Overview
Clay is the pale grey block that generates in patches on riverbeds, in shallow lake bottoms and in lush caves, and it is the start of two separate material chains. Broken with any tool it drops 4 clay balls, and Fortune multiplies that; Silk Touch collects the block itself, which matters if you want the grey clay block as a building material rather than the balls. Smelt a clay ball and you get a brick, and 4 bricks make a brick block, which is the classic red masonry material for chimneys, ovens and English-cottage builds. Smelt the whole clay block instead and you get terracotta, which is the base of the sixteen dyed terracotta colours and, smelted again after dyeing, the glazed variants. Clay balls also craft into flower pots, which is the only way to display a plant indoors. In practice a river is the cheapest source: clay patches sit in plain sight in shallow water and a shovel clears them in seconds. Mud placed above a pointed dripstone slowly turns into clay, which is the only renewable source.
Bricks for red masonry chimneys and cottages, terracotta and all 16 of its dyed and glazed variants, and the flower pots that are the only way to display a plant indoors.
In Minecraft 1.21.4, Clay is a naturally generated block. Clay is made at a crafting table. A hardness of 0.6 means it is one of the quicker blocks to clear.
No specific tool is required to collect it. Instead of dropping itself it yields Clay Ball. It offers almost no protection from explosions (0.6 blast resistance).
A full stack holds 64. It is crafted from Clay Ball. It goes into exactly one recipe: Terracotta.
How to get it
Dig it with a shovel from riverbeds, shallow lakes and lush caves; 1 block drops 4 clay balls. Silk Touch collects the block itself, and mud above a pointed dripstone slowly converts into clay.
Tips
- 1 clay block gives 4 balls, and Fortune multiplies that, so an enchanted shovel is worth using on a river bed.
- Smelt the balls for bricks and the whole block for terracotta — they are different chains from the same source.
- Mud placed above a pointed dripstone turns into clay over time, which is the only renewable supply.
- 3 clay balls make 3 flower pots after smelting into bricks, which is the cheapest indoor decoration in the game.
How long it takes to break
Clay has a hardness of 0.6. By hand that is 0.9 seconds per block; with the correct tool at netherite tier it is 0.1 seconds.
The drop does not depend on the tool — bare hands work as well as anything — so the table below is purely about speed.
Efficiency adds its level squared plus one to the tool speed, so Efficiency V is about 2 times faster than the same tool unenchanted.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | 0.9 s | 0.9 s | 0.9 s |
| Wooden | 0.45 s | 0.1 s | instant |
| Stone | 0.25 s | 0.1 s | instant |
| Iron | 0.15 s | 0.1 s | instant |
| Diamond | 0.15 s | instant | instant |
| Netherite | 0.1 s | instant | instant |
| Golden | 0.1 s | instant | instant |
Properties
Clay resists blasts at 0.6, which is not enough to survive anything explosive nearby. Light does not pass through it, and it emits none of its own. One inventory slot holds 64, the normal full stack. It is renewable, so a single world can supply an unlimited amount of it. A shovel 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. Broken normally it drops Clay Ball rather than itself; Silk Touch is what returns the block, and Fortune raises the ordinary drop instead.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Any
- Renewable
- Yes
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Clay
Drops
Clay drops Clay Ball.
Used to craft
Clay is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Terracotta.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Clay in Minecraft?
Clay is crafted from Clay Ball.
What tool do you need to break Clay?
No specific tool is required — Clay can be broken by hand.
Is Clay blast resistant?
Clay has a blast resistance of 0.6, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Clay fit in one stack?
Clay stacks to 64, which puts 3,456 of them in a double chest.
Is Clay renewable?
It is. Clay can be made again in the same world, so there is no need to ration it.
How long does Clay take to break?
With the correct tool at netherite tier it takes 0.1 seconds; by hand it takes 0.9 seconds.
