How to Make a Target Block in Minecraft for Archery Builds

Put a hay bale in the center of a crafting table and 4 redstone dust in the slots above, below, left and right of it. Leave the corners empty. You get one target block.

The hay bale

A hay bale is 9 wheat in a full 3x3 grid. If you’ve got a wheat field, that’s one harvest; see how to start a farm if you haven’t. Villages often have hay bales stacked around their farms, so you can sometimes just pick one up. Redstone dust is the other 4 items, mined deep underground.

How a target block works

Shoot the target with any projectile and it gives off a redstone signal. The closer to the center you hit, the stronger it is, up to 15 for a bullseye. Arrows and tridents keep the signal on for about a second (20 game ticks); snowballs, eggs and other projectiles give a shorter pulse.

It only responds to projectiles. Standing on it or punching it does nothing.

Uses

Archery ranges. Wire a target to a row of redstone lamps so a bullseye lights all of them and an edge hit lights one or two. Signal strength drops one level per block of dust, so the length of the lit line shows how well you aimed. It’s a fun way to practice with a bow or crossbow.

Hidden switches. Put a target high on a wall and shoot it with an arrow to open a secret door. Since only projectiles work, nobody walking past can trigger it by accident.

Remote triggers. Anywhere you want to set off a circuit from a distance, such as dropping a drawbridge from across a moat, a target block does it without running wire to where you stand.

The wiring trick

Redstone dust always points toward a target block next to it, the same way it connects to a lever or a repeater. Builders use this to steer dust in a direction it otherwise wouldn’t go. It’s a niche trick, but useful in tight circuits. If you’re new to dust behavior, redstone basics explains how dust connects.

The target block also counts as a full block for building, and with its red and white rings it makes a decent decoration on its own.