How to Craft

We’ve already talked about the very basics of crafting in Minecraft, but now we’ll delve all the way into the heart of the matter. Crafting is an important skill for any player. You can’t do much of anything without it, so knowing how to access all recipes in the game is vital.

Your basic character can always craft any recipe that only requires the 2x2 crafting grid. This is accessed from your inventory at any time. To use more complex recipes, you need a Crafting Table. This is made by putting a Wooden Plank into each slot of the 2x2 crafting grid. You then deploy your Crafting Table somewhere nearby and start working.

For this reason, we always suggest that players carry around either a Crafting Table or at least a decent number of Wooden Planks so they can make a table without much delay. Having Wooden Planks is great for many reasons and they’re also vital for Sticks, which are key components of almost every tool. So you’d be crazy not to keep spare Wood around.

With access to a Crafting Table, you can work on any recipe that you have the correct ingredients to make. Learn which ingredients you need by searching through the “Tools, Resources, and Collectibles” chapter.

Certain basic ingredients are so common that they’re great to keep at hand. We already mentioned Wood, but you also want to have some Cobblestone and perhaps a bit of Steel as well. A supply of these base materials can yield quite a bit of what you need. With just Wooden Planks and Cobblestone, you can set up a convenient, safe base anywhere in the world. Make a Crafting Table, Furnace, block yourself into a room, and add a Door, and you can work in peace for as long as you like. Add Chests as needed to store things there for the future.

It’s often smart to place Chests near your Furnaces and Crafting Tables because these three household features work together. Keep ingredients in the Chests, smelt them in the Furnace, and use your Crafting Tables to make more advanced products. You don’t want to run around your house wasting time going to each station. Having these things in the same area is extremely convenient!

Consider placing Signs near your Chests once you have more than a few of them. Organize the contents of these Chests to make sure you know where your items are located. That way, you can access them quickly without having to look around for minutes each time.

Several shortcuts allow you to craft more comfortably. If you put enough crafting ingredients in their slots to make multiple items, hold down the Shift key and click on the final product to make as many as possible instantly.

Another trick is to grab a stack of items you’re working with and to slide them over several slots in your inventory. Do this when you need to divide items into several stacks. For example, if you want to divide your Wood Planks in half for making Sticks, just roll your stack across two spaces while holding the button. Release the button when you have the proper number of stacks, and watch the items divide evenly. Quite nice! This is so wonderful when making Bread.