Minecraft: 5 building tips for lightning rods in 1.17

With Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs right around the corner in 2021, it's time for builders to start getting ready for all of the new techniques that will be available.

The lightning rod was added in snapshot 20w45a, alongside copper and a few others. The rod itself is crafted with three copper ingots, and is roughly the same size as an end rod. It's technical use is to redirect lightning towards the rod in order to keep builds safe.

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Top 5 building tips for lightning rods in Minecraft

#5- Gym weights

Image via Minecraft

Placing two lightning rods between some concrete blocks, iron blocks, or whatever is lying around, creates a beautiful illusion of actual workout equipment. Utilize this tip by making bench press racks, pull up bars, or even as pictured above, deadlift bars. Now, Minecraft Steve can finally get his gains going.

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#4- Table legs

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For this tip, start off by placing lightning rods where the corners of the table are going to go, and fill all the in-between spaces with string. Pop some carpets on top of all of the freshly placed blocks and voila, wonderful steampunk styled tables. Its recommended to stick with earthy tones or prismarine while building with lightning rods, as the oranges and browns found in its palette will make for wonderful additions, and compliments.

While waiting for 1.17 Caves & Cliffs, check out: 5 best modern resource packs

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#3- Large fences

Image via Minecraft

While this tip is a bit more on the expensive side if planned to recreate in survival, the contrast between end and lightning rods makes for an especially pretty fencing, equipped with it's own light source. Use this for a dinosaur park, mob containment as if it were an electric fence, or just as decoration on the outside of militaristic builds.

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#2 Candlesticks

Image via Minecraft

Found the perfect cliff face? Use the rods as candlesticks to light the edges so that passerby's don't chance a rocky tumble, have them floating in an arcane wizard's tower, or just dotted along a path so adventurers will never get lost. Wherever these go, with all of the colored candles present, they'll be a fit for every build in every biome.

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#1- Hanging platforms

Image via Minecraft

This technique was saved for last as it will be especially useful once the new cave generation is implemented into Minecraft. Use lightning rods as a thicker, more sturdy chaining from the ceilings of caves or cliffs for some dramatic drop-down platforming. Combine with steampunk architecture to create a whole hanging city, perfect for an underground rest stop, or as seen in the image above, on a floating islands seed.