Chain

Overview

Chain is a building block in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Chain is made at a crafting table. Expect to wait: its hardness of 5 is well above average.

Mine it with a wooden pickaxe or better, or you get no drop at all. Broken correctly, it drops itself. Because it is transparent it does not block light.

A full stack holds 64. It is crafted from Iron Nugget and Iron Ingot. Its main value is as a crafting ingredient: 12 recipes need it, Acacia Hanging Sign, Bamboo Hanging Sign, Birch Hanging Sign and 9 more among them.

How long it takes to break

Hardness 5 puts Chain at 25 seconds a block bare-handed, or 0.85 seconds with the right tool at netherite tier.

Iron manages 1.3 seconds and diamond 0.95, which makes diamond the tier that changes how this block feels.

A weaker tool still breaks it, but anything under wooden returns nothing — you spend the time and lose the drop, which is how most veins get wasted.

Efficiency adds its level squared plus one to the tool speed, so Efficiency V is about 3.4 times faster than the same tool unenchanted.

* breaks the block but yields no drop
Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand *	25 s	25 s	25 s
Wooden	3.8 s	0.65 s	0.3 s
Stone	1.9 s	0.55 s	0.25 s
Iron	1.3 s	0.5 s	0.25 s
Diamond	0.95 s	0.45 s	0.25 s
Netherite	0.85 s	0.4 s	0.25 s
Golden	0.65 s	0.35 s	0.2 s

Properties

Chain has a blast resistance of 6, so a nearby explosion will usually destroy it. It lets light through and emits no light of its own. One inventory slot holds 64, the normal 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

Crafting recipe

Crafting Table

Chain

Drops

Mined with Wooden Pickaxe, Chain drops itself.

Chain

Used to craft

Chain is an ingredient in 12 recipes, producing Acacia Hanging Sign, Bamboo Hanging Sign, Birch Hanging Sign, Cherry Hanging Sign, Crimson Hanging Sign, Dark Oak Hanging Sign, Jungle Hanging Sign, Mangrove Hanging Sign, Oak Hanging Sign, Pale Oak Hanging Sign, Spruce Hanging Sign, and Warped Hanging Sign.