A renewable resource is a resource that can be recreated indefinitely without exploiting glitches (as opposed to a non-renewable resource). While running out of resources isn't likely to be a factor due to practically infinite (and still quite vast in theory) map generation, this is a list of resources that can be produced over and over without having to explore for more. However, running out of resources can be a bigger issue on Superflat worlds, where resources are less plentiful.
The listed fully renewable products are items which can be crafted or smelted using only renewable resources. Note that TNT and arrows are crafted from a combination of renewable and non-renewable resources (sand and flint).
Renewable resources
Resources that can be obtained indefinitely. Some require non-renewable materials in their production, but the process will never consume those materials.
| Resource | Renewable products | Renewable method |
|---|---|---|
| Arrows |
— | Arrows are dropped by skeletons and can be traded by villager farmers. |
| Beef |
Beef is dropped by cows and mooshrooms. Steaks can also be traded by villager butchers. | |
| Blaze Rods |
Blaze rods are dropped by blazes. | |
| Bones |
Bones are dropped by skeletons. | |
| Cactus |
Cactus can be found in desert biomes and can be grown on sand. While sand is non-renewable, it is not consumed by the growth of cactus. | |
| Chicken Eggs Chicken Egg |
Chickens will lay chicken eggs roughly every 5 - 10 minutes. | |
| Cobblestone and Stone |
Stone BrickStone Bricks SlabButton | Created by letting non-renewable lava flow over or against water. One must not let water flow into the lava source, otherwise the lava will irreversibly convert into obsidian. |
| Cocoa Beans |
Cocoa pods (found on jungle trees) drop up to 3 beans, which can be replanted on jungle logs to produce more cocoa. | |
| Crops |
Crops can be planted on farmland. Harvesting crops may produce seeds, which can be used to produce more crops. Seeds can be also harvested from tall grass. | |
| Ender Pearls Enderpearl |
Dropped by killed endermen. | |
| Experience Orb File:XP orb animation.gif |
See enchanting | Dropped by any mob killed by the player except for villagers, golems or baby animals. Also dropped by other players on SMP, if they have collected any orbs, who respawn upon death. |
| Feathers |
Dropped by killed chickens | |
| Fish |
Obtained by fishing using a fishing rod. | |
| Flowers FlowersFlowers |
Can spawn when bone meal is used to generate patches of tall grass. Roses are sometimes dropped by killed iron golems. | |
| Ghast Tears |
Dropped by killed ghasts. | |
| Gunpowder |
Dropped by killed creepers and ghasts. | |
| Huge Mushroom Huge MushroomsHuge MushroomsHuge Mushrooms |
MushroomsMushrooms | Using bone meal on normal mushrooms will grow them into huge mushrooms (if there is enough space), which can then be broken to get more of the normal mushroom. With the Silk Touch enchantment though (obtainable by trading with villager priests), the huge mushroom blocks themselves can be collected. |
| Ice |
Water source blocks in a tundra or taiga will turn into ice over time. Attempting to collect ice will break it into water if there is a block under it, outright destroying the broken block otherwise. With the Silk Touch enchantment though (obtainable by trading with villager priests), the ice blocks can be sucessfully collected. | |
| Ink Sacs |
Dropped by killed squid. | |
| Leather |
Dropped by killed cows and mooshrooms. | |
| Magma Cream |
Dropped by killed magma cubes. | |
| Melon Seeds |
Melon Seeds are only found in Abandoned Mine Shafts. They can be renewed once grown by breaking a melon stem, or crafting them from melon slices. | |
| Milk |
Obtained by milking cows or mooshrooms with a bucket. | |
| Mushrooms MushroomsMushrooms |
Huge MushroomsHuge MushroomsHuge Mushrooms | Using Bone Meal on normal mushrooms will grow them into Huge Mushrooms, if there is enough space, which can then be broken to get more of the normal mushroom. Normal mushrooms also spread slowly on their own. Also, mooshrooms can be sheared for red mushrooms or milked for Mushroom Stew, which can also be crafted with a bowl and both mushrooms. |
| Nether Wart Nether Wart Seeds |
Harvested from fully grown nether wart. Must be planted on non-renewable Soul Sand, but it doesn't consume the block. | |
| Obsidian |
Diamond pickaxes, required to mine obsidian, can be obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. | |
| Pork |
Dropped by killed pigs. Cooked porkchops can also be traded by villager butchers. | |
| Pumpkin Seeds Pumpkin seeds |
Jack 'o' Lantern | Pumpkin seeds are found in abandoned mine shafts, while pumpkins themelves are found "wild" in certain biomes. You can also get seeds from putting a pumpkin in a crafting slot or by breaking pumpkin stems. The seeds, of course, can be planted in farmland to generate more pumpkins. |
| Raw Chicken |
Dropped by killed chickens. Cooked chickens can also be traded by villager farmers. | |
| Rotten Flesh |
— | Dropped by killed zombies and zombie pigmen. |
| Saplings and Trees |
Red AppleWooden Pressure PlateJack 'o' LanternTrapdoorLaddersFenceFence GateWooden DoorSignBed Gold SwordGold PickaxeGold ShovelGold AxeGold Hoe |
Trees can be grown from saplings placed on lit dirt; When broken a leaf block has a 5% chance of dropping a sapling. See tree farming. Charcoal can be produced by smelting any kind of log. Leaves can be obtained by harvesting with shears. |
