How to Make a Campfire in Minecraft: Fuel-Free Cooking
Three sticks, 1 coal and 3 logs make a campfire that cooks with no fuel. How to make a campfire in Minecraft, calm bees, send smoke and craft the soul one.
A campfire takes 3 sticks, 1 coal or charcoal and 3 logs. Put the coal in the center of the crafting table, sticks in the top middle and on both sides of the coal, and the logs across the bottom row. It’s lit as soon as you place it, and it stays lit with no fuel.
Materials for a campfire
- Logs. Any log, wood, stem or stripped log, including crimson and warped stems from the Nether.
- Coal or charcoal. Either works. If you haven’t found coal yet, smelt a log in a furnace to get charcoal.
- Sticks. Two planks make four sticks.
Cooking without fuel
Use raw food on a lit campfire to put it on the fire. It holds up to four items, cooks each one in 30 seconds, and pops them off when they’re done. That’s slower than a furnace (10 seconds) or a smoker (5 seconds), but it uses no fuel at all, so it’s perfect for a first night or a camp out in the wild.
Campfires only cook food, not ores or other items. You also have to pick the cooked food up yourself; a hopper can’t pull it out.
Calming bees
Smoke from a campfire calms bees. Place one under a beehive or bee nest (up to 5 blocks below, with nothing blocking the smoke) and you can take honey or honeycomb without the bees attacking you. How to get honey has the full setup.
Smoke signals
Put a hay bale under a campfire and its smoke rises much higher, about 24 blocks instead of about 10. It’s an easy way to mark your base or a meeting spot so you can find it from far away.
Damage
Walking onto a lit campfire burns you, though it doesn’t set you on fire. Mobs standing on one take damage too. Put a block or a carpet over it if it’s somewhere people walk, or put it out with a shovel.
Soul campfire
Swap the coal for soul sand or soul soil and you get a soul campfire. It burns blue, gives off less light, does more damage, and piglins avoid it, which is useful around a Nether base. It cooks and calms bees the same way.
Other uses
- Lighting. It’s a light source that doesn’t need fuel, though a torch or lantern is brighter for the cost.
- Decoration. Chimneys, fireplaces and campsites. The smoke rises straight up through holes in a roof.
- Moving it. Breaking a campfire without Silk Touch gives you 2 charcoal instead of the campfire, so use a Silk Touch tool if you want to relocate it.
Common questions
Does a campfire need fuel?
No. A campfire burns forever once lit and cooks food without any fuel. You only need coal or charcoal once, to craft it.
How do you put out a campfire?
Use a shovel on it, splash it with a water bottle, or place water on it. Light it again with flint and steel or a fire charge. Rain does not put it out.
What does a campfire drop when broken?
Two charcoal, unless you use a Silk Touch tool, which drops the campfire itself.
How do you make a soul campfire?
Use soul sand or soul soil in place of the coal. It gives off blue fire, less light, more damage, and piglins avoid it.
Sources & verification
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