Swords are probably your first line of defense against enemy mobs in Minecraft. Your first sword may be made of wood, but you can jump straight to the better part of making swords when you've collected cobblestone or iron.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Making Wooden Swords (for Mac or Windows)
Step 1. Collect the wood
While hovering over a tree trunk, hold down your left mouse button. The tree will be cut and turned into logs. The log will automatically go into your inventory as long as you're near the tree. Repeat this step several times.
It doesn't matter if you cut spruce, oak, or any other type of wood
Step 2. Open your inventory
The default button to open it is E. A box with dimensions of 2 x 2 will appear next to your character image. This is your craft area.
Step 3. Drag the wood to the crafting area
In the results box to the right of the crafting area, several boards will appear. Drag the board to your inventory. Now you have turned the wood into a plank.
Step 4. Make sticks using two wooden planks
Place one of the boards you just made in the bottom row of the crafting area. Place the second board directly above it. You've now successfully created a bunch of sticks in the yield box, which you should drag to your inventory.
Step 5. Make a craft table
To make a craft table, fill all the 2 x 2 squares with boards. Drag the crafting table to the quick slot bar at the bottom of the screen. Close your inventory and place the table on the ground. (To place a block, select the block in the quick slot bar and right-click the ground.)
Don't confuse boards with wood. Only boards can be used for this recipe
Step 6. Open your crafting table
To open a wider crafting interface, right-click the table. You can make a recipe that calls for a 3 x 3 grid from here.
Step 7. Make a wooden sword
The recipe for this sword requires only one column of the 3 x 3 grid. All ingredients must be entered in the same column, in whichever column you choose:
- One board at the top
- One board in the middle (just below the first board)
- One stick at the bottom (just below the two boards)
Step 8. Use your sword
Drag the sword to the quick latch and choose to use it. Now, when you left click the mouse, you are using a sword not a hand. This will be much more effective for killing animals or enemies, but be careful. The wooden sword is a weapon that is not strong enough. If you want to get a stronger sword, jump to the bottom on how to make a better sword.
Part 2 of 3: Making Wooden Swords (for Pocket Edition or Console)
Step 1. Get wood by cutting down trees
In Minecraft, you can chop down a tree with your bare hands. In Pocket Edition, hold your finger on a tree and keep holding your finger until the tree turns to wood. On the console, use the right directional key.
Step 2. Learn how to make crafts
Crafting is easy in this edition of Minecraft. The crafting menu will display a list of available recipes, and you can simply click on the craft you want to make. If you have the right ingredients, they will turn into the thing you want. Here's how to get started:
- Tap the three-dot icon and select Craft if you're using Pocket Edition.
- Press X if you are using an Xbox.
- Press Square if you are using Playstation.
- Press Select if you are using Xperia.
Step 3. Make a craft table
The crafting table gives you access to a wide variety of craftable items, including swords. Here's how to make a sword:
- Make a Plank with Wood in your inventory.
- Make a Crafting Table with four Planks in your inventory.
- Select the Crafting Table in the quick bar and tap the ground you want to place it on. (On the console edition, use the left directional key.)
Step 4. Make a wooden sword
The steps to make it are:
- Make a Plank with the Wood you have in your inventory.
- Make a Stick with two Planks in your inventory.
- Using one Stick and two Planks in your inventory, make a Wooden Sword from the Crafting Tools section.
Step 5. Use your sword
When you have selected a sword in the quick latch, you can swing the sword by tapping the screen or pressing the left directional key. This can inflict more severe damage on animals or enemies than when you use your bare hands.
- Try jumping while swinging the sword. If you slash at the target while dropping (but not in the direction when you jump), you can do a lethal blow that deals 50% more damage.
- Keep reading if you want to upgrade your sword to make it more durable and have more damage.
Part 3 of 3: Making a Better Sword
Step 1. Gather the ingredients using a pickaxe
To make a better quality sword, you'll need a pickaxe to collect stones or metal. The following is a brief summary of how to find these materials, starting with the most common to the least common:
- Stone is widely available on mountain slopes and below ground level. Mine stones with a wooden pickaxe.
- Iron (stone that has cream-colored spots) is often found below ground level, and one must use a stone pickaxe to mine it.
- Diamond ore and gold are very rare materials and can only be found deep in the earth.
Step 2. Make a stone sword
To make a stone sword, combine one stick with two cobblestones. It can deal 6 damage and can take up to 132 hits before being damaged. (For comparison, the wooden sword deals 5 damage and can only take up to 60 hits.)
Just like making all kinds of swords, this recipe for the computer only requires filling in one column, placing the stick at the bottom
Step 3. Update to iron sword
Iron is a very reliable material with a long period of use. If you already have an iron bar (see below), you can make an iron sword that deals 7 damage for 251 hits.
After mining the ore, you must smelt the iron ore using a furnace to make ingots
Step 4. Make a golden sword to show off
Although hard to find, gold is not very good for tools. If you smelt gold ingots to make a sword, the damage is the same as a wooden sword but can only take 33 hits.
The golden sword had one advantage: it displayed its best abilities in high-level enchantments. Many players still don't like the golden sword because it is only considered a temporary tool
Step 5. Make a diamond sword
Now you can actually make it in the world. Diamonds are the best materials to use as tools and weapons, and do not need to be smelted. The diamond sword deals 8 damage and can deal 1,562 hits.
Step 6. Repair your sword
Place two broken swords of the same suit anywhere in the crafting area. This will result in a sword that has greater durability than the combination of the two swords. However, this method cannot be used to increase its durability beyond the maximum durability of the sword.
A "broken" sword is a sword that has been used at least once. You'll see a small bar next to an object's icon showing the remaining time that the object lasts
Tips
- All of these damage and durability values are for Minecraft 1.8. The value may change once version 1.9 has been released.
- When fighting a creeper, hit once, then return immediately, and repeat. Usually this will prevent you from getting hit by an explosion.
- You can get swords from some of the enemies that knock them down, such as wither skeletons and pigment zombies. Usually this requires a lot more effort than making your own sword, especially if you don't have a sword to fight with the enemy!
