Crafting - A-D

Activator Rail

Activator Rails are used to set off explosions, turn off Hoppers, or to use commands that are coded into Command Blocks. Any monster or person riding in a Minecart that hits an Activator Rail is thrown out of the cart as it passes over the rail. So Activator Rails are also used to set traps for invaders who try to use your rail system to get into your base.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Iron Ingot (6), Stick (2), Redstone Torch		Activator Rail

Andesite

This newer type of rock is found in the Overworld, in any location where Stone blocks appear. Use it to decorate areas where you want more variety than Stone or Cobblestone blocks can offer.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Diorite, Cobblestone		Andesite
Andesite (4)		Polished Andesite

Anvil

Anvils require a huge amount of Iron to craft. Investing over 30 Iron into anything is a big deal, especially in the early game. Don’t craft one of these until you have a steady supply of Iron tools and armor.

When you craft an Anvil, a block is produced. Put it somewhere safe in your base, and don’t drop it on anyone you like; Anvils cause major damage if dropped on something.

Interact with the Anvil to name or repair items. It’s possible to combine items of the same name/type. Like enchanting, it costs your character levels to use Anvils, but they offer the potential to make your powerful items last for a very long time.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Iron Ingot (4), Block of Iron (3)		Anvil

Armor Stand

Armor Stands are crafted with simple materials and then can be placed around your home to make it more visually exciting. Once placed, these structures hold armor or monster heads. You already know how to get armor, but heads are found when many types of enemies are killed by a charged Creeper explosion. In the case of Wither Skeletons, you can also simply farm their heads (but it’s a slow process).

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Stick (6), Stone Slab		Armor Stand

Beacon

Beacons are crafted with special materials. The Glass and Obsidian aren’t too hard to get, but Nether Stars certainly are. You get these from killing Withers, a type of boss monster that cannot be summoned or killed easily. The “You Can Do Anything with a Little Practice” chapter has a section explaining how to create one of these monsters, and a section on using Beacons as well.

After you craft a Beacon, it provides special powers to nearby characters, as long as it’s activated and placed on top of a pyramid of Iron, Emerald, Diamond, etc. Building a functional Beacon is a huge investment in time and resources, but it’s awesome once you make it work.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Glass (5), Obsidian (3), Nether Star		Beacon

Bed

Beds are pieces of furniture that you can use only at night or during thunderstorms. Sleeping in a Bed lets you advance until the night/storm is over, and it also saves your location. Should your character be killed, you reappear in the last place that your character slept.

Beds cannot be used in the Nether or The End; they turn into massive explosives.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wool (3), Wood Planks (3)		Bed

Blaze Powder

It’s easy to create Blaze Powder by breaking a Blaze Rod in your inventory or at a Crafting Table. This gets you two pieces of Blaze Powder. They can then be used to craft Eyes of Ender, Fire Charges, or Magma Cream.

Blaze Powder is also a direct ingredient in brewing. It’s used to make Mundane Potions (meh) and Potions of Strength, which are amazingly useful!

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Blaze Rod		Blaze Powder (2)

Block of Quartz

Blocks of Quartz are crafted from several pieces of Nether Quartz, as found in the Nether. These blocks make lovely decoration for any building you’re working on; the stone has a light color that is really attractive.

Use a Stonecutter to make blocks of Quartz if you’re playing with the Pocket Edition. Otherwise, you can craft them even if you aren’t at a Crafting Table.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Nether Quartz (4)		Block of Quartz

Boat

Boats are wooden objects to place in the Water and ride inside—no surprise there. They’re crafted with five Wood Planks, so they don’t require a big investment. Make a Boat any time you need to cross a large body of water. Try not to run into anything; Boats shatter if they run aground or bump into anything substantial.

Interact with Boats to start riding in them, and use the Sneak command to get out of the Boat.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wood Plank (5)		Boat

Bone Meal

Break a single Bone into a few pieces of Bone Meal, and use those to make crops or other vegetation grow very quickly. It sometimes takes a few Bone Meal applications to get something to mature, but the process is still extremely efficient.

