Does the type of ore used for building the Beacon pyramid matter?

No, all blocks used to build the pyramid have the same effect. The way you activate different powers is through the Beacon Block's GUI. Placing a single iron ingot, gold ingot, diamond, or emerald will allow you to set which power is being produced by the pyramid. The size of the pyramid determines the radius of the effect, and the number of powers which can be active at the same time. To change to another power, another of those four items must be used.

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