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There are many blocks that utilize redstone pulses in Minecraft, among these blocks is the dispenser. You can use dispensers to throw items when it receives a redstone pulse. There are a lot more than arrows and splash potions you can put in a dispenser. The dispenser is also smart enough to use a bucket to release and pull water source blocks back in. There are a surprising amount of uses for a dispenser and the applications of them help with automating a lot of processes in your world.
Dispenser
| Cobblestone | Cobblestone | Cobblestone |
| Cobblestone | Bow | Cobblestone |
| Cobblestone | Redstone Dust | Cobblestone |
Placing an enchanted bow in the recipe will not affect the function of a dispenser.
There are two ways to obtain dispensers in Minecraft. Two dispensers will naturally generate in jungle temples found in jungle biomes. These temples are filled with traps so tread carefully.
As you can see these two dispensers are hidden by vines and will shoot arrows if the player steps over the tripwires or opens the chest without disarming the trap first.
Each dispenser will hold around nine arrows.
The other way to obtain dispensers is to simply make them yourself at a crafting table.
- 7 Pieces of Cobblestone
- 1 Redstone Dust
- 1 Bow
To make a dispenser yourself you will need seven pieces of cobblestone, a redstone dust, and a bow of any condition. The bow can be completely full in durability, enchanted with the best or worst enchantments, or just about to break, it will not affect your dispenser in any way. Once you have your materials, head to a crafting table and place a bow in the center slot, a redstone dust below the bow, and surround these items with cobblestone.
That is all you need to make a dispenser.
There is a wide list of items and specific interactions you can use a dispenser for. Placing an item in a dispenser will have the following effects.
-Armor or Elytra, will equip onto a player, armor stand, or any viable hostile mob into an empty armor slot if the player, mob, or armor stand is on the block in front of the dispenser.
-Armor Stand (Java edition only) will be placed as an entity in the direction that the dispenser is facing.
-Arrows will fire in the direction that the dispenser is facing.
-Boat will fall as a rideable entity if facing water or a block above water.
-Bone meal will fertilize a block in front of it if it is bone meal-able.
-Splash Potions, Eggs, and Snowballs will be fired in the direction the dispenser is facing.
-Empty Buckets will pick up any water or lava block that sits in front of the dispenser.
-Fire Charge will launch as a fiery projectile that can set mobs, players, or block on fire.
-Firework Rockets will launch in the direction that the dispenser is facing.
-Flint and Steel will light the block in front of it on fire if possible. Each time the dispenser uses the flint and steel it will lower the durability of the flint and steel.
-Bucket of Water, Lava, or Fish, will drop its respective source block into the block the dispenser is facing. If the bucket contained fish, the water source block will also contain that fish.
-Minecarts will be placed as minecarts if the dispenser is facing rails, otherwise the dispenser will simply drop the item.
-Mob Heads will be placed to finish spawnable mobs like iron golems or summoning the wither, otherwise the head will drop.
-Shulker Boxes will be placed in front of the dispenser.
-Spawn Eggs will spawn the mob in the direction the dispenser is facing.
-TNT will be ignited and launched at a small velocity in a random direction.
-Tridents (Bedrock edition only) will be thrown in the direction that the dispenser is facing.
-Shears will shear any sheep that is in front of the dispenser.
-Glass bottles will become filled if the dispenser is facing a water source block.
-Horse Armor (Java edition only) will be equipped on any horse in front of the dispenser.
-Saddle (Java edition only) will be placed on any pig, tamed horse, mule, donkey, or strider in front of the dispenser.
-Chest (Java edition only) will be placed on any llama or tamed horse, mule, or donkey in front of the dispenser.
-Glowstone will refill any respawn anchor in front of it, if the respawn anchor is full the dispenser does nothing.
-Any other item will be dropped from the dispenser when the dispenser is powered.
For these effects to occur you simply need to power the dispenser with a redstone pulse of some kind.
Attaching the dispensers to a clock will have them perform their appropriate actions in a rapid fire pattern.
A dispenser’s front end looks like a face.
A dispenser with a bucket of water will drop a source block and pick it up with enough redstone pulses. This can be used to automate crop harvesting.
You can fill a dispenser up with arrows, fire charges, or even lava to help protect yourself from hostile mobs or players. If the dispenser has arrows, they will fire with each redstone pulse. If the dispenser has fire charges, the projectiles can light players, mobs or blocks on fire, and if the dispenser has lava, lava will begin to pour out of the dispenser.
Dispensers will only fire on receiving their initial power. Use a redstone clock to constantly flip the dispenser from on to off to have it fire the items it is holding faster.
Using an enchanted bow does not offer the enchanted benefits to the dispenser. It would be nice to have infinite arrows in a dispenser or have the arrows become fire arrows but unfortunately, dispensers will not be impacted by the enchantments on a bow.
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