Common Items

Bone

You can tell that Skeletons and Wither Skeletons have a Bone to pick with you—they leave it behind when they die! But what can you do with this grisly trophy?

Bones can be turned into Bone Meal, and that’s the best way to grow a huge number of plants and trees quickly. You can also use Bone Meal to dye Wool white, but this is a waste of its potential; there are much easier ways to get white Wool. Additionally, you can use Bones to tame Wolves. A tame Wolf will defend you from harm and makes a loyal companion, so if you want your own dog, be sure to keep some Bones around.

If you don’t like the idea of hunting the Overworld for Skeletons or the Nether for Wither Skeletons, you can always make a Fishing Rod. You have a chance to fish up a Bone instead of a Fish during your fishing trip.

Bottle of Enchanting

The Bottle of Enchanting is also called an Experience Potion, because breaking it releases experience orbs (between 3 and 10 points). Unlike other Potions, you can’t brew Bottles of Enchanting; they require a bit of diplomacy and some trading expertise. Bottles of Enchanting are made only in Villages, and only by specific Villagers at that. Priests offer two to four Bottles of Enchanting for one Emerald. Of course, Emeralds are pretty rare, and the best way to get them is to trade with other Villagers, who sometimes give Emeralds if you offer them something they want—Librarians who need Paper, for example. All of this necessitates, of course, that you’ve discovered a nearby Village, you have Villagers with the right mix of tradable items, and you have those items to trade.

However, if you do have that nice combination, Bottles of Enchanting are a good way to farm experience. They’re an easy source of renewable experience that doesn’t demand many risks.

Cactus Green

Burning a piece of Cactus in your Furnace creates Cactus Green. You can use this material to color a number of products green, including Leather armor, Wool, and Glass (for Stained Glass). Other dyes use Cactus Green as an ingredient; Cyan Dye is made with Lapis Lazuli and Lime Dye with Bone Meal.

If Fireworks are your thing, add Cactus Green to Gunpowder to make a Firework Star. Like any other dye, Cactus Green can be added to Fireworks to create a “fade to color” effect.

Charcoal

Charcoal has the same general purpose as Coal. It’s primarily used as a fuel for Torches and Furnaces in the early game, when you have better access to Wood but might not have much time to mine Coal out of the rocks below.

To make Charcoal, burn blocks of Wood inside your Furnace. Use Sticks or Wood tools to light your first fire. Burn a block of Wood to make a single piece of Charcoal, and then put that into your fuel slot. Now use that piece to burn even more blocks of Wood, and you’re good to go from there.

Coal

Coal is a somewhat common sight in the Overworld’s underground areas. You see chunks of this dark ore in the rocks, and they’re easily mined with any Pickaxe. Mining Coal is a good way to get experience, because each block nets you a small chunk of XP.

Bring Coal back to your base to use in your Furnaces; it’s a very efficient fuel. Coal is also a major ingredient in Torches and Fire Charges.

Diamond

Diamond is one of the rarest materials in Minecraft. It’s found only near bedrock, at the bottom of the Overworld. Make sure you’re below 15 on the “Y” scale. Or dig down to the bedrock and go up about a dozen blocks from the bottom.

Search for this light ore and mine it with Iron or Diamond Pickaxes. Nothing else is strong enough to cut through the Diamond. Bring the ore home to use in tools, weapons, armor, and special crafting recipes: Enchantment Tables, Firework Stars, Jukeboxes, etc.

Ender Pearl

Ender Pearls are dropped when you kill Endermen. These are important items for reaching the late game, because you can’t find Strongholds without crafting Eyes of Ender, and those require Ender Pearls.

Used on their own, Ender Pearls are short-range teleportation devices. Use them to cross ravines or to save yourself if you’re knocked off a high edge and react quickly. Even if you don’t fall, Ender Pearls cause falling damage to your character when you use them, so be careful.

