How useful is lapis lazuli in Minecraft?

Lapis lazuli one of Minecraft's lesser-used minerals and is typically collected for enchanting and decorative purposes.

Considerably more plentiful than ores such as diamond, lapis lazuli is easy to spot due to its unmistakeable blue coloration. For most Minecraft players, the ore is crucial as a component in enchanting, as it is required to be consumed by enchanting tables when applying enchantments to gear.

However, lapis lazuli retains many other uses, especially within the Bedrock and Education editions of the game. This makes it quite useful, albeit not as helpful as some other materials that can be plucked from the underground layers of the game world.

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A closer look at the different uses for lapis lazuli in Minecraft

Lapis lazuli serves a purpose beyond enchanting (Image via Mojang)

Lapis lazuli might not be capable of being crafted into gear in vanilla Minecraft, but it is far from useless as a material. Most players are familiar with its use as a currency when applying enchantments, but its applications in the building and decorative space are substantial.

It is possible to use nine pieces of lapis to create deep blue blocks of the substance, which can look quite pleasing in a similar form to blue-colored, glazed-terracotta blocks.

In Bedrock and Education editions of Minecraft, lapis lazuli can be substituted in many situations for blue dye. If players don't have any blue dye on-hand, they can use lapis to dye objects such as carpets, beds, concrete powder, firework stars, shulker boxes, terracotta and much more.

Lapis can also be broken down into blue dye in any version of the game, which makes it quite versatile. It can even be included in many crafting recipes along with other components to create different-colored dyes in Bedrock and Education editions such as light blue, magenta, cyan, and purple dyes.

Bedrock and Education Edition also allows lapis to be used directly as a dye outside of crafting. For example, players can use the mineral to dye a tamed wolf's collar or on sheep to color their wool. In Education Edition specifically, lapis is also a core component in creating blue-colored glow sticks and balloons.

In Bedrock Edition, lapis can be applied to banners to create banner patterns and images. This can be accomplished in a similar fashion in Java Edition by utilizing the loom block, which performs many of the same functions for banner patterns and images without the use of a crafting table.