It feels like with every update to Minecraft, we have tons of new blocks to look through and figure out the usage of. While most of the new blocks in an update tend to be just for decoration, there normally are one or two new blocks that actually provide a functional use. One of these new blacks is the lodestone. This large stone block with some interesting decorations can be quite expensive to craft but also provides a huge benefit for any explorers. Let’s go over what a lodestone does and how to craft one for yourself in Minecraft.
What Does a Lodestone Do In Minecraft?
While you might first think the lodestone keeps chunks loaded for you in Minecraft, you would be wrong. The element instead allows you to link a compass to it, making the compass always point toward the lodestone. This will allow you to easily locate your base by placing one down and carrying the compass on you.
You can carry a regular compass for a similar effect. But a normal compass will only point you toward your spawn. That means if you sleep in a bed at any point on your adventure, your spawn would be moved and the regular compass would be useless. But the lodestone-attuned compass will always point toward the lodestone until the block gets broken.
How to Craft a Lodestone
While the recipe for a Lodestone is quite simple, it is on the expensive side. To craft a lodestone, you will need to surround a netherite ingot with chiseled stone. The stone is easy enough to get, just throw some cobblestone into a furnace and take the smooth stone to the stonecutting station to turn it into chiseled stone.
The netherite ingot will cost you a bit more time and effort to get as you will need to make a trip to the Nether and find 4 pieces of nethrite debris. Combine your four pieces of netherite scrap with four ingots of gold in a crafting table and you will have the one netherite ingot you need.
Finally, combine the chiseled stone blocks and the netherite ingot in a crafting table and you will have a lodestone of your own. Place it down and right-click with a compass in your hand to create the lodestone-attuned compass. This compass will always point toward the lodestone as long as you are in the same dimension as it. If you have the expendable resources, you can craft a lodestone for the Nether and the End in order to never truly get lost.
Finding Your Way Home
With your fears of losing your base cast aside, you can finally take your newly saddled horse and venture out to explore all the different biomes and find all the new passive mobs added to the game. Or maybe you just want to go mining and have an easy way of finding your base again when done.