Explorer Map

Trade with any Cartographers you find in Villages. If you get up to Tier 4 with them, they’ll offer you Explorer Maps from time to time. These items are very costly (requiring up to 28 Emeralds and a Compass), but they point you toward either a Woodland Mansion or an Ocean Monument.

Feather

Feathers are a key ingredient in Arrows, a Book and Quill, and Firework Stars. Of these, Arrows are easily the most common item that you craft. It takes many Arrows to get through the game, and most targets are safer to kill with Bows than with Swords.

To ensure you have a huge supply of Feathers, create a pen or barn for any Chickens you find in the wilderness. Don’t kill them! Use Seeds to lure them home and keep them safe in your pen. Breed them, using Seeds, and only kill excess Chickens. This gets you plenty of Feathers over time.

Fireworks

Firework Rockets require a special, complex crafting recipe. They have variable ingredients so you can alter the effect of the rocket when it’s fired.

Firework Rockets need Paper and Gunpowder to work. Extra units of Gunpowder make the rockets go higher when they’re fired. If you want an attractive explosive effect, add Firework Stars to the recipe as well. You’re allowed to add as many Stars as you have room in the crafting box.

Recipe

Flint

You sometimes find Flint when you dig through Gravel. It’s a useful material, so bring a Shovel whenever you go out to mine, and don’t dig around Gravel deposits. Slowly dig them out, don’t get trapped when they fall, and collect all the Flint you find.

Flint is used to make Arrows, as well as Flint and Steel. Both of these are quite useful, so save all your Flint until it’s needed!

Ghast Tear

Ghast Tears drop fairly often when you kill Ghasts. They’re used to make Mundane Potions and Potions of Regeneration. The latter are quite useful in dangerous battles that take a long time to win.

Glowstone Dust

You gather Glowstone Dust by breaking Glowstone blocks in the Nether. You sometimes get it from killing Witches, but that’s a hard way to get a decent amount. Instead, go to the Nether and look along the ceilings for large deposits of Glowstone. Each piece of Glowstone breaks into several Glowstone Dust.

Use Glowstone Dust to make Firework Stars, Thick Potions, or to increase the power of other Potions: Harming, Healing, Poison, Regeneration, Strength, Swiftness.

Gunpowder

Kill Creepers (without detonating them) to get Gunpowder. Ghasts and Witches also carry it, though both of these are harder to find and farm compared to Creepers.

Gunpowder itself is used to make Fire Charges, Fireworks, and TNT—boom! It’s also useful in brewing to turn normal Potions into Splash Potions; these activate when thrown. They’re great for fast-acting Healing Potions or as a way to attack targets with Potions of Harming, Weakness, or Poison.

Horse Armor

Horse Armor cannot be crafted. You have to explore the world and find this barding. One usually finds it in Dungeon or Temple Chests. Sometimes Village Blacksmiths have it as well, or you bump into it in Nether Fortresses.

Once you have Horse Armor, interact with your Horse and equip the armor as you would your own. This makes it much harder for monsters to kill your mount. Horse Armor comes in Iron, Gold, and Diamond varieties. Interestingly, Gold Horse Armor is superior to Iron and doesn’t have any durability to worry about!

Ink Sac

One normally acquires Ink Sacs by killing Squid in deep water, but you sometimes find them while fishing, too. As a crafting item, Ink Sacs are useful for making Gray Dye, Light Gray Dye, Black Wool, Black Stained Glass, Black Stained Clay, a Book and Quill, and Black Firework Stars.

Iron Ingot

Iron Ingots are created when you smelt Iron Ore inside a Furnace. Iron Ore is brought up from the Overworld’s underground areas, and is brownish in color.

Use Iron Ingots to create Iron weapons, armor, and tools. It’s one of the most common items in the game for crafting purposes, so you need to mine a ton of it!

Leather

Leather is a required ingredient for Books, so it’s a vital resource for enchanting. For people who are light on Iron, Leather is also a good resource for armor. You need a fair amount of material to create a full suit of Leather armor, but it’s doable.

