Day five of The Great Race!, Michael Deering's December 2014 Minecraft Hardcore Challenge. Basket starts in the little hidey hole at the bottom of the stairs dug down from the snowy hills, with iron in the furnace and one goal: diamonds. With diamonds and enough iron, the plan is to go back into the Nether and keep heading east.
Down to diamond level
The staircase goes on. Basket had thought the shaft was deeper than it was, so there's more digging before diamond level. The inventory is a mess, with no room for a shovel, but there's hardly any dirt down here anyway. Then it's branch mining: a main tunnel, with little poke holes off to each side to see more ore. A flash of light gives Basket a scare about lava, and the iron keeps coming, so another furnace will be needed.
Nothing turns up for a long while. "Come on, diamonds. I don't want to give up, because I feel like as soon as I give up, it would have been like right there." Then they're there.
The rules say to show diamond coordinates, so Basket shows them on camera. That's enough for "two more picks."
Breaking into a cave
Zombie noises come through the stone, and for a moment Basket hopes for a spawner, until everything goes quiet. There's a cave somewhere close on diamond level, so Basket digs toward it. More iron, then the iron pick breaks and the diamond pick comes out for a while.
The cave opens up with a zombie in gold armor right at the edge. "It's a villager zombie." A creeper shows up beside it. "That was exciting. I wasn't expecting the creeper."
Armor first
Before exploring, Basket wants more armor. A new crafting bench and a new furnace go down, the iron smelts, and it becomes a pair of iron pants. There's gold and redstone for a clock too, but Basket doesn't know how the day counter works yet, and leaves the gold as ore so more of it will stack.
Two witches
Into the cave with torches. A skeleton, a creeper somewhere around a corner, a dead end. Then a witch. "This isn't UHC, but it's still kind of a scary thing to run into a witch." Basket uses a health potion and fights it. "Don't splash me. Come here. Get closer. Ah, stop healing yourself." The witch dies and drops nothing good.
Basket checks the way ahead, and "all of a sudden there's a silent witch standing there staring at me."
Basket wants that area cleared before staying so close to it, and starts lighting it up. A zombie with a big sword comes next and goes down too.
Back to the furnaces
The cave has gold and winding passages, but Basket decides it isn't worth more time. "It doesn't seem like there's going to be anything cool in it." On the way back Basket picks up the iron left along the path, makes another furnace, and sets iron and gold cooking. The timer goes off. One last bit of digging turns up nothing.
The plan for next time is to "go back into the Nether and continue my journey." The camera swings around to Basket in the shaft beside the crafting table and the burning furnaces.
The episode ends with Basket alive, underground in the Overworld, with iron and gold smelting. The credits roll after that, with no gameplay after them. This is the last episode of The Great Race! on the channel.