One of the benefits of looking for caves by digging is that you can decide where to put the entrance, picking somewhere that is convenient for you.


When choosing a location, it’s probably best to pick somewhere near your base so that you won’t have very far to travel when you’re going between your cave and your base.
You can put your cave entrance inside your base if you want, and then you don’t have to go outside when you’re trying to return, which could be dangerous, particularly if you’re exiting the cave at night.
If you plan on putting your cave entrance inside your base, you might want to either seal it off or mark it so that you don’t just have an open hole that you could risk falling into.
 Preparing yourself to tunnel down into a cave is a little bit different than just looking for a cave. If you’re digging into one, your entrance is somewhere that you picked and is probably a lot easier to find than a naturally exposed cave entrance. This means that it will be a lot more convenient to get supplies. Instead of preparing yourself for what you’ll find in the cave, you just need to have the supplies needed to make the entrance.


Torches: Since you’ll be digging down, you’re going to run out of natural light very quickly, so it’s important that you have lots of torches so you can see what you’re doing. It’s not going to be very easy to get lost this way, but if it’s too dark you won’t be able to see if you come across any valuable materials that would be worth mining.
Ladders: Ladders are made from sticks, and while they’re not the only method of getting back up once you’ve dug this hole, they are definitely the most efficient.
Pickaxes: Since you’ll be coming across a lot of stone as you dig, it’s important that you have at least a couple pickaxes with you. They’ll also be important to have if you find anything to mine along your way.
Shovels: While you don’t technically need shovels, there’s a good chance you’ll come across either dirt or gravel on your descent, and shovels will really speed up the process for moving those blocks.
 Simply begin your descent by making sure your pickax is highlighted (or shovel if the blocks your mining are dirt) and left-clicking on the block you want to remove and holding down the left mouse button until the block is gone.


Keep in mind: you never ever want to dig straight down from the block that you’re standing on. Although it’s one of the quickest ways to tunnel downward, it’s also the most dangerous and can result in the death of your character.

If you happen to be tunneling toward a cave ceiling and you remove the block you’re standing on, you would fall and could take a lot of damage. You could also tunnel yourself into lava.


Instead of digging straight down, you’ll need to make your entrance two blocks wide. Stand on one of the blocks as you dig the other and switch back and forth. That way if you remove a block that is directly above either nothing or lava, you can stop, climb out of the hole, and find another place to dig.
Put down ladders as you dig. To do this, you simply make sure that the ladder section in your toolbar is highlighted and right-click on the block where you’d like to place it. You can highlight the slot that an item is in either by scrolling to it with your mouse wheel, or pressing the number that corresponds to that slot. (If your ladders are in your third item slot for instance, you’ll want to press the 3 on your keyboard to highlight that item.)

Since you’re going to have to use ladders to get out of the hole and back to your base, it’s important that you put them down as you dig deeper and deeper. It’s easier to put them down as you’re dig than as you’re climbing, and this will also make sure you don’t run short on ladders.
If you run out of ladders at any point, you should resurface and make some more before continuing your descent, as running out of ladders could get you stuck.


In addition to putting down ladders, you should also be putting down torches. It’s a good idea to put torches on the opposite wall of your ladder as this will offer the best visibility.

You won’t need to put a torch on every block, just put them down when you feel that your surroundings are getting too dark. You need to be able to see as it will help you avoid falling should you find a cave.
You can easily put torches on the wall just like you would with a ladder, making sure that your torches are highlighted from your toolbar and then right-clicking where you’d like to place it.
 Digging straight down like this will only lead you directly into a cave about 50% of the time. If you keep digging down all the way until you hit bedrock (which is the bottom layer and impossible to dig past) and you still haven’t found a cave, don’t worry. You haven’t wasted your time, and you can still find what you’re looking for.

Keep listening. If you hear anything as you’re climbing up and down on your ladder, it could be a sign that you’re near a cave. You can often hear monsters, water, lava, and ambiance music to let you know when you’re close. If you hear anything, you can start tunneling in the direction that it’s coming from, which should lead you to a cave.
If you don’t hear any cave sounds, then the best tactic is to tunnel straight in any direction from 10–12 layers above the bedrock. Go all the way to the bottom of the hole you dug and place down 9 blocks directly beneath you. Start tunneling from there.

The reason for this is that the most valuable resources usually spawn in the layers 10–12 blocks above bedrock, so searching for a tunnel from this point will not only lead you to a cave, but it also has the best chance of leading you to a cave with gold and diamonds.
Pick a location.
Gear up.
Dig down.
Don’t get discouraged.
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