Progress Through Excavator Tiers

Early-Game: Iron Excavator

Your first excavator requires iron blocks plus diamonds or copper. This is the hardest gate because you need to reach diamond level or find copper deposits. Focus on strip mining or branch mining to accumulate enough iron blocks while searching for these secondary materials.

Mid-Game: Upgrading Materials

Once you've crafted your iron excavator, you can use it to mine faster and gather resources for higher-tier excavators. The datapack maintains this progression by requiring increasingly expensive material blocks for each tier. Each step up demands more blocks and rarer materials.

Efficient Progression

Use your current excavator to mine the materials needed for the next tier. This creates a natural gameplay loop: craft tool → mine faster → gather resources for better tool → repeat. Don't attempt to craft multiple excavators at once; focus on one tier at a time to avoid resource waste. The datapack is designed so that each excavator makes obtaining the next one feasible but still challenging.