Discover How to Acquire Quartz in Minecraft Without Visiting the Nether

Curious about quartz in Minecraft but don’t want to venture into the Nether to find it? This article has got you covered!

We explore where to find quartz in the game, its importance in crafting and building, and all the tips and tricks for obtaining this valuable resource without entering the dangerous realm of the Nether.

Learn how to efficiently gather quartz in Minecraft, whether it’s through trading with villagers or using enchanted pickaxes.

What Is Quartz in Minecraft?

Quartz in Minecraft is a white crystalline mineral that is the source of nether quartz ore, smooth quartz, quartz bricks, and quartz blocks. Players need a stone, iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe to mine the ore when it is found minimally in the overworld, but commonly in the Nether. They can then melt it in a furnace to obtain nether quartz they can use for crafting.

Version 1.17 introduced the amethyst geodes, which contain a large amount of newly generated smooth basalt. Players can mix this smooth basalt with the nether quartz they obtained from the nether to build items such as smooth quartz blocks and quartz bricks. Players may opt to turn the quartz ore blocks they mine into blocks of quartz which can be used as a building material or crafted into various items.

G-raiding a desert village with a blacksmith should yield iron and iron pickaxe to begin mining, but manipulation of the selected difficulty level can yield similar gear in a chest at spawn to get started.

Where Can You Find Quartz in Minecraft?

Quartz ore blocks can be found in the Overworld between y-levels 128 and 63. The ore blocks are spread across approximately the same density of ores as diamonds, 8.8 blocks per chunk. Be aware that this means they are not very common. Average players will have to explore large areas of the Overworld to find quartz that they mine or extract.

In the Nether

Quartz ores are only found in the Nether. The Nether is a hostile dimension with low-light levels, which provides high safety for new players. Concurrently, it is inhabited by many aggressive mobs and contains lava and fire, which can easily kill players who are not careful. It has unique terrain and blocks to move around, and it is simpler to navigate than the relatively more complicated overworld and end dimension.

On average, there is approximately 3.14 times more natural overworld-hosted vanilla quartz then there is in the nether. The only exceptions to this are the redstone and lapis veins which are double the normal spawn rates in the nether. They are gas-resistant materials, making them useful to mine if one is in a gas-laden environment in the nether.

In Villages

Natural quartz blocks generate as part of snowy Villages. From 2 to 21 quartz blocks can spawn in an individual Village. Their distribution appears to be related to the distribution of other stone materials but cannot directly be converted into the same parameters. Quartz generally appears at a frequency of 1 or 2 per Village.

There are an average of 5 Villages per Minecraft 10000×10000 block world giving a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 42 naturally generating Village quartz blocks in every world that has snow or ice. All Villages except the villages of the savannah, desert, or jungle have the potential to have snowy sections, so finding natural quartz blocks in polar ice Villages is the easiest way to mine quartz in most worlds, especially if they have the Ice Spikes biome.

In Desert Temples

The desert pyramid, which is also known as the desert temple, is a Generated Structures feature that was added in Minecraft Java Edition 1.3.1. There is a 1.7% chance that a set of chiseled quartz block will generate as a decoration inside a desert pyramid. A desert pyramid consists of a 3×3 grid of 9×9 area located in the center of each face and open to the sky.

In Pillager Outposts

Quartz naturally generates in pillager outposts in 3 to 9 increasing ore block counts. These are generally small structures that consist of a penalty bell or pillager raiding horn, one or several pillagers, a couple of structures, a loom or fletching table, a pair of training dummies and a pillager flag.

There have been seven pillager outposts placed at varying distances away from spawn. Go to the pillager outposts and mine the quartz blocks you see within them. If you do not see the quartz blocks for easy mining, you may just need to dig around or go to one of the other outposts in your biome.

Pillager outposts are one of the few places in the game in which pillagers naturally spawn and pillager banners are acquired. These outposts provide players with a bartered item – a crossbow. Players looking to use the quartz-filled outposts as a source of consistent quartz should take care due to how aggressively pillagers will pursue anyone who flees or invades their base.

What Is the Importance of Quartz in Minecraft?

Quartz in Minecraft is important for the use in building Redstone contraptions, daylight sensors, comparators, hydraulics, transportation, mobs, and Minecraft engineering applications. Quartz is used in every Redstone invention, artificial or naturally. Common uses are good variety of contraptions, food preparation mechanisms like bread, storage utilities with their password protection, security mechanisms, teleportation devices, complicated TnT cannon, flying machines, bombs such as nether games, rapid item transportation units, advanced farms (guardians, squids, omni-mob, honey), along with a variety of machines implementing command blocks.

Crafting Recipes

While quartz itself cannot be crafted in Minecraft, items made using quartz can be obtained by crafting. There are many crafting recipes in Minecraft that require certain tools and resources to obtain quartz items. Here are a few.

