Crafting

Activator Rail

Activator Rails are used to set off explosions, turn off Hoppers, or for 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 up traps for invaders who try to use your Rail system to get into your base.

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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.

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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, it gives you a block to place. Put it somewhere safe in your base, and don’t drop it on anyone you like; Anvils cause major damage if dropped onsomething.

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.

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Armor Stand

Armor Stands are crafted with simple materials and then can be placed around your home to make the space 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).

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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. Chapter 6 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.

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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 where your character slept.

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

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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 and Potions of Strength, the latter of which are amazingly useful!

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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.

You can craft these even if you aren’t at a Crafting Table.

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Boat

Boats are wooden objects that you 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 anytime you have to cross a large body of water. Try not to run into anything, because Boats shatter if they run aground or bump into anything substantial.

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

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Bone Meal

Break a single Bone into a few pieces of Bone Meal, and use those to make crops or other vegetation grow 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.

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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 greaten chanter.

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Book and Quill

You use a Book and Quill to make a Written Book. These let you create lore for the world you’re building (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.

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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 you start this, and breed them well. You need tons of Leather to make all of those Books.

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Brewing Stand

Brewing Stands are required for making Potions. You have to find Nether Fortresses before you make these, because Blaze Rods are required to make a Brewing Stand. Plus, 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.

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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.

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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 you can try to have them 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 character even more storage in one shared super Chest!

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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.

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Chiseled Sandstone

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

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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.

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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.

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Cyan Dye

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

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Dandelion Yellow Dye

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 so you 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.

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Door

Doors allow you to block off areas without totally sealing them. Wood Doors are easy to open and close; interact with them to toggle between these two settings, and walk through the opening whenever you want. Wood 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 you use 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.

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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.

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Dyed Wool

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

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Enchanted Book

Regular Books can be enchanted just like your armor, tools, and weapons. Use an Enchantment Table to put special effects onto your Books to turn them into Enchanted Books. This process can be done multiple times, adding more abilities onto the Enchanted Book each time.

When an Enchanted Book is taken to an Anvil, its powers are added to another item, and the Enchanted Book is destroyed. Any powers that are allowed to go onto the item will do so, but powers that are not allowed on the item type are lost and wasted. This is a costly but useful process when you want to create extremely powerful items.

Enchantment Table

Craft an Enchantment Table once you have access to Diamonds and Obsidian. Place the table in your base, and bring items to it once your character is higher in level. You’re allowed to spend your levels to add special abilities to your items and equipment. Place the desired item into the Enchantment Table interface, and use the table on the right when deciding how many levels to invest in the object.

Surround your Enchantment Table with 15 Bookshelves to give it even more enchanting power. This lets you place much stronger enchantments on your equipment.

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Ender Chest

Ender Chests are more expensive than regular Chests because they require Obsidian and Eyes of Ender. However, they have a powerful special ability; all Ender Chests are connected. Anything you put inside one Ender Chest is available in every Ender Chest you own.

Place these by your remote mining operations or in the Nether and the End as a way to safely keep items whether you live or die. You can plop down an Ender Chest, load it with goodies, and then break it with a Pickaxe to keep carrying it with you. The items remain in the Ender space between worlds and appear when you put the Chest down anywhere else.

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Eye of Ender

Craft Eyes of Ender when you’re ready to face Minecraft’s late game. Use these items to find Strongholds (massive Dungeons located in the Overworld). These Dungeons are quite hard to find on their own, and following Eyes of Ender makes locating them so much easier. Trace the steps of the Eyes of Ender, pick them up when you can, and reuse them until you get to the Stronghold.

Within each Stronghold is a room with a Portal to the End. Use Eyes of Ender to activate these Portals; completing a Portal requires many Eyes of Ender, so bring as many as you can. Afterward, the Portal allows travel between the Overworld and the End. Until you kill the Ender Dragon, it’s a one-way trip, so watch out.

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Fence

Fences corral animals and monsters so they can’t move around or jump over your barricade. Though Fences look like they’re one block high, they’re a tiny bit taller than that. This prevents normal jumps from clearing them.

Like Doors, you can change the visual appearance of a Fence by using different wood in its creation.