Save your Bone Meal for new crops that you don’t already have in abundance. That way, you can kick-start a major farming effort without spending a few hours getting up to speed.

Try Bone Meal on trees for an impressive effect. Making an orchard has never been so easy.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Bone		Bone Meal (3)

Book

Books let you make an Enchanting Table, and they’re the backbone of Bookshelves, which you also need for high-tier enchanting. You have to craft quite a few Books if you plan on becoming a great enchanter.

Pocket Edition users don’t need Leather to craft Books. They only need the Paper. That’s very easy, because a large garden of Sugar Cane yields all the necessary Paper.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Paper (3), Leather		Enchanting

Book and Quill

Use a Book and Quill to make a Written Book. These let you write lore for the world you’re creating (to show to other people), or they’re traded to villagers at a very nice rate.

Equip a Book and Quill in your hotbar, use it to open the Book, and start writing.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Book, Ink Sac, Feather		Book and Quill

Bookshelf

Bookshelves make your Enchanting Table even stronger; your table can put higher-level enchantments onto items if it’s two blocks away from your Bookshelves. Craft 15 Bookshelves and place them close to your Enchanting Table to give it maximum power.

Bookshelves are fairly expensive. The investment of Wood isn’t too big a deal, but making three Books per Bookshelf is painful. Get a large ranch of Cows or Horses before starting this, and breed them well. You need tons of Leather to make all of those Books.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Book (3), Wood Plank (6)		Bookshelf

Brewing Stand

Brewing Stands are required for making potions. You must find Nether fortresses before making these because Blaze Rods are required to make a Brewing Stand. Also, Nether Wart is the primary ingredient for all useful potions, and Nether Wart is also located in Nether fortresses.

Once you have a Brewing Stand, find a safe place for it inside your base. Keep a Chest there for special ingredients, and a Cauldron for decoration and filling up Water Bottles.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Cobblestone (3), Blaze Rod		Brewing Stand

Brick and Blocks of Bricks

Cook Clay to turn it into a single Brick. Turn your Bricks into a block of Bricks by crafting four of them together, or make them into Flower Pots with only three Bricks.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Brick (4)		Bricks

Button

Buttons trigger power for a short period, making them useful for opening Doors, triggering traps, and other sudden activities. It’s possible to make Buttons out of Stone or Wood, so you can have them stand out against the wall to which they’re attached. Or they can blend in if you’re trying to be subtle.

After placing a Button on a surface, interact with it to trigger the Button and anything that’s attached to it—nearby mechanisms or Redstone Dust.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Stone or Wood Plank		Button

Carpet

Use any two pieces of Wool to make three sections of Carpet. Lay them on top of blocks to add a neat decoration to your room. Dyed Wool lets you spruce up your base with a variety of colors.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wool (2)		Carpet

Carrot on a Stick

Use a Saddle to get onto a Pig, and then equip a Carrot on a Stick to lead the Pig wherever you like. You end up with a slow mount that isn’t terribly effective, but it’s pretty darn funny.

If you use the Carrot on a Stick actively, its durability decreases by a fair amount but gets your Pig moving much faster for 40 seconds or so.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Fishing Rod, Carrot		Carrot on a Stick

Cauldron

Cauldrons are a nice, decorative way to hold Water. They’re great to keep near Brewing Stands to give your setup an air of authenticity. However, Cauldrons aren’t required for this. Any source of Water is good for brewers. Using a Cauldron is more a matter of taste than necessity.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Iron Ingot (7)		Cauldron

Chest

Chests are storage devices that help you sort items and keep your inventory organized. Drop off valuable or unneeded goods in your Chests by interacting with them, and then you don’t have to worry about losing anything if your character dies.

For added Storage, place two Chests next to each other. They merge, giving your player even more storage in one shared super Chest!

