Don't hesitate to explore the caves when you find them, but have a strip mine back home that you can fall back on if you're in need of some resources. Now dig that cube.
It takes a lot of torches, though their coal yield is way higher than the amount they have spend on torches, and B.
If the player would rather be sure of 100% coverage, simply place the tunnels closer together. While it has the same pros as TNT mining, beds have a larger explosion than TNT, but most importantly, they are less expensive, which makes them a very popular choice of method for finding ancient debris. Next, a 3-block wide pit will be dug all the way down to the bedrock. This involves basic quarry technique but in small squares.
This allows for the player to maintain sprint while mining, making the process much faster than in the Overworld. The player can get lost, mine their way into lava and thus lose their items, into a ravine, into a skeleton spawner with 5 skeletons, or even into their own 40 block drop. Turn back, return to the previous mark, then dig a tunnel until they reach the "gold" mark they have previously put. They can optionally leave the central column for a barrier, or mine it out to place ladders for speedy transit. Dig a 2×2 hole and place water in two opposing corners and now they have infinite water. Ancient debris is used to make netherite. Now the player have completed the first lap. Armor is essential for reducing the damage taken by hostile mobs and lava. Two levels with a glass walkway for them above their path can do this, just make sure they can't reach the player's level (and none of the blocks are stone they can enter). The simplest tunnel is 2 high by 1 wide (1 high by 1 wide using suffocation prevention with A 2×1 shaft is probably the highest-yielding way of mining for ores that is. 'Drifting' is a term for simply searching for adjacent caves by digging beyond apparent dead ends. For those who favor mining in a straight path but try to not make it very long. Coal is used primarily to power furnaces and to craft torches, so it's handy to find early on in the game. Also, be sure that the 3×2 section hasn't opened into a cavern before players hop down. After players get down to the bottom level, they may continue to stretch out and connect with the original push/hubs. Starting from a flat floor, dig one block ahead of the player, then dig 2 blocks down to the right of that. However, this takes much longer to do and tunnels are usually much larger than rooms. However, if the player wants to make an artificial river for boats, this may not be a problem. If they fall into a cavern and die, the footholds might let them break the ladders below it so they can drop gravel for a pillar, and perhaps retrieve any ore they have found on the way down, but be watch out for the hostile mobs. If there are any nearby abandoned mine shafts, check them out, they can use planks to make a crafting table and tools or there might be a spare iron pickaxe floating around. Although the yielded amount of cobblestone, dirt, sand, coal, iron, and to some extent gold, will be enormous, and the possibility of lava is very high, this is not the best method for mining diamond and lapis lazuli, because they're found only at the bottom of the map.
While there is a 62% chance of reaching bedrock and a 27% of landing in a cave, the player has a small chance of falling into dangerous places like lava (8%) or ravines (3%) (100 tests) (percentages from a video Mumbo Jumbo produced). The method is similar to in the Overworld, but because netherrack is easier to break than stone, it can be instant-mined. This layout can compete with the phoenix mine in terms of efficiency, and is easier to modify if necessary, but it does require a lot of time for each trip. The latter is more efficient as all of it will eventually lead to the bottom and therefore be mining ore. Without a weapon, the player will be defenseless from large number of mobs that spawn in the darkness underground. Random mining can very well be the most dangerous method. These will take a couple weeks of 24/7 gameplay, given their size, but the stone payoff is gigantic. Also known as "Digging straight down". Sometimes you have to search far, and occasionally even travel to a completely different dimension, but every ore is one worth looking out for. When they spawn back to their house, put another ender chest and take out their stuff. Just place the water next to the lava source, and the water will convert the lava blocks on top of the pool to obsidian. If they spend lots of time underground, they may want to bring resources for a more sophisticated base with. The basic design drops 8 layers per full turn. You can mine in a number of ways, so use whichever method suits you best. Completely Thorough: a mine that reveals 4 new blocks dug, and reveals every block within a chunk, is completely thorough.