Paper is an item in Minecraft that is useful for crafting many other items. It’s made from Sugar Cane and will let you create books, maps, and other helpful goods that can be functional or fashionable.
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What You Need to Craft Paper
To make Paper, you’ll need lots of Sugar Cane. The ratio for crafting Sugar Cane into Paper is 1:1. This means that for every batch of Sugar Cane you use, you will get an equal amount of Paper. The recipe needs a 3×3 grid, so you’ll have to use a Crafting Table.
You’ll need 3 pieces of Sugar Cane at a minimum to make a batch of Paper. Place the Sugar Cane so that the pieces fill up any row. It doesn’t matter if you used the top, middle, or bottom row. After that, you can take a stack of 3 pieces of Paper off of the Crafting Table.
How to Get Sugar Cane
Sugar Cane can be found growing naturally next to the water. These plants need to be directly adjacent to water in order to grow. This means that the shores of rivers and lakes are the best places to look for Sugar Cane. Additionally, it grows on both sand and dirt blocks, which makes the game spawn them more liberally than other plants.
How to Farm Sugar Cane Efficiently
It’s really easy to grow Sugar Cane if your base is close to a natural source of water. You can line the shore with Sugar Cane and increase the coverage after each harvest. Sugar Cane grows to a maximum of 3 blocks tall.
You can make a more traditional farm for maximum efficiency. For example, you can dig a 1×1 hole and fill it with water, and then surround this spot on all 4 sides with Sugar Cane. In this ‘plus sign’ setup, you can pack a bunch of Sugar Cane into a small area with only a little bit of water for huge yields.
When harvesting Sugar Cane, you should only break the middle block. This will only cause 2 Sugar Cane to drop, however, the bottom block should be left alone. If the bottom block of a Sugar Cane stalk is broken, this resets its growing process. This means that Sugar Cane regrows faster if you don’t break the bottom block.
What Paper Is Used For
Paper is used for quite a few various items in Minecraft--both cosmetic and functional. The cosmetic items are all Banner Patterns, which can be used for decorative purposes. The Functional ones pertain to Maps, Books, and Firework Rockets.
How to Make All Banner Patterns That Use Paper
| Name of Banner | Crafting Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Banner Pattern Bordure Indented | 1 Paper 1 Vines |
| Banner Pattern Creeper | 1 Paper 1 Creeper Head |
| Banner Pattern Field Masoned | 1 Paper 1 Brick Block |
| Banner Pattern Flower | 1 Paper 1 Oxeye Daisy |
| Banner Pattern Skull | 1 Paper 1 Wither Skeleton Skull |
| Banner Pattern Thing | 1 Paper 1 Enchanted Golden Apple |
How to Make a Book
You can make a Book by using 3 pieces of Paper and 1 piece of Leather. You can craft one either in your inventory crafting menu or on a Crafting Table.
Place 1 piece of Paper and the piece of Leather next to one another and then put the remaining 2 pieces of Paper above them. This should make a small square with the 3 Paper at 3 corners and the Leather in the last.
While fairly expensive in resources to craft, Books are crucial for making Bookshelves and Enchanting Tables.
How to Make a Map
On a Crafting Table, place 8 pieces of Paper all the way around it. Then, place a Compass in the middle slot. After taking the finished product off of the Crafting Table, it will be an Empty Map. Hold it in your hand and use it to turn it into a functional Map that will show you the lay of the land.
How to Make a Cartography Table
This device is used for Map-related tasks, though will require far fewer pieces of Paper to craft. On a Crafting Table, place 2 pieces of Paper in 2 adjacent top slots. Then, fill the columns below the pieces of Paper with 4 of any kind of Wood Plank. The Wood Planks don’t need to match.
How to Make a Firework Rocket
You can make a Firework Rocket either on a Crafting Table or in your inventory crafting menu, as it only needs a 2×2 grid. To make a Firework Rocket, you will need 1 piece of Paper and 1 to 3 Gunpowder. Depending on how long you want the duration of your rocket’s flight to be, you’ll need to use different amounts of Gunpowder.
Place the Paper in the top left corner and then place 1 Gunpowder diagonally down and to the right of the Paper. This lets you make a Firework Rocket, however, you can increase the amount of Gunpowder. Adding 1 Gunpowder below the Paper will increase the flight duration a bit while doing so and then adding 1 more Gunpowder to the right of the Paper will result in a much greater flight duration.
The visuals created by Firework Rockets can be a blast to behold, so feel free to change things up for a more interesting show!
