Minecraft: The Most Useful Items, Ranked

Minecraft has been out for over a decade, and each new update adds a bunch of extra items and tools to use. Even with so many new items, some tools are timeless and will forever be useful, like the pickaxe. Without these items, Minecraft would have a basic building system, and luckily, you get to experience so much more.

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This list will rank some of the best items in the game that are more useful than they initially may seem. From swords to furnaces, here are the best and handiest items in the game of Minecraft.

Updated on November 29, 2024, by Meaghan Daly: Despite its many changes and updates, Minecraft remains a strong contender for history's most beloved sandbox game. Many of the game's most useful items have been present since day one, though subsequent updates have added many more goodies to keep the blocky universe fresh.

26 Logs

Arguably the most useful item in the game, from day one to one thousand, is a wooden log. They can be punched with your bare fists from any tree, or mass farmed using a complicated Piston contraption. Either way, you'll need plenty to get going on your adventure, from your first crafting bench to a boat and sticks for your diamond pickaxe.

Raw logs can be used as-is or refined into planks, the universal go-to for any base's flooring. More importantly, those planks form the base for countless Minecraft items — including chests, hoppers, and trap doors. Assuming you're in a sufficiently large forest, planks are also a handy way to build bridges and pathways to traverse dangerous mines.

25 Diamonds

The iconic diamond is found from the -16 Y layer to every world's bedrock. You'll also find them in underground chests scattered across mineshafts, dungeons, and Ancient Ruins. These gems are necessary for loads of late-game upgrades, such as a diamond pickaxe and powerful diamond armor, all of which can then be upgraded to Netherite. There are also diamond variants of every available tool, including the humble hoe. (That said, using your precious diamonds on a farming tool is probably not the wisest choice.)

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Of course, as with most Minecraft blocks, there are many decorative uses, too. If you're rolling in sparkling gems, consider making nigh-indestructible blocks for your base. You can also combine them with patterns at the smithing table to give any armor a splash of beautiful lightning blue. Diamonds are also required to create crafting tables, fireworks stars, and jukeboxes.

24 Shulker Shell

As you progress through your world, you'll find that you've amassed quite an inventory full of useful items, and of course, some junk too. Chests are great when you're hanging around the house, but for those times when you need to move numerous objects, an Ender chest just isn't good enough.

Looted from Shulkers that attack players traipsing through their cities, Shulker shells combined with a Chest make Shulker boxes. These have the capacity of a normal chest but can be broken and carried around. While you can't put one Shulker box inside another, a full set of these portable chests increases your carrying capacity to a whopping 729 stacks of items.

Bundles

A less resource-intensive version of a Shulker box is a bundle. Crafted from string and leather, a bundle is a tidy little pouch that can hold a single stack worth of items. This is, of course, much less than a Shulker box, but it's a worthwhile investment for early-game players. If you're ever confused about your bundles, fear not. You can apply any dye to a bundle to make it a different color. Alternatively, you can take a bundle to an anvil and rename it to show what it contains.

Notably, bundles are first-in, last-out. You can stick anything you'd like into a bundle, but each item will be removed in reverse order. So, you'll need to dig through your newest additions to reach your oldest inventory. If you're really hoping to cut down on inventory use, just stick to putting a single item into each bundle.

23 Elytra

The world will open up once you claim your Elytra from an End City ship. Distances that would take you days to travel before disappear beneath you as you soar over oceans and mountains alike. You can really get a bird's eye view using one of these, and biomes that were previously out of reach can now be easily accessed and farmed for resources.

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You'll need to pair these up with Mending and Unbreaking enchantments and keep a stack of rockets on you, otherwise, you'll find yourself crash-landing in an uninhabited desert somewhere. Or worse, right into a lava ocean in the Nether.

22 ​​​​​Enchanting Table

Enchanting tables have been essential for creating powerful tools since their introduction into Minecraft. Even with all the new items added to Minecraft over the years, the enchanting table remains one of the most effective for upgrading your tools with unique effects.

You can even place bookshelves around an enchanting table to increase its effectiveness, which makes each enchantment more powerful. To unlock the best enchantments, your table should have at least fifteen bookshelves surrounding it. The optimal layout places a table at the center of a "C"-shaped collection of shelving with a one-block opening.

21 Potato Seeds

There are lots of foods in Minecraft that can be grown on your farm; however, potatoes stand as one of the best foods in Minecraft because they heal five hunger after being cooked in a furnace.

If you want to farm food that grants the most hunger bar healing, then you can plant tons of potatoes near your house or town. You can harvest up to four potatoes once each of your potatoes is fully grown.

20 Sponge

A sponge block is found in ocean monuments, so it's not the most common item in Minecraft. However, it's a must-have for anyone looking to dry up some waterfront real estate. A single sponge absorbs up to 65 blocks of water before it's fully saturated. It can then be placed in the Nether to dry instantly or left in any biome to slowly expunge its contents.

Interestingly, drying sponges can also be a source of potable water. After sticking a wet sponge into a furnace with fast-burning fuel, put an empty bucket into the now-empty slot. The sponge will dry and leave behind a bucket of water, which you can use to refill a cauldron or create obsidian. Alternatively, you can just carry a bucket of water around; nobody will judge you.

19 Brewing Stand

Potions come in many types, including ones that can heal you or damage your enemies. Before using any potions, you'll first need to obtain a brewing stand because it's the only way to acquire a regular supply of potions.

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Potions cost ingredients to craft, but it's well worth it for their powerful effects. First, you'll need to travel to the Nether to acquire a blaze rod. Alternatively, you may get lucky and find one in a pre-generated building. Some mid-sized villages have stands available to use within a church, and igloos may have one stashed away in the basement.

18 Shears

Shears are most useful at the beginning of a new world because you and your friends will need beds to sleep in, which may require lots of wool depending on how many friends are present in your world.

You can obtain wool by killing sheep; however, a more effective and long-term method for farming wool blocks is using shears to remove the wool coat from a sheep and then capturing the sheep with fences. Shears can grant one to three pieces of wool after shearing a sheep, so you can craft many beds while using this item.

17 Coal

Furnaces are great for smelting items such as ore and food, but they can't function without fuel. Many items can be used as fuel, including wooden planks and other wooden objects, but coal is much more efficient than other items since it's found in abundance underground, and it smelts eight items per piece of coal.

You can find coal in cave systems. Like ores, it's often found in vein formations. A single coal block often hides many more, although they may not be immediately apparent. Of course, if you're doing any deep mining, bring along some extra blocks to fill in gaps.