Smelting and cooking have a significant purpose in Minecraft and must be performed throughout the entire playthrough, right until you embark on the mission to kill the Ender Dragon. This is why knowing which fuel source to use is important as you’ll need plenty of them, especially if you have big projects in mind. So, let’s check out the best fuel sources in Minecraft.
10. Mangrove Roots
- One mangrove root block smelts/cooks 1.5 items
The first fuel source on our list is mangrove roots, and it’s not the best. These blocks are not all that common as they generate only as part of mangrove trees in the mangrove swamp biome. However, if you happen to have mangrove propagules and are growing these trees in your base, then you know why these roots are on our list.
If you clear a few mangrove trees, you already have a bunch of mangrove roots and probably don’t know what to do with them. Since you have to chop down lots and lots of mangrove trees to get a decent number of mangrove logs, you will get a ton of mangrove roots. So, besides using them to build with, using them as fuel is a perfect way to get rid of them.
9. Bamboo
- Four bamboo smelts/cooks 1 item
Bamboo is a pretty weak fuel source, but it becomes much better in large quantities. Luckily, making a bamboo farm in Minecraft is easy and can yield lots of bamboo. Though, you’ll first need to obtain bamboo, which means traveling to the nearest jungle Minecraft biome is a must.
Due to the fact you need four bamboos to smelt or cook a single item, you can be very precise and not waste any resources in the process, which is very useful.
On the flip side, you’ll need lots of bamboo for a big smelting session and also have to refill it so the furnace doesn’t run out, which is easily enough achievable with hoppers. However, bamboo is also used to make bamboo wood so burning it may not be the best use of it.
8. Wooden Planks
- One plank block smelts/cooks 1.5 items
Similarly to mangrove roots, wooden planks are a pretty mediocre fuel source. The reason why we have listed planks and not logs is because these two fuel sources smelt or cook the same number of items. You’d think that logs smelt more items, but that’s not the case.
So, using planks is far more efficient than logs or wood. Also, you have access to planks pretty much immediately as trees are fairly common. So, this is definitely one of the Minecraft fuel sources you’ll use in the first phases of your world.
7. Sticks
- Two sticks smelt/cook 1 item
Another fuel source you’ll use when getting started with Minecraft is sticks. These are very easy-to-obtain, and that too in a couple of different ways. Not only that, but they smelt half an item each so there is no way to waste sticks.
Wooden planks smelt more items, but planks are used to craft wooden stairs, slabs, and a bunch of other blocks, which makes them a bit more valuable than sticks.
6. Blaze Rod
- One blaze rod smelts/cooks 12 items
Blaze rods are one of the more advanced fuel sources in Minecraft as they become available only when you enter the Nether, find the Nether fortress, and kill the Blaze — one of the Minecraft mobs.
The reason why they’re not higher on this list is because they’re far more useful in other situations. You can use them for brewing potions and crafting eyes of ender, copper bulbs, and more.
Furthermore, since one blaze rod can smelt 12 items, it’s fairly easy to waste their potential if you want to smelt fewer than 12 items. However, if you have a blaze rod farm running, then there is no need to worry about efficiency as these items become completely free. But for those who don’t have a blaze rod farm, using blaze rods as fuel may not be the best choice.
5. Block of Coal
- One coal block smelts/cooks 80 items
Block of coal is the second best Minecraft fuel source in terms of the number of items it can smelt. It’s made out of nine coal items and can smelt a total of 80 items, which is a better deal than nine coal that would smelt 72 items.
However, it’s not among the top three fuel sources as it’s fairly expensive and can be wasted easily. If you’re smelting a lot of items at once, then this is a pretty good choice. But if you want to smelt just a few items, this is not at all a good option.
However, in case you have a wither skeleton farm, then this fuel source is the number one best fuel option in the game by far as a full stack of coal blocks can smelt an astonishing 5,120 items in one go. Considering it’s not easy to make a wither skeleton farm, you probably can’t afford to use all your coal like this.
4. Coal
- One coal smelts/cooks 8 items
Now…
Read More: 10 Best Fuel Sources in Minecraft (Ranked)