Lighting is key to surviving in Minecraft. Light prevents monsters from appearing inside your structures, helps you find your way home, and makes exploring underground much easier. Flashlights can also help you avoid falling into ravines and avoid other dangers by making them visible at night.
Steps
Part 1 of 5: Collect the Materials You Need
Step 1. Turn the wood into wooden planks and sticks
As you already know, you can break trees to get wooden blocks. You need to transform the blocks into other materials by following these steps:
- Drag the wood into the crafting grid into your inventory. Click on the axes in the result box while holding down Shift to complete the recipe.
- Overlap two planks in the crafting grid to get the sticks. Shift-click the results box.
- Note: All build instructions described in this article are for the computer version of the game. On consoles or in the Pocket Edition, just open the creation menu and choose the name of the recipe.
Step 2. Build a workbench
If you don't have a workbench yet, put four planks in the 2x2 grid of your inventory to get one. Place it on the ground and use it with a right click.
In the Pocket Edition, press the workbench. On consoles, open the crafting menu when you are near the table
Step 3. Build a wooden pickaxe
If you don't have a pickaxe, make one. The cheapest one is wooden:
- Place a stick in the center of the 3x3 crafting grid.
- Place a second stick directly under the first.
- Fill the entire top row with wooden planks.
Part 2 of 5: Making Torches
Step 1. Dig some coal
You can get it from rocks that have black spots. You will find it quite easily along mountain sides, in shallow caves and wherever abundant deposits of stone are found. Dig it out by equipping your pickaxe and breaking blocks of raw coal.
If you can't find any charcoal, skip to the method of using charcoal
Step 2. Combine sticks and coal to make torches
Put some charcoal directly on top of a stick in the crafting grid to get four torches. These are very useful items, so build as many of them as you can.
Part 3 of 5: Building Charcoal Torches
Step 1. Build a furnace
If you can't find coal, you can use this alternative method of making torches. To begin with, you need a furnace, which you can build with eight blocks of crushed stone. Place the crushed stone in the workbench grid, leaving only the middle square free. Place the furnace on the ground.
Step 2. Put some wood in the top box of the furnace
Use the furnace to open its interface. Put the wood blocks in the box above the flames. By burning wood you will get charcoal.
Step 3. Place the wooden planks in the bottom box of the furnace
The lowest space of the furnace interface is reserved for fuel. As soon as you put some flammable material in that box, the furnace will start burning. Planks are more efficient than wood blocks, so use those for charcoal.
Step 4. Wait for the charcoal to form
The furnace will burn the wooden blocks rather quickly, producing charcoal in the result box on the right. Put it in inventory.
Step 5. Make torches out of charcoal and wooden sticks
Put some charcoal directly on top of a stick in the crafting grid to get four torches.
Part 4 of 5: Using a Flashlight
Step 1. Place the torches on the ground or walls
Equip a flashlight from the quick select bar and click on the ground or a wall. These objects can be placed on any dull solid surface and will burn indefinitely. You can pick up a flashlight again by "breaking" it, or by breaking the block it is attached to.
Step 2. Light up environments to prevent monsters from being created
Most enemies cannot spawn in lighted areas, although they can enter areas containing torches without taking damage. Here are some examples of the minimum number of torches needed to prevent monsters from appearing:
- In a one-block-wide gallery, place the torches at eye level every 11 blocks.
- In a two-block wide tunnel, place the torches at eye level every 8 blocks.
- In large rooms, place torches in a row every 12 blocks. At the end of the row, go back 6 blocks, walk right or left 6 blocks, and start another row. Repeat until you cover the floor with these rows of torches.
Step 3. Piazza delle torce to find the way home
When exploring caves or traveling underground for a long time, you can use artificial lights to keep your bearings. In the caves, place the torches only on your right as you go down. That way, when you want to go back, just keep the torches to his left.
Step 4. Create landmarks
The flashlights are not very bright, but it is quite easy to see them even at a great distance. Build a tall tower out of earth or other material, then cover the top with torches. You can use this landmark as a guide if you lose your way home.
Part 5 of 5: Constructing Red Stone Torches
Step 1. Build redstone torches to use in redstone circuits
They illuminate, but not enough to prevent the monsters from appearing. Redstone is Minecraft's version of electricity, so these flashlights are often used as parts of circuits. They can also allow you to create a spooky atmosphere, like that of a ghost house.
Step 2. Find some rough red stone
Seek it in the depths of the earth. To extract it, you need at least an iron pickaxe.
Step 3. Place the red stone on top of a stick in the crafting grid
This recipe is the same as for normal torches, but with a red stone instead of coal.
You can also make flashing redstone torches
Advice
- You cannot put torches on transparent blocks, such as stairs, cacti and leaves. You can place torches on top of the glass blocks, but not on their sides.
- The torches melt the ice and snow blocks. Be especially careful when squares in snowy biomes, or you could trigger a flood.
- Torches cannot ignite other objects.
