How to Make a Dispenser in Minecraft and What It Can Do
Seven cobblestone, a bow and 1 redstone dust make a dispenser. How to make a dispenser in Minecraft and what it does with arrows, buckets and shears.
A dispenser is 7 cobblestone, 1 bow and 1 redstone dust. Fill the crafting table with cobblestone except for two slots: the bow goes in the middle, and the redstone dust goes directly below it in the bottom-center slot. You get one dispenser.
Getting the bow
The bow is the only awkward ingredient. Craft one from 3 sticks and 3 string (bow recipe), or keep the bows skeletons drop. In Java Edition a skeleton’s worn-out bow is fine for this recipe, which is a good use for them. Cobblestone and redstone are the easy part.
What a dispenser does with each item
When a dispenser gets a redstone pulse, it takes one item from a random slot and uses it in the direction it faces. What “use” means depends on the item:
- Arrows, tipped arrows, snowballs and eggs: fired as projectiles. Arrow traps are the classic first build.
- Fire charges: shot as small fireballs.
- Water and lava buckets: placed as a source block; the next pulse picks it back up with the empty bucket.
- Shears: shear a sheep in front of it, or harvest honeycomb from a full beehive.
- Glass bottles: fill with honey from a full beehive.
- Bone meal: grows the crop or sapling in front of it.
- Armor, elytra and heads: equip onto a player or armor stand standing in front.
- TNT: placed as primed TNT.
- Flint and steel: lights a fire or a block of TNT.
- Boats and minecarts: placed on water or rails.
Anything without special behavior is simply dropped, the same as a dropper would.
Useful setups
Bee farms. A dispenser with shears or bottles, triggered by an observer watching a beehive, collects honeycomb or honey on its own. Bees don’t get angry at a dispenser the way they do at a player. See how to get honey.
Crop farms. Water-bucket dispensers can flush a field to collect a harvest, a common trick in the designs listed on our automatic farm guide.
Defense and traps. A row of arrow dispensers on a pressure plate is cheap and effective against mobs that wander into your base.
The direction trick: a dispenser faces toward you when you place it, so it can point in any of six directions. If you are new to wiring pulses, start with redstone basics.
Common questions
What is the difference between a dispenser and a dropper?
A dispenser uses items: it fires arrows, places water and shears sheep. A dropper only spits items out as drops or pushes them into a container. The dropper recipe has no bow.
Can I use a damaged bow in the dispenser recipe?
In Java Edition, yes; the bow's durability doesn't matter. If the recipe won't take a worn bow in your version, use a fresh one.
How do I make a dispenser face up or down?
It faces toward you when placed, so look up or down while placing it to get a vertical dispenser.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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