There are plenty of ways to clear an area or get rid of some pesky blocks in Minecraft. However, demolishing a space with TNT is easily the most satisfying way to do so. TNT is more of a gimmick item in Minecraft, but it does have some solid uses. Before you can even think about what to blow up with your TNT, though, you need to know how to craft it and how to set it off.
How to make TNT in Minecraft
The crafting recipe for TNT is quite simple and requires only two ingredients. Only one of those items is somewhat difficult to get, so you shouldn’t have any trouble crafting TNT once you’ve established yourself in Minecraft. You can see the full crafting recipe for TNT below:
- At a crafting table, place two blocks of Sand in the top and bottom middle boxes and two more blocks of Sand in the middle of the outer columns.
- Fill the rest of the crafting table with Gunpowder to make one TNT
The blocks of Sand are extremely easy to acquire, as all you need to do is find a body of water. Mine sand with any tool and gather as much as you need from around or in the water. Alternatively, if you find yourself flush with Red Sand, that works as a replacement to regular Sand blocks.
As for the Gunpowder, that’s a little trickier to get in Minecraft. Gunpowder can’t be crafted, but it can be obtained as a loot drop from various mobs. The most common mob to drop Gunpowder are Creepers, which can drop a maximum of five Gunpowder with a higher Looting level. You need to kill the Creeper before it can explode to get the Gunpowder, easily done with a bow and arrow. Witches and Ghasts also have a chance to drop various amounts of Gunpowder. None of these mobs have a guaranteed chance to drop Gunpowder, so you’ll have to get lucky.
Gunpowder can also be acquired from certain chests in dungeons, desert temples, shipwrecks, and woodland mansions. This applies to both Java and Bedrock Edition.
How to use TNT in Minecraft
Once you have the necessary crafting ingredients and have TNT in your inventory, it’s time to set it off in Minecraft. There are several ways to activate TNT, but the simplest way is to use Flint and Steel on it. Flint and Steel can be crafted using the recipe below:
- Place a piece of Flint and an Iron Ingot next to each other on a crafting table
Flint is mainly acquired when mining gravel, as there’s a 10% chance to mine a piece of Flint when doing so. This chance increases if you’re using a Fortune-enchanted pickaxe, with the chances increasing the higher level enchantment you use. Flint can also be found in village chests.
As for Iron Ingots, those are made by putting Iron Ore in a furnace and smelting the ore down into ingots. You need a heat source, such as coal, to power the furnace.
With your Flint and Iron Ingot, make a Flint and Steel. Then, place your TNT down and use the Flint and Steel on the TNT. If done correctly, the TNT will start moving and turn a white color for a brief second. After a few seconds, the TNT will explode, also exploding any other nearby TNT along with it. The explosion destroys any block or structure nearby, so make sure nothing important is near when you activate the TNT.
There are other methods to activating TNT, such as through redstone activation or by contacting lava, but Flint and Steel is the most common way to set it off in Minecraft.