Medium buds give light Level 2
• Large buds give light Level 4

Spyglass, made of amethyst shards and copper ingots, can be used as a tool for zooming in, which allows you to see and explore far away areas in the distance.

Lastly, Tinted Glass has an ability to block light, which can be used for suppressing the light from the glowstone.

How to Get and Use Amethyst Shards in Minecraft

Mining Amethyst Shards

Each Amethyst Geode contains an Amethyst Cluster, which can be mined using specific means, resulting in 4 Amethyst Shards per cluster. For this you’ll need one of the following tools:

• Pickaxe (non-Silk Touch)
• TnT Block

If you use Silk Touch on your pickaxe, it’ll drop the cluster and not the shard. If you use TnT to explode amethyst, you’ll be able to obtain only 2 Amethyst Shards per cluster. So we strongly recommend using the non-Silk Touch pickaxe.

The amount of mined Amethyst Shards with the pickaxe can be increased using the Fortune enchantment for the following results:

• Fortune I = 5 Amethyst Shards
• Fortune II = 8-12 Amethyst Shards
• Fortune III = 8-16 Amethyst Shards

Using Amethyst Shards

Amethyst Shards can be used in five different recipes, including:

• Amethyst Block: 4 Amethyst Shards
• Calibrated Sculk Sensor: 3 Amethyst Shards + Sculk Sensor
• Spyglass: 1 Amethyst Shard + 2 Copper Ingots
• Tinted Glass: 4 Amethyst Shards + 1 Glass
• Armor Dye: 1 Amethyst Shard + Any Armor Trim + Any Armor Piece

That’s everything you need to know on how to find and use amethyst geodes in Minecraft 1.17: Caves and Cliffs update. For more Minecraft guides, check out our dedicated hub page, and if you were looking for Minecraft seeds, head over to this page.