What can you pick up in a bucket in Minecraft

Buckets are very useful in Minecraft. They're great for collecting tons of items and can be a quick way of getting through a lot of tough parts of the game. For example, Minecraft speedrunners often utilize buckets of water and lava to create a Nether portal in mere seconds.

That's just a couple of the items that can be picked up in Minecraft buckets, though. Here's the full list.

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Full list of items that can go in Minecraft buckets

Buckets are obtained mainly through crafting. Three iron ingots are enough to craft one bucket. There are also a few places they can be obtained through natural generation.

The crafting recipe for a bucket is simple: just three iron ingots will do the trick. Image via Minecraft

In both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, they can spawn in the following places with the following spawn chances:

• Dungeon (monster spawner)- 18.5% chance for one to spawn
• Savanna village- 11.3% chance for one to spawn
• Woodland mansion- 18.5% chance for one to spawn

Once crafted or obtained, buckets can be used to pick up certain items. They are primarily used for water and lava, but there are plenty of other items that can be put in a bucket.

A cow, mooshroom or goat can be milked with a bucket. This can be done by using the bucket on them (a bowl will produce mushroom stew from a mooshroom). This is the only way to get milk which can be used for recipes or to remove status effects.

Fish (cod, salmon, pufferfish and tropical fish) can also be caught in a bucket. The fish need to be clicked with a bucket, which can be difficult. They can then be put into different bodies of water (they will die if placed on land without water).

Powdered snow can be picked up in a bucket and then put into a cauldron. Axolotls, a Minecraft 1.17 addition, can only be collected in buckets. They spawn underground near water and can be placed anywhere on land or in water.