To make a beacon, craft it from five glass blocks, three obsidian blocks, and one Nether Star, then place it on a mineral-block pyramid. The Nether Star requires defeating the Wither. A filled 3×3 top layer is the minimum structure that activates a beacon; a four-layer pyramid uses 3×3, 5×5, 7×7, and 9×9 layers for maximum capability. Open the beacon interface, select an available effect, and pay with an iron, gold, diamond, emerald, or netherite ingot.
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What a beacon does
A beacon projects a vertical beam and provides selectable status effects to players within its active area. It is both a utility station and a visible landmark: the beam can mark a base, mine, road junction, or other important location, while the selected effect can improve work, travel, combat, defense, or recovery.
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The beacon itself is only one part of the build. It must sit on a correctly shaped pyramid made from completed mineral blocks, have a clear route to the sky, and be given a payment item whenever you select or change its power. A missing base block, an opaque obstruction above the beacon, or an unconfirmed payment can make a correctly crafted beacon appear broken.
Materials and the crafting recipe
Items required
- Five glass blocks
- Three obsidian blocks
- One Nether Star, obtained by defeating the Wither
The Nether Star is the gated ingredient. Glass and obsidian alone are not enough, so plan the beacon after you have secured a Wither fight and recovered the star it drops.
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Crafting-table arrangement
| Crafting-table position | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| Top row, left | Glass |
| Top row, center | Glass |
| Top row, right | Glass |
| Middle row, left | Glass |
| Middle row, center | Nether Star |
| Middle row, right | Glass |
| Bottom row, left, center, and right | Obsidian |
Put the Nether Star in the center slot, fill the entire bottom row with obsidian, and use glass in the other five slots. The result is one beacon.
Build the beacon pyramid
The base is made from filled blocks of iron, gold, emerald, diamond, netherite, or any mixture of those five materials. The blocks do not have to be the same material throughout one pyramid. What matters is that every position in each required layer contains a complete mineral block.
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Minimum one-layer beacon
For the first activation level, build a filled 3×3 square of mineral blocks and place the beacon on the center block of its top surface. This nine-block layer is the minimum filled base. A partial 3×3, an incorrectly sized layer, or a hollow outline does not count as a complete first layer.
Maximum four-layer pyramid
| Layer | Footprint | Blocks in that layer | Cumulative blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top layer | 3×3 | 9 | 9 |
| Second layer | 5×5 | 25 | 34 |
| Third layer | 7×7 | 49 | 83 |
| Bottom layer | 9×9 | 81 | 164 |
For the maximum structure, build the 9×9 bottom layer first, center a filled 7×7 layer on it, add a centered 5×5 layer, and finish with a centered 3×3 layer. Place the beacon on the center of that 3×3 top. The complete four-layer pyramid contains 164 mineral blocks.
Each layer must be directly supported by the layer below it. A block moved, mined, replaced with an ordinary building block, or omitted from the middle of a layer can reduce the active level or stop the beacon altogether.
Give the beacon access to the sky
The beacon needs an unobstructed view upward. Remove opaque blocks in the vertical path above it, including blocks inside a roof, floor, tower, or underground room. Transparent blocks such as glass can remain in that path, which lets you enclose or decorate the beacon without blocking the beam.
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If you are building indoors, a glass skylight is a practical solution. Check the entire column above the beacon rather than only the block immediately above it; a solid ceiling farther up can still prevent activation. The pyramid can be built at ground level, on a platform, or in another location as long as the beacon has the required sky path and its base remains intact.
Activate the beacon and select a power
- Defeat the Wither and collect the Nether Star. Gather the five glass and three obsidian needed for the recipe.
- Craft the beacon. Use the arrangement shown above in a crafting table.
- Construct the pyramid. Start with the 3×3 minimum, or build centered 5×5, 7×7, and 9×9 layers for the full four-layer version.
- Place the beacon. Set it on the center of the top 3×3 layer, not beside the layer or on an unfilled space.
- Clear the sky path. Break opaque blocks above the beacon; leave transparent blocks such as glass if desired.
