Beacon

Beacons are a powerful endgame item in **Minecraft.** They have the benefit of not only acting as location markers that can be spotted from extremely far away, but they also provide a powerful status effect in a specific area. Due to this, beacons are one of the most popular rare blocks in the game, despite how time-consuming it is to get one.

## Crafting A Beacon

The first step is to craft the beacon block itself. You can craft as many as you like in the world, so long as you have the materials for it. Here's what you'll need exactly for a single beacon block:

* **5x Glass**
* **3x Obsidian**
* **1x Nether Star**

Glass can be easily acquired by **smelting sand in a furnace.** Obsidian is mined with a **diamond pickaxe from a still lava surface that has come into contact with water.** Both of these are fairly easy to get, but the Nether star is a different story.

## Obtaining A Nether Star

In order to get the Nether star, **you must defeat the Wither, which is a boss mob in the game.** This itself is a long process; below you can check out each step you will need to complete to defeat the Wither and obtain a Nether star.

### Obtaining Wither Skeleton Heads

Summoning the Wither requires you to first have **three Wither Skeleton heads,** which are a random and rare drop from Wither Skeletons, most commonly found in Nether fortresses.

Using a Looting III sword makes the drop chance slightly higher.

To obtain these skulls, you can either wander through a Nether Fortress or set up your own Wither Skeleton Farm. **Wither Skeletons are three blocks tall**, so if you are scared to get too close, you can place blocks to form a barrier. This will **allow you to pass under, but Wither Skeletons won't be able to.**

### Summoning The Wither

After you have three Wither Skeleton heads, **gather four pieces of soul sand,** typically found in the Soul Sand Valley biome in the Nether. Place the soul sand in a **T-shape,** either on the ground or upright, and **put down the skeleton heads on the horizontal, top part of the T-shape** to summon the Wither.

You can see the layout to summon the Wither in the image above. After defeating him, he will drop a Nether star, which can immediately be turned into a beacon.

Fighting the Wither is not an easy task, and will require quite a bit of preparation. The bottom line is, you shouldn't summon him just anywhere and **certainly not near your house or any other structure you're particularly fond of.**

We suggest heading to bedrock and carving out an 'arena' where you can fight this boss.

## Building The Foundation

The beacon block itself isn't enough to function on its own. In order to work, the beacon must be **placed on top of a pyramid-shaped foundation or base, made entirely of full blocks of ores.** The beacon block must also have access to the sky, no matter how deep it is placed.

You can make the base out of the following block types.

* **Iron Ingots**
* **Gold Ingots**
* **Diamonds**
* **Emeralds**
* **Netherite Ingots**

If you are looking to make a **cheap beacon**, stick with iron. If you happen to have an efficient Villager trading system, you can also use emeralds.

## Beacon Pyramid Layout

To reach the maximum power of the beacon, **it should ideally have four levels built, with the beacon placed on top, in the center block of a 3x3 area,** which is the top layer of the beacon base.

For a full pyramid with four layers, here's how big every layer should be, as well as how many blocks you will need.

 **Layer 2** | 7x7
 **Layer 3** | 5x5
 **Layer 4** | 3x3

You can build a beacon with all four layers, or you can **make it a bit smaller.** For example, rather than having a 9x9 base, you can have a three-layer beacon with a 7x7 base. Remember, the beacon block is always **placed on top of the first layer, above the center block of the 3x3 area.**

While a beacon will also function with just a 3x3 layer, in order to get a secondary status effect, it's recommended to invest in and build a quadruple-layered pyramid for maximum benefits.

## Selecting Powers

Beacons that have **three layers or less will only come with primary status effects,** meaning they only introduce one specific power while you are in range. If you've built a fourth layer, you'll get to also pick a secondary status effect, making the beacon even more powerful.

To set the beacon's powers, **right-click on it to bring up the interface**. In order to start using it, it must be given either **a Netherite ingot, an emerald, diamond, gold ingot, or an iron ingot.** This is **not dependent on the material used to build the pyramid.** This needs to be done every time the status effects are altered.

Below, you can find all five powers, and what they do.

 **Speed** | Increase Movement Speed
 **Haste** | Mine Faster
 **Resistance** | Decreased Damage Taken
 **Jump Boost** | Jump Higher
 **Regeneration** | Regenerate Health

## Beacon Range

The range of a beacon **depends on its size.** The larger your beacon, the farther the range will be. As expected, the beacon size with the farthest range is the version with four pyramid layers.

Here, you can check out the range of each beacon size. These powers will **linger for a few seconds, which also depends on the size;** we've included this information as well.

 **2** | 30 blocks
 **3** | 40 blocks
 **4** | 50 blocks

**By 20 blocks, we mean** 20 blocks in all four cardinal directions from the beacon. So, if you have a beacon with one layer at the coordinates X= 0, Y= 0, then the range of **the beacon will stretch from X= -20 to 20 and Y= -20 to 20.** This is essentially a 40 by 40 chunk of land.

This range stretches upward, with **no limit.** This means that if you build your beacon at bedrock, you will receive powers going upwards as far as possible.

### Efficient Beacon Setup

Rather than having several beacons that line up with each other, **try spacing them out a bit.** For example, if you are using beacons for Speed or Haste, you can spread them out to cover more ground. By the time the lingering effects start to wear off, **you will already be in the range of the next beacon.**

Of course, if you are planning to work in this space, then it's best to have the beacon ranges line up.

## Variants And Colors

Beacons also come in variants. If you'd like to build multiple beacons, for instance, it's possible to place them all on top of the same foundation with some minor shape and size adjustments. In the case of the classic **six-beacon construction,** the size for each layer would be altered in the following way

 **Layer 4** | 4x5

This allows you to have multiple powers selected at any time. The beacon ray can also be colored by p**lacing a dyed glass block on top of the beacon block**, which adds a nice element of customization.