More Rewarding Ores

More Rewarding Ores

Overview

More Rewarding Ores is a vanilla datapack that rebalances ore drops to make mining more satisfying and less grind-heavy without drastically altering progression.

Instead of a cubic meter of ore yielding a single resource item, ore blocks now drop larger and more varied quantities, making exploration and mining feel more rewarding while still keeping resource progression reasonable.

The datapack modifies the loot tables for all vanilla overworld ores, nether ores, and ancient debris, and introduces consistent rules for how Silk Touch and Fortune enchantments interact with these new drops.

This datapack works in vanilla Minecraft and is compatible with any mod loader, since it only changes loot tables.

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Core Gameplay Changes

Increased Ore Drops

Most ores now drop multiple resources per block, representing a more realistic yield from a cubic meter of ore.

Adjusted Base Drops

| Ore | New Base Drop |
| ————- | ———————————- |
| Coal | 3–8 coal |
| Iron | 2–4 raw iron |
| Gold | 2–4 raw gold |
| Diamond | 1–4 diamonds (rare bonus possible) |
| Emerald | 1–3 emeralds |
| Nether Quartz | 2–4 quartz |

Rare Diamond Bonus

Diamond ore has a small chance to produce a richer yield:

• Normal drop: 1–4 diamonds
• Rare bonus: 6–8 diamonds

This rare drop is intentionally uncommon to preserve the excitement of discovering diamonds.

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Ores That Keep Vanilla Base Drops

Some ores already produce multiple items in vanilla Minecraft. Their base drops remain unchanged:

| Ore | Vanilla Base Drop |
| ———— | —————– |
| Copper | 2–5 raw copper |
| Redstone | 4–5 redstone dust |
| Lapis Lazuli | 4–9 lapis lazuli |

These ores only receive changes through enchantments.

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Fortune Enchantment Changes

Fortune now doubles the base drop range for all ores affected by the datapack.

Examples:

| Ore | Base | With Fortune |
| ——– | —- | ———— |
| Iron | 2–4 | 4–8 |
| Gold | 2–4 | 4–8 |
| Coal | 3–8 | 6–16 |
| Copper | 2–5 | 4–10 |
| Redstone | 4–5 | 8–10 |
| Lapis | 4–9 | 8–18 |

This makes Fortune feel much more impactful while keeping drops within reasonable bounds.

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Silk Touch Behavior

Silk Touch preserves the ore block as expected.

| Tool Enchantments | Result |
| ——————– | ———————- |
| Silk Touch | Drops the ore block |
| Fortune only | Doubled drop ranges |
| Silk Touch + Fortune | Drops 2 ore blocks|

The Silk Touch + Fortune interaction is unique to this datapack, providing a useful middle ground between preserving ores and maximizing yields.

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Nether Ore Adjustments

| Ore | Base Drop | Fortune |
| ————— | —————- | ———— |
| Nether Quartz | 2–4 quartz | 4–8 |
| Nether Gold Ore | 2–6 gold nuggets | 4–12 nuggets |

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Ancient Debris

Ancient debris behavior is mostly preserved:

| Tool Enchantments | Result |
| ——————– | ——————————— |
| Normal mining | Drops ancient debris |
| Silk Touch | Drops ancient debris |
| Silk Touch + Fortune | Drops 2 ancient debris blocks |

This maintains the rarity and progression of Netherite while still allowing the Silk Touch + Fortune rule to apply.

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Technical Notes

The datapack overrides vanilla loot tables for:

• Coal ore
• Iron ore
• Gold ore
• Copper ore
• Redstone ore
• Lapis ore
• Diamond ore
• Emerald ore
• Nether quartz ore
• Nether gold ore
• Ancient debris

Both stone and deepslate variants are included.

The datapack only affects newly broken ore blocks and does not alter world generation.

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Compatibility

• Works in vanilla Minecraft
• Compatible with Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt, or any other mod loader
• Compatible with most mods unless they also overwrite the same ore loot tables

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Philosophy

This datapack aims to make mining feel rewarding rather than tedious, while still preserving Minecraft’s core survival progression.

You’ll spend less time grinding for resources, and more time building, exploring, and experimenting.

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Version History

v1.0.0

• Initial release of More Rewarding Ores
• Rebalanced vanilla ore loot tables to increase mining rewards
• Added multi-item drops for most ores
• Coal now drops 3–8 coal
• Iron ore now drops 2–4 raw iron
• Gold ore now drops 2–4 raw gold
• Diamond ore now drops 1–4 diamonds
• Added rare 6–8 diamond bonus drop
• Emerald ore now drops 1–3 emeralds
• Nether quartz ore now drops 2–4 quartz
• Copper, redstone, and lapis retain vanilla base drop ranges
• Fortune enchantment doubles drop ranges
• Implemented experimental Silk Touch + Fortune special rule
• Added loot table overrides for all overworld ores, deepslate variants, nether ores, and ancient debris
• Included datapack icon (pack.png)

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v1.0.1

• Updated datapack for Minecraft 1.21.11
• Fixed datapack structure issues preventing loot tables from loading
• Corrected datapack folder path (loot_table vs loot_tables)
• Updated pack_format for modern Minecraft versions
• Removed Silk Touch + Fortune special rule
• Fixed bug where the special rule could activate on unenchanted tools
• Updated description and documentation

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v1.0.2

• Fixed issue where ores dropped nothing when mined
• Updated enchantment predicates to Minecraft 1.21+ item predicate format
• Corrected Fortune and Silk Touch detection logic in loot tables
• Ensured base drop ranges work with unenchanted tools
• Confirmed compatibility with Minecraft 1.21.11

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v1.0.3

• Finalized fixes for loot table logic
• Corrected conditional checks for tool enchantments
• Ensured Fortune correctly doubles drop ranges
• Ensured Silk Touch preserves ore blocks
• Verified correct drops across all ores
• Confirmed stable functionality across all supported ores