The Blast Furnace is a more powerful variant of Minecraft’s furnace that is much better at smelting metals. Here’s the recipe to craft them.

One of the most essential parts of Minecraft, one of the most influential indie games of all time, is a key part of its title: crafting. Players must employ the game’s simple-to-understand crafting grids to create new tools and equipment and survive nightfall and other perilous adventures of their own choosing. However, crafting tables alone won’t suffice. To smelt mined ore into ingots in Minecraft, players will need to use furnaces, and with the Village and Pillage update, a more powerful metal furnace was added to the game.

Blast furnaces are a visually distinct upgrade for the iconic furnace that’s been in Minecraft for over a decade. This specialized smelter has a more complicated crafting recipe than the original furnace and functions a little differently, but players who build one will be able to create important metals much faster. Here’s how to craft blast furnaces, as well as ways players can make use of their speed.

Everything to Know About Minecraft’s Blast Furnace

Crafting a blast furnace in Minecraft does not require many complex materials. After accessing a crafting table, players will need to place a regular furnace in the middle of the grid. Next, they should take five iron ingots and place them on the top three rows and in the two spots adjacent to the furnace in the second row. Compared to some of the other ore minable in the game, iron isn’t too difficult to find and spawns frequently throughout the game world.

The final ingredient, smooth stone, takes a few more steps to obtain. While this block is one of the most common blocks naturally occurring in Minecraft, mining it with a pickaxe will turn it into a cobblestone block. To convert it back to smooth stone, players must place it in a furnace and smelt it like they would iron ore. Once three are made, they go on the bottom slots under the furnace in the crafting grid to complete the recipe. Though this is the most straightforward method of crafting blast furnaces, they can also spawn in randomly generated villages.

Once players have a blast furnace in Minecraft, they can place it anywhere they desire and use it like a regular furnace. The primary benefit of this upgrade is that it can smelt metal considerably faster, although it does consume its fuel source just as quickly. However, it’s important to note that blast furnaces only smelt metal objects and cannot cook food like the regular furnace. If adventurers are in a bind and want to smelt their worn-down tools and armor for more iron to craft something brand new, they can take advantage of the blast furnace’s speed. This is a useful alternative when in the treacherous Nether, as iron ore does not naturally spawn there and can be difficult to find. Additionally, if players plan to craft Netherite Scrap for powerful equipment, using a blast furnace is the quickest method to do so. Fans who find themselves in an online PVP match or survival server can also utilize the blast furnace to quickly smelt iron ore so they have enough ingots to outfit their team faster.

Next: Where Minecraft's New Mobs & Items Can Be Found

Minecraft is available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and PC.