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Fence Gate

Use Fence Gates to act as Doors into fenced-off areas. These open and close just like Wood Doors, so they’re easy to use. Try different types of wood when crafting a Fence Gate to change its visual appearance.

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Fermented Spider Eye

Craft Spider Eyes into this enhanced brewing item. Fermented Spider Eyes are used in a variety of Potions, with Potions of Harming and Invisibility being two of the most fun. Potions of Slowness, combined with a well-trapped area, wreak havoc on enemy players.

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Flower Pot

Flower Pots act like decorative blocks for flowers, trees, and other plant life. Though these items have no functional value, they’re nice-looking when you want to create a homey feel to your outdoor or indoor areas.

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Furnace

Furnaces are easy to make because they require only Cobblestone. Make one or two of them for your base as soon as you can, and bake Wood and Sticks to make Charcoal. Use the Charcoal as a superior fuel to burn more Wood until you accumulate an ample supply of Charcoal.

Use your Furnace to prepare food and smelt raw ore that you bring up from the mines. Furnaces that are burning items also provide light if you’re out of Torches and need to see what you’re doing.

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Glass Bottle

Craft Glass Bottles to use with your Brewing Stand. They’re required for every base Potion. Use a Glass Bottle while you’re facing a supply of water to transform the item into a Water Bottle.

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Glass Pane

You don’t have to use Glass blocks to make windows in your home. Instead, craft Glass into Glass Panes. You get more bang for your buck this way, because you get 16 items to work with instead of six. Cut holes in your wall and install the Glass Panes to make windows.

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Glistering Melon

Use Gold Nuggets to turn a regular Melon into a Glistering Melon. The final product is a major ingredient in Mundane Potions and Potions of Healing.

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Glowstone

Glowstone forms in the Nether, near that world’s massive ceiling. Create pillars to climb up there, and cut down the Glowstone. When you break a Glowstone block, it shatters and drops Glowstone Dust, a useful brewing ingredient.

For a powerful light source that even works underwater, use Glowstone and Redstone to make a Redstone Lamp. It’s brighter than a Torch.

Gold Ingot

Smelt Gold Ore in a Furnace to make Gold Ingots. These Ingots are used for crafting Gold tools, armor, and weapons. They’re also required for Clocks, Powered Rails, Weighted Pressure Plates, and Golden Apples.

In general, Gold tools aren’t very good. They’re fast to use but break much too quickly to be practical.

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Gold Nugget

Gold Nuggets are made either by breaking Gold Ingots or hunting groups of Zombie Pigmen. The nuggets are used when crafting Firework Stars, Glistering Melon, and Golden Carrots.

If you have more Gold Nuggets than you need, combine them back into Gold Ingots for more compact storage!

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Granite

Granite is naturally occurring rock that’s harvested like normal Stone—it just looks different. Use Granite to make a Stone building or floor look brownish in color, for a southwestern feel.

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Gray Dye

Use this dye to stain Wool, Stained Glass, Stained Clay, Leather armor, and other items a grim gray color.

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Hay Bale

A full Crafting Table of Wheat makes a single Hay Bale. Feed these bales to your Horses, Donkeys, or Mules to heal them from injuries. Or break the Hay Bale in a crafting window to make it back into nine Wheat. Store large amounts of excess Wheat in a compact space by leaving it in Hay Bales.

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Hopper

Hoppers pull items from containers above them and push the items down into anything below them. Put a Hopper under a Furnace to immediately have cooked/smelted items fall into your Hopper. Similarly, Hoppers above a Chest or Furnace fill those objects with whatever you put into the Hopper.

Brewing Stands and Furnaces can also be fed from their sides. A Hopper beside these objects loads their fuel/ingredient slots. It’s pretty neat.

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Iron Bars

Iron Bars let you wall off an area without restricting your view. They’re nice when you need to secure a compound and give the appearance of a jail or fortress.

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Item Frame

An Item Frame stores an object inside it. Make the frame and place it somewhere in your home. This locks the Item Frame onto a wall, Fence, tree, or whatever else is appropriate. Then slot one of your items and interact with the empty Item Frame to put the object inside.

There, you have something nice hung in your house. Use this with Clocks to see the time when you’re walking around your home. Maps and weapons are fun, too. To get your item back, attack the Item Frame to knock the object out of it.

