How to Make a Sword in Minecraft

Co-authored by Zac Churchill

Last Updated: February 19, 2023 References

Your sword will probably be your first defense against the hostile mobs of Minecraft. Your first sword will probably be made out of wood, but if you've already gathered cobblestone or iron you can skip ahead to the section on better swords.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Making a Wooden Sword (Windows or Mac)

1
Gather wood. Hold down the left mouse button while your cursor is over a tree trunk. This will break the tree into wooden logs. The logs will automatically enter your inventory as long as you stand close to the tree. Repeat this several times.
- It does not matter whether you get oak wood, spruce wood, or any other type of wood.
2
Open your inventory. The default key for this is E. You should see a 2 x 2 grid next to your character picture. This is your crafting area.

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3
Drag the wood to the crafting area. Planks will appear in the results box to the right of the crafting area. Drag the planks to your inventory. You've now turned the wood into planks.
4
Make two wooden planks into sticks. Place one of the planks you just made on the lower row of the crafting area. Place a second plank directly above it.^{[1]
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Research source} Now you've made a bundle of sticks, which you should drag into your inventory from the results box.
5
Make a crafting table. Fill the entire 2 x 2 grid with planks to make a crafting table. Drag this to your quick slot bar at the base of your screen. Close your inventory and place the table on the ground. (To place a block, select it in your quick slot bar and right-click the ground.)
- Remember not to confuse planks and wood. Only planks will work for this recipe.
6
Open the crafting table. Right-click the table to open an expanded crafting interface. From here you can make recipes that require a 3 x 3 grid.
7
Craft the wooden sword. The sword recipe only fills a single column of the 3 x 3 grid. All ingredients must be in the same column, but it does not matter which column you choose:
- A plank on top
- A plank in the middle (directly below the first one)
- A stick at the base (directly below the planks)
8
Use the sword. Drag the sword to a quick slot and select it to equip it. Now left-clicking will use the sword instead of your hand. This is much more effective at killing enemies or animals, but be careful. A wooden sword is still pretty weak. Skip down to the section below on better swords if you want an upgrade.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Making a Wooden Sword (Consoles or Pocket Edition)

1
Turn trees into wood. You can break apart trees with your bare hands in Minecraft. In Pocket Edition, just hold your finger down over the tree and keep it there until it's turned into wood. On consoles, use the right trigger button.
2
Learn how to craft. Crafting is simple in these editions of Minecraft. The crafting menu has a list of available recipes, and you click the one you want. As long as you have the right ingredients, they will turn into the desired item. Here's how to get started:^{[2]
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- In Pocket Edition, tap the icon with three dots at the bottom and select Craft.
- On Xbox, press X.
- On Playstation, press Square.
- On Xperia Play, press Select.
3
Make a crafting table. The crafting table gives you access to many more craftable items, including swords. Here's how to make one:
- With Wood in your inventory, craft Planks.
- With four Planks in your inventory, craft a Crafting Table.
- Select the Crafting Table in your quick bar and tap the ground to put it down. (Left trigger in console editions.)
4
Make the wooden sword. This is another multi-step process:
- With Wood in your inventory, make Planks.
- With two Planks in your inventory, make Sticks.
- With one Stick and two Planks in your inventory, make a Wooden Sword from the Tools crafting section.^{[3]
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5
Use your sword. When you have a sword selected in your quick slot, tapping the screen or pressing the left trigger will swing your sword. This will hurt enemies and animals much more than your bare hands.
- Try jumping as you swing your sword. If you hit the target while you're falling (but not on the way up), you'll do a critical hit for 50% more damage.^{[4]
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- Keep reading if you want to upgrade to a more damaging and durable sword.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Crafting Better Swords

1
Gather materials with a pickaxe. You'll need a pickaxe to gather the stone or metals for a better sword.^{[5]
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Research source} Here's a brief summary of how to find these, from most to least common:
- Stone is widely available in mountainsides and just beneath the surface. Mine it with a wooden pickaxe.
- Iron (stone with beige flecks) is fairly common just beneath the surface, and requires a stone pickaxe to mine.
- Gold and diamond ore are very rare and only found deep under the earth.
2
Craft a stone sword. Combine two cobblestone and a stick to make a stone sword. This deals 6 damage and lasts for 132 hits before breaking. (In comparison, the wooden sword does 5 damage and lasts for 60 hits.)^{[6]
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- As with all swords, the computer recipe fills only one column, with the stick at the bottom.
3
Upgrade to iron. Iron is a great dependable material you'll be relying on for a long time. Once you have iron ingots (see below), you can make an iron sword that does 7 damage for 251 hits.
- After mining the ore, you'll need to smelt the iron ore into ingots using a furnace.
4
Make a golden sword for show. Despite its rarity, gold is not very good for tools. If you smelt the gold ingots and make them into a sword, it will deal the same damage as a wooden sword but only last for 33 hits.^{[7]
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- There is one advantage to golden swords: they have the best chance at a high level enchantment. Many players still don't like to enchant them since they're such temporary tools.
5
Craft a diamond sword. Now you've really made it in the world. Diamonds are the best material for tools and weapons. They do not require smelting. A diamond sword does eight damage and lasts for 1,562 hits.^{[8]
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- Diamonds occupy an important place in Minecraft because they help to create an enchanting table.^{[9]
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- The table allows a player to add upgrades to their tools and armor.^{[10]
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6
Repair your swords. Place two damaged swords of the same type anywhere in the crafting area. The result will be a sword with more durability than both of them put together. You cannot increase the durability past the sword's normal maximum this way.^{[11]
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- A "damaged" sword is any sword that has been used at least once. You should see a small bar next to the item icon showing you how much durability is left.

Community Q&A

Question

Why would you get two of the same kind of sword?

CaptianYaya

Community Answer

This is how you get a higher durability on weapons, combining two of the same kind will double durability (and enchantments) to make a very powerful weapon.
Question

Which one is better: gold or diamond?

QWERTY

Community Answer

Diamond.
Question

How do I use a bow and arrow?

Community Answer

Make sure you have arrows in your inventory. Place a bow in your hotba, and select it. "Use" it, and it will start to draw back. Once it zooms in while drawing back, it is at the highest possible power. Then release the "use" button and the arrow will fly toward your mark. You can usually tell at which height the arrow will hit by where the tip of it is pointing, which is usually above the crosshair.