Fire Charge

The Fire Charge is an item which can be used as fireball ammunition for Dispensers, or as an inefficient but renewable substitute for Flint and Steel.

Crafting
The ingredients can be placed in any crafting slots.

Since Gunpowder and Blaze Powder are obtained from mobs and Charcoal from Wood, Fire Charges are a renewable resource.

Use
When used by a player, it instantly places Fire at the clicked location, like a Flint and Steel. Fire created will burn faster than a Flint and Steel fire. You get three from each one crafted as seen in the crafting picture.

When a Fire Charge is dispensed from a Dispenser, it acts like a Blaze fireball, flying in a straight line (though with the usual random aim of a Dispenser). When it hits a block, it will place Fire at that location. Contrary to many claims, these fireballs have no explosive effect.

Fire charge can also be used to light a Nether Portal.

History

 * The Fire Charge was added in snapshot 12w04a, although its texture was used as a Ghast's fireball in 1.1.0.


 * In snapshot 12w04a it couldn't be crafted with charcoal, only with "regular" coal. This was fixed in the next snapshot.


 * In the Minecraft 1.2.1 Trailer on the Mojang website, the Fire Charge was shot from dispensers as a booby-trap in an NPC village defense structure.

Trivia
When used to light T.N.T. on fire, the primed T.N.T. entity will catch on fire, and if that burning T.N.T. touches other T.N.T. blocks, they'll catch fire too and get triggered almost immediately. It may also be the fire charge that falls on the block below when the block it's on disappear before it has finished burning.

Bugs

 * When you right click with the Fire Charge on a block, the fire created may not render properly according to the block, making it seem to be floating fire.
 * If it travels out of the render distance it eventually stops in mid air. If this accumulates it can cause major lag in the surrounding area.
 * As of the 1.2 Preview Release, no sound is played when Fire Charges are shot.