Block of Bamboo — Minecraft block

Overview

A bamboo block is nine bamboo packed into a solid block, and it is the entry point to the only wood set in Minecraft that is not made from a tree. Bamboo grows back in a couple of minutes with no replanting, so once a bamboo farm is running the whole set — planks, stairs, slabs, fences, doors, trapdoors, signs, buttons, pressure plates and the raft that replaces a boat — is genuinely unlimited in a way no tree wood is. The set also includes one thing no other wood has: bamboo mosaic, a patterned plank variant made from two bamboo slabs, which gives a woven basket-weave texture that has no equivalent anywhere else in the game. Bamboo blocks can be stripped with an axe like a log, they place in three orientations like a log, and 1 block crafts into 2 planks — half the ratio of an ordinary log, which is more than made up for by how fast bamboo regrows. As a raw item bamboo is also furnace fuel, the ingredient in scaffolding, and the only thing pandas will eat.

The bamboo wood set, including the unique mosaic pattern and the raft, plus scaffolding, furnace fuel, sticks and the only food a panda will eat.

Block of Bamboo is one of the 9 variants of this shape in the game. What changes between them is the material, and with it the hardness, the drops, the durability and the recipe — so every figure on this page is this variant's own. Block of Amethyst is the same shape in a different material.

In Minecraft 1.21.4, Block of Bamboo is a plant block. Block of Bamboo is made at a crafting table. Hardness 2 puts it in the middle of the pack for mining speed.

It drops as the same block you mined. With a blast resistance of only 2 it will not survive an explosion. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot.

The recipe calls for Bamboo. Its only crafting use is Bamboo Planks.

About the bamboo set

How to get it

Craft 1 bamboo block from 9 bamboo, which grows in bamboo jungles and regrows on its own in minutes. A small bamboo farm produces more than any build will use.

Tips

1 bamboo block makes only 2 planks, half a log's ratio, but bamboo regrows in minutes so it is still cheaper.
Bamboo mosaic is made from 2 bamboo slabs and is a texture no other wood set offers.
Cut growing bamboo with a sword: 1 hit clears the whole stalk and costs the sword no durability.
Bamboo grows on dirt, grass, sand, gravel, podzol and mud at light level 9, which makes an indoor farm easy.

Version notes

The bamboo block, bamboo planks, bamboo mosaic and the raft were all added in 1.20 (Trails & Tales) and are unchanged in 1.21.4.

How long it takes to break

Block of Bamboo has a hardness of 2. By hand that is 3 seconds per block; with the correct tool at netherite tier it is 0.35 seconds.

You are looking at 0.5 seconds on iron and 0.4 on diamond — the iron step is where the time actually falls.

Nothing here needs a minimum tier: whatever you swing, the block still drops, and the only difference is how long it takes.

Efficiency adds its level squared plus one to the tool speed, so Efficiency V is about 3.5 times faster than the same tool unenchanted.

Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand	3 s	3 s	3 s
Wooden	1.5 s	0.25 s	0.15 s
Stone	0.75 s	0.25 s	0.1 s
Iron	0.5 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Diamond	0.4 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Netherite	0.35 s	0.2 s	0.1 s
Golden	0.25 s	0.15 s	0.1 s

Properties

Block of Bamboo resists blasts at 2, which is not enough to survive anything explosive nearby. Light does not pass through it, and it emits none of its own. 64 fit in a slot — a full stack. It is renewable, so one world can supply as much of it as you want. An axe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for. As furnace fuel it burns for 50 seconds — 5 smelting operations.

Transparent: No
Required tool: Any
Renewable: Yes
Fuel value: 50 s