- Open the beacon interface. Interact with the beacon after its beam appears or after the structure is otherwise complete.
- Choose a primary effect. Select one of the powers offered by the interface for your pyramid and edition.
- Insert the payment item. Place one iron ingot, gold ingot, diamond, emerald, or netherite ingot in the payment slot.
- Confirm the selection. The effect does not apply merely because it is highlighted; confirm the interface after inserting an accepted item.
The payment is a single accepted item from that list, not another Nether Star or another beacon. If a power will not apply, verify both the item type and the confirmation step.
Which beacon power is best?
There is no universally best effect. Choose according to what you repeatedly do in the beacon’s area. The named powers in current references are Speed, Haste, Strength, Resistance, and Regeneration.
| Power | Best fit | Why choose it | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haste | Mining, quarrying, and excavation bases | Supports faster block breaking, so it pays off whenever you spend long periods clearing stone or other blocks. | It does not improve travel speed or directly increase melee damage. |
| Speed | Large farms, roads, and spread-out bases | Helps you move repeatedly between work areas inside the beacon’s coverage. | It does not replace a mining-focused effect when the main bottleneck is breaking blocks. |
| Resistance | Defensive positions and hazardous work areas | Useful when explosions, projectiles, or environmental damage are the primary risks. | It is defensive rather than a movement, mining, or attack boost. |
| Strength | Combat arenas and mob-fighting areas | Best when you repeatedly fight with melee attacks near the beacon. | It does not protect you from incoming damage as a defensive effect. |
| Regeneration | Long fights, recovery areas, and sustained healing | Useful when maintaining health over time matters more than speed or block breaking. | It is not a substitute for preventing damage in an exposed area. |
Choose Haste for a mining base
Haste is the practical default for a permanent excavation site. If the beacon sits beside a quarry, tunnel network, or large construction project, the time saved on repeated block breaking is usually more valuable than a movement boost that you can obtain elsewhere. Keep the beacon near the blocks you are actually clearing rather than treating the beam as decoration at a distant headquarters.
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Choose Speed for travel-heavy layouts
Speed suits a base organized around repeated trips: crop fields on one side, animal pens on another, storage farther away, and roads connecting them. It is also a sensible choice for large farms where you spend more time moving between stations than mining in one spot.
Choose Resistance when survival is the constraint
Use Resistance when the area’s main problem is incoming danger. A combat entrance, a blast-prone work zone, or a location exposed to projectiles benefits more from a defensive selection than from faster movement. Fix the structure first if the protection suddenly disappears; a damaged pyramid can weaken the active effect.
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Choose Strength for repeated melee combat
Strength is aimed at a combat area where you stay within the beacon’s active area and attack repeatedly. It is most useful for a dedicated arena or a mob-fighting station, not for a base where combat is only occasional.
Choose Regeneration for sustained healing
Regeneration is the healing-oriented choice when health recovery is the task you care about most. The exact set of choices and how they are offered can depend on the game edition and pyramid level, so use the effect that your beacon interface makes available after the structure is complete.
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Adding layers upgrades the pyramid from the one-layer minimum to the four-layer maximum. Higher structures provide access to stronger or additional selections according to the game’s beacon rules, but exact activation ranges and secondary-power rules can vary by Java or Bedrock edition and by version. Do not assume that a range or secondary-effect rule from one edition applies unchanged to the other.
The practical test is local: stand where you intend to work, open the beacon, and inspect the powers the completed pyramid offers. If the interface shows fewer choices than expected, verify every layer and every block before treating it as an edition difference.
One beacon or several?
A single beacon is simplest when one work area is compact. It requires one pyramid, one clear sky path, and one selected effect. Several beacons make sense when important work areas are separated or when you want different effects in different locations—for example, a mining site using Haste and a combat site using Strength.
Each beacon still needs its own valid placement and supporting pyramid. Several beams can be used as landmarks, but overlapping coverage should not be planned around an assumed radius: exact current ranges are edition- and version-sensitive. Build one beacon, test its effective area in your edition, and place additional beacons according to the distances your world actually requires.
