What do you need to make a campfire in Minecraft?

Three sticks, three logs and one coal or charcoal. The logs fill the bottom row of the crafting table, the coal goes in the centre, and sticks sit above and beside the coal.

How do you make a soul campfire in Minecraft?

Use the same recipe as a regular campfire but replace the coal or charcoal with a block of soul sand or soul soil, which you can gather in the Nether's soul sand valley.

Can you make a campfire with any type of wood?

Yes. Any log, stripped log, wood, stem or hyphae variant works in the recipe, including the Nether's crimson and warped stems.

What does a campfire drop when you break it?

Without silk touch, a regular campfire drops two charcoal on Java or four on Bedrock, and a soul campfire drops one soul soil. Mine it with silk touch to get the campfire itself back.

How to Make a Campfire in Minecraft

The campfire is the cosiest block in Minecraft, but it earns its place on usefulness, not looks. It cooks food without ever consuming fuel, sends up smoke you can spot from a long way off, and makes any shelter feel finished. There are two flavours — the regular campfire and the blue soul campfire — and both are cheap to craft once you know the pattern.

What You Need

3 sticks
3 logs — any log, stem, wood or stripped variant works, including Nether stems and hyphae
1 coal or charcoal for a regular campfire
1 soul sand or soul soil instead, for a soul campfire
A crafting table

Logs come straight off any tree, and sticks are made from two planks. The fuel piece is the only part that needs a moment's thought. Coal is common underground, but if your local caves are stingy, smelt any log in a furnace to make charcoal instead — for this recipe the two are completely interchangeable.

Soul sand and soul soil mean a trip to the Nether, where both cover the soul sand valley in huge quantities. Curiously, soul soil also generates inside ancient cities, but wrestling the Warden for campfire supplies is nobody's idea of a good trade.

The Campfire Crafting Recipe

Open the crafting table.
Fill the entire bottom row with your three logs.
Place the coal, charcoal or soul block in the centre cell.
Put one stick above the centre cell, and one on each side of it.
Collect your campfire from the result slot.

The shape is easy to remember once you see it: a row of logs as the base, and the sticks leaning together like the start of a real fire.

Where Campfires Generate Naturally

Regular campfires appear lit in taiga villages and snowy taiga villages, and unlit ones hide in ancient cities. Soul campfires never generate anywhere — crafting is the only way to get one. You can also buy a regular campfire from an apprentice fisherman villager if you would rather pay emeralds than gather sticks.

Breaking and Moving a Campfire

Be careful when you mine one up. Broken without silk touch, a regular campfire drops only two charcoal on Java (four on Bedrock) — not the campfire itself — and a soul campfire drops a single soul soil. With a silk touch tool, both drop themselves intact and can be re-placed anywhere.

What Campfires Are Good For

Fuel-free cooking: place up to four raw food items on a lit campfire and they cook with no fuel cost at all — slower than a smoker, but free forever.
Smoke signals: campfire smoke rises high enough to navigate by, and placing a hay bale underneath makes the smoke column roughly two and a half times taller.
Looks and light: a regular campfire gives strong firelight for campsites; the soul campfire burns dimmer and blue, which suits spooky or Nether builds.
Bees and traps: smoke under a hive calms bees while you harvest, and mobs standing on a lit campfire take steady damage.