Beacon

"Beacon" redirects here. For the location featured in *Minecraft Story Mode*, see Minecraft Story Mode:Beacontown. For the artifact in *Minecraft Dungeons*, see MCD:Corrupted Beacon. For the location in *Minecraft Legends*, see MCL:Night Beacon.

## Beacon

### Catches fire from lava

No

A **beacon** is a block that projects a beam skyward, and can provide beneficial status effects to players in a radius around it when placed on top of a solid pyramid base constructed from iron, gold, diamond, emerald or netherite blocks.

## Obtaining

### Breaking

A beacon can be mined successfully by hand or with any tool. When destroyed by an explosion, the block always drops as an item.

 Default

## Usage

In *Bedrock Edition*, beacons can also be waterlogged and conduct redstone power at the same time. When "activated", beacon blocks provide two unique functions:

* A landmark beam reaching into the sky, which can be visible from far away.
* Powers, which give players status effects within a certain range.

### Activation

In order to activate a beacon, the beacon must meet the following requirements:

* Beacons require an unobstructed view of the sky.
 Transparent blocks (glass, water, etc.) and bedrock (the nether ceiling) are allowed.
* The beacon is on top of a pyramid constructed from iron blocks, gold blocks, emerald blocks, diamond blocks, and/or netherite blocks.

#### Pyramids

Pyramids are the structures required to activate beacons. There are four possible pyramid heights. More pyramid levels make more powers available in a wider affected vicinity. The type of mineral block used to build the pyramid is entirely cosmetic and has no functional effect. Several different block types can be mixed without affecting functionality. If the pyramid is damaged so that the beacon deactivates, the previously-set powers resume their effects upon reactivation when the pyramid is repaired. This applies to piston-altered pyramids as well.

A single beacon pyramid
 2
 3
 4

Multiple beacons can make use of the same specific mineral blocks below them. Combined pyramids do not need to be symmetrical. The image to the right shows a 6-beacon (2 by 3) pyramid. It requires a total of 244 mineral blocks, with a base layer of 10 by 11.

Multiple beacons pyramid (tier 4 can enable all buffs)
 2
 3
 4

### Beam

A vertical beam appears from a beacon if the beacon is activated, extending from the beacon block up to beyond the top of the world.

* In *Java Edition*, the beam is visible up to 256 blocks away.
* In *Bedrock Edition*, the beam is visible up to 64 blocks away, regardless of how high the render distance is set.

#### Colors

The color of the beam may be changed by placing blocks of stained glass (or stained glass panes) anywhere above the beacon block. The beam changes colors according to the colors of glass placed above it: the first block sets the beam color, while each additional block sets the color by averaging the red, green, and blue components of the current beam color and the block's color. The color values are the same as those for the corresponding dye. This also works using hardened stained glass and hardened stained glass panes.‌[*Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only*] Stained glass panes have the same effect on the beam as stained glass blocks.

The resulting beam color can be found as

# C

1

2

n
1

(

c
0

∑

# i
1

n

2

i
−
1

c
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)

{\displaystyle C = \frac{1}{2^{n+1}}\left(c\_0 + \sum\_{i=1}^n{2^{i-1}c\_i}\right)}

where

c
i

{\displaystyle c\_i}

 is the sequence of glass colors (

c
0

{\displaystyle c\_0}

 corresponds to the lowest block and

c
n

{\displaystyle c\_n}

 to the highest one).

As the blending algorithm is considerably simpler than that of leather-dyeing, a much larger part of the sRGB space is available.[*more information needed*] A player may experiment with stacking glass, although programs that calculate combinations are also available.

Beacon beams cannot go through most blocks, but can go through bedrock (to allow beacons to be used in the Nether) and end portal frames.

Using just 15 colors of stained glass, It is possible to make all colors, for example; red + white stained glass above a beacon will be pink; in addition to this, the more white that is added, the lighter the color will be.

### Powers

See also: Effect

Once the beacon is emitting a beam, it can then be *fed* one iron ingot, gold ingot, emerald, diamond, or netherite ingot to select the status effects given to players within range of the beacon. This is done through the beacon's GUI, displayed by pressing use while looking at the beacon block. It doesn't matter which of the items is fed into the beacon.

In the GUI, the player places the item to be fed in the empty slot and clicks an effect from the "Primary Power" section on the left. If the beacon is sitting on a 4-level pyramid, the "Secondary Power" section on the right also becomes active. The player can then choose either to turn on the Regeneration power in addition to the Primary Power or to raise the primary power to Level II. The user clicks the "Done" button (green checkmark), the item is consumed, and the power(s) become activated. To change the beacon's powers, this process must be followed again, consuming another ingot or gem.

If the pyramid is broken, effects deactivate or weaken depending on the level of the pyramid that is no longer complete. Upon restoration of the pyramid, the originally selected power returns without the need to spend another item.

The five Primary Powers are:

* Speed I: Increased movement speed.
* Haste I: Increased mining and attack speed.
* Resistance I: Decreased nearly all incoming damage (2-level pyramid required).
* Jump Boost I: Increased jumping distance and height (2-level pyramid required).
* Strength I: Increased melee damage (3-level pyramid required).