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Jack-o’-Lantern

Use spare Pumpkins as bright light sources by adding a Torch to them. These blocks make your home safer yet add a spooky air when you’re in a holiday mood. Perfect for Halloween.

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Jukebox

Jukeboxes play Music Discs to add fun ambient music to your home. Music Discs are found in special Chests, or are gained by causing Skeletons to shoot Creepers to death. Once you have these discs, hold them in your hand and interact with the Jukebox to turn it on.

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Ladder

Craft quite a few Ladders when you plan to work on pillars, ravines, mineshafts, and other vertical surfaces. Install Ladders on the sheer walls of these areas so your character can safely climb up or down from them.

If you fall near a Ladder, push toward it. Your character catches the Ladder and stops his or her fall without taking damage. This is a useful trick.

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Lead

Leads are great for pulling animals back to your home. Using food to lure creatures is acceptable for the same task, but it takes a long time to entice the animals. They sometimes lose interest. Leads are much more efficient. Walk up to the animal that you want to guide, and use the Lead on it. Once it’s tethered, walk back toward home. Use additional Leads to gather even more animals as you go.

Leads can also be attached to Fences to tether your animals while you’re away.

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Lever

Levers create power as an On or Off switch. Pull them to activate their power and channel it through nearby machines or Redstone Dust, and turn off the power with a second flip of the switch.

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Light Blue Dye

Stain Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, and various other objects a sky-blue color.

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Light Gray Dye

Use this to stain Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Clay, and Glass a mild gray color.

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Lime Dye

Use Lime Dye to stain Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Clay, and Glass a bright green color.

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Magenta Dye

Magenta Dye stains Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Clay, and Glass a darker, saturated pink color.

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Magma Cream

Magma Cream is either crafted or found when you kill Magma Cubes in the Nether. It’s used as an ingredient in Mundane Potions and Potions of Fire Resistance. The latter is a powerful defensive Potion when battling in the Nether.

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Melon Block

Combine a full set of Melons to make a Melon block, or break Melon blocks to get Melons. Either way, these blocks grow from Melon Seeds and are similar to Pumpkins in terms of their farming methods.

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Minecart

There are several types of Minecarts in the game, and all of them are useful at different times. The base Minecart is a means of transport that rides along railways both aboveground and underneath it. Use downward slopes or occasional Powered Rails to keep your Minecarts moving at high speed, traveling from one end of the track to the other as quickly as possible.

Minecarts with Chests give you storage options. Place items in the Minecart and send it on its way using a Powered Rail system. Because the cart is full, you can’t ride along in it. Either use another Minecart to follow, or use another means of transport.

Minecarts with Hoppers are pretty cool. They grab any items along the railway as they travel (unless they hit an Activator Rail). Set up areas where monsters are slain and farmed for items, and run your Minecart with Hopper through it to collect your treasure.

Minecarts with TNT are mobile explosives that detonate if they touch an Activator Rail—very nice.

Minecarts with Furnaces push other carts ahead of themselves. Add fuel to make them work, and it’s full speed ahead for your new train of Minecarts.

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Note Block

Note blocks make a brief noise when something powers them. Interact with the blocks to change the pitch of their noise and customize how they sound. If arranged carefully, this allows people to make music with them.

The instrument played by a Note block is actually determined by the type of block underneath it. Wood blocks produce a bass guitar noise. Sand and Gravel yield a snare drum sound. Stones are for a bass drum. Dirt does a synth piano.

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Orange Dye

Orange Dye stains Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Glass, and other items a simple orange color.

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Painting

Paintings can improve the look of your home. Place them on walls to make your base impressive. Sometimes people put secret passages behind Paintings because you’re allowed to walk through them as long as a solid block isn’t on the other side. Experienced players are used to this and often search behind Paintings; this is why you might want to put a pit trap behind a Painting, in case someone runs straight through it.

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Paper

Paper is made into Books, Maps, and Fireworks. It’s made from Sugar Cane, which you can grow in large quantities as long as you have plenty of water in the area. Turn Paper into Books once you have enough Leather, and use Books to make an Enchantment Table and tons of Bookshelves. That’s the route to better enchanting and superior equipment.

