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Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
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Minecraft Lightning Rod

Every now and then, it happens that a new update introduces new items into the game that have a direct counterpart in the real world. The Minecraft lightning rod was no exception when it became part of the gameplay in 2021 with the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update part 1. While the lightning rod also performs the obvious task in the game and dissipates lightning, it still offers a few extras and special features.

Minecraft Lightning Rod Overview

  • crafting: 3x copper ingots
  • mining only with stone pickaxes or better pickaxes
  • re-directs lightning
  • protects from other effects of lightning
  • activates redstone circuits

Minecraft Lightning Rod: The Basics of Thunderstorms & Lightning

To understand the lightning rod and its meaning, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basics. For almost 10 years, players were exposed to the random thunderstorms in Minecraft. If it started to rain or snow, you had to fear for your wooden house, because with these weather phenomena comes randomly distributed lightning.

Lightning is especially dangerous, since it:

  • can sometimes be deadly (2.5 hearts of damage)
  • strikes unpredictably and thunder sounds at the same time
  • ignites fires
  • manipulates mobs and makes them more dangerous
  • can spawn new mobs

A decade later, the lightning rod finally gives players a way to protect themselves from these problems.

How to Craft a Minecraft Lightning Rod

Until now, the function of copper was rather limited to crafting decorative blocks, but now you can finally use your copper supplies for something more useful. Copper ingots are the only material needed to craft a Minecraft lightning rod. If you have mined copper, you simply have to melt it into ingots in the furnace and you are ready to go.

Lightning rod Minecraft recipe:

3x copper ingots = 1x Minecraft lightning rod

The Minecraft lightning rod recipe in the crafting window

If you have 3x copper ingots, you only have to insert them into the middle column of the crafting window. Now you have a Minecraft lightning rod and can start protecting your territory from lightning.

Placing & Mining the Minecraft Lightning Rod

Once you have a few lightning rods in your inventory, you can experiment with where to place them. Basically, the item is very versatile and you don’t have to pay much attention to it. In three points, a guide to placement can be can be summarized as follows:

  • The higher up it is, the better. However, on the ground it works just as well.
  • It can point in all directions, but at the bottom of a block it is not of much use.
  • Even if it’s placed upright or to the side, you still shouldn’t place a block directly above it.

While trying out where a lightning rod looks best or is most effective, just be mindful of how you mine it. For this, you need at least a stone pickaxe or a pickaxe made of better material. Otherwise the item won’t drop anything.

The Uses of the Minecraft Lightning Rod

The Minecraft lightning rod is not only unique in its placement options, but also in the uses it fulfills. At first, you probably only think of re-directing lightning, but the field of possible applications is larger than expected. Basically, the lightning rod has 4 main functions:

  • diverts lightning (thus preventing fire & damage)
  • serves as an “energy source” in redstone circuits
  • serves as a versatile building material
  • prevents lightning-induced effects on mobs

When you think of building materials, you certainly don’t think of lightning rods immediately. Minecraft players, however, have always found a way to include almost every block and item in buildings. Due to its versatile options in placement, its look and the possibility of placing them directly on top of each other, the Minecraft lightning rod can be a popular decorative element.

For living in survival mode, it’s especially helpful to know how a Minecraft lightning rod helps you when it comes to mobs. If lightning strikes and hits certain mobs, they change into other, more dangerous creatures. This can make the game more difficult. That’s why it’s important to protect your fortress, village or even your small farm with lightning rods. Otherwise, you may run into these mobs:

Before hit by lightningAfter hit by lightning
pigZombified piglin
villagerwitch
creeperCharged creeper

Most mobs simply die when struck by lightning. Another special case is the skeleton horse: it spawns with low probability when lightning strikes the ground. Therefore, lightning not only changes existing mobs or kills them, but sometimes adds one more. Against all these dangers, a little Minecraft lightning rod can help.

How Does a Minecraft Lightning Rod Work?

To enjoy the full protection of a lightning rod, you either need to find a perfect spot for it, or simply place several of them. A lightning strike will then automatically be directed to the lightning rod that is closest, as long as it is within the radius of the item. This radius around the lightning rod is 128 blocks in Java versions and 64 blocks in Bedrock versions. When a lighning rod is hit, a signal is sent into the ground. More precisely, it is a redstone signal. Thus, some automatic redstone circuits can be ideally combined with a Minecraft lightning rod. However, this technique has not been used very often by players yet.

A Minecraft lightning rod in gloomy atmosphere – will there be lightning?

Last Side Effects with the Minecraft Lightning Rod

In addition to useful features, there are a few side effects that you probably wouldn’t cause on purpose. Sometimes, side effect aren’t really relevant to the usefulness of Minecraft Lightning Rods.

Negative Side Effect:

  • If a lightning rod is hit, an adjacent block will ignite.

Positive Side Effects:

  • Although it is made of copper, the lightning rod does not oxidize.
  • If the lightning rod is placed on copper (without wax) and is struck by lightning, surrounding copper blocks will have oxidation levels reversed.

Conclusion: Minecraft Lightning Rod

At the same time realistic, yet with certain game-specific features: This is the Minecraft lightning rod. The game has managed to provide the player with another option for self-protection. The item’s design also makes it look great and it shouldn’t be missing from any steampunk-style base. And if you still need to see it for yourself, you can do so directly on a Minecraft server from G-Portal!

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