The Secondary Powers available with a 4-level pyramid are:

Regeneration I: Regenerates health.

* Increasing the Primary Power to level II.

It is also possible to combine two different primary Level I powers‌[*Java Edition only*]:

* select a primary power in the left panel
* select the Level II option in the right panel
* select the second desired power back in the left panel

Only one of the two powers appear to be selected, although both effects are active. Choosing a second primary power option replaces regeneration.

Every four seconds, the selected powers are applied with a duration of 9 seconds, plus 2 seconds per pyramid level, to all players in range. Thus, when powers are changed or a player travels outside the area-of-effect, the powers persist for 5–9 seconds, or 13-17 seconds with a full pyramid.

#### Range

The beacon affects an area in the shape of a square column, which reaches downward and out to each side at a range determined by the size of the pyramid base (see table below), and upward a distance of that range + 384 blocks.

The range of the beacon effect is limited by the simulation distance. As such, on simulation distance of 4 with a level 4 pyramid, the effect will not reach the chunks on the corners of the beacon range.

The distance from the player to the beacon block does not affect the intensity of the status effect.

 4 levels | 50 | 17

### Light source

Beacon blocks can function as light sources, emitting a light level 15. Like other light sources, they melt snow and ice.

### Piston interactivity

Beacons cannot be pushed or pulled by pistons or sticky pistons.

## Sounds

### Generic

*Java Edition*:

1. ↑ a b MC-177082

*Bedrock Edition*:

### Unique

*Java Edition*:

1. ↑ a b c MC-98316 — Wrong subtitles caused by missing distinction

*Bedrock Edition*:

## Data values

### ID

*Java Edition*:

*Bedrock Edition*:

1. ↑ ID of block's direct item form, which is used in savegame files and addons.
2. ↑ Available with `/give` command.
3. ↑ The block's direct item form has the same id as the block.

### Block data

A beacon has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

*Java Edition*:

See also: Block entity format

* Block entity data
	+ Tags common to all block entities
	+ CustomName: Optional. The name of this beacon in JSON text component, which appears when attempting to open it, while it is locked.
	+ Lock: Optional. When not blank, prevents the container from being opened unless the opener is holding an item whose name matches this string.
	+ Levels: The number of levels available from the pyramid. Immediately changes to the correct value if modified using commands. Note that this is also always 0 if the beam is blocked.
	+ Primary: The primary effect selected, see Potion effects for IDs. Set to -1 when no effect is selected. Cannot be set to an effect which beacons do not normally use, otherwise immediately changes back to -1. Although Regeneration cannot normally be chosen as the primary effect, setting this value to 10 works and even allows Regeneration II to be chosen as the secondary via the normal beacon GUI.
	+ Secondary: The secondary effect selected, see Potion effects for IDs. Set to -1 when no effect is selected. Cannot be set to an effect which beacons do not normally use, otherwise immediately changes back to -1. When set without a primary effect, does nothing. When set to the same as the primary, the effect is given at level 2 (the normally available behavior for 5 effects). When set to a different value than the primary (normally only Regeneration), gives the effect at level 1.

*Bedrock Edition*:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

## Issues

Issues relating to "Beacon" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

## Trivia

* The texture of the beacon is 16×16 but renders only the 10×10 area in the center.
* It is possible to see the beacon beam on the bottom of an activated beacon. This was initially reported as a bug, but the resolution was "won't fix", despite a fix being provided.
* There are 12,326,391 different beam colors.
* Despite it containing obsidian in its recipe, it does not need a diamond pickaxe to be mined.
* A fully powered beacon can fit within the upper level of the Desert Temple with the beacon’s beam perfectly being placed in the hole at the top.

## Gallery

* The top of a beacon's beam.
* A view from inside the beacon until Java Edition 19w41a.
* Two beams from a beacon, one passing through glass and the other through a beacon block.
* Beacon beam going through an end portal frame block.
* The first image of a colored beacon, tweeted by Nathan Adams.
* The first image of an underwater beacon, tweeted by Nathan Adams.
* The beacon's light changing as it passes through magenta stained glass.
* The full visible light spectrum created by colored beacons.
* A grayscale spectrum.
* A beacon is still functional when the pyramid is made of different blocks.
* A visualization of the effects range for each level. At level 4, the area affected is 101×101 blocks.
* A beacon with all of the blocks that can power beacons.
* A colored beacon beam in *Bedrock Edition*.
* Sunny posing in front of a rainbow of beacons, clad in trimmed armor.
* The texture file for the beacon in Java Edition 12w36a was laid out almost identically to that of the end crystal.
* The then-texture file for end crystals for comparison; note the identical layout.
* First image released by Jeb.
* One of the many uses for the beacon.
* The **old** texture from Java Edition 12w36a of the beacon.
* The **old** texture from Java Edition 12w38a displaying the powered and the non-powered beacon.
* The texture of the beacon used from Java Edition 12w40a until the Texture Update.

## References

1. ↑ MCPE-17595
2. ↑ https://minecraft.tools/en/beacon-color.php
3. ↑ MC-106124
4. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CtjxC\_tgjQf/

## See also

* Conduit
* Wither