To harvest Leather, search for Cows or Horses. Breed these animals heavily until you have a large, working population of the beasts. Then slaughter a number of adults each time they successfully breed. Keep your Leather, and continue culling the population each time there are too many adults in your barn/pen.

Music Disc

Music Discs are either hard to find or tricky to get. You find them in Dungeon Treasure Chests when you’re lucky. Bring them home and craft a Jukebox. Then put your discs in a Chest next to the Jukebox and play music whenever you like. Neato!

For a more reliable way to gather these discs, go outside at night. Get away from your base to avoid damaging it during monster attacks, and look for Creepers and Skeletons. Lure the two into the same area, and wound the Creepers. Get them close to death and then stop attacking them. Sprint to get a Creeper between your character and a Skeleton. Keep backing up and wait for the Skeleton to accidentally snipe your Creeper buddy. This forces them to drop Music Discs. Huzzah!

Name Tag

Search through Dungeons or fish extensively to find Name Tags; they’re rare loot, so you won’t get too many of them. Use them in your Anvil to put a name on them. Then find a monster and use the Name Tag to assign that name to the creature. This uses up your Name Tag, but causes anyone who targets the creature to see the name you’ve given it.

Try naming something “Dinnerbone” or “Grumm” to see what happens. Naming a Sheep “jeb_” is rather interesting, too.

Redstone

Redstone is the most complex material in the game. It’s mined in the Overworld’s darker tunnels, and then used to extend the length of Potions, to construct rare tools, and to activate machines. Redstone Dust transmits power, while Redstone blocks are used for power or decoration. There’s an entire section of Chapter 6 dedicated to Redstone.

Saddle

Saddles cannot be crafted. They’re found inside Treasure Chests. Save any that you find, and use them after you tame Horses or Llamas. Saddled Horses are easily ridden and let you get around quickly. Make sure to breed your toughest and fastest Horses, so you have a good selection of animals to saddle. Pigs can also be saddled, but they’re not quite as fast!

Shulker Shell

Hunt Shulkers in the End to get their shells. Once you have a couple of these items, you can craft a purple Shulker Box (which can later by dyed into other colors if you prefer). Shulker Boxes are extremely useful, and this makes Shulker hunting extremely rewarding.

Slimeball

Slimeballs are dropped when you kill Slimes. They’re often found in swamps, but specific underground areas can also spawn them. If you find a place that has Slimes, mark it with Signs so you know where to find it again later. Slimeballs frequently spawn there, and you can harvest the area more than once.

With these items, you can craft blocks made of Slime, Leads to control animals, Magma Cream, and Sticky Pistons. These are pretty useful crafting recipes, so you should find a steady source of Slimes whenever you can.

String

Spiders and Cave Spiders drop String when slain, so they’re very good sources of this material. Dark caves that are just a single block high are perfect for spawning Spiders, because they’re one of the only creatures small enough to get through the space. If you cut down cobwebs in Abandoned Mineshafts, you get String from that, too.

Craft String into Bows, Fishing Rods, and Leads. It also makes white Wool, but this is a major waste of your String. It’s better to use the default Wool that you get from most Sheep. It’s already light in color and doesn’t require you to use four String per piece!

String also forms a Tripwire when attached to Tripwire Hooks. This is a great way to set traps in your base or in tunnels where people have to follow a certain passage.

Totem of Undying

Totems of Undying are gathered after you kill Evokers. To use these items, hold them (preferably in your offhand slot), and perform whatever risky behavior you wish. When you character falls to 0 health, the Totem is destroyed but raises you to 1 health, removes your status effects, and gives you Regeneration II and Absorption II for a short time.

This is helpful in long fights, when playing around at extreme heights, or anytime you know you’re doing something that has a decent chance of knocking you off. That said, remember that you are still quite vulnerable after the Totem is destroyed. If you’re fighting a hopeless battle, don’t bother wasting your Totem. You’ll just get killed a few seconds later, and that’s really not worth the expense.