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wood Planks (8)		Chest

Chiseled Quartz Block

Chiseled Quartz Blocks are attractive stone blocks that require some crafting work to prepare. Use Nether Quartz to make several Nether Quartz Blocks. Turn those into Slabs, and then use two of those Slabs to produce Chiseled Quartz Blocks. Functionally, they aren’t much different from other Quartz blocks, but they have a more intricate texture.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Quartz Slab (2)		Chiseled Quartz Block

Chiseled Sandstone

Use two Sandstone Slabs to craft these neat-looking blocks. They’re perfect for pyramids and other desert-inspired buildings.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Sandstone Slab (2)		Chiseled Sandstone

Clay Block

Clay Blocks are soft and easily dug out or damaged. However, they look nice and are useful as interior blocks for your base. Decorate rooms with them for fun. Or cook Clay Blocks to harden them, and then use dyes to turn the Hardened Clay into Stained Clay for even more visual options.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Clay (4)		Clay Block

Crafting Table

Use the default space for crafting in your inventory to make a Crafting Table by using four Wood Planks. Set up your table somewhere accessible, and interact with it to open far more crafting options.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wood Plank (4)		Crafting Table

Cyan Dye

This pleasing light-blue dye is used to change the color of Wool, Sheep, Stained Clay, etc.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Lapis Lazuli, Cactus Green		Cyan Dye

Dandelion Yellow

Turn a single Dandelion or Sunflower into this yellow dye. It’s used for changing the color of Wool, Sheep, Stained Clay, armor, etc.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Dandelion or Sunflower		Dandelion Yellow

Daylight Sensor

Daylight Sensors that are exposed to the sky put out a Redstone signal based on the time of day. It gets stronger as the day progresses, and shuts down at night. Used with a Redstone Torch, the Daylight Sensor can be inverted, making it into a Nighttime Sensor instead.

These are used to automate machines around your base depending on the time of day. People often use them to close Fences and Doors or to turn on lights when the sky starts to darken.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Glass (3), Wood Slab (3), Nether Quartz (3)		Daylight Sensor

Detector Rail

Detector Rails allow you to trigger machines based on the approach of a Minecart. Use them to set off traps, alert people (with Note Blocks, Door opening/closing, etc.), or to make sure carts speed through in only one direction.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Iron Ingot (6), Redstone, Stone Pressure Plate		Detector Rail (6)

Diorite

Blocks of Diorite are used to decorate people’s homes and tunnels. They’re made with Cobblestone and Nether Quartz, so they’re much more costly than basic Stone-based blocks.

Put four blocks of Diorite together to check out Polished Diorite for even more visual options.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Cobblestone (2), Nether Quartz (2)		Diorite (2)
Diorite (4)		Polished Diorite (4)

Dispenser

Dispensers hold items, such as a Chest, but shoot them back out if they receive power from any source. Use Redstone to trigger Dispensers so they fire Arrows, Fire Charges, potions, or anything else you want to send at friends or enemies. You can even set up armor Dispensers to quickly armor yourself by walking over a series of Pressure Plates.

Use only new Bows to craft Dispensers. The recipe won’t work if you try to craft one using a Bow that’s taken any durability damage, even from a single firing.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Cobblestone (7), Redstone, Bow		Dispenser

Door

Doors allow you to block off areas without totally sealing them. Wooden Doors are easy to open and close; interact with them to toggle between these two settings and walk through the opening whenever you want. Wooden Doors keep out enemies fairly well, but concerted attacks can break through them.

Iron Doors require Redstone power to open and close, so they’re a bigger hassle to build. However, they keep out almost any type of attacker, except for other players. Use Pressure Plates or Buttons to operate Iron Doors and have them shut automatically.

Note that the type of wood used to create a standard Door determines the visual appearance of that Door. Try this to see which styles of Door you enjoy the most. This controls the color and the texture of the door, including changes in the windows and style of the entire item.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Iron Ingot or Wood Plank (6)		Door

Dropper

Droppers drop items from their inventory whenever they are powered by a Redstone signal. Because they have inventories and the ability to push items into another block, Droppers can be chained together.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Cobblestone (7), Redstone		Dropper

Dyed Wool

Use a dye to change Wool to another color and make Wool items in whatever color you like. Another way to do this is to dye Sheep before shearing them. The Wool received is colored the same as the dye used. This is more efficient than dyeing Wool directly because you get multiple colored pieces per dye.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe	Result
Wool + Dye		Dyed Wool