End-Game Builds

What each beacon pyramid layer adds

A beacon only cares about the shape of the pyramid under it. Iron, gold, emerald, diamond and netherite blocks all count the same and can be mixed, so the cheapest one, iron, does the job. Every layer you add widens the range and unlocks more powers.

1 layer, 9 blocks

Speed or Haste for every player within 20 blocks.

2 layers, 34 blocks

Resistance and Jump Boost join the list, and the range grows to 30 blocks.

3 layers, 83 blocks

Strength becomes available, with a range of 40 blocks.

4 layers, 164 blocks

The range reaches 50 blocks and a second slot opens: Regeneration, or level II of the power you picked first.

Choosing the powers costs one iron ingot, gold ingot, emerald, diamond or netherite ingot, and changing them later costs another. The beam needs a clear way up. Any fully opaque block above the beacon switches it off, except bedrock, so a beacon still works under the Nether roof. Glass lets the beam through, and stained glass only changes its color.

Beacons can share the blocks under them. The full beacon pyramid puts six beacons on one base of 10 by 11, 244 blocks in total, enough to run all five powers and Regeneration at the same time. At four layers the effect reaches 50 blocks out, so a pyramid in the middle of the 64 by 64 mega base platform covers all of it. A beacon on a single layer already earns Bring Home the Beacon, and a full four layers earn Beaconator.

Summoning and fighting the wither

The nether star in every beacon comes from the wither. To summon it, place four soul sand or soul soil blocks in a T shape and put three wither skeleton skulls on top. The last block you place has to be a skull, and doing it earns Withering Heights.

The skulls

Wither skeletons only spawn in Nether fortresses. When a player kills one, it drops its skull 2.5 percent of the time, about once every 40 kills. Each level of Looting adds a percentage point, up to 5.5 percent with Looting III.

The first 11 seconds

The wither can't be hurt while its health bar fills. Then it explodes with a power of 7, more than a charged creeper's 6, so place the last skull and back away.

Obsidian

Its black skulls can't break obsidian, but the blue ones can, and every time the wither takes damage it breaks the blocks in a 3 by 4 by 3 space around itself, obsidian included. Bedrock, end portal frames and reinforced deepslate are among the few blocks it can't break.

Below half health

In Java, once it drops below 150 of its 300 health, arrows, thrown tridents and wind charges stop hurting it, so finish the fight with a sword. Smite works, because the wither is undead.

The Wither effect

A skull that hits you gives Wither II for 10 seconds on Normal and 40 seconds on Hard. Drinking milk clears it.

The wither always drops its nether star. In Java the star stays on the ground for 10 minutes instead of the usual 5, and explosions can't destroy it. The wither arena keeps the whole fight in one underground room, away from anything you built.

Setting up a villager trading hall

Professions

An unemployed villager claims a free job site block nearby and takes the profession that goes with it, so a lectern makes a librarian. Until you trade with it, breaking the block and placing it back can change its offers.

Locked trades

The first trade locks the profession and the offers for good, so read them before you buy anything.

Restocking

A villager restocks when it works at its job site block, up to twice a day, so the block has to stay within its reach. In Bedrock it also needs a bed nearby.

Discounts

Curing a zombie villager gives the player who cured it a permanent discount. Cures used to stack, but since 1.20.2 curing the same villager again adds no extra discount. Winning a raid gives Hero of the Village, which takes 30 percent off at level I and 55 percent at level V.

Despawning

Villagers never despawn, so name tags are only for telling them apart.

The villager trading hall gives 24 villagers a cell each, and the trading hall with zombie curing builds the cure into the design.

Placing bookshelves around an enchanting table

An enchanting table offers level 30 enchantments once 15 bookshelves count toward it, and it ignores any beyond that. A bookshelf counts when it stands exactly two blocks from the table along one axis, no more than two blocks off along the other, and level with the table or one block higher.

The gap between the table and a bookshelf has to stay open. In Java only air or a replaceable block such as a snow layer or short grass may sit there, so a torch, a slab or a carpet in the gap cuts off the bookshelf behind it. The level 30 option also costs less than it looks: you need 30 levels to pick it, but it takes only 3 levels and 3 lapis lazuli.

The enchanting room fits all 15 bookshelves into 9 by 9 blocks, and the mob spawner XP farm earns the levels back.

Linking portals through a Nether hub

Horizontal distances in the Nether are eight times shorter than in the Overworld, and height is not scaled. To find where a base's portal belongs in the Nether, divide its Overworld X and Z by 8 and keep the same Y.

When you step through a portal, Java looks for an existing portal near those converted coordinates, within 16 blocks in the Nether or 128 in the Overworld, and takes the closest. Height counts toward that distance, so a portal far above or below the spot can lose to one further away. A portal that sits right at the converted coordinates is always the one picked.

Blue ice

A boat on blue ice tops out around 73 blocks per second, against 40 on packed ice or regular ice. Nine packed ice make one blue ice, and nine ice make one packed ice.

Ghasts

They spawn at any light level wherever solid ground has 5 by 5 by 4 blocks of open space above it, so none can spawn inside a narrower tunnel. Their fireballs leave any block with a blast resistance of 3.5 or more standing, which includes cobblestone, blackstone and nether bricks but not glass.

Piglins

In Java they only spawn at light level 11 or lower, so a brightly lit hub stops them from spawning inside it.

The Nether hub connects several portals with ice highways on a 32 by 32 footprint.