Crafting

Crafting is the method by which many blocks, tools, and materials are made in Minecraft. In order to craft something, players must move items from their inventory to a crafting grid. A 2×2 crafting grid can be accessed from the player's inventory. A 3×3 grid can be accessed by using (default: right-clicking) a crafting table.

For some items, the arrangement of their ingredients on the crafting grid is unimportant. These are commonly known as shapeless recipes. For example, a Fermented spider eye can have its ingredients placed anywhere within the grid.

On the other hand, many of the more important or useful game objects must have their ingredients placed in the correct relative positions on the crafting grid. Even then, provided the resources are arranged correctly, the item can be made in any way that fits in the grid. For example, a 3×1 recipe, such as bread, can be made using the top, middle, or bottom row of the 3×3 grid, but it cannot be made using the 2×2 grid because it needs to be three items wide. Ingredients in ‘shaped’ recipes can be ‘slid’ up, down, left, or right. They can also be flipped horizontally. For instance, players can make a bow with the strings placed on the right instead of on the left. There are recipes which may not be moved or mirrored in this way. These are commonly known as fixed recipes.

Players always have access to the 2×2 crafting grid from their Inventory screen, and this can be used whenever the screen is brought up. Crafting recipes that are at most 2×2 can always be made there. These include wood planks, sticks, crafting tables, torches and most shapeless recipes. To craft items using a 3×3 grid, create a crafting table, place it in any convenient spot, and right-click or tap/select it. This brings up a pop-up screen with a 3×3 grid on which the player can assemble any crafting recipe in the game.

MATTIS or Pocket Edition Crafting System
In Minecraft Pocket Edition, crafting is somewhat different and uses the Minecraft Advanced Touch Technology Interface System, also known as "MATTIS" crafting system. Although it displays the 2&times;2 and 3&times;3 grids, the items already appear in the correct slots. In the middle of the screen, there is a list that shows items that can be crafted with the items in the player's inventory. Items that can be crafted are prioritized and shown first. If the player has some but not all ingredients to craft an item, those show up after those that can be crafted and are shaded. In each slot, there is a number denoting how many times the player can craft that item with the current materials.

The right side of the screen shows the grid with the items already placed for the selected item. Below the grid is the name of the item currently selected and a button used to craft, showing the quantity of the item given when crafted. If there isn't a sufficient amount of ingredients to craft an item, the missing ingredients appear shaded on the grid. When one taps on an ingredient within the grid, the name of that ingredient appears above the hotbar.

To the left of the crafting grid are different tabs. The different tabs show different things that can be crafted. The Armor tab (Iron Chestplate) shows different types armor you can wear. The Crafting (Crafting Table) tab shows things you can craft that are tools or other misc. things that don't fit anywhere else. The Blocks (Dirt Block) shows the player's inventory.

The player has the option to use a crafting table to give him/her many more choices. When the player taps the crafting table, the MATTIS pops up with crafting options.

Console crafting system
The Console Edition uses a simplified crafting system by default. It does not make use of the standard crafting interface, but still has similarities to the PC version's 2×2 and 3×3 crafting grids, making it a cross between the PC grid-based system and the Pocket Edition's MATTIS system. The interface does not require the player to place items in the correct place in a crafting menu, but instead simply displays the ingredients required to craft the selected item and allows the player to craft that item as long as the player has the required crafting ingredients. The crafting table orders all craftable items into seven categories:Tools & Weapons, Food, Armor, Mechanisms, Transportation, and Decoration. The interface for crafting fireworks, however, is the same as used in the PC edition.

The crafting system can be changed to use the system from the computer edition for all recipes by checking the "Classic Crafting" option under "User Interface" in the options menu.

Pressing X or Square opens the 2×2 crafting menu, and the 3×3 crafting menu when using a Crafting Table. The Armor tab is missing in the 2×2 as crafting any armor requires the use of a 3×3 crafting grid.

The PlayStation Vita and Wii U versions does have the ability to touch on the interface.

Complete recipe list
To save space, some recipes are animated (requires JavaScript). Shapeless recipes are marked with a pair of intertwined arrows on the crafting table graphic, and fixed recipes with an exclamation mark.