Overview
A cauldron holds one of three things and each one does something different. Filled with water it washes dye out of leather armour, out of a dyed shulker box and out of a banner pattern, which is the only way to undo dyeing without recrafting; it also fills bottles and can extinguish a burning entity that steps into it. Filled with lava it becomes a compact fuel store and a hazard block, and lava from a cauldron fills a bucket exactly as a lava lake would. Filled with powder snow it is the only container that will hold powder snow at all, which makes it the standard way to store the block, and a player or mob standing in a powder snow cauldron freezes. The mechanic that turns a cauldron from a curiosity into a farm is dripstone: a pointed dripstone tip placed under a water or lava source, with a cauldron underneath it, slowly fills the cauldron with that liquid. A lava-dripping cauldron is the only renewable lava in Java Edition, filling roughly every 20 minutes, and a water one gives infinite water with no bucket at all.
Washing dye out of leather armour, banners and shulker boxes, storing powder snow, collecting renewable lava under a dripstone tip, and giving a water source in the Nether where water cannot be placed.
Minecraft classifies Cauldron as a functional block. Cauldron has a crafting recipe, so it is renewable as long as you can source its ingredients. At a hardness of 2 it takes a moment to break but never slows a build down.
It needs at least a wooden pickaxe to drop anything; a weaker tool destroys it for nothing. Mining it returns the block itself, so it is safe to relocate. It is transparent, which matters when you are managing light levels.
With a blast resistance of only 2 it will not survive an explosion. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot. The recipe calls for Iron Ingot.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
How to get it
Craft it from 7 iron ingots. Cauldrons also generate in every witch hut and in some igloo basements and woodland mansion rooms, which is where most players find their first one.
Tips
- A pointed dripstone under a lava source drips into a cauldron and refills it roughly every 20 minutes — renewable lava.
- Rain fills an open-air water cauldron on its own, which is the cheapest water source for a remote base.
- Washing a dyed shulker box in water removes the colour without touching the 27 slots of contents.
- A cauldron of water in the Nether is the only water you can carry there, since placed water evaporates instantly.
How long it takes to break
Hardness 2 puts Cauldron at 10 seconds a block bare-handed, or 0.35 seconds with the right tool at netherite tier.
An iron tool takes 0.5 seconds and a diamond one 0.4, so the jump that actually matters for this block is the one to iron.
The block still breaks with a weaker tool, but below wooden it yields nothing at all — the time is spent and the drop is lost, which is the single most common way players waste a vein.
Each Efficiency level adds level² + 1 to the tool's speed, so a level V tool clears this about 3.5 times faster than an unenchanted one.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand * | 10 s | 10 s | 10 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
Blast resistance on Cauldron is 2, so any explosion nearby takes it out. It lets light pass and gives off no light. 64 fit in a slot — a full stack. The fastest tool for it is a pickaxe; any other kind of tool mines it no faster than a bare hand does, because the speed bonus only applies to the tool class the block is tagged for.
- Transparent
- Yes
- Required tool
- Wooden Pickaxe
Where it generates
- Found in
- Swamp Hut (Witch Hut)
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Cauldron
Drops
Mined with Wooden Pickaxe, Cauldron drops itself.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Cauldron in Minecraft?
Cauldron is crafted from Iron Ingot.
What tool do you need to break Cauldron?
Wooden Pickaxe or better is required; anything weaker destroys the block without dropping it.
Is Cauldron blast resistant?
Cauldron has a blast resistance of 2, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Cauldron fit in one stack?
Cauldron stacks to 64, so a single double chest holds 3,456 of them.
How long does Cauldron take to break?
The correct netherite tool clears it in 0.35 seconds. Bare hands take 10.
