Lighting and Visibility
Lighting is crucial for safe cave exploration. Many players use torches to illuminate their path, ensuring that they can see potential hazards and avoid getting lost [1:2]
[2:4]. Some players prefer using alternative light sources like glow lichen, glow berries, lanterns, or glowstone, which can be more aesthetically pleasing but may require additional resources
[1:5]. It's also helpful to keep a stack of raw wood for crafting more torches if needed
[5:5].
Navigational Techniques
To prevent getting lost in the intricate cave systems, placing torches only on one side (e.g., the left wall) can help guide you back to your starting point [5:4]. Additionally, marking routes with different blocks or torches can aid in navigation
[4:1]. Using the F3 menu to keep track of your direction and level is another useful technique
[5:1].
Safety Equipment
Carrying a bucket of water is a versatile safety measure. It can be used to create waterfalls for safe descent into ravines, extinguish lava, and keep mobs at bay [3:6]
[5:1]. Ladders, scaffolding, sand, or gravel are also recommended for climbing and navigating steep areas
[5:1].
Preparation for Exploration
Being prepared for potential setbacks is essential. Having a "did you die" box with gear ready for retrieval after death can alleviate stress [1:3]. Bringing pets like dogs and cats can provide comfort and companionship during solo exploration
[2]. Listening to happy music or turning off cave noises can help reduce anxiety associated with exploring dark caves
[2:5].
Resource Management
Ender chests and shulker boxes are valuable for storing resources and items during extended cave explorations [5:1]. Keeping a stack of raw wood ensures you won't run out of materials for crafting tools or torches
[5:5]. Prioritizing resource collection while exploring can make the experience more beneficial
[4:2].
Since the 1.18 update for Minecraft, I always use so many torches in lighting the caves.
I notice when I watch some Minecraft YouTubers, some barely light the caves, some are super safe(like I am), some branch mine and some don't even light the caves at all and just run/fly around and mine ores and ignoring mobs.
I am one of those cave explorers that slowly lights my way forward. I prioritize keeping my flanks lit up and protected. In a way I circle around the center and light it up and if there is an upper level, I light it up too so a creeper doesn't fall on my head.
I am in full netherite protection IV and on easy difficulty too. If I see Deep Dark, I block it off for later until I get night vision and wool with me.
I think because I live underground so I want to make sure nearby dark caves are secured and its a way for me to know I explored it and feel safe. Ravines.. when I see a Ravine, I prioritize lighting up the upper levels first.
I get super uncomfortable when I enter someone's cave and their flanks are not lit up and I can see mobs spawning.
How do you light up caves?
Depends. Is there a mob farm on the server and are the caves near common areas? If yes, than I use a tool, Minihud, to show light levels and I torch things.
If not, I’m only lighting what I need to see, and usually I have a torch offhand so I’m good in the dark tbh.
I used to be like you. And oddly, I’m SO SCARED of cave sounds. I turn them and hostile mobs off. I use subtitles because I also don’t have spacial hearing so I can’t tell direction without them anyhow. Spooky noises?! No thanks.
Elytra fixed my fears. Period. Unless it’s super tight quarters, we’re good. If it’s super tight quarters, I can just block off and then, we’re good. Also, I only go caving or mining for funsies. Like, I don’t need most of the crap down there, exploration is fun. But it doesn’t sound like you’re enjoying exploration. Which is the fun part.
The deep dark is cool. Caves are cool. The nether is legit my fav place. I’m an old lady, I only play on hard, we’re fighting the dragon a week, two tops from server open. This isn’t to say you should get good. I’m not good. I’m terrible! I’m just not concerned with dying. Like I’d never play hardcore. I fall off ladders ALL. THE. TIME. So just fix the scared of dying part. Why you worried about that? It’s a solvable problem if you tell me what you’re worried about!
This is single player and I technically did have a creeper farm nearby so it did help the rates after lighting this cave I left dark for a long time.
