Lantern in Minecraft

In a Nutshell: In a crafting table, place eight iron nuggets around the crafting grid. Place a torch in the middle to finish crafting a lantern.

There are three ways to get lanterns in Minecraft. You can find them in the nether by bastions or in snowy tundra villages in the overworld. Apprentice-level librarians will sometimes sell a lantern for an emerald. Lastly you can craft it yourself.

Near bastions lanterns will spawn on chains hanging from the ceiling.

In snowy tundra villages they can be found hanging from lampposts and in front of their doors. To obtain them, make sure you use a pickaxe as the lantern will not drop unless it is broken with a pickaxe.

Step 1: Obtain Iron

Crafting a lantern is relatively simple. You will need to locate iron and turn the iron ingot you get into iron nuggets. Use at least a stone pickaxe to mine the iron ore.

Take the iron ore into a furnace and smelt it into iron ingots.

Step 2: Craft Iron Nuggets

With your iron ingot place it in a crafting menu to get nine iron nuggets.

Step 3: Craft a Lantern

Place a torch in the middle and surround it with iron nuggets in order to make a lantern.

(Optional) Step 4: Craft a Soul Lantern

You can replace the torch with a soul torch to make a soul lantern. This lantern is not as bright but adds a nice blue hue to the lantern.

To make a soul torch simply add a soul sand or soul soil to the bottom of a regular torch recipe.

Lanterns can be placed below blocks or on top of blocks. They function identically to torches in that it begins lighting the area once it is placed and does not burn out. Simply select the lantern in your hot bar and right-click on available space on top of a block or below a block.

You can also hang a chain from the ceiling and place the lanterns on the ends of them to make a nice hanging light fixture.

Getting your home lit is essential for keeping it safe and free of mob spawns. Lanterns are one of the brightest blocks in Minecraft. This means you can use fewer lanterns than torches while lighting up a room. You could also use a mix of glowstone hidden behind paintings and placed within the floors and ceilings to light up a room effortlessly with minimal clutter.

1. Blocks with 15 Light Level: Beacon, Lit Campfire, Lava Cauldron, Conduit, End Gateway, End Portal, Fire, Glowstone, Jack o’Lantern, Lava, Lantern, Fully Charged Respawn Anchor, Sea Lantern, Sea Pickle (Group of four), Shroomlight
2. Blocks with 14 Light Level: Cave Vines with Berries, End Rod, Torch

Only lit furnaces have a light level of 13 which can be difficult to keep on to prevent mob spawns. With the exception of Sea Pickles, a group of four candles, and unobtainable blocks, the rest of the light emitting blocks emit a light level of 10 and under.

1. Blocks with 7-10 Light Level: Crying Obsidian, Lit Soul Campfire, Soul Lantern, Soul Torch, Lit Redstone Ore, Enchanting Table, Ender Chest, Glow Lichen, Lit Redstone Torch

Another distinction to consider are the light emitting blocks that do not prevent hostile mob spawns. Hostile mobs will spawn on blocks that have light level 7 or lower. Any block that emits a lower light level than 7 will not prevent mob spawns on their own.

1. Blocks with 6 Light Level or Lower: Two or less Lit Candles, Amethyst Cluster, Amethyst Buds, Magma Block, Brewing Stand, Brown Mushroom, Dragon Egg, Sculk Sensor

1. As early as October 2010, lanterns were teased as a potential release. It wasn’t until 9 years later during the 1.14 update to the Java edition that lanterns were fully released.
2. Soul Fire Lanterns, now known as soul lanterns, were released a year after regular lanterns during the 1.16 update to the Java edition of Minecraft.

Back in the alpha days of Minecraft around 2010, during the first Halloween update, it was announced that torches would burn out and lanterns would have to be used as a permanent light fixture. The idea has since been rejected.

To read more about Glowstone, click here

Q. Are lanterns better than torches in Minecraft?

A. Lanterns burn one light level higher than torches. This means with lanterns you can add another space between your torch grid and still prevent mobs from spawning. Lanterns are more expensive than a regular torch, as they require iron to make, but if you have iron in high supply, lanterns seem to be a better option. Torches can be placed on walls unlike lanterns so there are times where a torch will still be better than a lantern.

Q. How do you make colored lanterns in Minecraft?

A. There are two lanterns in Minecraft, the regular lantern and the soul lantern. The regular lantern has an orange hue and emits a light level of fifteen. The soul lantern has a blue hue and emits a light level of ten. To make a soul lantern simply place a soul torch in the middle of the iron nugget box instead of a regular torch.

Q. What is the strongest light in Minecraft?

A. The most a light block emits is fifteen. Glowstone, lanterns, sea lanterns, shroomlight, fire, lava, and others emit up to fifteen light level whereas torches will emit fourteen.

Q. Which is brighter Glowstone or sea lantern?

A. They both emit the same light level. They are identical in light emissions but glowstone is a brighter colored block. This has no mechanical effect on the game but with RTX enabled glowstone may seem brighter than a sea lantern.