What are glow berries used for in Minecraft?

Glow berries, part of the Caves & Cliffs Update, are the newest food item to make it into the game. Image via Minecraft
Glow berries, part of the Caves & Cliffs Update, are the newest food item to make it into the game. Image via Minecraft

Glow berries are one of the most recent additions to Minecraft. They arrived in the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update alongside axolotls, goats, copper, deepslate and more. Given that they are the newest food item in Minecraft, many players might be unfamiliar with them, so here's everything on glow berries in Minecraft.


A guide to glow berries in Minecraft

Glow berries are a food item in Minecraft that is collected in caves from vines and can be planted to grow more. Glow berries can be found in lush caves (coming in Part 2 of the 1.17 Update), which can only be generated using the custom world type in Java Edition.

Glow berries can spawn in mineshaft chests and lush caves, which are not a part of the full game yet. (Image via Mojang)
Glow berries can spawn in mineshaft chests and lush caves, which are not a part of the full game yet. (Image via Mojang)

Bedrock players can toggle the experimental gameplay to get lush caves. The only way they are currently found naturally is in chests in mineshafts. They have a 38.7% chance to spawn there.

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In order to grow them, they have to be placed on the bottom of a block. They will grow downward up to 26 blocks. Bonemeal will make them grow. Eating one berry restores two hunger points and 0.4 hunger saturation points. They are a similar food source to sweet berries.

They can also be used as a light source, but it's faint. If they are on cave vines, they can emit a light source of up to 14 depending on how long the vine is. Placing glow berries into a composter has a 30% chance of raising the compost level by 1.

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They can also be used, like sweet berries, to breed foxes. In order to do that, players need to crouch and sneak up on two foxes and feed them glow berries. They will then produce a baby fox that trusts the player and won't flee. They won't sit like tamed wolves and cats do, though.

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