Essential Crafting Recipes Every Beginner Needs
Make planks, a Crafting Table, sticks and a Wooden Pickaxe first, then stone tools, torches, a Furnace, a Chest and a Bed. Iron gear comes next.
The whole kit costs seven logs, 17 Cobblestone, four Coal and three wool of one colour. Every wooden recipe in it accepts any wood type, so cut whichever trees are closest.
Start in your inventory grid
Your inventory has a 2×2 crafting grid. These four starter recipes fit in it, so you can craft them anywhere:
- Planks: 1 log gives 4 planks of the same wood.
- Crafting Table: 4 planks in a square. Place it and use it to open the 3×3 grid most recipes need.
- Sticks: 2 planks stacked vertically give 4 sticks.
- Torch: 1 Coal or Charcoal on top of 1 Stick gives 4 torches.
Sticks, the Crafting Table, tools, chests and beds even accept mixed woods in one craft. Doors and boats do not: every plank in them must be the same wood. Since 26.3, Poplar Planks count as any wood too, and Poplar Logs smelt into Charcoal like any other log.
The starter kit and what it costs
| Recipe | Ingredients | You get |
|---|---|---|
| Crafting Table | 4 planks | 1 |
| Sticks | 2 planks | 4 |
| Wooden Pickaxe | 3 planks, 2 sticks | 1 |
| Stone Pickaxe | 3 Cobblestone, 2 sticks | 1 |
| Stone Axe | 3 Cobblestone, 2 sticks | 1 |
| Stone Sword | 2 Cobblestone, 1 stick | 1 |
| Stone Shovel | 1 Cobblestone, 2 sticks | 1 |
| Furnace | 8 Cobblestone | 1 |
| Torch | 1 Coal or Charcoal, 1 stick | 4 |
| Chest | 8 planks | 1 |
| Bed | 3 wool of one colour, 3 planks | 1 |
Sixteen sticks cover the Wooden Pickaxe (2), the four stone tools (7) and four batches of torches (4), with three spare. Those sticks cost 8 planks. With the Crafting Table, Wooden Pickaxe, Chest and Bed, the total is 26 planks: seven logs, with two planks left over. The four stone tools take 9 Cobblestone and the Furnace takes 8.
Make one wooden tool, not four
A Wooden Pickaxe is the only wooden tool you need. Stone drops nothing when you break it by hand, but any pickaxe turns it into Cobblestone, and three Cobblestone make a Stone Pickaxe. A wooden tool lasts 59 uses. The stone version lasts 131 for the same number of items, so skip the wooden axe, sword and shovel.
Every crafted tier (wood, stone, copper, iron, gold and diamond) uses the same four shapes:
- Pickaxe: 3 head blocks across the top row, 2 sticks down the middle column.
- Axe: 3 head blocks in an L in the top corner, 2 sticks down the middle. It also works mirrored.
- Sword: 2 head blocks above 1 stick.
- Shovel: 1 head block above 2 sticks.
Cobblestone, Blackstone and Cobbled Deepslate all work as a stone head, and you can mix them. Stone, Smooth Stone and Mossy Cobblestone do not. Netherite gear is not crafted this way: you upgrade diamond gear at a Smithing Table.
What each pickaxe can mine
| Tier | Uses | Mining speed (× hand) | Overworld ores it can mine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden | 59 | 2 | Coal |
| Stone | 131 | 4 | Coal, Iron, Copper, Lapis Lazuli |
| Copper | 190 | 5 | Same as stone |
| Iron | 250 | 6 | Adds Gold, Redstone, Diamond, Emerald |
Breaking an ore with too low a tier destroys it and drops nothing, which is how new players lose their first Iron Ore to a wooden pickaxe. Copper tools use Copper Ingots in the same shapes. They mine faster and last longer than stone, but they still cannot mine Diamond Ore, so treat them as a stopgap until you have iron.
Furnace, charcoal and fuel
The Furnace is 8 Cobblestone around an empty centre, and the same three stones work in it. Each item takes 10 seconds to smelt.
Without coal, smelt a log: the result, Charcoal, crafts torches and burns exactly like Coal.
Each fuel smelts a fixed number of items:
- Coal or Charcoal smelts 8 items.
- A log smelts 1.5 items, and so does a single plank.
- A stick smelts half an item.
So one log burned whole smelts 1.5 items, but the same log crafted into 4 planks smelts 6. When you make charcoal, put logs in the top slot and planks in the fuel slot. The furnace fuel calculator works out how much of any fuel a batch needs.
Storage and a bed
A Chest is 8 planks around an empty centre and holds 27 slots. Place a second chest beside it and the two merge into a double chest with 54 slots.
A Bed is 3 wool of one colour over 3 planks of any wood (the White Bed recipe shows the grid; other colours use the same shape). Shearing a sheep gives 1 to 3 wool, and killing an unsheared one drops 1. Never use a bed in the Nether or the End: it explodes.
Since 26.3 you can also craft single-use beds. Put 3 Hay Bales side by side, each made from 9 Wheat, and you get 4 Straw Beds. One lets you sleep through a night, then breaks when you get up, and it never becomes your respawn point. When you can sleep and how respawning works are in the first night survival guide.
Spend your first iron in this order
Smelt Raw Iron in the Furnace to get Iron Ingots, then work down this list:
| Item | Iron Ingots | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Iron Pickaxe | 3 | The first pickaxe that mines Diamond, Gold and Redstone Ore |
| Shield | 1, plus 6 planks | Blocks attacks from the front while you hold right-click |
| Bucket | 3 | Carries water, lava and milk, and you keep it after emptying |
| Shears | 2 | Wool without killing sheep |
| Iron Chestplate | 8 | 6 armour points, the most of any iron piece |
A full iron set costs 24 ingots (5 helmet, 8 chestplate, 7 leggings, 4 boots) for 15 armour points.
The Shield puts the Iron Ingot in the top centre. Planks fill the rest of the top row, the whole middle row and the bottom centre. Shears fit the 2×2 grid: two ingots on a diagonal, either way round.
Food: bread and cooked meat
Bread is 3 Wheat in a horizontal row. It restores 5 hunger points with 6 saturation, and it needs the Crafting Table because the row is three slots wide. Meat is cooked, not crafted: Raw Beef goes into the Furnace and comes out as Steak, which restores 8 hunger points with 12.8 saturation. The best food guide ranks what to eat once you have more options.