You’ll likely end up getting a lot of Flint by accident in Minecraft. This is due to Flint mainly dropping from a common type of mineable block. Though, you can also get it in other ways.
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Every Way You Can Get Flint
The easiest way to get Flint—by far—is by mining Gravel blocks with a Shovel. There is a 10% chance for Flint to drop instead of Gravel when you mine a Gravel block. The reason to use a Shovel to mine this type of block is due to such tools being able to break them much faster. You can still use a Pickaxe to break Gravel blocks, but it’s much slower.
As a small side note, you cannot get Flint from Gravel when you mine the Gravel blocks with a tool that has the Silk Touch enchantment. A tool with this enchantment will cause Gravel blocks to always drop themselves when broken.
Getting Flint by Trading With Villagers
In the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft, you have a 50% chance of finding a Novice-level Fletcher Villager who will sell you some Flint. Their price will be 10 Gravel blocks and 1 Emerald for 10 Flint. This same trade option exists for Novice-level Fletcher Villagers in the Java Edition of the game, though the odds of them having this trade option is 66%.
Finding Flint in Naturally-Generated Structures
You can also potentially find Flint in the Chests of some naturally-generated structures. Within Villages, you have a 55.8% chance of finding 1 to 3 Flint in Fletcher’s Chests.
Additionally, you have a 46.4% chance to find 1 to 4 Flint in the Chests of Ruined Portals. These structures can spawn in either the overworld or in the Nether.
What You Can Use Flint For
As a crafting component, Flint is only used to potentially make 3 items: a Fletching Table, Arrows, and a Flint and Steel. To make a Fletching Table, you’ll need 2 Flint and 4 Wood Planks of any kind. On a Crafting Table, place the Wood Planks in a square shape anywhere that does not occupy any of the top slots of the crafting grid. Then, put the 2 Flint on the slots of the top row above the square of Wood Planks.
If you plan to do a lot of archery in Minecraft, besides a Bow, you’ll need many Arrows. Thankfully, they’re pretty simple to craft if you have Flint, Sticks, and Feathers. On a Crafting Table, place 1 Flint on the top-middle slot and then put 1 Stick below it. Afterward, place 1 Feather on the bottom-middle slot to get 4 Arrows.
For Flint and Steel, all you’ll need besides 1 Flint is 1 Iron Ingot. Place these 2 components diagonally to one another on any crafting grid to get a Flint and Steel. This handy tool will be useful for your more explosive tasks.
Using Flint for Trading
For some reason, many Villagers seem very hungry for Flint, as there are a bunch of them that have trade options involving this resource. However, the chances of particular Villagers possessing Flint-related trade options differ between the Bedrock and Java Editions.
In the Bedrock Edition:
- Apprentice-level Fletcher Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 24 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)
- Apprentice-level Leatherworker Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 26 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)
- Journeyman-level Toolsmith Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 30 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)
- Journeyman-level Weaponsmith Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 24 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)
In the Java Edition:
- Apprentice-level Fletcher Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 24 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)
- Apprentice-level Leatherworker Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 26 Flint (trade option chance is 66%)
- Journeyman-level Toolsmith Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 30 Flint (trade option chance is 40%)
- Journeyman-level Weaponsmith Villagers will pay you 1 Emerald for 24 Flint (trade option chance is 100%)