Overview
A Bucket is the container for every liquid and several living things, and three iron ingots buys more capability than any other early item. Filled with water it becomes the game's best safety tool; filled with lava it becomes the most efficient furnace fuel in the game at 100 smelted items per bucket; filled from a cow it becomes Milk, which cancels every status effect including poison and Bad Omen. It also picks up powder snow, which can be moved no other way, and scoops up fish, axolotls and tadpoles so they can be transported and released alive somewhere you want them. Buckets are not consumed by placing their contents — you always get the empty bucket back — so the only real cost is the initial iron. Most players carry two: one for water and one kept empty for lava or emergencies. A stack of empty buckets is also the standard way to drain an ocean monument or a ravine, though a sponge or a dry sponge does that job far faster once you have raided a monument for them.
Carrying water for fall-damage saves and farms, hauling lava for fuel or obsidian, milking cows to clear status effects, and moving fish, axolotls, tadpoles and powder snow alive and intact.
Bucket is a tool item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. The stack limit is 16, so plan inventory space. Look for it in the loot of Dungeon (Monster Room).
It is crafted from Iron Ingot. Nothing on the crafting grid is made from it.
How to get it
Craft 1 from 3 Iron Ingots. One bucket of lava smelts 100 items in a furnace, which is the best fuel-to-item ratio in the game and repays the iron many times over.
Tips
- Keep one empty bucket free at all times: an unexpected fall needs a water placement, and a full bucket cannot take lava.
- A lava bucket in a furnace smelts 100 items, so a Nether lava farm removes fuel from your worry list permanently.
- Buckets stack to 16 only when empty; filled buckets take one slot each, which is what makes fish transport bulky.
- Powder snow can be picked up with a bucket and nothing else, and it is the only safe way to move it into a trap.
Properties
One inventory slot holds 16, so a double chest holds 864.
- Stack size
- 16
- Category
- Tools
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Bucket
Found in
Bucket is in the loot tables of Dungeon (Monster Room).
- Dungeon (Monster Room) — A small cobblestone-and-mossy-cobblestone room with a mob spawner in the centre and one or two chests against the walls.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Bucket in Minecraft?
Bucket is crafted from Iron Ingot.
What is the stack size of Bucket?
Bucket stacks to 16.
