Crafting

Crafting is a major method by which blocks, tools, and other resources are created in Minecraft. It is a function only available in Indev, Infdev and Alpha modes. In order to craft something, the player must move items from their inventory into the crafting grid, then arrange them into the correct pattern for the item they wish to create. While some recipes require a degree of trial and error to discover, most can be found through common sense.

The player has access to a 2x2 crafting grid - located in the inventory screen - at all times. Simple things can be crafted there, like wood planks, sticks and workbenches. To craft with a 3x3 grid, the player must first place a workbench block into the game world, then right click on it.

In Alpha and listed below, there are 94 recipes. Four are not available except through hacking (chainmail armor). Recipes that turn blocks back into bars are separate from the ones that do the reverse. The different ordering of mushrooms for the mushroom stew are considered two recipes. And many recipes differ only in the type of material they use (such as for armor).

When crafting items with limited uses (tools, armor, and weapons), each improvement in building material roughly doubles the number of times the item may be used prior to breaking as well as increasing its speed or power. Once an item breaks, it disappears from the inventory.


 * Wood: 33 uses, n = 0
 * Gold: 33 uses, n = 0
 * Stone: 65 uses, n = 1
 * Iron: 129 uses, n = 2
 * Diamond: 1025 uses, n = 5

The formula for the number of uses is 2^(n+5)+1. "n" is the durability of the material being used, and the values for each are on the above list.

Regardless of what item is being used, a use counts as either the complete de-construction of a block or a single strike at an enemy, but incomplete attempts (stopping in the middle) to de-construct a block do not qualify as a use. If a tool is used inappropriately, such as using a pickaxe to attack mobs, each use will have the equivalent of 2 proper uses.

Armor
Note that Chainmail armor is also craftable, but only by hacking Fire blocks into your inventory and crafting them.