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Pillar Quartz Block

Use two Quartz blocks to make Pillar Quartz blocks; they’re striated in such a way that they look a bit like marble pillars. If you’re making arches or other pieces of architectural flair, Pillar Quartz blocks are perfect for the task.

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Pink Dye

Use Pink Dye to give a gentler appeal to Leather armor, Wool, Sheep, Stained Glass, and other items.

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Piston

Pistons that receive power push blocks one space in a single direction. They can move an entire line of blocks that’s up to 12 deep. When Pistons retract, they leave empty air behind. This resets their action, making it possible to push additional blocks forward if something new moves in front of them.

Pistons are often placed in areas where Cobblestone forms (from a Cobblestone generator) or in spots where enemies get trapped. For the enemy scenario, use Pistons to shove blocks through the enemies’ heads. This begins the suffocation process.

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Powered Rail

Regular Rails keep your Minecarts moving quickly only if they lead down a slope. Otherwise, you lose speed over time, especially if you try to ascend an upward slope. Powered Rails are a way to combat this problem. Place a Powered Rail every 32 blocks once a Minecart is up to speed, and use a trio of Powered Rails to start off your journey from either end. Add Powered Rails more frequently during steep upward sections of Rail.

To provide power, use a Redstone Torch next to the Powered Rails. This provides constant energy to them.

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Pressure Plate

Put Pressure Plates on the ground when you need to trigger a mechanism based on a monster’s or person’s position. Use them in front of internal Doors to let people run outside without having to stop and open the Door. In more dangerous areas, use Pressure Plates to trigger traps.

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Purple Dye

Purple Dye stains Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Stained Glass, and so forth a pretty purple color.

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Rail

Rails create a path for Minecarts. You have to make these yourself most of the time, but you can find them naturally in Abandoned Mineshafts in the Overworld. Once you lay a line of Rails between two points, Minecarts with Furnaces can ride between them without much trouble.

Add Powered Rails to a system, give them power, and you won’t have to rely on Minecarts with Furnaces or their fuel. Powered Rails accelerate Minecarts as long as they’re supplied with power, as from a Redstone Torch.

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Redstone Comparator

Redstone Dust carries power from a source, such as a Lever or Pressure Plate, to a machine that needs that power to operate. Redstone Comparators are more complex. They take power from the rear of the unit and transmit it to the front of the unit. Any power that comes in from the sides of the Comparator is used either to stop the back-to-front power entirely or to diminish it.

Use a Redstone Comparator in Comparison Mode to stop power if the side input is higher than the rear input. Otherwise, Comparison Mode does not affect power that comes out of the unit.

Use a Redstone Comparator in Subtraction Mode to reduce power output by the level of power coming in from the sides of the unit.

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Redstone Lamp

Redstone Lamps require power to operate, but they produce light that’s stronger than a Torch. They function all day and night, provided power isn’t interrupted. Fiddle with Daylight Sensors if you’d like to have lamps that turn on only at night.

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Redstone Repeater

Redstone Repeaters let you transmit Redstone power across greater distances. They take the signal coming into the rear of their unit and spit it out the front with greater strength. This causes a brief delay in signal propagation, which is sometimes useful for making complex machine timings, as with Note blocks and timed music.

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Redstone Torch

Redstone Torches don’t yield much light, so they’re great for vision only if you put them intentionally in a shady area, like a Mushroom garden. Otherwise, they’re good for providing power. A Redstone Torch next to any machine gives that device continuous power. This is useful when you want to ensure that something is always functioning.

In other cases, you might want to invert a signal, and that’s where Redstone Torches get exciting. If you supply external power to a Redstone Torch, it turns off! This is known as an inverter, because it turns off with power instead of turning on.

Complex machines are possible thanks to interactions like this. You can have a device that gets power only under certain circumstances. The classic example is a Daylight Sensor that spits out power during the day. Draw a line of Redstone Dust from the Sensor over to a block with a Redstone Torch and a Redstone Lamp on the other side of it. The Redstone Dust carries power to the Redstone Torch during the day, and that disables the power. When the light level falls, the signal does as well, and the Redstone Torch resumes its normal function. This turns the Redstone Lamp back on.

