When building houses or other structures, it's important to choose the right materials for construction. Otherwise, you may end up having a house that can be burned down or blown up easily, or you may spend unnecessary time looking for supplies to build a house out of rare materials and lastly, if no consideration is taken to building materials, the end result can end up looking strange at best and unappealing/haphazard at worst. This tutorial page contrasts different building materials, and additionally gives an overall view of the quality of the material.
What to look for[]
When picking a material to build with, there are three main considerations: Obtainability, durability, and decoration.
Obtainability[]
Some materials are easier to get, while others are extremely difficult and many are somewhere in between. For example, in survival, making a house of cobblestone is certainly easier than making one of diamond blocks. Also to consider is the renewability of the material you would like to use. Some materials can be replicated through various means and thus gained infinitely, while others must be sought after over increasing distances from spawn.
Durability[]
The durability of a material is important, especially in PVP. The main considerations to make are hardness, blast resistance, and flammability. Maximum durability is not always necessary. If you don't expect to be attacked by players, then hardness shouldn't be a problem. If you can stop creepers from getting close, blast resistance isn't as important. If there is no nearby lava or trees to spread fire and you aren't concerned about lightning, flammability isn't a problem either. Just remember that it is usually better to have too much durability than too little.
Decoration[]
See also: Tutorials/Adding beauty to constructions
Unless you are building strictly for function, then decoration blocks are a big part of enhancing your builds when you've done all that you feel you can with normal building blocks. Ultimately what looks the best is a matter of opinion, and there is no right or wrong way to decorate.
List of materials[]
Overworld[]
| Material | Description | Pros | Cons | |
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| Stone | Stone is overall a fairly strong and withholding material and is very abundant. However, cobblestone has nearly the same properties as stone. The stone must be smelted from cobblestone. If used carefully, stone can create a distinctive look. |
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| Dirt | Dirt is very weak and isn't the most beautiful material to build with either. However, it is found on the surface of nearly all biomes and can be mined up very quickly, even with a player's hand, meaning that it is suitable for beginners on their first night but is easier to make a hole in the ground. It is generally not a good idea to use dirt as part of a permanent structure, unless you are explicitly aiming for an "earthen" look, complete with grass blocks for extra decor. Alternatively, dirt can be used to "camouflage" a structure made from other materials, either to make it blend in more with the surroundings or make it look less valuable than it actually is. |
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| Planks | Planks have a rather nice, somewhat rustic look and are inexpensive to make. Their blast resistance is lower than stone but higher than dirt. One of the main disadvantages of wood planks is that they are flammable, so don't build near lava or any other source of fire, especially in the Nether. |
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| Cobblestone | Cobblestone is a strong block and is easy to acquire, making it great for building houses. It has a very rough, rocky appearance, so it can be used to create structures that resemble forts, castles and churches that resemble ones from the Early Middle Ages (Compare with stone bricks, which looks more in line with the High and Late Middle Ages). |
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| Stone Bricks | Stone bricks grant a very medieval and in some ways, militaristic feel to structures made out of it and is in many ways the ideal building material for structures meant to look medieval, militaristic and/or fortified in general, like forts and castles. Stone Bricks are style-wise fitting for structures meant to hearken back to the High and Late Middle Ages and later (Compare with cobblestone, which looks more fitting for structures aiming look in line with the Early Middle Ages). |
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| Bricks | Bricks have a very pleasant look to them and a high blast resistance. However, they are also rather expensive, even though they are renewable. They are good for buildings with a neutral yet pleasant look, looking similar to stone bricks but without the belligerent feel. Bricks also convey and express an image of sturdiness more readily than blocks like concrete. |
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| Obsidian | Obsidian is an extremely strong material and takes a long time to break. Its breaking time can be a pain when building but is great for protection against other players on multiplayer PVP servers but some players may not like the look. |
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| Sand | Sand is a gravity-affected block that can be found in many Overworld biomes. Sand is generated in large numbers in the desert. it might be good for walls but not roofs. It can also be layed out and used to pave over a surface to import a small slice of the desert to an environment. Red sand on the other hand, is identical to normal sand, save for its reddish color. This reddish color makes it somewhat resemble Mars dust, so it can be employed to create an environment with a "Martian" feel. Compare with end stone, which somewhat resembles stereotypical Moon rock. |
