Crafting

Crafting is the method in which tools and resources are created in Minecraft. It is currently available in the indev and infdev modes, but will be brought to survival and future game modes when the game enters beta.

Current features

 * Tool, block and armour crafting
 * Food and farming
 * Forging
 * Paintings

Upcoming features

 * Crafting in other game modes
 * More tools and blocks to be crafted
 * Multiplayer Survival
 * Furniture

Crafting
To craft, materials must be placed into a crafting grid, either the 2×2 grid in the inventory or a 3×3 grid obtainable by building and using a workbench. To use the workbench simply face it and right click. Different combinations of materials yield different tools and blocks. Stronger materials such as iron or diamond can be used to produce better tools. Better tools mine, dig, chop or kill faster, and break less. It does not matter which slots items are placed in, as long as their combination, order and rotation is the same. For example, torches can be built in any two vertical slots, but the coal must be placed directly above the sticks.

See the Durability section below for more information.

This icon represents a lump of Coal in the inventory.

Smelting
By using a forge/furnace you can smelt a variety of raw materials into useful blocks.

For further information on items you can smelt, fuel and the furnace see: Furnace.

Durability
For crafted items with durability, each improvement in building material roughly doubles the number of blocks that can be destroyed, or the number of enemies that can be hit, with the tool before the tool breaks.

Note: gold is a very weak material and should not be used for tools or weapons. Items made with gold are as durable as their wooden counterparts.


 * Wood and gold - 47 uses
 * Stone - 92 uses
 * Iron - 129 uses
 * Diamond - 392 uses

Uses before breaking = [2^(5+n)]+1

Where n is the tier of material (wood and gold are tier 0), and a "use" is destroying a block, or hitting an enemy once.

Using a tool inappropriately (e.g. using a shovel to attack enemies, or digging dirt with a sword) cuts its durability in half, effectively reducing its tier (for the purpose of durability) by 1.

The tool's durability remains unchanged if you stop digging/cutting/removing a block before the action has been completed. Although in some cases such as sheep running in front of your shiny diamond axe while woodcutting, your durability is lost with no way to "react" and prevent it. (Don't cut trees near sheep)

Note: The last use of certain tools will not drop a block that you can pick up. For example, while using any pickaxe (33rd, 65th, 129th, or 257th use), and harvesting any stone or ore block, it will not drop the corresponding cobblestone or ore to pick up into your inventory. It is unknown to this writer if this is a bug, or intended. This can be quite irritating if you accidentally mine diamonds with the last use of your steel pickaxe, as the block is destroyed, and you do not receive the diamond pick-up.