The REAL Way To Find Diamonds In Minecraft 1.20 

About 2 hours worth of cave exploring with night vision potions and fortune 3 pickaxe gave me about 42 diamonds, but strip mining at -54 gave me about 34 diamonds in half that time

Let's be honest. Even if you have a crap ton of diamonds it's still fun to find diamonds

The big issue with caving is that it’s substantially more dangerous. Early game or hardcore, branch mining is still your best chance of finding diamonds AND living long enough to use them.

The devs have said(at least I think have said) that reduced air exposure does not effect water, so water mining is better than open air caves at least to a certain extent

I do really like how they've added multiple strategies to mining.

i like how one of the little loading screen tips still say “need diamonds? try mining at y level 11”

I always use Silk touch when I go mining. Then use Fortune back at base. That way I don't have my inventory full of lose ores. And little more organized.

I've always felt that exploring caves for ores was so much more fun that just branch mining. I never really minded branch mining as a way to get a lot of blocks and ores, but it's not really something that I would consider "fun". I'm looking forward to exploring the 1.18 caves, and if I'm rewarded by finding Diamonds then that is just a cherry on top. It's not like I really need any Diamonds at this point. I think that the way that they have it makes sense for new players that need to find Diamonds for their first Diamond Pickaxe, to fill out a Diamond Armor set, or to upgrade the remainder of their tools. I find it kinda weird that a bunch of Minecraft RU-vidrs are saying that it's "too easy" to find Diamonds in 1.18 as they are already geared up.

My special thing - the weird thing I like doing in Minecraft - is stripping mineshafts of all the resources. Almost even taking all the wood (but only the wood that I need to make new tools and smelt ores while I’m stripping the mineshaft.)

i don’t mind that mining takes a long time, so honestly i just use cheap iron (or sometimes even stone) pickaxes for base mining and mine the ores with a good pickaxe. i mine while listening to music or someone else’s stream and it’s just my chill out and zen time. anyways, my mining is incredibly scuffed because i like it that way.

I mined at like -57 and found diamonds so much faster than I did when I explored caves

One of my favorite things to do in a new survival world is to find a large deep going cave and set up an auxiliary base and scaffolding and setting up extensive ladders

Tunneling: peaceful, few mobs, guaranteed yield, more sustainable, more efficient use of space, hard to get lost.

I love that they've balanced the two approaches. I wouldn't say caving is entirely "better" than branch mining, since you're going to have to venture out further and further to keep finding new caves a lot faster than you will with mining (though with an elytra maybe that doesn't matter

That method is great if you have an elytra for getting around but if you’re on foot that’s going to take 10x longer just dealing with terrain also how are you coving that much area and not seeing hostile mobs the first cave I came across every 4 seconds I was fighting for my life

I love exploring new caves, but I kinda miss when there was a method to finding diamonds like the lapis trick

Although you're hypothesis is actually incorrect, the diamond experiment did show me the actual best way to find diamonds: underwater caves. The amount of diamonds you mined just in the water was more than all the other diamonds you mined before them

If you are specifically looking for diamonds, you absolutely want to dig down to -58, as the incidence of diamonds increases with each level down.

I liked the experimental version of 1.18 this update nerfed diamonds so much it feels like part 1 release when there wasnt any diamonds too

Fun fact: if you dig straight down in water caves, you will enter a new cave.