1. Quartz Block: 4 Quartz
2. Nether Quartz Ore: 1 Quartz Block
3. Observer: 1 Nether Quartz + 6 Cobblestones + 2 Redstones + 1 Wooden Plank
4. Daylight Sensor: 3 Glass Blocks + 3 Nether Quartz + 3 Wooden Planks
5. Block of Quartz: 9 Quartz
6. Pillar Quartz Block: 2 Quartz Blocks
7. Stairs and Slabs of Quartz: 3 polished blocks or 6 quartz blocks
8. Redstone Comparator: 3 Stone Blocks + 1 Nether Quartz + 3 Redstones
9. White Concrete Powder: 4 Sand + 4 Gravel + 1 Quartz Block + 1 Dye Color
10. Enchantment Table: 1 Book + 2 Diamonds + 4 Obsidian (each Obsidian is made from 1 block of Lava and 1 Water bucket)

The recipes may change from one version to the next, so verify within the game itself by reviewing the crafting tables.

Building Material

Quartz is an aesthetic block and it is well-liked due to its transparent variations which can make it a light bright material when you do not want to use glass. Regular quartz blocks have a higher blast resistance than most building materials and a luminance level of 1.

Their pillars, stairs, slabs, and smooth blocks create a pleasing aesthetic when combined with other blocks and used for flooring and roofs.

Nether quartz ore is actually slightly more abundant than iron ore. It generates between levels 10 and regular stone in the nether. Each individual ore block that is broken drops 1 Nether Quartz (or more). Because they provide such a small amount of quartz and there are so many ways to get quartz from the overworld, it does not immediately begin leading players to the nether to obtain more quartz.

Other settings with large amounts of quartz include Pablo Bueno’s mining fatigue survival seed from Minecraft 1.17 with 2000 blocks of quartz shortly above the mining fatigue effect. To get there, use the seed 1920808415.

Redstone Component

Quartz is used to craft the following redstone components in Minecraft:

1. Redstone comparator
2. Daylight detector

The redstone comparator is another way to make advanced Minecraft circuits, as it allows for a delayed pulse to be applied to a new device at the output. Pestilent Romans has a great video on both the simple and creative uses of the redstone comparator. The daylight sensor is used to activate redstone circuits during daylight hours and then deactivate them at night. This is useful to maintain aesthetics or create special gameplay conditions.

In the absence of the Nether biome, the average cost in diamonds per redstone component is only 0.02 diamonds meaning that they are actually fairly cheap to manufacture by buying the needed quartz trade items. The redstone comparator requires 3 quartz, equivalent to 3x trade quartz at 1 emerald each. The daylight detector requires 3 quartz, equivalent to 3x trade quartz at 1 emerald each as well.

How Can You Get Quartz Without Going to the Nether?

You cannot get quartz without going to the Nether in Minecraft. All quartz blocks including chiseled quartz block, quartz pillar block, and smooth quartz block are only found within the Nether itself. Quartz Ore blocks, which drop Nether Quartz when mined, generate vast quantities within the Nether. Mine only the Quartz Ore blocks with a pickaxe that has a Fortune enchantment to maximize the Nether Quartz you collect.

Trading with Villagers

Quartz may be available in Trades with Villagers, although it was not found in any normal trades using the Complete Guide to Minecraft Villager Trading tool. Since Minecraft 1.18 is a major rework, I cannot yet be sure of what was and wasn’t available in other versions. You could check the tool or any trading practice could confirm that before the update takes place.

Finding Quartz in Chests

Finding quartz in chests is the most accessible way of getting quartz in Minecraft without going to the Nether. Quartz is found in a variety of loot chests, typically at 5-17%, and it can be a decently common item in chests if one is lucky. Quartz can be found in the following three loot chests, all of which can be found naturally in the Overworld:

1. Dungeon chests
2. Desert pyramid/desert village blacksmith chests
3. Bastion Remnants chests

Desert pyramids and desert villages can be found easily enough with the use of exploration. Bastion remnants are somewhat more difficult, but an easier way to find quartz within the above-ground world as opposed to the Nether. Their chests can contain numerous quartz items and blocks, giving a decent quartz haul.

When exploring, desert pyramids and villages should be searched for to take advantage of the frequently-spawned chests in these locations that require only clearing or unlocking a trap to claim their rewards. Desert village blacksmith chests can be especially rewarding.

Using a Silk Touch Enchanted Pickaxe

The Silk Touch enchantment can be used with a pickaxe, axe, or shovel. When applied to a pickaxe, blocks of ore (such as quartz), glass, ice, mycelium, and half-blocks (such as stone slabs, bricks, and wood) are dropped as the item form of the corresponding block. This allows the block to be transported and placed where the user desires instead of dropping as resources.

