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TNT was introduced officially in the Alpha 0.4.0 update of Minecraft and has been a massively popular fan-favorite addition to the game ever since. The exciting and highly unique properties of the block make this universal admiration come as no surprise.
TNT blocks can be used to explore a nearby radius of blocks, this can be useful for clearing out large areas of land quickly, blast mining, killing mobs, building cannons, and simply just for fun!
This guide will explain everything you need to know about TNT in Minecraft, including how to craft the block and how to obtain all required resources in its recipe.
To make TNT in Minecraft, you will need:
Sand is extremely common within Minecraft and can typically be found within a few minutes of wandering through most worlds. You don’t need any special tools to obtain sand, simply break the block by hand and it will drop.
TIP: Sand will commonly spawn near most water sources.
Gunpowder is a bit harder to obtain, killing creepers is the best and easiest method to farm the item. You will need to kill these creepers before they explode in order for them to drop gunpowder.
To make this a bit easier for yourself, check out this guide for some of the best sword enchantments to effortlessly slaughter any mob.
If you’d like more useful information on Minecraft creepers specifically, click here.
To make TNT, open the crafting area made up of the 3x3 grid, place a sand block in the second box of the first row, then place sand blocks on either side of the second row and finally one sand block in the second box of the third row. Once the sand blocks are placed, fill the remaining boxes with gunpowder. Once you complete making the TNT, move it to your inventory.
Here is the step-by-step pictorial guide you need to follow to make TNT in Minecraft:
Step-1 Open 3x3 Crafting table menu
Step-2 Place your sand and gunpowder in the exact formation as shown below:
Step-3 Drag your newly created TNT from the crafting table inventory slot into your one of your own inventory slots.
TNT in Minecraft must be activated in order to cause an explosion, activation of the block can be most simply achieved via the use of a live Redstone signal or directly by lighting with a flint & steel.
Activating a TNT Block with a Lever signal
Activating a TNT Block with Flint & Steel
It depends on the blocks the TNT is placed around, every block in the game has a different blast resistance, and some blocks are harder to break from explosions than others.
As a rough ballpark figure, however, we can say TNT has approximately a 3-5 block radius destruction.
TNT cannons are great fun to make with any extra TNT you might have lying around, check out this video for a quick guide on some cannon designs.
TNT isn’t necessarily expensive to craft, however, obtaining gunpowder can be a bit tricky for beginners. The end result however is a unique block that can be leveraged for several use cases within the game, it’s also great fun to simply play around with.