What I am afraid of is dying and the stress of having to go find where I died underground. Though I respawn underground so if I was to go back and find my stuff, if I left areas I walked past already unlit, mobs would bother me and it's super dark where I can't see anything, it becomes a bit tedious. I do not like complete darkness in caves cause I can fall into a hole that might kill me. That's why I like securing my caves and if I expand my base in that direction, I want to make sure I don't get ambushed by mobs.
I don't mean this from just full netherite protection IV but even starting a new world, I am like this but even more careful. I prefer to use my bow to kill things than to go into melee range and attack.
The thing is, I haven't died in the caves even in server Hard Mode. Yet, I'd say my slow carefulness and needing to secure everything before pushing forward is why. That's why i was curious how people do cave because I'm the super cautious one and there's friends I have that just go in a straight line and leave the flanks unlit.
Ah I’ve just accepted I’ll die. Period. I have a couple disabilities but dyspraxia is the one that messes me up the most. It’s a lack/impairment of fine motor control. I’m clumsy rl and I’m clumsy in game lol. Like no joke ladders are the bane of my existence. One time I died to my creeper farm over 20 times. Just building it. Because ladders.
So I just prepare for it. I have a ‘did you die’ box ready to go with gear to go fetch my OG gear and stuff like that.
It feels like after the lighting update that basically there aren’t any mobs around anyhow. But I highly recommend minihud, it’s super super helpful. You’ll find every spawn able space easily!
Normally, I just light entire cave areas with torches. When I have enough iron, I make lanterns if I'm going to stay underground and live there for a bit. But usually, it's torches.
My torch stats says something.
I never thought about using other light sources!
Glow lichen & glow berries have been excellent for this though they do take some time to grow. Another thing I’ve used is hanging lanterns from chains but it can be dangerous if you don’t have scaffolding (due to how high cave ceilings usually are & fall damage) but it uses a LOT of iron. If you’ve been to the Nether, glowstone & shroomlights are also great options. Sea lanterns work, too, but they aren’t easy to get.
Glowstone is the easiest to get in survival as you can also get it from cleric villagers once you level the villager up a bit, even if you haven’t been to the Nether. It also has a really high light level so it will illuminate a larger area. Overall, glowstone will likely give you the best results, especially given how easy it can be to obtain.
I have a friend who does it for me (She's the best)
Is there anyone absolutely terrified of mining in Minecraft. When I was younger I could do it fine, but I would always play with siblings. Now that I play it alone I get this terrible anxiety about going into caves. I found when I bring dogs and cats that I've collected I feel better. Also I don't think it's the monsters, I can kill them fine, and I play modded so I have things like cyclops, bat like things and much more. Also I'm not afraid of dying as I have keep inventory on, so I don't know what my deal is but I always turn it to peaceful when I go mining. Any solutions?
I get a little stressed, so I speed run through the cave slapping down torches then I mine
This, same. I always carry wood/sticks so I can mine coal and make more torches if I run out.
Yep! Scary getting deep in a cave and you run out of torch’s
Surrender to the void...with night vision potions.
But you need blaze rods to get the potions and golden carrots... on top of nether warts...
At least you can see in the Nether!
I actually never thought of that, I might try it.
It was often the lighting for me. I have my brightness at max and then spam torches. I prefer corridor strip mining because I can control access and lighting.
Hope there's a texture pack that makes the aesthetic of caves less uncanny
Turn off cave noises, set it to peaceful, and listen to happy music. It's like an almost instinctual fear of the dark. I know it's a game. I know I'm an adult. I know nothing real is going to happen. Doesn't help lol.
Yes, the cave noises are SOOO spooky!
I was hoping others felt the same way, I don't want to be a wimp alone 😞
I'm the idiot who just jumps in a hole without thinking, wait this could kill me. Or even checking to see how deep it goes first. Joking aside, what is the easiest cheapest way of getting to the bottom of a ravine and back up again? I usually carry a ton of ladders on me when I go exploring in case I fall down holes I can't dig out of quickly, but that doesn't help in steep sided things you can't easily place a ladder, or easily jump down without dying. So I ask, what's the cheapest easiest way of exploring the bottom of ravines?