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Rose Red Dye

Rose Red Dye turns Leather armor, Sheep, Wool, Stained Glass, and other items a deep redcolor.

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Sandstone

Sandstone forms beneath sandy areas. Use a Shovel to dig through the upper, sandy layers and search for the harder Sandstone below. This material is quick to harvest with a Pickaxe, and it looks very nice. For color differentiation, use Red Sand to create the same types of blocks but in a much deeper color.

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Sea Lantern

You rarely find Sea Lanterns when exploring the deep oceans of the Overworld. Limited to Ocean Temples, these are items that you are only going to see on extremely rare occasions. They’re destroyed if you try to mine them normally; only use items with Silk Touch if you’re trying to harvest your own Sea Lanterns.

Lacking that enchantment, you can get enough Prismarine Crystals by breaking a couple of Sea Lanterns to craft one of your own. Though inefficient, this is still effective enough if you can’t otherwise get these nifty underwater lamps for yourself.

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Sign

Signs are normally used to alert or remind players about areas that they’re moving through. “This Chest has food.” “This Chest has metal.” “Lava ahead!” You can write several lines on each Sign, conveying a fair amount of information. Use arrows in the text to indicate directions.

<--- Home

Village --->

Your characters can walk through Signs without any problems, but Lava and water won’t flow through them. Use this trick to create air pockets underwater.

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Shulker Box

These special “chests” can hold 27 items and still be stored in your inventory or inside normal Chests while holding on to all of those objects. This allows you to greatly increase your carrying capacity by holding on to Shulker Boxes full of stored goodies. For pure insanity, you can walk around with an Ender Chest that has access to Shulker Boxes. That lets you get ahold of almost anything, at any time. Find a safe place for yourself, deploy the Ender Chest, and then look through your Shulker Boxes to get whatever you need.

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Slab

Slabs of material create half blocks that can be placed on an area’s ground or ceiling. Though you don’t have to jump to get onto Slabs, they still restrict movement if there isn’t enough room overhead, so it’s almost like you’re walking on top of a full block even if it doesn’t look that way.

You can place Redstone Dust trails underneath Slabs, allowing you to obscure your traps and machinery in subtle ways. Lay your power lines, test them, and then bury as much of their length as possible under a single layer of Slabs so that it looks like nothing is there.

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Snow

Use groups of Snowballs to craft entire blocks of Snow. Place these in and around your home to add a wintry appeal. Because Snow is packed nice and tight, it won’t melt even in the sun, regardless of the biome you take it to.

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Snowball

Break Snow blocks or ground cover to gather Snowballs. These items are crafted into Snow blocks or can be equipped and thrown at targets for fun. They don’t hurt most targets, but Blazes and the Ender Dragon are an exception to this; both of them are vulnerable to Snowball attacks.

Stained Clay

Go to a Crafting Table with eight blocks of Hardened Clay, which is made by cooking regular Clay blocks in a Furnace. Craft Stained Clay by adding any dye that you like to this batch of Hardened Clay. The result can be any color in the game, determined by the dye you use.

Decorate your house any way you like with this method of coloring.

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Stained Glass

Combine eight normal blocks of Glass with any dye to produce blocks of Stained Glass. Make a chapel, get some privacy, or set up neat windows for fun.

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Stained Glass Panes

Stain your Glass any color you like, and then craft the results into Glass Panes. They retain their color. Now you have even more decorating options.

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Stairs

You can craft Stairs out of a variety of materials. Create a crude set of blocks that goes up one block and then over one block. Repeat this until you have a crummy series of “steps” that allows characters to jump up until they reach the top. Then descend these natural steps and place your Stairs on the lower side of each block. If you try to place the Stairs too high, they come in upside down and aren’t useful for climbing.

A real set of Stairs reduces jumping and saves you a huge amount of energy when you climb a long flight. Jumping burns through your hunger meter, so this is a worthwhile endeavor. Stairs look nice, too, so there’s an aesthetic consideration as well.

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Stick

Divide Wood Planks into Sticks for a wide range of crafting options. Sticks are required for Swords, almost all tools, Rails, Fences, Gates, Signs, Ladders, Item Frames, and more. They’re invaluable. Unless your inventory is filling up quickly, having Sticks on hand is a nice time-saver for replacing broken tools or making new Torches without taking extra steps.

