What Is the Brush Used For in Minecraft? – Answered

Not made for artists

The upcoming 1.20 update for Minecraft has brought lots of cool stuff to the game, including brand-new items, mechanics and various new elements to already existing biomes. The Trails and Tales released on June 7th, but we’re already acquainted with some of its toys, such as the new Brush item.

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It is a key element in some of these new mechanics, which are already available through the Experimental Features from the game’s official launcher. Find out more about it here.

What Does the Brush Do in Minecraft 1.20?

Brushes are essential to Archeology, originally planned to debut back in the 1.17 update. The new mechanic is finally released in 1.20, and involves digging around the new blocks in various biomes to discover lost treasures from ancient civilizations previously unknown to the current society.

By using your Brush, you can interact with the new Suspicious Sand or the Suspicious Gravel blocks (also introduced in 1.20) and find various different items, ranging from rare loot like Emeralds or Diamonds to the new, exclusive items such as ancient pottery shards or even a Sniffer Egg.

Related: How to Respawn the Ender Dragon in Minecraft (Java and Bedrock)

Those are quite rare findings and can be interacted with in a few different ways. If you’re lucky to get one of them, it’s time to start bragging around about your newfound Archeology major.

By gathering 4 Pottery Shards (any kind), you can craft the Decorated Pot item to use as…well…decoration! On the other hand, the Sniffer Eggs will hatch into Snifflets after some time, and ancient creatures also coming to the game with the update.

So basically, everything ancient and mysterious that can be found in Trails and Tales is locked behind the new Brush item, as this is the key to discovering those relics from the past. It’s probably the hottest item introduced in the patch, so get into your explorer garb, grab a brush, and start digging!


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Author
Patrick Souza
Patrick has been working for Prima since 2022 and joined as a Staff Writer in 2023. He's been interested in gaming journalism since college, and that was the path he took once he had his degree in hands. Diligently ignores his ever-growing backlog to keep raiding in Final Fantasy XIV, exploring in Genshin Impact or replaying some of his favorite RPGs from time to time. Loves tackling hard challenges in games, but his cats are still the hardest bosses he could ask for.