How To Make A Beacon In Minecraft

From Allays to respawning the Ender Dragon, Minecraft is full of little secrets and easter eggs that can drastically change how you play. One lesser-known Minecraft creation is the Beacon.

A Beacon is an expensive but powerful structure that provides various benefits and can make building a base a much better experience.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to make a Beacon in Minecraft and all the ways to customize it. Let’s get started.

What Is A Beacon In Minecraft?

A Minecraft Beacon block emits a vertical beam into the sky, allowing you to see it from afar.

It’s a great way to mark your home base, but it can also provide status effects to improve your Minecraft experience.

We’ll discuss them later, but these status effects are categorized into a Primary Power and a Secondary Power.

Powers remain active as long as you’re within the range of the Beacon. A Beacon’s range varies based on its pyramid level.

How To Make A Beacon In Minecraft

Making a Beacon block in Minecraft isn’t too tricky, but it’s no walk in the Overworld, either.

The first step of the Beacon block recipe consists of five Glass Blocks, three Obsidian Blocks, and a Nether Star.

Glass Blocks

Glass Blocks are easy to acquire. Simply dig up some Sand with your hand or a Shovel and smelt it in a Furnace. It will turn into Glass.

Obsidian Blocks

While you can find Obsidian while exploring underground, making this rare block is typically faster.

Simply create a Bucket out of Iron Ingots, fill it with water, and find some Lava source blocks.

Then, pour the water over the Lava source blocks, and it will turn into Obsidian.

Make sure you mine the Obsidian with a Diamond pickaxe, as any lower-level pickaxe will destroy it.

Nether Star

Acquiring a Nether Star requires you to defeat the Wither boss.

The Wither is a terrifying boss mob that soars around shooting skulls at you and your friends.

Even worse? You can’t find this boss in the wild. You have to build and activate it instead.

To build the Wither, you must enter the Nether and find some Soul Sand as well as three Wither Skeleton Skulls.

Soul Sand is all over the Nether, but the Wither Skeletons are harder to find. To fight these, you must find a Nether Fortress.

Not only this, but Wither Skeleton Skulls are a scarce drop, meaning you’ll have to fight a ton of these mobs for the item to appear.

Once you acquire three Wither Skeleton Skulls, head back to the Overworld and prepare to build the Wither. Arrange the items as follows:

• Soul Sand in the shape of a T.
• Three Wither Skeleton Skulls on top of the Sand.

Note that the second you place that third skull, the Wither will activate with an explosion.

It’s best to do this in an open area away from anything important.

The Wither will drop one Nether Star after you defeat it. Now, you can use the Nether Star alongside the other materials to create the Beacon Block.

Now that the block is complete, you must build a pyramid to take advantage of its full effects.

What Is Minecraft Beacon Pyramid?

A pyramid is the other half of the Beacon-building process, as it activates a Beacon’s powers.

There are four levels of pyramid, with each level giving the Beacon better powers.

You must create a pyramid with one of the following block types:

• Diamond Blocks
• Gold Blocks
• Emerald Blocks
• Netherite Blocks
• Iron Blocks

Creating a block is easy, requiring you to place one Ingot in all nine slots on a Crafting Table.

The Beacon demands, alongside their range, are:

• Level One: Nine blocks, with effects reaching 20 blocks.
• Level Two: 34 blocks, with effects reaching 30 blocks.
• Level Three: 83 blocks, with effects reaching 40 blocks.
• Level Four: 164 blocks, with effects reaching 50 blocks.

From level one onward, you can choose a Beacon’s Primary Power. The fourth level allows you to choose a Secondary Power.

Primary Power

You can choose a Beacon’s Primary Power based on its level.

A first-layer pyramid allows you to pick the Haste or the Speed power.

A second-layer pyramid adds the Resistance or Jump Boost powers, while the third-layer pyramid unlocks the Strength power.

To activate a power, you must select it and place one of the following five items into the Beacon:

• Iron Ingot
• Gold Ingot
• Diamond
• Emerald
• Netherite Ingot

Once you’ve input the material and selected a power, click the Green Checkbox. You must input a new material every time you change the power.

Secondary Power

A full pyramid (one with a fourth layer) unlocks the Regeneration power alongside the Secondary Power option.

Here, you can choose to have the Regeneration Power alongside the Primary one, or you can choose to level up a Primary status effect to level two in lieu of the Regeneration Power.

Just keep in mind that whatever power you choose will only be effective when you’re within range of the Beacon in Minecraft.

If you want extra status effects simultaneously, you can build multiple Beacons next to each other.

Bonus Beacon Details

You can change the color of a Beacon’s beam by placing Stained Glass above the pyramid’s top layer.

If you place multiple colors of Stained Glass, the color will average out their values to make a unique color.

While playing Java Edition, a Beacon’s beam reaches up to 256 blocks away, meaning it’s a great way to mark your home base’s location. The beam is also a high light level, meaning enemies will not spawn near it. A Beacon in Minecraft can also melt snow or ice if it’s close enough.

Now that you’re aware of how to make a Beacon in Minecraft, why not gather some friends to build one together?

NameHero offers multiple Minecraft server packages for up to 32 friends. Each package includes multiple layers of DDOS support, 24/7 uptime, and comprehensive server backups. For more information on running a Minecraft server through NameHero, check out this page.