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Sticky Piston

Sticky Pistons have the same general function as Pistons in that they push blocks one space forward. However, Sticky Pistons pull back the block to which they’re attached. They’re fun for making doors out of solid blocks. Trigger a Sticky Piston, let it open the makeshift door for you, and then cut the power to put the wall back in place. How cool is that for a secret lair?

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Terracotta

Terracotta is a type of Hardened Clay found in the Overworld, in mesa biomes. You can craft this material using Clay in a Furnace to generate Terracotta reliably. Terracotta is quite lovely and can be dyed into many colors, making it a good source of decoration for your buildings.

Glazed Terracotta is even prettier. If you craft Terracotta with some type of dye and then cook it again in a Furnace, you end up with Glazed Terracotta. This variant of the material is way more fragile, but it’s splendid-looking (having a textured surface).

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TNT

Craft blocks of TNT to use in traps, mining, or simply to have fun. The ingredients are easy to come by when you hunt Creepers. Carry TNT to a room you want to demolish, and place the block of explosives in the middle. Ignite TNT with a power source or something that creates fire (e.g., Flint and Steel), but make sure you don’t stand nearby for the blast. TNT delivers a huge amount of damage.

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Torch

Get a supply of Coal and Wood, and you can make Torches by the bundle. They’re great for lighting your house, keeping your property clear of monster spawns, and for lighting tunnels as you mine and explore. Put Torches on the walls or the ground wherever you need to create light. They aren’t the strongest light source in the game, but they’re close, and they’re in expensive.

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Trapdoor

Use Trapdoors to conceal pits and prevent creatures from falling into them. Trapdoors open manually but can also be opened or closed with Redstone power. Use trails of Redstone Dust to activate Trapdoors from safety to drop monsters down into deadly pits. You can craft Trapdoors with either Wood or Iron Ingots, depending on the visual look of the item you’re interested in making.

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Trapped Chest

Trapped Chests produce Redstone power when they’re opened. They have a red tinge around their lock, so careful players spot them before they open the Chests. Signals from Trapped Chests are used to activate TNT, pits, and other defenses.

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Tripwire Hook

Places two Tripwire Hooks across from each other in a passage; use a piece of String to connect them. This arms your trap, producing a pulse of energy if anything walks over the String or cuts it without using Shears.

Attach your Tripwire Hooks to a Redstone trail and concoct a nasty device to punish intruders: Lava from the ceiling, pits below, Pistons to close the corridor around someone, etc.

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Wall

Walls protect areas from ingress by monsters, animals, and players. They can’t be jumped over, so people have to break them or go around. They still allow a line of sight over the top edge, so you can see the areas outside your defensive perimeter. Shoot over your wall to safely kill monsters when they approach.

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Weighted Pressure Plate

Weighted Pressure Plates don’t send a maximum-strength Redstone signal unless a certain amount of weight is placed upon them. Gold makes a plate that triggers more easily and sends a full-strength signal if there are 15 entities on top of it. Iron plates require much more weight to give off a strong signal; it takes over 140 items and creatures to fully trigger these plates.

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Wood Plank

Create Wood Planks by crafting any type of Wood in your inventory. You can then break down the resulting Planks even further into Sticks, or use the Planks to make a wide range of Wood-based items. Wood Planks are critical for Wood tools and equipment, the first tier of these implements that you can access.

Wood Planks are also used to make a vast range of furniture. At no point in the game do you stop using Wood or Wood Planks. Always keep a large supply in your Chests, and carry a full stack with you when you leave home.

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Wool

Gather Wool by using Shears on Sheep. Killing them yields less Wool, and live Sheep can regrow their Wool as long as they have access to yummy grass.

Wool is one of the most easily customized items in the game. Use dyes to change the color of your Wool, and then make custom blocks of Wool or craft colored Carpet. Wool is used to craft Beds and Paintings as well.

Written Book

Craft a Book and Quill, and then use this item from your hotbar. This lets you edit the text in the Book and Quill and turn it into a Written Book. Villagers trade Emeralds for these, when you’re lucky, and they’re also good for writing down stories for other players.

To copy a Written Book that you’ve edited, craft your existing one with another Book and Quill.

Recipe