How to make and use a spyglass in Minecraft 1.18 update

The spyglass was an unexpected addition to Minecraft in the 1.17 update, making exploration much easier for players wanting a completely vanilla experience. The item adds the ability to zoom in by automatically adjusting the FOV to 1/10 of whatever the player has their FOV set to.

Since the spyglass is made up of different, newer resources, one of which is relegated to a specific underground structure, players might not have yet had a chance to craft or experiment with them.

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How to create a spyglass in Minecraft 1.18

Finding copper

An example of surface copper (Image via Minecraft 1.18)

To craft a spyglass, the first thing a player needs to do is find copper. The easiest way to do this would be by mining copper ore to acquire raw copper. Copper is a very common ore that generates in the range of Y=0 to Y=96, being most commonly found at Y=46 and Y=47. Players will only need two copper ingots, meaning a maximum of two copper ores need to be found to make a spyglass.

If the player is having difficulty finding raw copper via mining, there is an additional way to acquire the metal, which is by killing drowned. Drowned are the underwater equivalent of zombies and have an 11% chance of dropping a copper ingot when killed. This chance is increased by two percent per level of looting. This makes drowned the only renewable source of copper in the entire game.

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Finding amethyst

The layers of an amethyst geode (Image via Minecraft 1.18)

This is the hardest part of crafting a spyglass. The player will need to acquire an amethyst shard to craft the spyglass. This will require them to find an underground geode.

These geodes generate from world heights between Y=-64 and Y=30 and are characterized by a dark outer layer of smooth basalt, a middle layer of calcite, and then a hollow inner layer filled with amethyst blocks and budding amethyst.

For the spyglass, players are concerned with the budding amethyst, which will occasionally grow amethyst clusters. Once these clusters reach their fourth and final stage of growth, they will drop amethyst shards when mined.

These geodes can sometimes be easily found on the surface, exposed on beaches, or under the ocean. They could potentially be found exposed by ravines as well. However, apart from these sources, they are found deep underground.

A budding amethyst with a young shard (Image via Minecraft 1.18)

Thankfully for the player, a spyglass only requires a single amethyst shard. Assuming the player finds a single geode, they should get more than enough amethyst shards to craft their spyglass. However, if none of the budding amethysts have full growth shards on them, the player will need to wait for the shards to grow before they can harvest them.

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Crafting the spyglass

A player looking through a spyglass (Image via Minecraft 1.18)

Once players have acquired the copper ingots and amethyst shards, they can craft a spyglass. A player needs to enter a crafting table’s crafting interface and place two copper ingots on top of one another. Players then need to put their amethyst shard on top of the two vertically stacked copper ingots.

Once crafted, players only need to equip the spyglass to their hot bar before switching to the item and right-clicking or hitting whatever use button is set for their controls or system.