If you need a Minecraft quartz supply to create large glass towers or other large unique building decorations, consider seeking out a fortress with Blazes and Wither Skeletons. These strongholds have concentrations of quartz rock pillars and rises in the blazed fortress room areas. They generate frequently enough that once identified through explorative journeys, can be the growing core of large quartz structures.

A mined iron ore block with Silk Touch will have Iron Ore which can only be smelted to get ingots. However, mining it with Silk Touch will get you an Iron Ore Block which not only acts as decoration but can be smelted to produce Iron Ingots. Enchanting is the only way to gain Silk Touch and is not easily achieved. You need to be at Level 17 or higher to get the enchantment on a book in an Enchantment Table.

Killing Pillagers

One of the sneakiest ways to get quartz without going to the nether in minecraft is by hunting pillagers. If you are fortunate, pillagers will spawn with Ominous Banners in their possession. Players can obtain it as pillagers spawn with banners on their heads and rarely, pillager captains spawn with it stored in their inventory. When defeated, a pillager will drop any loot in its possession. The good news is that pillagers have a chance of dropping Looking Glass Quartz required for spyglasses, which can be farmed by setting up a pillager raid farm. The bad news is that it very rarely drops and is farmed from pillagers rather than minions.

Using Commands

In Minecraft, Quartz ore can be obtained using the following slash cheats depending on your needs. Type /give @se followed by your username, and then minecraft:quartz_block. The specific color id for gold is different to the default color and so is needed with this command command.

Type /setblock ~ ~ ~ minecraft:quartz_block to spawn it at your feet, and enter /setblock X Y Z minecraft:quartz_block to specify a location.

Command Description Default Value in Minecraft Source Command for Obtaining Quartz Ore Using Commands Results Description /give gameruleID 1 value /give @s minecraft:nether.tap Gives one less Quartz Ore of the online character type. Blocks obtained when mined. /time add 0 Zero /time add 0 Makes Quartz Ore materials appear to have an underground mine. /fill from X Y fill to X Y Z minecraft: Quartz Block /fill ~100 ~-60 ~100 ~-100 ~100 ~-100 minecraft:quartz_block Used to create a block of Quartz Ore which spawns quartz columns.

What Are the Risks of Obtaining Quartz Without Going to the Nether?

There are risks of obtaining quartz without going to the nether due to overgrinding, health effects of silicon dust, environmental contamination, and the possibility of purchasing illegal goods. However, none of these risks are severe and the treasurer and safety precautions are typical of any mining operations, which are usually not life-threatening.

The potential damage of quartz mining to the environment will vary based on location, but with land reclamation techniques, the environmental damage can be reduced. In terms of recreational cannabis purchasing glasswares or medical cannabis oil processing equipment crafted from quartz, it is important to understand the health risks of vaporizing cheap products polluting cannabis, particularly the potential for silicon pneumoconiosis, and purchase safe, well-produced cannabis products when possible.

Limited Quantity

The number one disadvantage of getting Quartz without going to the Nether is that it is more limited. While the Nether generates-indefinitely, Quartz terrain generates very infrequently in the Overworld. Quartz only generates in a small number of chunks, and it will entirely disappear if you exhaust it. In the Nether, it is so plentiful you can get a limitless supply wherever you go.

Difficulty in Finding

Total quartz ore distribution is not restricted to the Nether. Blocks of quartz ore can be found in the overworld at levels 0-1280. Nether quartz ore from the Nether occurs in the overworld but spawns less frequently. When natural resources are generated in the overworld, the ore is generated 6 times as frequently on the Nether side of the world. For instance, as of Java Edition 1.17, this means a frequency of 22 attempts to generate nether quartz ore within the standard size of 16×16 chunks on the Nether side versus an overall living space of 68×2720 blocks in the overworld.

On average, players will find higher levels of quartz and more consistent deposits in the Nether at levels 11 to 17. On the overworld’s side, levels of 9 to 29 are recommended, as total quartz spawns up to y=80. When finding out that the way to get quartz in Minecraft without going to the Nether is wither kills that are rare, immature players may choose to play on the creative mode difficulty setting. This allows them instant mining of quartz ore, as it is found in the ceiling of the Nether at high levels and previously mentioned creates higher drop rates from wither skeleton kills.

Potential for Glitches

To grind resources without needing to go to the Nether, the Minecraft Caves & Cliffs Update introduced ore veins. This change underscored that the addition does not mean that iron and copper will be found where they are not, merely that they can be found in greater amounts from time to time and they are easier to prospect as a large. Unfortunately, the likelihood of be able to spot large quartz veins is nearly zero at present.