I just jump down into them, there’s usually water down there. Then I dig a staircase up
A bucket of water always works. Place it up the top, and you can ride it down and back up when you're done
Like creating a waterfall?
Or using dirt or cobblestone to make a staircase down
Exactly
See if there’s any water already at the bottom, if so aim for that, if not, place a bucket of water under you before you hit the ground
Use a bucket of water
You don't always want to dive straight to the bottom first. Any dark spots above you in the walls can have mobs lurking, skeletons will snipe you and creepers in particular will dive-bomb you if they calculate that they can detonate exactly when they hit the bottom.
Sometimes it's more tactical to work your way down one side neutralising potential ambush locations on both sides as you go (bridging across to the other side if necessary).
I have gone in through my main base entrance each time and found 8 other ways out currently, I am sure I will find more ways out. Do you guys mine them for their resources, try and make it an addition to your base by incorporating buildings etc, mark routes with different tourches/blocks or just ignore caves completely?
*Edit - each photo is from/close to the entrances of the marked co-ordinates
Caves can be great cheap ways to make secret exit. For example a route from your main base to a forest tower on A or B or a port escape route to F. You can mine resources, light up caves and block up entrances to make tunnels.
Can I have a closer look at that base 👀
I recently started playing minecraft again and after getting over how much has changed, I started diving into the caves. Does anyone have great tips on how to make caves easier to explore, more fun, or more beneficial? Any other tips are greatly appreciated as well. : )
As you go... Place torches only on the LEFT wall... That way it will always point the RIGHT way home when you turn around
I was scared to ask but if this is the only advice I get it was totally worth it. Thank you so much.
Thank pixlriffs on youtube! I like his guides. But that has been my biggest takeaway especially in mineshafts and stuff. I also personally always go left at a split and just try to follow a generically clockwise method to my searching... Those tunnel systems are crazy
A bucket of water and a few empty ones. Use on lava, going down heights, keeping mobs at a distance. As previously mentioned, torches on one side only for exiting purposes. One torch above another for when you need to climb up to exit. Ender chests and shulker boxes if you have any. Ladders and scaffolding or sand/gravel for climbing. Wood for tools, furnace fuel, crafting bench, new torches.
F3 menu, keep an eye on your direction and level.
Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely use the water right away, but for ender chests I'll work on that.
Have fun mate
Not sure if this is good advice, but always keep a stack of raw wood in your inventory. That way, you won't run out of sticks for weapons or torches anytime soon. Or if you need planks, just craft em with the wood.
To save space, I see. Thank you for the advice. Very helpful.
I'm playing console legacy edition and have no idea how to deal with the millions of caves
Torches. Lots of torches. Always place them on the right. That way, when you get lost, you can follow the torches home by keeping them to your left.
Also bring plenty of extra wood/ladders to make tunneling back up the the surface quicker when you inevitably get lost.
Thanks!
Welcome to r/Minecraft_Survival.
You can now pin a comment on your post by using “m!pin (message)”. Check out the pin conmand annoucement here
We also have a contest that you can participate in and check out right here! where you can win a special flair for the top 3 winners. Please make sure to read the rules before submitting and thank you. Contest ends August 31st, Midnight CST. Make sure to use the turquoise contest post flair to submit. Happy Building! :)
If you would like to, join our discord server or just join us for fun
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Strip mining
so uh funny thing you dont cave.
you just strip mine, search for a guide
I play was in my peaceful world and just finished raiding a trial chamber, a huge cave, and a few monster spawners, and got a ton of rare items but when i was using a water from the surface to climb up I didn't realize it was coming from a little pocket of water so there was no surface to go up to, I ended up falling like 60 blocks to my death, I rage quit and closed minecraft but when i opened my world back up it put me before I died (for context i'm on bugrock playing on the switch 2)
This is also how people can dupe items.
