Like in many open-world games, Minecraft has a feature that allows the players to create a variety of items that will prove to be useful in building, exploring, and surviving in the world of Minecraft. This guide will help you understand the basics of item crafting to help you when you first start in Minecraft. This includes how you can make your Crafting Table and use it to craft an array of items ranging from basic materials, tools and equipment, and even decorative items for your in-game houses!
What is a Crafting Table in Minecraft?
One of the most essential items to carry is the Crafting Table. It is one of the utility blocks used to create new materials players can use throughout their playthrough. Specifically, the Crafting Table allows the player to craft items such as weapons, armor, tools, and other utility blocks using materials and crafting recipes.
When you first begin your playthrough in Minecraft, you may notice you can craft items in your inventory with a 2 x 2 grid. This is the default crafting feature that enables you to craft necessary items. However, that will not be enough to craft the more complex items such as swords and axes that require a bigger grid to craft with. To craft these items, you will need a Crafting Table, which has a 3 x 3 grid allowing you to craft many items you will need long term.
How to Craft a Crafting Table in Minecraft?
The only materials required to craft a Crafting Table are four wooden planks you can get by converting any wooden log into wooden planks in the default crafting menu. You can get these wooden logs by going up to any nearby tree and punching it by clicking the left mouse button until it breaks and drops a wooden block on the ground. Go near it to retrieve the block, which will automatically be placed in your inventory. You can access the inventory screen by pressing the “E” button on your keyboard.
Next, open your inventory screen and click on the newly retrieved wooden log to select it. Once you have selected the wooden log, clicking on the default crafting menu space will allow you to convert the wooden log into four wooden planks. Click on the four wooden planks to select them and place them back in the inventory by clicking on one of the empty spaces below the default crafting menu.
Now that you have four wooden planks in your inventory, you can craft a Crafting Table by individually placing the four wooden planks into the four empty spaces of the default crafting menu. This can be done by clicking on the four wooden planks in the inventory to select them and placing one wooden plank on all four spaces of the default crafting menu by clicking each of the four crafting spaces once. Doing this will convert the four wooden planks into a Crafting Table.
Click on the Crafting Table and place it on one of the empty spaces on the lowest row, the Hotbar, to access it immediately after exiting the inventory screen. Exit the inventory screen and scroll through your Hotbar until your character holds the Crafting Table block. Now, all you need to do is place the Crafting Table anywhere on the ground and right-click on it to use it.
Now that you know how to craft a Crafting Table, the next step is knowing how to use it to craft your items to improve the quality of your playthrough in Minecraft!
How to Use a Crafting Table in Minecraft?
Crafting in Minecraft involves different kinds of crafting recipes and various raw materials combined in the Crafting Table and other utility blocks. Although it may have been intended to let the player explore and try all sorts of patterns and items without any instructions or guides, it can also be overwhelming and time-consuming, especially for first-time players. Worry not! This guide will teach you how to use the Crafting Table to craft basic items you will need when starting and encourage you to explore the crafting recipes when you become more familiar with the game.
Crafting Recipes for Basic Tools and Equipment
In Minecraft, the same tools and equipment can be made with different materials, resulting in either a weaker or stronger item, depending on the raw materials used. For example, you can craft a wooden pickaxe that uses wooden planks or a diamond pickaxe that uses diamonds as raw materials. Preferably, you would want a diamond pickaxe for effective mining.
However, when you first start in Minecraft, you will not have the right tools to mine diamonds. Beginning with a wooden pickaxe is a more practical tool to start with, and progressing through the game by collecting more materials and learning the ropes, you can craft better upgrades for your tools and equipment.
So starting, the first thing you want to craft using the Crafting Table is a wooden ax. The wooden ax will enable you to chop wood faster than simply punching them. The materials required to craft the wooden ax are two sticks and three planks of any wood type.
Gather wood from a nearby tree and convert them into planks in a crafting menu to make sticks. Once you have two planks, place one plank on each of the second boxes of the Crafting Table’s first and second row, this will allow the planks to be turned into sticks.
Having all the required materials for the wooden ax, you can now craft one by opening the Crafting Table and placing one plank on the first and second box of the first row, then one plank and one stick on the first and second box of the second row, and lastly, placing a stick on the second box of the third row. Placing the materials on the Crafting Table in this order will create a wooden ax.
The second tool to craft is a wooden pickaxe. The wooden pickaxe will allow you to mine basic raw materials in Minecraft. The materials required to craft the wooden pickaxe are the same as the wooden ax: two sticks and three planks of any wood type.
Once you have all the required materials ready, open the Crafting Table and individually place a plank on all three boxes of the first row and a stick on both of the second boxes of the second and third row. This will convert the sticks and planks into a wooden pickaxe.
The third item to craft is a stone sword. Like in other games, Minecraft has its monsters lurking worldwide, and you will need a weapon to protect yourself. The wooden sword is one of the weapons used to damage entities, and it only requires one stick and two wooden planks. While you can craft a wooden sword because wood is easy to find, the stone sword provides more damage and durability while having only one material difference from the wooden sword, which is the cobblestone.
To obtain cobblestone, you only have to look for a nearby block of stone, switch to a pickaxe tool, and hit it until the block breaks. Note that using any other tool when breaking stone will not drop a cobblestone block.
When you have the raw materials ready, open the Crafting Table and individually place each cobblestone on the second box of the first and second row of the crafting menu, and place the stick on the second box of the third row. Doing so will convert these materials into a stone sword.
Crafting Recipes for Basic Decorative Items
You might be wondering why crafting decorative items are important when you first start in Minecraft. Despite calling them “decorative” items, they are not simply for decoration and have surprisingly practical uses throughout your gameplay.
First off are chests. As you may have noticed, your inventory only has a 3 x 9 grid or 27 inventory slots. Crafting chests will help you free up your inventory slots by allowing you to store materials that you might need later on in a separate space. The materials you will need are eight wooden planks of any wood type.
After you have gathered all the materials, open your Crafting Table and place one wooden plank on each of the three spaces of the first row, followed by placing one wooden plank on the first and third boxes of the second row, and lastly, place one plank on all three spaces of the third row.
The second item you will need is light sources, the easiest one being torches. Light sources are important because not only can they provide light for you to see at night or in dark areas like caves, but they also create a small area where monsters cannot spawn, so make sure to fill your house or base with light. The materials needed to craft a torch are a stick and charcoal or coal.
This guide will suggest using coal because it is easier to obtain than charcoal. Coal can be mined from coal ores located in caves, deep underground, or in the mountains, and just like cobblestone, coal can only be mined when used with a pickaxe.
Once you have collected the required materials, open your Crafting Table and place the coal on the second box of the first row, and then the stick on the second box of the second row.
Lastly, you will need to craft a bed. Minecraft has a day and night cycle like in the real world. Roaming around during nighttime is quite dangerous due to the low visibility and monsters lurking around. However, sleeping in a bed will automatically skip the night, and it will also set the bed as your new respawn site when you die.
Note: If monsters are nearby, you cannot fall asleep, and you will have to either kill the monsters or wait till morning.
You will need three planks of any wood type and three white wool to craft a white bed. You can gather white wool by either killing a sheep or shearing a sheep using the shears tool.
When you have obtained all the materials, open your Crafting Table and place one white wool on all three boxes of the first row and one wooden plank on all three boxes of the second row. Doing so will create a white bed.
