How to Find Amethyst in Minecraft

If you want to craft a Spyglass or make Tinted Glass, you need to know how to find Amethyst in Minecraft.

Where to Find Amethyst in Minecraft

Amethyst grows underground or underwater inside of geodes or small caves that have three layers. The outer layer is made of Smooth Basalt blocks, the middle layer is made of Calcite blocks, and the inner layer is made of Amethyst blocks.

Amethyst geodes can occur anywhere under Y coordinate 70. They are easiest to find underwater because the exposed tops of the geodes stand out on the ocean floor. Typically, one side of the geode is exposed so you can walk right in.

Once you find your way inside the Amethyst geode, look for Amethyst Clusters, or large crystals growing out of the Amethyst blocks. Use a pickaxe to mine Amethyst Clusters and collect Shards.

How to Get Amethyst in Minecraft

Locate an Amethyst geode. You can dig around underground in caves, but it's easier to build a boat and search the ocean floor.

1. Make a Potion of Water Breathing. In a Brewing Stand, add a Netherwat to a Water Bottle to make an Awkward Potion, then add a Puffer Fish to the Awkward Potion.
   

2. Craft a Boat. In a Crafting Table, place a Shovel in the middle box of the top row, 2 Wood Planks in the first and third boxes of the top row, and 3 Wood Planks in the middle row.

   To make a Shovel, place a Wood Plank in the middle box of the top row, then put Sticks in the middle of the second and third rows.

3. Place the boat on the shore, then interact with it to get in. Hold down the forward button to accelerate and use the left and right buttons to steer.

4. Look for a dome of Smooth Basalt blocks. They will be darker than the surrounding blocks.

   Use a Potion of Night Vision to see clearly underwater, which will make it much easier to find Amethyst geodes.

5. Use the Potion of Water Breathing and descend into the ocean. Equip a pickaxe and use it to break through the layers of Smooth Basalt and Calcite blocks, or try to find an opening.

6. Find an Amethyst Cluster. You can mine Amethyst blocks with a pickaxe, but they aren't useful on their own, so look for three large crystals protruding from the blocks.

7. Mine the Amethyst Cluster to get Amethyst Shards. Make sure you target the cluster itself, not the block it's attached to.

   Amethyst Clusters grow in five stages (bud, small bud, medium bud, large bud, and fully formed). Only fully formed Amethyst Clusters can be mined for Amethyst Shards.

   If you use anything other than a pickaxe, the Amethyst Clusters will only drop 2 Shards.

What Can You Do With Amethyst in Minecraft?

Amethyst blocks have no use other than decoration. However, Amethyst Clusters can be mined for Amethyst Shards, which can be used to craft some useful items. You can combine 4 Amethyst Shards to make a block of Amethyst.

Amethyst buds emit a very faint light while Amethyst Clusters produce significantly more light. Amethyst blocks make a chime sound effect when you place them on the ground.

How to Make a Minecraft Spyglass

On a Crafting Table, put an Amethyst Shard in the middle box of the top row. Then, put a Copper Ingot in the middle of the second and bottom rows to craft a Spyglass.

Equip the Spyglass and use it to see in the distance. Make sure you're not near any hostile mobs since you won't be able to see directly around you.

How to Make Tinted Glass in Minecraft

On a Crafting Table, put Glass in the middle box, then arrange 4 Amethyst Shards above, below, and to the left and right of the Glass block. You'll get 2 Tainted Glass blocks.

You can see through Tinted Glass, yet it completely blocks sunlight. Unlike regular Glass blocks, you can break Tinted Glass and get it back into your inventory.

How Does Amethyst Grow in Minecraft?

Amethyst Clusters kind of work like plants in that they grow in stages and can't be harvested until they are mature. If you break the budding cluster before it grows into a full Amethyst Cluster, you won't get any Amethyst Shards unless your pickaxe has the Silk Touch enhancement.

Amethyst Clusters only grow from Budding Amethyst blocks, which are identifiable by an indent in the shape of an X. After you mine a fully grown Amethyst Cluster, it will eventually grow back in the same place. It takes about 7 in-game days for Amethyst Clusters to mature.

You can't get Budding Amethyst blocks by mining them, so there's no way to grow your own Amethyst.