| Slimeballs |
Dropped by killed slimes. | |
| Snowballs |
In cold biomes, snow is replaced whenever it snowfalls. It is also produced by snow golems wherever they walk over. | |
| Spider Eye |
Dropped by killed spiders. | |
| String |
Bed |
Dropped by killed spiders. |
| Sugar Canes |
Map (Item) |
Will grow to 3 blocks high and can be trimmed or replanted. Must first be found in the world, and can only be planted on dirt/sand bordering water. |
| Tall Grass |
Bonemeal being used on grass blocks plants tall grass on the ground. To harvest tall grass, one must also use shears made from iron. | |
| Vines |
— | Found on swamp trees, jungle trees, and on terrain and caves in jungles. When attached (hanging), they grow naturally if there is open space below. To harvest vines, one must also use shears made from iron. They also generate as part of player-made jungle trees. |
| Water Bucket |
Two water spring blocks in the appropriate pattern produce a third; see water for details. | |
| Wool |
Bed | Obtained by killing or shearing sheep, crafting 4 strings dropped by spiders, by breeding two sheep which will result in a child with the same color of wool as the parents, or by using shears on sheep. Six of the shown colors (white, light gray, gray, black, brown and pink) occur naturally in sheep; green, lime, red, orange and yellow wool require renewable dyes to produce. |
Rare drops
These items are only occasionally dropped by monsters, so getting them quickly or in quantity is normally done by mining, then smelting/crafting non-renewable resources (mob farms being an option).
| Resource | Products produced | Method to Obtain |
|---|---|---|
| Bows |
Bows are rarely dropped by skeletons, and can be enchanted with Power I. Usually, one would rather craft a bow with renewable sticks and strings. | |
| Gold Nuggets and Gold Ingots |
Gold SwordGold PickaxeGold ShovelGold AxeGold HoeGold HelmetGold ChestplateGold LeggingsGold Boots | Nuggets are dropped by killed zombie pigmen, ingots as a rare drop. |
| Gold Swords and Gold Helmets Gold SwordGold Helmet |
— | Rare drop of killed zombie pigmen. These swords can be enchanted with any power I and some power II sword enchantments. |
| Iron Ingots |
Map (Item) | Dropped by killed iron golems and rarely dropped by killed zombies. |
| Iron Helmets, Iron Swords, and Iron Shovels |
— | Rare drops of zombies. |
| Music Discs Music DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic DiscsMusic Discs |
— | Dropped only when a skeleton kills a creeper. It doesn't matter who dealt most of the damage, as long as the final blow is dealt by the arrow of the skeleton.
However, using a music disc requires crafting a non-renewable diamond into a jukebox. |
Tradeable
Resources that in normal circunstances would be non-renewable, except that they can be obtained through trading with villagers.
| Resource | Renewable products | Renewable method |
|---|---|---|
| Emerald |
Obtained by trading renewable items to villagers, such as raw chicken. These can be used to buy other things from villagers, including resources that are non-renewable in nature, like redstone. Villagers never run out of stock (but their selling offers may vary), and they can be "bred", making villagers themselves renewable. | |
| Bottle o' Enchanting |
File:XP orb animation.gif | Obtained by trading with villager priests. |
| Chainmail Armor Chain Armor HelmetChain Armor ChestplateChain Armor LeggingsChain Armor Boots |
— | Obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. There is absolutely no other way to obtain these items. |
| Diamond Armor |
— | Obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. |
| Diamond Tools |
— | Obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. |
| Enchanted diamond or iron swords, pickaxes, axes, and chestplates Up to level 19 |
— | Obtained by trading with villager priests. |
| Flint and Steel |
— | Obtained by trading with villager farmers. |
| Glass |
Obtained by trading with villager librarians. Glass bottles can be utilized to make potions. With redstone and glowstone bought from priests, extended potions and level II potions can also be brewed renewably. | |
| Glowstone Glowstone Block |
Obtained by trading with villager priests. | |
| Iron Armor |
— | Obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. Helmets also rare drop of zombies. |
| Iron Tools |
— | Obtained by trading with villager blacksmiths. Swords and shovels also rare drop of zombies. |
| Saddles |
— | Obtained by trading with villager butchers. |
| Redstone Dust |
Map (Item) | Obtained by trading with villager priests. |
Renewable, but consume non-renewable resources
These resources can be made infinitely, but require one use of a non-renewable items/resources.
| Resource | Renewable products | Renewable method |
|---|---|---|
| Enchanted tools, weapons and armour Up to level 30 |
— | Experience orbs can be spent to enchant, but this requires the one-time use of non-renewable diamond to craft an enchantment table. Once crafted, an enchantment table may be used an unlimited amount of times. |
| Wool - Blue, Light Blue, Cyan, Purple, and Magenta |
Bed | Baby sheep will maintain the color of one of their parents (the one with the lowest internal ID). Killing a colored sheep will drop one block of colored wool.
However, one use of the respective dye, containing non-renewable lapis lazuli, is required to color the parent sheep. |