It's you don't have to die just force close before auto save.
nice!, i’ve had similar glitches on my own semi-peaceful world (also on bedrock) and typically glitches like this only happen when you don’t log out properly lol, if this accidentally happens again, it can delete items so be warned (I almost lost three wither skulls due to this,had a backup luckily,if I didn’t, I probably just would’ve quit the world TBH)
but it can also duplicate items,(i had my shucker box of every single music disk duplicated and it was insane), it also can teleport you back a bit so that’s probably why it backed you up to before you died
You didn't get blessed, your game just didn't save. If you exited to the main menu, it quits the game without saving - and if you do that before the game has a chance to autosave, boom
i know, it was simply a joke about me saying i'm lucky that it didn't auto save right after i died.
You hit the ground so hard you time traveled.
Herobrine bestowed his blessings upon you. Extremely rare he do this
Hey, so I am a guy who started playing in November. I have gained great knowledge about the game, but few skills. At the very beginning, I have fears entering a cave due to mobs. Later game once I get diamond armor I don't worry. But the problem is getting there.
Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated!!
If you need to, start off a world with keep inventory on, so when you die you don’t have to start over. It can help to just get a feel for how the game works if you’re not comfortable with going full on.
Ok so my number one tip is always get a shield early on, and also aim for a bucket of water and a flint and steel. You can burn animals alive to get cooked food, it is a bit brutal but works great. Also you can get easy iron high up on snowy mountains to make some iron armour before going in caves. Iron generates more commonly up in mountains and there is a bunch there. Lastly if you find yourself frusturated from loosing items when you die dont be ashamed to turn on keep inventory. Minecraft is a sandbox after all so you can play however you want. Oh and also you can completely negacte a creeper's explosion by just placing a block in front of your feet. Dont ask me how it works it just does.
(Vote has already ended)
Emerald armor is pretty good you sadly have to craft it because emerald are hard to find
Bruh I ain't that stupid
You obviously play Minecraft I’m making a joke
My number one tip is that you shouldn't delete a world once you either beat the dragon or die and lose your stuff. There's always another goal to reach. I also recommend watching tip videos. "skip the tutorial" on YouTube is one of the best in my opinion.
Minecraft caves are definitely something & beautiful when deep underground. You can litterly be lost in them mining away at anything you see like Diamonds for several hours. Just don't let a Creeper ambush you in the dark or get shot off a ledge by a Skeleton & have all those hours wasted for nothing.
Caves & cliffs update is the best update they ever did. (Hot take)
It's honestly a good update. Just kinda wish you could run into some caves that are like the caves before the update for variety. Every cave I walked into so far is pretty massive.
That's not really a hot take. It's one of the few huge updates they've had.
In what world is that a hot take?
Honestly I don’t like the new caves, I know they’re bigger but I can’t find as many ores as the older versions
Me In spectator mode taking screenshots of insane caves.
this why it’s my fav update beautiful
Currently connecting a string of ginormous caverns in the proximity of my spawn (after previously wandering the wider world quite a bit)… it’s amazing how I could just spend the entirety of my game in just these caves and basically never be done with them (also, yeah, the mobs falling on you from above is always the goddamn worst!).
walk a bit in some random direction and check again. Caves are extremely common in the game.
So much so that I’m amazed OP couldn’t find any in spectator. I can’t seem to avoid the darn things.
1go to title screen 2click single player 3 press new world 4 hit create 5 find cave
Protest outside Mojang's offices until we get a cave update?
How to safely explore caves in minecraft
Key Considerations for Safe Cave Exploration in Minecraft
Preparation:
Lighting:
Navigation:
Mining Strategy:
Mob Awareness:
Lava and Water:
Exit Strategy:
Recommendation: Before venturing deep into caves, consider exploring shallower caves first to get accustomed to the environment and practice your combat skills. Additionally, using a bed to set your spawn point nearby can save you from losing your items if you die. Happy exploring!
Get more comprehensive results summarized by our most cutting edge AI model. Plus deep Youtube search.