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| Sandstone | Sandstone looks great for certain style of homes, especially a desert-style home or if one wishes to emulate Ancient Egyptian architecture. It's strongly recommended to have a desert biome nearby if you want to make a building out of sandstone. It has a low blast resistance, however. Red sandstone, a variant for normal sandstone, behaves identically, but has a reddish color, making for a similar style to red sand. |
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| Terracotta | Terracotta is a rather colorful block, making it good for some styles of homes. It also has a high blast resistance. However, it is rather time-consuming and expensive to acquire unless the player has access to a badlands biome. |
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| Concrete | Similar to terracotta, Concrete is a very colorful building block, making it very versatile and useful of styling. In contrast to terracotta, however, concrete displays its color cleanly, as opposed to terracotta which displays its chosen color on top of its own base color, causing it to distort all colors and make them appear slightly darker than they should be. Additionally, concrete's surface is completely smooth, flawless and clean of blemishes, allowing it to be used for giving of a more clean and pure look, suitable for emulating modern architecture. |
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Nether[]
| Material | Description | Pros | Cons |
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| Netherrack | Netherrack is an easily-destroyed rock-like block found in the Nether. It can be mined very quickly and is found in abundance. Additionally, if a fire is lit on top it, it will burn forever. Netherrack itself has no stair or slab variant but can be processed into Nether Bricks, which do have them. Netherrack has a coarse and rough reddish surface, which makes it an apt block for a diabolical or hellish environment, similar to the Nether.
Nether Gold Ore, an ore variant of Netherrack, combines the reddish color with added golden details, making it give off an atmosphere of greed or avarice (red for diabolical, gold for wealth, combining to greed). It can be used as an analogue to Gilded Blackstone for creating a "gold-under-the-surface" look. |
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| Nether Bricks | Nether Bricks are a very otherworldly- and exotic-looking building material that fits well with structures meant to look intimidating and/or sinister.
Red Nether Bricks are identical to Nether Bricks, but have brighter red color, so they can give off a similar, but more "fiery" impression than normal Nether Bricks. |
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| Basalt | Basalt is a block which is generated in basalt deltas and soul sand valleys. Basalt can be made by lava flowing into a space that is on top of soul soil and next to blue ice. The flowing lava is replaced with basalt.
Basalt and Polished Basalt have a rather dour, gloomy and sickly grey color, so they should be used sparingly, or in conjunction with brighter color blocks, as by themselves they set a somewhat depressing mood. |
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| Block of Quartz | Quartz Block bears a striking similarity to Ancient Greek architecture and is a good option for buildings meant to look "philosophical", "civilized" or otherwise very clean in appearance. |
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| Blackstone | Blackstone is a black stone block found in the Nether. It has many smooth and brick variants. It works well for builds meant to look dark or evil. Gilded Blackstone, an ore variant of Blackstone, combines the black color with added golden details, which makes it a good block for giving off a mood of avarice or greed (black for evil and gold for wealth, combining to greed). Gilded Blackstone can also act as an analogue to Nether Gold Ore for creating a "gold-under-the-surface" look. |
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| Nether wood | The Nether variant of wood. Similar to building with planks, but they are not flammable.
Nether Wood has an unusual color palette of cyan and magenta, so it can be used to create fantasy-esque wooden structures. |
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The End[]
| Material | Description | Pros | Cons |
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| End Stone | End stone is a block that appears in The End, makes up all of the solid ground that exists in that dimension. End stone can be easily destroyed by any pickaxe. The 16 end stone blocks under the edge of the exit portal are replaced when the ender dragon is respawned, and again when it is killed.
Appearance-wise, raw End Stone looks somewhat like stereotypical Moon rock, so it can be utilized to create structures with an unusual "Lunar" look. Compare with Red Sand which somewhat resembles Mars dust. |
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| End Stone Bricks | End stone bricks are decorative blocks made from end stone. They resemble Stone Bricks but have the same color palette as End Stone, and should ideally be employed alongside said block, as otherwise they may look more like sand. |
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| Purpur Block | Purpur blocks are some of the hardest blocks to obtain in Survival Mode and, alongside end stone and end stone bricks, can be seen as end-game building materials. Aside from that, its purple hue grants a somewhat magical atmosphere to structures made from it. |
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