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Change the beam’s color
To tint the beam, place a stained-glass block above the beacon in its upward path. Replace the stained glass with another color to change the appearance, or remove it to return to the normal beam. The glass must not be replaced with an opaque block, because the color change should preserve the beacon’s sky access.
Color is cosmetic and does not select the power. Use different colors to identify separate stations, mark a route, or distinguish a mining beacon from a combat beacon without changing their effects.
Planning the base materials
All five accepted mineral-block types can be combined in one pyramid. This lets you build the structure from whichever blocks you can supply instead of waiting for a single-material stockpile. Decide the footprint before gathering: the minimum requires nine blocks, while the full four-layer version requires 164.
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- Build the 5×5 or 7×7 layers when you want an intermediate upgrade without committing to the full footprint.
- Build all four layers when the beacon is a permanent centerpiece and you want the maximum structure supported by the recipe.
- Mix materials deliberately if a uniform appearance is not important; the accepted block types can share the same pyramid.
Why a beacon is not working: troubleshooting
No beam appears
- Check that the beacon is sitting on the center of a filled 3×3 mineral-block layer.
- Check that every intended higher layer is complete and centered: 5×5 above 7×7 above 9×9 for a four-layer pyramid.
- Look directly upward and remove opaque blocks from the sky path.
- Check for a missing, moved, or accidentally replaced pyramid block.
Transparent blocks such as glass can remain above the beacon, so do not remove a glass skylight unnecessarily. If the base is underground, inspect the ceiling and every solid block above it before rebuilding the pyramid.
The beam works but the effect is weaker
A damaged or incomplete pyramid can reduce the active level. Compare the current structure with the intended footprint, especially the outside edges and the center under the beacon. Repair or replace the missing mineral block, then reopen the interface and check the available powers.
The power will not apply
Open the beacon interface, select the effect, place one accepted payment item—iron ingot, gold ingot, diamond, emerald, or netherite ingot—in the payment slot, and confirm. A highlighted effect without a payment item is not enough. If the item is accepted but the control remains unavailable, return to the structure checks: the beacon may not recognize the required pyramid level.
The wrong power is active
Reopen the interface and select the effect that matches the current job. Mining and excavation call for Haste, travel-heavy farms and roads for Speed, defensive danger for Resistance, melee combat for Strength, and sustained healing for Regeneration when that option is offered. Confirm the new selection with an accepted payment item.
The beam color is wrong
Inspect the stained-glass block directly above the beacon. Replace it with the intended color, remove it for an untinted beam, and make sure no opaque block has been placed in the same column. A color change does not require rebuilding the pyramid.
Repair and maintenance checklist
- Keep spare blocks of one or more accepted mineral types near the beacon.
- Protect the outer edges of the 9×9, 7×7, 5×5, and 3×3 layers from accidental mining.
- Do not build an opaque roof over the beacon unless you include a glass opening that preserves the sky path.
- When relocating the beacon, move the pyramid and beacon together; changing only the beacon’s position can leave it off-center.
- After repairs, open the interface and verify the selected effect instead of assuming the old setting returned automatically.
Beacon dimensions in advancement documentation
Minecraft Wiki advancement documentation describes a 20×20×14-block cuboid associated with the beacon advancement. That figure is a game-mechanics dimension for the advancement, not a statistic about beacon use and not a universal statement of every beacon’s effect range. Treat it separately from the pyramid footprints and from edition-specific coverage rules.
A practical build sequence
For a first beacon, the least wasteful order is to secure the Nether Star, craft the beacon, and place a temporary 3×3 base at the work site. Confirm that the beam and one power function before investing in the larger layers. If the location becomes a permanent mining, travel, defense, combat, or healing station, expand outward in centered 5×5, 7×7, and 9×9 layers. This approach gives you a working utility early while leaving the final footprint and material mix flexible.
The final choice should follow the job performed inside the beacon area, not the visual size of the pyramid. Haste is the general mining choice, Speed the travel choice, Resistance the defensive choice, Strength the melee choice, and Regeneration the sustained-healing choice. Keep the sky path clear, pay for the selected effect, and repair the pyramid as soon as a block is lost.
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