Minecraft guides — page 4 — page 4

Practical write-ups on commands, datapacks, building and server performance — each one paired with the tool that does the work.

Custom recipes: shaped, shapeless, and using tags instead of listing every wood

A shaped recipe that will not craft usually has its key wrong or its pattern padded. Here is the JSON, the tag trick that collapses eight recipes into one, and how to test.

2026-06-29Commands & Data

Biomes are 3D now: why the biome under your feet is not the one on the surface

Cave biomes generate independently of the surface, which changes mob spawns, water colour and where structures appear. What that means in practice.

2026-06-28Building & Resources

Scoreboards: the criteria that track things automatically, and display slots

Most scoreboard tutorials only use dummy. The built-in criteria track deaths, blocks mined and custom stats with no commands at all — here is the full shape.

2026-06-27Commands & Data

Armour maths: why 20 armour points is not 80% reduction

The armour formula includes toughness and the attack's armour-piercing. Here is the real equation, what Protection adds on top, and where the hard caps sit.

2026-06-26Building & Resources

Replacing sounds with a resource pack: sounds.json and the .ogg requirement

Minecraft only plays Ogg Vorbis, and a sound event is not a file. Here is the mapping file, how to add a sound instead of replacing one, and why yours is silent.

2026-06-25Building & Resources

XP levels and total experience: the three formulas and what a death costs

Levels are not linear — level 30 is 1,395 XP but level 60 is 6,720. Here are the piecewise formulas, what you keep on death, and the cheapest level for enchanting.

2026-06-24Building & Resources

Block, item and entity ids: namespaces, block states, and the ones that differ

An id is not always what the item is called, and a block id is not the same as its item id. The naming rules, the renames that break old commands, and where states fit.

2026-06-23Commands & Data

Hiding and resizing HUD elements with a resource pack

The hotbar, crosshair and XP bar all live in one texture atlas. Here is how to make parts of it invisible, what cannot be moved, and the font trick for custom HUD text.

2026-06-22Building & Resources

Colour and formatting codes: § codes, hex, and where each one still works

Section-sign codes still work in some places and are ignored in others. Here is the full table, the hex syntax that replaced them, and which contexts accept what.

2026-06-21Commands & Data

Map art: why your image looks wrong, and the 3-shade trick that fixes it

Maps have 61 base colours, not 16 million — but each has four shades set by block height. Staircasing triples your palette and is why good map art is never flat.

2026-06-20Building & Resources

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