How to Make Fireworks in Minecraft?

Fireworks are a great visual effect that can be seen at night and day. They can also be combined with Elytra wings to give you a form of flying. But how do you make fireworks in Minecraft? 

Basic fireworks can be created with paper and gunpowder, while fireworks with shape and color effects need to be combined with dyes or other items such as diamonds, glowstone dust, heads, and other items.

We’ll look at how to make fireworks and the bigger effects, trails that you get with firework stars as well as where to find the materials and the crafting recipes. So let’s get into it and make some cool firework shows!

How To Make Fireworks in Minecraft?

The standard firework can be made at a crafting table with paper and gunpowder.

Place the paper in the middle row, with the gunpowder next to it. The value of gunpowder affects the flight duration, so you can add a few more gunpowder to increase the flight distance.

Up to three gunpowder can be used to get the maximum flight time.

If you don’t have a crafting table, these are easily made with a few planks. Harvest some trees to get the wood, and put four planks in a square in the crafting area, and then the crafting table should appear on the right.

You don’t have to craft one, as you can find them in specific areas like witch huts, village houses, woolen tents near outposts, and igloos. 

Once you’ve put the materials in the order as stated above, you’ll get a standard firework rocket.

Paper can be obtained from three units of sugar cane, and gunpowder drops from Creepers, Witches, and Ghasts. Sugar cane is pretty widely available throughout most biomes. 

Gunpowder can also be found in Desert Temples, Buried Treasure locations as well as standard dungeons and mineshafts.

How To Make Firework Stars in Minecraft?

If you want to get a little more out of your fireworks, you can also try creating a firework star to change the color, effect, and shape of the firework rocket you made earlier.

When using the crafting table with a standard rocket, you can add up to eight dyes to change the color. You also have the option to add one head, gold nugget, feather, or fire charge.

On top of this, both the diamond and the glowstone dust can be added with any of the other ingredients to add further effects relating to the twinkle and trail.

If you’ve already made a firework star, you can then put it on the crafting table with a dye to add an additional fade to color effect, which will override any other fades you already have set.

A shaped effect is created when adding a single head, gold nugget, feather, or fire charge. A firework star can only have one shape.

The easiest mob head to find for an ingredient for this is generally going to be the Dragon Head, which you’ll find on End ships.

You can add individually a diamond or glowstone dust or both to get a trail effect or twinkle/crackle respectively, with both giving you the dual effect.

There are a total of 16 dyes in Minecraft and are relatively easy to obtain. White is done via bonemeal which can be gotten from any skeleton. You’ll get three bonemeal for every bone.

For light gray dye, one of the best ways is to get one of three gray flowers that grow randomly.

These flowers are called azure bluet, oxeye daisy, and white tulip, and will all produce light gray dye when one of these flowers is in the crafting table area.

Two bonemeal and one ink sac from a squid will get you three dyes. To get a lighter shade,  put gray dye in the grid with bonemeal to yield two light gray dyes.

The red dye comes from poppies, red rose bushes, or red tulips, thereafter following the same recipe as above for the gray flower. One of those flowers into a crafting grid will produce two red dyes.

Pink tulips or peonies will produce two pink dyes if created with a peony, or one pink dye if created with a pink tulip. The same result also happens with the combination of red dye and bonemeal.

Dandelions or sunflowers will give you yellow dye, and orange dye from orange tulips. You can also make orange via red dye and yellow dye. Green is obtained by melting a cactus in a furnace, whereas lime is with the green dye and bonemeal.

Blue orchid makes blue dye, light blue from lapis lazuli with bonemeal. The similar color cyan is a mixture of green dye and lapis lazuli. Purple is from one lapis lazuli and red dye. Magenta is from allium or lilac. A purple and pink dye together will make magenta as well.

Finally, cocoa beans in the jungle biome make brown.

The description under the item in the crafting table tells you how far the rocket will travel, and what shape and effect the explosion will have.

How To Use Fireworks in Minecraft?

Putting a firework or firework star on any non-air block will activate it, causing it to rocket off into the sky and explode (in the case of the latter one anyway).

Crossbows can also be loaded up with fireworks, so next time you raid an Illager settlement you’ll be able to pack some serious punch.

Charging up your Elytra wings with a firework is not so easy, so it’s recommended to get higher ground first.

Jump off a ledge or similar and while you’re falling, immediately engage your Elytra’s glide. After this, look upwards and shoot a rocket by right-clicking when the firework is in your hand.

You should always use a maximum of three gunpowder for fireworks meant for your Elytra to give yourself the longest possible flight distance. Be aware that flying in this way will degrade the durability value on the Elytra much faster than usual!