A spear can change the way you fight and explore in Minecraft-offering range, power, and style in one weapon. Learn how to craft your own and master its use, from fending off mobs to fishing across open waters.
Whether you’re facing some powerful, hostile mobs or dueling other players online, mastering the spear will give you an extra edge. So, this guide details the steps to make the spear and how to use the weapon in the game.
Items Required to Make a Spear
To craft a spear in Minecraft, gather 2 sticks and 3 iron ingots. Sticks come from breaking wooden planks in half or chopping trees for logs, then crafting planks into sticks. Iron ingots smelt from raw iron ore in a furnace, with ore found underground or in caves using a stone pickaxe or better. Place the items in this pattern on a crafting table: one stick in the center of the bottom row, one stick above it in the middle column, an ingot in the top center, and ingots flanking the top row’s sides.
Although the weapon is yet to arrive in the stable Minecraft build, Mojang has revealed the crafting recipe of the spear. Making it is quite easy and doesn’t require a lot of resources.
You need the following items to craft the spear in Minecraft:
- 2 Sticks
- Wooden planks, Stone block, Copper ingot, Iron ingot, Gold ingot, Diamond ingot, or Netherite ingot
You can easily make sticks from two wooden planks of any type. As for the second item, it depends on the tier of the spear you want to craft. For instance, using a wooden plank gives a wooden spear, while using an iron ingot yields an iron spear, and so on. Once you’re sure of the tier, get a crafting table to start making this weapon.
Also Read: Minecraft Nautilus: How to Find, Tame, and Ride the Aquatic Mob
How to Craft a Spear in Minecraft
To craft a spear in Minecraft, gather materials such as sticks, iron ingots, and flint, depending on your chosen design or mod requirements. Arrange the items on a crafting table with sticks placed diagonally from the bottom left to the top right, and the metal or flint tip at the top position. Once crafted, move the spear to your inventory. Some mods may include extra components like string or special ores, so check the specific recipe before crafting.
Having gathered all the required resources, follow the steps below to craft a spear in Minecraft:
- Right-click on the crafting table to open its UI.
- Then, place a stick on the bottom-left corner.
- Place another stick at the center of the 3 x 3 grid.
- Now, place the wooden plank, stone block, or an ingot at the top right corner
- This will complete the recipe, and the spear will appear in the rightmost cell.
Now, you can drag and drop the spear in your inventory and start using it to take down hostile mobs in Minecraft.
How to Use a Spear in Minecraft
Hold the spear and aim at your target by right-clicking or holding the attack button to prepare a throw. Release to launch it, dealing damage to mobs or players from a distance. You can also use the spear in close combat by striking enemies directly. If your spear has the Loyalty enchantment, it will return to you after being thrown, reducing the need to craft new ones. Using it wisely allows you to attack both on land and underwater with precision.
The spear comes with two attack modes – Jab Attack and Charge Attack, each offering a unique combat advantage depending on your positioning. Here’s a quick breakdown of the spear’s attacking abilities.
1. Jab Attack
The Jab attack is the standard strike for this weapon and is useful for close-range combat. All you need to do is hold the spear in your hand and click the left mouse button once, while your enemy is within range. This will deal melee damage, and the reach is longer than most melee weapons.
However, after each Jab, the spear enters a brief cooldown period similar to using an Ender Pearl or a Chorus Fruit in Minecraft.
Nonetheless, this weapon is excellent if you want to keep enemies at bay. You can even increase the power of this weapon by using the best spear enchantments, especially the new Lunge enchantment released exclusively for it.
2. Charge Attack
The Charge Attack is where the spear truly shines and helps in building the momentum of the attack. This means that the faster you’re moving, the higher the damage dealt on impact. You will find this attack similar to that of a Mace in Minecraft, only that its damage depends on the speed you’re traveling at instead of the fall height.
So all you need to do is mount an animal, such as a horse or Nautilus, and dash towards the enemy holding the spear in your hand. Once the spear hits the enemy, it will not only deal damage, but also cause knockback or even dismount them.
However, keep the following points in mind while performing a charged attack:
- In an ideal situation, a charge attack deals damage, knocks back enemies, and also dismounts them.
- If you’ve held the spear for long, it will start to shake, and during this time, it loses the power to dismount but can perform its other two abilities.
- If the spear is held for a longer time, the knockback effect is also lost, and it can only deal damage when hit.
However, after a short duration, you will be able to hold the spear in an ideal condition again and charge at enemies with full force. Don’t forget that higher-tier spears like Netherite and Diamond have high attack damage and activation of states, but longer cooldowns than the lower-tier spears like Wooden and Stone.
One last pro-tip for players is that you can use the spear charge attacks while flying with an Elytra or while riding the Minecarts or boats on icy surfaces at high speeds. In addition to Lunge, you can use several other enchantments on the spear to make its attacks more powerful.
How to upgrade spear to Netherite
Upgrade a diamond spear to netherite at a smithing table. This process boosts durability and adds fire/lava resistance without altering melee performance.
Requirements
Gather these items first:
-
Diamond spear (crafted from diamond + 2 sticks).
-
Netherite ingot (smelt ancient debris).
-
Netherite upgrade smithing template (found in bastion remnants).
Upgrade Steps
Place the smithing table and open its interface. Slot the diamond spear in the left, netherite upgrade template in the middle slot, and netherite ingot in the right-output yields one netherite spear.
Netherite spears deal 5 attack damage (up from diamond’s 4) with improved speed at 0.87.
What materials are needed for a Netherite upgrade template
Netherite upgrade smithing templates cannot be crafted from scratch; they must be found in bastion remnant chests in the Nether. To duplicate an existing template for multiple uses, gather 7 diamonds, 1 netherrack block, and the original template.
Duplication Recipe
Open a crafting table and arrange materials in this pattern (viewed from top-left):
-
Fill the top row and middle row (left and center) with 7 diamonds.
-
Place the netherrack in the bottom-left corner.
-
Put the original template in the center of the bottom row.
This yields 2 identical templates, allowing unlimited copies with more resources.
Acquisition Tips
Bastion remnants guarantee templates in treasure room chests (8.3% drop rate per chest). Piglins may also drop them rarely when bartering.
