Where to Find Iron in Minecraft (2022)

Finding iron is one of the very first major technological advancements you’ll make in Minecraft, as it opens the doors to so many kinds of items, like durable iron tools, heavy iron doors, anvils, and even iron golems to guard your base for you. Naturally, you’ll need plenty of iron to work with, so we’ll be going over everything you need to know about where to find iron in Minecraft!

Thankfully, finding copious amounts of iron is easier than it used to be in Minecraft since recent patches did increase the spawn rate for iron that is exposed to the air, or at least made finding the blocks much simpler. However, if you’re trying to get a whole lot of iron together for some advanced tasks, you should try to do it efficiently and that means finding the right places in your mines.

Let’s get started.

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Here’s the Best Place To Find Iron in Minecraft

Iron is spawned in veins on a triangular distribution model, centered around Y:15. This is the best place to start mining for iron when you start a new world in Minecraft, as long as you’re underground. Iron can spawn anywhere from Y:72 all the way down to Y:-64, the bottom of the world. However, the triangle where it spawns the most is from Y:56 to Y:-24. The center of this triangle is Y:15, so that exact level is the best place, statistically, to find veins of iron ore.

Going down into a cave and finding Y:15 shouldn’t take you long, so long as you bring plenty of torches to help guide yourself back out of the cave. A preferred method among explorers in Minecraft is to permanently mark one side of the path you’ve taken with torches, leaving the other wall bare. For example, if you are heading down a hallway in a mineshaft for the first time, you only place torches on your left-hand side. That way, when you turn around to get out of there, the correct path out will have torches on your right-hand side.

Heading Higher – Iron & Mountains

There is a second triangular model facing upwards with the iron spawn model as well, meaning if you find any mountains that go above Y:232, you have a very high chance of finding huge deposits of iron inside. These snow-capped peaks are an exciting new place to explore in Minecraft right now, with the addition of new neutral mobs like goats, and are a great place to go iron mining if you’re sick of caves.

Another big advantage to seeking tall mountains while you look for iron is that you’ll also find a high concentration of emeralds. Tall mountains are some of the only places where emeralds spawn naturally, ready for you to dig them out and spend them at the nearest village.

Just be careful climbing up into the tall mountains if you already have made a set of armor made of iron. Powdered snow can look just like regular, solid blocks of snow, and if you aren’t wearing leather boots you will fall right into it, possibly get stuck, and freeze.

Delving Deeper – How To Find Iron Veins

While Y:15 is likely the best place to find iron in mass, it’s also easy to find it as you continue to go deeper down. The downside is that the deep slate it can be encased in takes significantly more effort and tools to dig through. But, if you already have a decent supply of iron, this won’t be much of a problem, and you can be rewarded by finding deposits of even more valuable minerals like gold, Redstone, and even diamonds.

The advantage to going deeper for your iron mining is the possibility you will find a massive vein of concentrated iron. These can run through massive amounts of terrain anywhere below Y:0, and in their cores, you can find entire blocks of pure raw iron. Each of these can be broken down to produce 9 more pieces of iron, enough for most of a suit of armor or three more pickaxes to keep on mining.

If you collect too much raw iron to fit into your inventory, it’s smart to bring a crafting table with you so that you can compress all the raw iron into raw iron blocks. These also form stacks of 64, but can then be broken down into 9 pieces of raw iron again when you get back to the surface.

While you might have success by strip-mining at individual levels, when you really want to go big on iron generation, finding the massive veins underground is going to be the best way to go. Beyond just how much you find all at once, it’s also just a lot more exciting than digging straight into a wall in repetitive fashions. It’s great news that the newer patches continue to make playing the game well, the same as playing the game in a way that is fun.

What To Do With Iron in Minecraft

Now that you’ve got access to so much iron, it’s time to decide how to spend it. A little-known fact about iron armor, weapons, and tools in Minecraft is that they actually have a higher “enchantability” rating than equivalent gear made out of diamonds. What this means is that you can actually apply better enchantments for smaller amounts of XP to iron gear than you can to diamond gear.

However, when you reach the late-game phase of wearing Netherite gear this is no longer true, as Netherite has an even higher enchantability than iron does.

If you don’t have a lot of XP to spare but still want to get some solid enchantments for your items, iron gear is a great way to go. It’s solid enough to withstand most fights you could encounter in the game, while still being replaceable enough that you can wear it on deep-caving missions.

You can also use that iron to make an iron golem. You can do this by pressing 9 pieces of iron bars into a block of iron, making four blocks of iron, then stacking these into a T shape. On top of the T, place a carved pumpkin. You can make a carved pumpkin by using shears on a regular pumpkin. As soon as you place the carved pumpkin, the golem will come to life and begin patrolling the nearby area for monsters. It will be loyal directly to you, attacking any other players that dare to attack you as well. You can also craft and use iron ingots to heal any iron golem that has taken damage.

Conclusion: Top Location to Find Iron

Ultimately, heading to Y:15 will be the best place to get your first stack of raw iron. Though once you have a little more gear and experience, heading deeper is probably your best bet for quickly mining iron in Minecraft. Whichever way you go to get your iron gear ready, with this guide you’ll be ready to take the higher ground.

Join the High Ground

And that’s it for our guide on iron mining in Minecraft! We hope it’s helped you establish a better start in your world and that your coffers soon overflow with iron. If there’s anything else you think we should cover, then leave a comment below!

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