What Are Some Tips for Efficiently Obtaining Quartz Without Going to the Nether?

Efficiently obtaining quartz in Minecraft without going to the Nether can be managed with a mix of crafting, opportunity, and generosity. Here are some recommended tips:

1. Fishing: Use the looting enchantment during the process.
2. NPCs: Trade with Toolsmith, Weaponsmith, and Fletcherson NPCs.
3. Giant Mushrooms: Farm mushrooms to gain experience and trade that with librarians for quartz.
4. Quartz on the ground: If you find quartz already on the ground in the overworld, unique actions include distributing it to lights, turrets, walls, and the like in builds to save and make efficient use of the relatively limited quartz once mined in the overworld.

Trade with Villagers Efficiently

To trade with villagers quickly, go to a village with the barracks loot building. This trade hall will have numerous villagers ready to trade with you and will make it easier to find the villager trades for the blocks that contain quartz. As for the specific quartz components in Minecraft, Smithing and Mason villagers trade with quartz or quartz blocks. The quickest way to trade with villagers is by committing large supplies of other resources to both these functions through economic trade, emerald trades with Tool Smiths, and various professions.

Explore Desert Biomes

Desert biome contains wooden structures that provide 7 to 20 blocks of quartz in Minecraft. The wooden structures in desert biomes are made from smooth sandstone. Thus, quartz is not as plentiful in the desert as it is in the nether, but there is at least some of it to be had by exploring desert biomes.

Desert biomes have a relatively well-lit and straightforward outside zone, meaning that you will not often be troubled by the darker and harder-to-clear-out caves and subterranean placers that dot other biomes. Additionally, honey blocks and water play in similarly bright locales provide you with a relaxing, bright area to gather quartz and crisscross the desert to gather large enough amounts of it to be worth your while.

Use a Fortune Enchanted Pickaxe

To seek quartz in Minecraft without going to the Nether, find a Fortune enchanted pickaxe to mine your quartz daily in the Overworld. Pickaxes can be combined in an anvil to add enchantments before mining. The higher level of Fortune the pickaxe has, the greater the chance of getting 0-4 more quartz from each quartz block you mine. To give advantages to early stage players, a Fortune pickaxe can be received as a drop from a husk, a drowned if near the ocean, or a stray.

According to the Minecraft Wiki, Fortune can only be initially applied to pickaxes but can be transferred to other tools by combining the pickaxe in an anvil with the item to be enchanted. Therefore, a player’s best bet is to find quartz in the Overworld near villages and/or water where they can farm the associated characters to earn a Fortune pickaxe. Once they have the pickaxe, they can use their newly found quartz in the Overworld without returning to the Nether for more.

Conclusion

To get quartz in Minecraft without going to the nether, try searching the overworld as quartz ore is distributed in the caves, the surface, and even photovore. It is most frequently found at the bottom of most overworld levels except those in the deep ocean biome.

End Cities in the outer end islands are also a good place to find nether-like blocks, as end cities are covered with endstone building layers which can easily be mined. Mod packs can be used to transmute nether-only ores into quartz items.

Even though quartz in the nether is more abundant, there are many ways to get it in the overworld as well. It can be obtained in the overworld by killing zombies or witches. Stray husk zombies in the desert and their drops include zombie brain along with typical zombie drops such as rotten meat, leather, and iron. Zombie brain is crafted with four rotten meat by placing rotten meat at one of the four positions on the crafting bed.

Also, Blazes and Magma Cubes in the nether drop blaze powder and magma creams, which players can make use of to create potions in the brewing stand. By switching it from bottles to 30% glowstone dust, players can create drinks of leaping, strength, and in particular fire resistance, which may help in exploring lava-rich areas for or remaining in the warmest of water bodies longer to get quartz.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

Can I get quartz without going to the Nether in Minecraft?
Yes, there are alternative ways to obtain quartz in Minecraft without entering the Nether.

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

What are the alternative methods for getting quartz in Minecraft?
You can find quartz in the Overworld by trading with villagers or in the End dimension by defeating Endermen.

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

Can I mine quartz ore in the Overworld?
No, quartz ore can only be found and mined in the Nether. However, you can obtain quartz from other sources such as trading with villagers or defeating Endermen.

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

How do I trade for quartz with villagers?
You can trade emeralds for quartz with a Cleric villager, or you may find quartz in a chest in a Cleric villager’s house.

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

How do Endermen drop quartz in the End dimension?
Endermen have a chance to drop quartz when killed in the End dimension. You can increase your chances by using a looting enchantment on your weapon.

How to Get Quartz in Minecraft Without Going to the Nether?

Are there any other ways to get quartz besides trading and defeating Endermen?
Yes, you can occasionally find quartz in chests in structures such as desert temples, jungle temples, and igloos.