How to get enough amethyst for a full beacon base

A full amethyst pyramid needs a lot of material, so plan your gathering before you start.

Where to find amethyst

• Amethyst geodes generate underground. They have a smooth basalt shell, a calcite layer and an amethyst interior.
• Amethyst blocks in the geode drop themselves when mined with a pickaxe, so you can use them directly in the base.
• Amethyst clusters and buds on the inner walls drop shards. Mining a fully grown cluster with a pickaxe gives more shards than mining the smaller buds.
• Budding amethyst blocks regrow clusters over time, but they can't be picked up. Leave them in place and come back to harvest the clusters as they regrow.

Turning shards into blocks

Craft 4 amethyst shards in a 2×2 pattern to make 1 amethyst block. That means a full 164-block pyramid costs 656 shards if you make every block yourself, which is a lot.

Saving materials

• You don't need all four tiers. A single 3×3 tier takes only 9 blocks and is enough to get started.
• Build the smaller tiers first and add the wider layers later as you find more geodes.
• Keep a few spare shards for beacon payment too.