The steps to making Concrete in Minecraft are similar to those in real life. However, it is a bit strange compared to other crafting methods. You’ll need to make Concrete Powder and then use it in water.
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What You Need to Craft Concrete Powder
Before you can make finished Concrete blocks, you’ll first need to make Concrete Powder. Each block of Concrete Powder will require 9 ingredients: 4 Gravel blocks, 4 Sand blocks, and 1 of any kind of Dye. The Dye you choose will determine the color of the Concrete Powder.
As such, there is a Concrete Powder recipe for every possible color–16 total. This makes them great for vibrant and unique construction projects. Since the majority of the materials used to make Concrete Powder are very common, they can be viable building materials that bring some style to your base.
On a Crafting Table, fill the bottom row with Gravel, as well as the middle-right slot. In every other open slot beside the top-left one, put Sand. Finally, in the open top-left slot, place any kind of Dye.
Where to Find Sand
Sand can be found on the coastlines of many different biomes. It can also be found in rivers and other waterways. Be careful when mining Sand blocks, as they’re affected by gravity. If you break the bottom Sand block beneath more Sand, the rest will drop down. Don’t mine directly below a column of Sand, as doing so will cause it to fall onto you and potentially suffocate your character.
Where to Find Gravel
You can find Gravel as you mine underground. More often than not, it will get in your way as you’re looking for rarer resources. As such, you’ll end up accumulating quite a lot as you naturally mine more through the ground. It’s worth noting that Gravel can fall onto you in the same way Sand blocks do, so be wary of that.
Where to Find Dyes
Dyes can be found in 16 different colors in Minecraft. They all come from different sources as well, with some being easy to find and others being more challenging. To make a Dye, you need to put the required ingredients together in any crafting grid. Here’s a breakdown of how to get all of the different Dyes:
| Type of Dye | What You Can Use to Make It |
|---|---|
| Red | Poppy Red Tulip Rose Bush Beetroot |
| Orange | Red Dye + Yellow Dye Orange Tulip |
| Yellow | Dandelion Sunflower |
| Green | Cook a Cactus block |
| Lime | Green Dye + White Dye Cook a Sea Pickle |
| Cyan | Blue Dye + Green Dye |
| Light Blue | Blue Dye + White Dye Blue Orchid |
| Blue | Lapis Lazuli Cornflower |
| Magenta | Purple Dye + Pink Dye Red Dye + Blue Dye + White Dye Pink Dye + Red Dye + Blue Dye Allium Lilac |
| Purple | Red Dye + Blue Dye |
| Pink | Red Dye + White Dye Pink Tulip Peony |
| Brown | Cocoa Beans |
| Light Gray | Black Dye + White Dye Gray Dye + White Dye Azure Bluet Oxeye Daisy White Tulip |
| Gray | Black Dye + White Dye |
| Black | Ink Sac Wither Rose |
| White | Bone Meal Lily of the Valley |
How to Turn Concrete Powder Into Concrete Blocks
To get fully-formed Concrete blocks, you’ll have to put Concrete Powder into water. When you place a block of Concrete Powder into the water, the block of water gets absorbed into the Concrete Powder. In this way, you are combining both major ingredients, just without using a Crafting Table.
The Differences Between Concrete Powder and Concrete Blocks
Concrete Powder acts like Sand and Gravel in that it gets affected by gravity in the same way. However, finished Concrete blocks act like stone and other stationary blocks. As such, shovels are better for mining Concrete Powder and pickaxes are better for Concrete.
In appearance, Concrete Powder has surfaces covered in variations of the same color. Concrete blocks, on the other hand, will be a single flat color on all sides.
The Uses for Concrete
Concrete is purely a decorative kind of block and isn’t used in any recipes for other items. As a building material, since the resources used to make it are quite common, you can make a ton of Concrete. This is especially true if you build a base close to a body of water like a lake or river. These locations often have a lot of water and Sand, and many open areas to spot pockets of Gravel.
The Durability of Concrete
Compared to the most common building material, Cobblestone, Concrete blocks are harder. This means it will take slightly longer to mine Concrete than it will to mine Cobblestone.
However, Concrete has way lower blast resistance than Cobblestone. As a result, explosions will easily destroy structures made of Concrete. So, when building with Concrete, make sure to come up with a Creeper-proof design.
