You’ve spent hours mining. Your diamond pickaxe is almost dead, your inventory is stuffed with cobblestone, and you’re tired of moving like a snail. This is exactly why you need to figure out how to use beacons in minecraft. It’s the ultimate endgame flex, sure, but it’s also the most practical thing you can build in your base. Honestly, once you have Haste II, you can never go back to regular mining. It feels like cheating, but it’s totally vanilla.
The Wither Problem: Getting the Star
Before you even worry about the pyramid, you need the Beacon block itself. This is the hard part. You need five glass blocks, three obsidian, and one Nether Star. Obsidian is easy—just find some lava and a bucket of water. Glass? Just smelt some sand. But that Nether Star is the kicker. You have to kill the Wither.
Don't just spawn the Wither in the middle of your village. That’s a mistake you only make once. Go to the Nether roof or deep underground in a strip mine. If you’re playing on Bedrock Edition, be careful—the Wither is way harder there than on Java. He has a dash attack that will absolutely wreck your day. Once he explodes into that little blue star, you’re ready to craft.
Building the Pyramid (The Math Part)
A beacon doesn't work if you just plop it on the ground. It needs a base. This base has to be made of "precious" metal blocks. We’re talking Iron, Gold, Diamond, Emerald, or Netherite. Most people use Iron because it’s cheap and easy to farm with an iron golem farm. If you’re using Netherite, you’re either a god or you have way too much free time.
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There are four levels of pyramids. The bigger the pyramid, the more powers you unlock and the further the effect reaches.
Level One: The 3x3
This is the starter kit. You need 9 blocks. Just a simple square. Put the beacon in the dead center. This gives you basic buffs like Speed I or Haste I. It’s okay for a small house, but the range is tiny—only 20 blocks.
Level Two: The 5x5
You put a 3x3 on top of a 5x5. Total cost? 34 blocks. Now you’re getting somewhere. This unlocks Resistance and Jump Boost.
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Level Three: The 7x7
Add a 7x7 layer under the others. You’re looking at 83 blocks now. This is where Strength comes in. If you’re defending a base from raids, Strength is huge.
Level Four: The 9x9 Big Boy
This is the max. It’s a 9x9 base, then 7x7, then 5x5, then 3x3. You need 164 blocks of iron (or whatever you're using). That’s nearly 23 stacks of blocks. It’s a grind. But this level unlocks the "Secondary Power." You can either get Regeneration alongside your main power, or you can bump your main power up to Level II.
How to Use Beacons in Minecraft for Insane Efficiency
Once the pyramid is built and the beam shoots into the sky, right-click the beacon. You’ll see a UI. You have to "feed" the beacon to activate it. One ingot of iron, gold, or a single diamond will do it.
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The biggest mistake? People pick Speed and call it a day. No. If you are doing any kind of construction or terraforming, you pick Haste. If you have a Level four pyramid, you pick Haste II. When you combine Haste II with an Efficiency V diamond or netherite pickaxe, you "insta-mine" stone. The blocks disappear the second you click them. It’s the only way to clear out large underground areas without losing your mind.
Common Reasons Your Beacon Isn't Working
Is the beam missing? If there’s no beam, there’s no buff. Here is why:
- Obstructions: There must be a clear view of the sky. You can use transparent blocks like Glass or Bedrock (if you're under the Nether roof), but solid blocks like Dirt or Stone will kill the beam instantly.
- Mixed Materials: You can actually mix blocks! You can have a base of iron and a top of gold. It doesn't matter for the power, it just looks a bit messy.
- Pyramid Gaps: The pyramid must be solid. No hollow centers. If you try to save blocks by making it a hollow shell, the beacon won't light up. It’s smart, don't try to trick it.
Coloring the Beam
Let’s be real, the default white beam is a bit boring. You can change the color by placing a stained glass pane or block on top of the beacon. If you crouch-click, you can stack colors. If you put a red glass block and then a yellow one above it, the beam turns orange. You can create some really cool gradients if you have enough glass. Some players use this to mark different areas of their world—blue for the base, red for the mob farm, green for the trading hall.
Strategic Placement
Since the range of a max-tier beacon is 50 blocks, you need to be smart. If you’re building a massive mega-base, one beacon won’t cover the whole thing. You can actually build "Multi-Beacons."
Instead of building six separate pyramids, you can build one giant rectangular base. For a dual-beacon setup, your bottom layer would be 10x9 instead of 9x9. This saves a massive amount of resources compared to building two standalone towers.
Actionable Next Steps
Start by setting up an automated iron farm. You’re going to need 1,476 iron ingots for a full-sized pyramid, and mining that by hand is a nightmare. Once you have the iron, head to the Nether and hunt Wither Skeletons in a Fortress using a Looting III sword to get those three heads.
After you’ve got your Haste II beacon running, focus on your "insta-mine" setup. Craft a Netherite Pickaxe and get Efficiency V on it. This combination is the peak of Minecraft productivity. If you're working on a project that spans hundreds of blocks, remember that you can pick up the beacon and the blocks and move them. It’s a hassle, but the time you save mining with Haste II makes up for the teardown time.