Overview
A Firework Star is the payload that decides what a rocket looks like when it bursts, and it is the only genuinely creative crafting system in the game. Gunpowder plus a dye gives a basic star in that colour; add up to eight dyes at once and the burst carries all of them. The shape modifiers each come from a recognisable item: a Fire Charge makes a large ball, a Gold Nugget makes a star burst, a Feather makes a burst shape, and any mob head makes the creeper-face pattern. Two finishing touches stack on top — Diamond adds a trail, Glowstone Dust adds the twinkle and crackle — and a finished star can be recombined with more dye to give it a fade colour, which is how the two-tone bursts are made. Beyond fireworks displays, stars matter for combat: each one added to a rocket increases the explosion damage when that rocket is fired from a crossbow, so a three-star rocket is a weapon rather than a decoration. Craft a test rocket before committing a stack of dye to a display, because the burst is much harder to picture than the recipe suggests.
Giving a firework rocket its colour, shape, trail and twinkle for displays, and raising the explosive damage of rockets fired from a crossbow. One star per rocket is plenty for a display.
Firework Star is a miscellaneous item in Minecraft 1.21.4. It stacks to 64. Nothing on the crafting grid is made from it.
How to get it
Craft 1 from 1 Gunpowder and at least 1 dye, plus optional shape and effect items. Each star added to a rocket raises its crossbow damage by roughly 6 at point-blank range, so about 18 with 3 stars.
Tips
- Combine the finished star with more dye in a second craft to add a fade colour to the burst.
- A mob head in the recipe gives the creeper-face burst, which no other ingredient produces.
- Never put a star into a rocket you intend to fly with — the explosion happens next to you at the end of the boost.
- Bulk-craft with 8 dyes at once for multi-colour bursts; the star holds every colour you put into it.
Properties
One inventory slot holds 64, so a double chest holds 3,456.
- Stack size
- 64
- Category
- Miscellaneous
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Firework Star in Minecraft?
Firework Star has no crafting recipe; it is obtained from mobs, chests or trading.
What is the stack size of Firework Star?
Firework Star stacks to 64.
