Campfires can increase the comfortable vibes of any outdoor area in Minecraft. However, they’re for more than just warm aesthetics. You can make one from coal and wood for cooking, lighting up an area, sending smoke signals, and more.
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What You Need to Make a Campfire
You will need 3 Sticks, 1 Coal, and 3 Wood Logs of any kind to make a Campfire. On a Crafting Table, place the 3 Wood Logs into the bottom slots. Then, put the Coal into the middle slot before surrounding it with Sticks on top as well as to its left and right. Following this, you can pick up a pre-lit Campfire.
Crafting Recipe Substitutions
In place of Coal, you can use Charcoal for the Campfire’s crafting recipe. Furthermore, any kind of Wood Log can be used–even those of different types. For example, Oak Logs can be used with Dark Oak Logs to make a Campfire. However, Wooden Planks can’t be used in place of Wood Logs.
How to Get Wood Logs, Sticks, and Coal
When you cut down a tree, either by hand or with an axe, you’ll get Wood Logs. The type of logs you get depends on the type of tree that you’ve cut down.
Sticks are made from placing Wood Planks on top of each other in a crafting grid. Wood Logs can’t be made directly into Sticks.
Coal is found from mining Coal Ore blocks, which are blocks of grey stone with black spots. Charcoal is made from ‘cooking’ a Wood Log in a Furnace.
Trading With Villages for Campfires
You can sometimes find apprentice-level Fisherman Villagers who will sell you a Campfire for a few Emeralds. In the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft, you’ll have to pay 5 Emeralds, however, in the Java Edition, you only need to pay 2 Emeralds.
How to Use a Campfire
Initially using a Campfire is very similar to using a Torch. All that you have to do is pick a spot and then use the item to place it. The Campfire will be lit when you place it, so it will be ready to use right away. This also means that you should be careful where you step around a Campfire, as, unlike Torches, it can damage you and cause you to catch fire.
About Breaking a Campfire
When you break a Campfire, it won’t drop itself as many other blocks do. Instead, it will only drop 2 pieces of Charcoal, so be careful where you place your Campfires. If you do decide to move or get rid of one, it would be fastest to use an axe, as Campfires are mostly made of wood. However, if you have a tool that has the Silk Touch enchantment on it, you can break a Campfire to collect it without destroying it.
Extinguishing and Re-lighting Campfires
Thankfully, like Torches, the rain doesn’t put out Campfires. This makes them reliable permanent fixtures that can be used for multiple purposes. However, they can get extinguished if you dump a Bucket of Water on it, throw a Splash Water Bottle at it, or hit it with a shovel.
Also, Campfires can be re-lit with pretty much anything that produces flames. Flint and Steel will light them up, as well as will Flaming Arrows, and fiery attacks from monsters like Blazes and Ghasts.
Using a Campfire for Light
Campfires are very bright due to them having a light level of 15, which is the same as direct sunlight. For reference, Torches have a light level of 14. This means that no monsters can spawn close to a Campfire. Their range is much greater than that of Torches as well, which makes them more efficient.
How to Use Campfire Smoke
Since the smoke of a Campfire naturally rises 10 blocks above the flames, it can be used as a great marker for navigation. You can increase the height that the smoke travels to 24 blocks high by placing a Hay Bale beneath the Campfire.
Additionally, the smoke from a Campfire will make Bees passive and will allow you to harvest honey-related goods from Beehives and Bee Nests. To cause this effect, place a Campfire below the particular Beehive or Bee Nest. The rising smoke will dull the senses of the Bees.
Keep in mind that the Campfire will need to be at least 1 block below the hive or nest so that it doesn’t make contact, otherwise it would burn the structure and the smoke will not pass through it.
How to Use a Campfire for Cooking
There are a few pros and cons to using a Campfire for cooking. When lit, a Campfire can cook 4 raw pieces of food at a time (1 on each corner), making it 4 times as productive as a regular Furnace. However, it takes longer than a Furnace to cook food. Whereas a Furnace will take 10 seconds to cook an item, a Campfire will take 30 seconds.
You should also take into consideration that a Campfire doesn’t need fuel, and can essentially cook things for free. Though, you still need to manually place the food onto the Campfire, meaning that you need to be present in order to make lots of edibles.
Overall, this means that Campfires are more efficient than Furnaces if you want to cook a lot of food at once while staying close to a Campfire, but Furnaces are still better for automatic cooking.
About Soul Campfires
Soul Campfires are a type of Campfire with bluish-green fire and a slightly different crafting recipe. To make a Soul Campfire, you’ll need to use the same recipe as for a regular Campfire, but swap the Coal or Charcoal for Soul Sand or Soul Soil.
These cool-colored variants have a light level of 10 as opposed to 15. Another difference is that they can be used to farm Soul Soil, as it will always drop this kind of block when broken, even if made with Soul Sand. Simply make a Soul Campfire with Soul Sand in its core and then place it on the ground. After that, break it with a tool that doesn’t have the Silk Touch enchantment for guaranteed Soul Soil. However, besides these traits, they’re virtually the same as regular Campfires in function.
