How to Build a Beacon in Minecraft

What Does a Beacon Do?

A beacon is an end-game utility block that projects a beam of light into the sky and grants status effects to nearby players. These effects include Speed, Haste, Resistance, Jump Boost, Strength and Regeneration. The effects apply passively to any player within range, making beacons extremely valuable for mining operations, base defense and general quality of life.

Beacons also serve as a visible landmark. The light beam is visible from hundreds of blocks away and can be colored by placing stained glass on top of the beacon.

Crafting a Beacon

A beacon requires the following materials to craft:

• 1 Nether Star, Dropped by the Wither boss. This is the hardest material to obtain.
• 3 Obsidian, Mined with a diamond or netherite pickaxe.
• 5 Glass, Smelted from sand.

Place the nether star in the center slot, obsidian across the bottom row, and glass in all remaining slots. The recipe produces one beacon block.

Obtaining a Nether Star

The Nether Star only drops from the Wither, a boss mob you must summon yourself:

• Collect 3 wither skeleton skulls by killing wither skeletons in nether fortresses. The drop rate is 2.5%, so a Looting III sword is strongly recommended.
• Collect 4 soul sand or soul soil blocks from the Nether.
• Build a T-shape with the soul sand: 3 blocks in a row with 1 block on top of the center.
• Place the 3 wither skeleton skulls on top of the 3 soul sand blocks. The Wither spawns immediately.
• Fight the Wither in a confined space (underground or in a bedrock cage at the top of the Nether) to limit its movement and prevent terrain destruction.
• The Wither drops 1 Nether Star on death. It always drops, regardless of how the Wither is killed.

Building the Pyramid

A beacon alone does nothing. It must be placed on top of a pyramid made from mineral blocks. The pyramid can use any combination of iron blocks, gold blocks, diamond blocks, emerald blocks or netherite blocks. All five types function identically, use whichever material you have the most of. Iron blocks are by far the most common choice because iron farms make them renewable.

Pyramid Tiers

The pyramid can have 1 to 4 tiers. Each tier is a square layer, and adding tiers increases the range and unlocks additional effects:

• Tier 1 (1 layer): 3x3 base = 9 mineral blocks. Range: 20 blocks. Unlocks Speed or Haste.
• Tier 2 (2 layers): 5x5 + 3x3 = 34 mineral blocks total. Range: 30 blocks. Adds Resistance or Jump Boost.
• Tier 3 (3 layers): 7x7 + 5x5 + 3x3 = 83 mineral blocks total. Range: 40 blocks. Adds Strength.
• Tier 4 (4 layers): 9x9 + 7x7 + 5x5 + 3x3 = 164 mineral blocks total. Range: 50 blocks. Adds Regeneration as a secondary power and increases all effects to level II.

The beacon sits on top of the smallest (top) layer. For a full 4-tier pyramid, that means the beacon is placed on the center of the 3x3 layer, which sits on the 5x5, then 7x7, then 9x9.

Selecting Beacon Powers

Right-click the beacon to open its interface. You will see effect options based on your pyramid tier:

• Primary power: Choose one effect from the available options. Higher tiers unlock more choices.
• Secondary power (Tier 4 only): Choose either Regeneration I as a second effect, or upgrade your primary power to level II.
• To activate the selected power, place 1 iron ingot, gold ingot, diamond, emerald or netherite ingot in the payment slot and click the checkmark.
• You must pay each time you change the effect. The mineral is consumed.

Best Effect Choices

• Haste II, The most popular choice for mining. Haste II with an Efficiency V pickaxe lets you instant-mine stone, netherrack and other common blocks. This is transformative for clearing large areas.
• Speed II, Excellent for movement around your base or while building. Stacks with speed from soul speed boots on soul sand.
• Resistance I + Regeneration I, Great for combat areas or mob farms. The damage reduction and health recovery make you very hard to kill.
• Strength II, Useful if you place a beacon near a mob farm's kill chamber for faster manual kills.

Beacon Range and Behavior

• The effect applies to all players within the specified range, measured as a square (not a circle) horizontally and extending 256 blocks downward and upward (effectively infinite vertically in normal worlds).
• The beacon must have a clear line to the sky. Any solid block above it (except glass, stained glass, and bedrock) blocks the beam and deactivates the beacon.
• Transparent blocks like glass, ice, and stained glass do not block the beam. Use stained glass to change the beam color.
• Effects linger for 9-17 seconds after you leave the range, depending on the pyramid tier. This gives you a buffer when moving in and out of range.

Multiple Beacons

You can place multiple beacons on the same pyramid to get multiple effects simultaneously:

• A 4-tier pyramid can support up to 6 beacons on its 3x3 top layer (leaving corners for aesthetics or using all 9 positions).
• Each beacon is configured independently, so you can run Haste, Speed, Resistance and Strength all at the same time.
• The extra beacons each require their own Nether Star, so this is a significant investment.

Material Cost Breakdown

If you use iron blocks (the cheapest renewable option) for a full Tier 4 pyramid:

• 164 iron blocks = 1,476 iron ingots.
• A decent iron farm produces 300-400 ingots per hour, so a full pyramid takes 4-5 hours of AFK time.
• Mixed material pyramids work fine. You can use whatever blocks you have available, even a single pyramid can mix iron, gold and diamond blocks freely.

Tips

• Place your beacon at your main base, your mine entrance or your mob farm, wherever you spend the most time.
• Colored beams (from stained glass) are a great way to mark locations visible from far away. Stack different colors for a gradient effect.
• If you need Haste for a large mining project, a portable Tier 1 beacon (just 9 iron blocks) with Haste I is quick to set up and move.
• The Wither fight gets easier with practice. Smite V swords, strength potions and blast protection armor make subsequent nether star farming manageable.

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