How to make and use fireworks in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
Fireworks in Minecraft

Fireworks in Minecraft might seem useless, but they can actually help you fly around the Overworld. If you’re yet to illuminate your base, check out this guide on how to make and use fireworks in Minecraft.

The abundance of items that you craft with a 3×3 crafting grid in Minecraft is impressive, to say the least. A journey that starts with players making beds, buckets, armor, paper, and other necessities soon turns into a creative adventure where you can make elevators, beacons, potions, and a ton of interesting mechanisms.

An item that every Minecraft player must look to craft is fireworks. They may look cool, but fireworks in Minecraft have a slightly complicated crafting procedure. Don’t worry, we have you covered.

Here’s a guide that wraps up everything you need to know about fireworks in Minecraft.

Fireworks explosion in Minecraft at night

Materials required to make fireworks in Minecraft

You need the following items to make fireworks in Minecraft:

  • Firework Star – One piece of gunpowder + any dye. (optional)
  • Three pieces of gunpowder
  • Paper

You can get paper by adding three pieces of sugar cane to the crafting table. The plant grows near water and is fairly easy to identify and obtain.

As for gunpowder, killing Creepers, Witches, and Ghasts is the best way to obtain some. Killing some of these mobs should provide you with enough materials to host a fireworks concert in your world.

Sugarcane growing near water in Minecraft.

Crafting recipe to make fireworks in Minecraft

If you want to make a firework that doesn’t explode, just add 1-3 pieces of gunpower and a piece of paper to the Minecraft crafting grid. Luckily, this recipe doesn’t have a fixed pattern and you simply need to add the ingredients.

Crafting recipe to make fireworks in Minecraft

To make fireworks that explode, you’ll just need to add a Firework Star alongside the paper and gunpowder. Make a Firework Star easily by putting gunpowder and a dye in the crafting grid. The color of the dye determines the color of the firework’s explosion.

Another thing to keep in mind while crafting fireworks in the game is their flight distance and you can change this by adding one to three pieces of gunpowder. Adding one piece will make a firework rocket with the least flight duration and adding three pieces will grant maximum flight duration to it.

How to add effects to your fireworks in Minecraft

You can also add extra color and shape effects to your fireworks in Minecraft with dyes and other items. Here’s a list of the items that can help you do so:

Item Effet
Fire Charge (Craft by putting Charcoal or Coal with Blaze Powder and Gunpowder)Large Ball Explosion
Gold Nugget (Obtained from Gold ingots) Star-shaped explosion
Player head or mob head Creeper head-shaped explosion
Feather (Obtain by killing chickens)Burst explosion
Glowstone (Generates in the Nether)Twinkles after explosion
Diamond (Smelt Diamond Ore)Trail after explosion
Glowstone + Diamond Twinkles and Trail after the explosion

Do note that the aforementioned items need to be added to the crafting grid while making the Firework Star, not the fireworks. Make a Firework Star with the effects first and then make fireworks with it to get the desired results.

Fireworks in Minecraft

You can only add one item that grants shape effects to the fireworks. Moreover, paper and gunpowder will be common ingredients for crafting fireworks regardless of the effects. Lastly, you can add one color or multiple colors while crafting the Firework Star to make your fireworks more vibrant.

Surprisingly, you can craft over 2.1 trillion unique fireworks with the effects and items mentioned above.

Here’s an example of a Firework Star that has gunpowder, Fire Charge, diamond, Glowstone, and dyes:

Crafting recipe to make Firework Star in Minecraft

Why use fireworks in Minecraft

Here are the primary uses of fireworks in Minecraft:

  • Place fireworks on the ground or launch them with a dispenser toward the sky. They will explode once the flight distance finishes.
  • Equip the fireworks in your off-hand while using a Crossbow. Fire the weapon to launch and detonate the fireworks. You can also deal damage to players and mobs with these shots.
  • Equip Elytra wings and jump from a high location. Use the rockets mid-air and you’ll get a massive boost allowing you to fly for a long distance.
Minecraft player fling with the help of fireworks

Well, this was everything to know about fireworks in Minecraft. For more content on the sandbox game, check out how to make TNT, how to make a composter, and how to craft a fence.

Image Credits: Mojang

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About The Author

Aakrit is a games writer with over 2000 published articles for EssentiallySports, Sportskeeda, FortniteINTEL, and CharlieINTEL. Currently, he writes guides on Minecraft, Roblox, Pokemon games, Genshin Impact, and Brawlhalla. Aakrit loves playing shooter games and in his free time, you can find him queued up in Valorant, Fortnite, Apex Legends, or Halo Infinite. You can contact Aakrit at [email protected].