How many torches does one craft make?

Four. One coal or charcoal plus one stick always produces 4 torches, and crafting with full stacks gives you four stacks at once.

Do torches burn out in Minecraft?

No. A placed torch emits light level 14 forever and never needs to be replaced or refuelled.

Do torches keep mobs away?

They prevent hostile mobs from spawning in the lit area, but they do not repel mobs that walk in from somewhere dark.

How many torches stop a mob spawner?

Just one, placed directly on top of the spawner, raises the light enough to stop it summoning mobs.

How to Make a Torch in Minecraft

Every Minecraft adventure starts in the dark, and the torch is how you push back. It is the first light source most players ever make, the cheapest spawn-proofer in the game, and an ingredient in lanterns and jack o'lanterns besides. If you are new to the game — or just tired of creepers dropping by uninvited — this is the recipe to learn first.

What You Need to Make a Torch

Two ingredients, both available in your first hour of play:

Material	Amount	How to get it
Stick	1	Two planks stacked vertically in a crafting grid
Coal or charcoal	1	Mine coal ore, or smelt any log in a furnace for charcoal

Coal ore shows up in stone on hillsides and cave walls almost everywhere, so your first lumps usually come from a shallow dig. Charcoal is the renewable stand-in: smelt a log in a furnace and you get one piece, which can then fuel the furnace to make more. Either works in the recipe with no difference in the finished torch.

How to Craft Torches, Step by Step

Open your inventory — the 2x2 grid there is big enough, so skip the crafting table.
Put the coal or charcoal in one of the upper slots.
Place the stick in the slot directly underneath it.
Take the torches from the result slot. One craft always makes four torches.

Got materials to burn? Fill the two slots with full stacks of 64 sticks and 64 coal and shift-click the result, and you will walk away with four full stacks of torches — enough to light a serious cave system.

Where Torches Generate for Free

You do not always have to craft them. Torches generate as part of several structures, and you are free to knock them off the walls and take them: mineshafts, strongholds, villages, igloos, woodland mansions and pillager outposts all come pre-lit. Village and mineshaft chests also hold loose torches from time to time, which is a welcome bonus on a first night when your coal supply is still zero.

How Torches Work and What They Are For

A placed torch gives off light level 14, one step below the maximum. Hostile mobs need darkness to spawn, so a torch keeps the ground around it safe for a good distance in every direction — spacing torches roughly a dozen blocks apart keeps a base perimeter or a branch mine spawn-free. Stick them on top of blocks or on the side of any solid block, and they burn forever; torches never flicker out, get used up, or need refuelling.

Two things torches cannot do are worth remembering. They stop mobs from spawning, but they do not repel or freeze mobs that wander in from the dark, so a lit room with an open door is not a fortress. And a single torch dropped straight onto a mob spawner is enough to shut that spawner down, which is the fastest way to make a dungeon safe while you loot it.

Beyond lighting, torches feed two other recipes: carve a pumpkin and put a torch under it for a jack o'lantern, or surround a torch with iron nuggets to make a lantern for a brighter, tidier light you can hang from ceilings.