Minecraft is a casual sandbox game where the primary goal is to survive and build whatever you wish. When you start playing it, it may seem easy enough, until the sun sets and the monsters (or mobs) appear in an attempt to kill you. If you want to live to see the sunrise, you’ll need to craft some items and a fort to remain safe.
Here’s a basic guide for how to craft in Minecraft, which types of items you can make, and some invaluable tips.
What is crafting in Minecraft?
There are many resources you can harvest in the vast open-world in Minecraft. While it’s fun to collect them, you actually need them to craft items that will help you survive. There’s a specific crafting mechanic you’ll use to make objects using recipes.
When you open any of the crafting menus, you’ll notice two specific panels. On the left, you have the recipes divided into different category tabs. The ones you can’t build due to lack of resources will be blocked by a red color. On the right, you have the crafting menu to show you what the recipe consists of.
What can you craft in Minecraft?
While there’s only one inventory and crafting screen, you’ll need specific objects to unlock different recipes in the categories. When you move onto more advanced crafting, you’ll need forges and other tools to make the items.
Here’s a quick look at what you can craft in Minecraft using specific equipment:
- Basic items and blocks: These are objects that you can craft in your hand that are useful for when you start or need them for emergencies. Some examples include sticks, basic blocks, torches, and a crafting table.
- Tools and advanced items: At some point, you’ll need tools to help you harvest and create more advanced building materials. You can craft these on the crafting table.
- Smelting: When you find different ores in the caves, such as coal, iron, and goal, you’ll need to melt them down to make ingots. These help you create and upgrade your armor, weapons, and valuable items. You’ll need a furnace for these.
- Enchanting: You can also enhance your weapons and armor with spells. It will drain any experience you’ve gained to apply the magic. First, you’ll need to make an enchantment table.
- Food and potions: You’ll reach a point where you’ll want to start making different food, cakes, and potions. They help your health and can sometimes boost your endurance and abilities. Depending on what you make, you’ll need a mixture of the furnace, a brewing stand, and a cauldron.
- Mechanisms: There’s a special item in Minecraft called Redstone. You can make a variety of items using the crafting table that will engineer unique objects. They activate buttons, levers, and other items to aid you in your defense. Read our Minecraft Redstone guide for more details.
- Other crafting tables: With the latest updates in Minecraft, there are a few other crafting tables you can now use. For example, there’s the cartography table to work on maps, a fletching table, and a smithing table to upgrade your tools.
The basics of crafting in Minecraft
Now that you have a better understanding of how it works, here is a basic guide for how to craft in Minecraft. You can use and adapt it for any of the above tables and recipes.
Find the resources
Firstly, you’ll need to locate the resources needed for the specific recipe. Even if you don’t have the ingredients, you can open your inventory and select a recipe to see what you need. Some rare ingredients will require you to travel to the Netherworld, which needs a Nether Portal.
Open the crafting menu
Once you have the ingredients, it’s time to open the crafting menu. The type of recipe will determine how you’ll craft it. For instance, you can simply use your hand for the basic starting materials, while you’ll need a crafting table for the more advanced items. If you see a red shade blocking the recipe despite having all the ingredients, it means you’re not using the right table.
Select the recipe
When you see the recipe is open, you can now select it. Just move your cursor onto the recipe and see the ingredients appear in the crafting grid. You are now ready to craft.
Craft the item
There are different ways you can craft. You can either create only one item or an entire stack. If you have enough ingredients, you can continue to craft stacks until you have as much as you need. You’ll need space in your inventory, otherwise, the objects will fall onto the ground around you.
5 Tips for Minecraft crafting
Before you go, we’d like to impart some Minecraft crafting knowledge to make you enjoy the experience more.
1. Look for the right ingredients
There are many ways to create the same objects in some cases. You can also fuel some of the equipment in various ways. For instance, you can use sticks, logs, coal, charcoal, or a bucket of lava in a furnace. However, each one has a different lifespan for how long the fuel lasts, so see which one will work best for you.
2. Start small, then expand
When you start to craft in Minecraft, you should start small. For the first two nights, you should only build what’s absolutely necessary to survive the night against mobs. As soon as you gain proper weapons and armor, you can start branching out to more advanced buildings and technology.
3. Create farms for valuable ingredients
If you see you use more ingredients than others, we recommend creating farms near your home so you always have them at hand. For example, make sure to plant more trees when seeds fall from leaves. It’s also useful to plant fruit and vegetables so you can make food for when you become hungry. It doesn’t hurt to tame animals so you can breed them. Taming a horse in Minecraft is incredibly helpful for traveling quickly around the map.
4. Don’t be afraid of the dark
Some recipes require you to go out at night and kill mobs. You can get bones from skeletons and eyes and string from spiders. The Netherworld monsters hold more valuable items for advanced tech, so make sure to prepare a Nether Portal at some point.
5. Check our crafting guide
Finally, be sure to check our detailed Minecraft crafting guide. It holds recipes for basic items you’ll need when you start playing. We’ll be sure to work on a more advanced guide in time to come. You can also look at how to play Minecraft if you’re a beginner.
Become a crafting legend
As you can see, the art of crafting in Minecraft is easy, as long as you know how. It may be confusing at first, but you’ll get the hang of it after an hour or two. We’ve seen some real masterpieces over the years, especially towering castles and forts. Now you can become a legend too!
