How to get bamboo in Minecraft: Step-by-step guide for beginners

Looking for bamboo in Minecraft?

Bamboo in Minecraft was introduced with 1.14 Java and 1.8.0 Bedrock updates. This excited players, as it has quite a few uses and is easy to acquire bamboo when a sword or an ax is in a player's inventory.

Where to Find Bamboo and how to Obtain it

Bamboo can be acquired in a few ways, but no matter what, it will only generate in some variation of the jungle biome. When a player arrives, they can find it naturally sprouting, through fishing, and as a mod drop.

Breaking bamboo is simple, but the player should try to have a sword or an ax on hand. These two tools break bamboo the fastest, which will allow the player more time to gather even more resources before dark.

Jungles

Bamboo grows exclusively in jungles (unless farmed). They are commonly discovered in single shoots and far away from one another. However, in some variations, they will grow in clusters.

Mob Drops

If a player kills a panda, they will drop bamboo. In Java edition, they only drop 1, while in Bedrock, a player has a chance of receiving 2.

Image via Minecraft

Fishing

When a Minecraft player fishes in the jungle biome, they have the possibility of reeling in bamboo. This is technically a "junk item" when fishing, but still comes in handy.

What is Bamboo in Minecraft Used for?

Bamboo is involved with a slew of actions in Minecraft: crafting, farming, smelting, and to breed pandas.

Crafting

Bamboo can be used to craft both sticks and scaffolding. Sticks are simple to make, as is scaffolding.

Scaffolding is used to ascend multiple levels without having to use blocks to build up. This proves to be useful on large scale projects in survival mode.

Farming

Farming bamboo provides the player with a plentiful supply, considering that it can grow as high as 16 blocks. With this much bamboo, the player can make as much scaffolding as their heart desires, or they can use it to smelt and/or breed pandas.

Smelting/Cooking

Smelting is an important task in Minecraft. It's required to turn many ores into bars of their respective ore. These are used to make tools, weapons, armor, and other items (for example, flint and steel is made from flint and a bar of iron). Without smelting, a player could not last long in the game.

Using a furnace to cook food also extends the time of fullness. When going on adventures or living as a nomad in the game, staying full is important.

For both of these purposes, bamboo can serve as the item burned for smelting. Since it can be grown in bunches and quickly - especially when a bone meal is involved - this is the ideal item to burn.

Breeding Pandas

Bamboo can also be used to breed pandas in Minecraft. This can be done by feeding bamboo to two adult pandas in close proximity. This also requires 8+ blocks of bamboo within a 5 block radius. This will lead them to mate and produce offspring.

Here is a Tweet from @Minecraft that displays a baby panda with its parent:

Overview

Bamboo is an extremely useful and abundant resource in the game. It should be used to its full potential.