In the world of Minecraft, you have to do most of the stuff manually. It makes sense in terms of crafting and building, but when it comes to protection and combat, things can easily get out of hand. Fortunately, you simply need to learn how to make a dispenser in Minecraft to get additional support. Once it’s ready, this block can fire projectiles, place certain blocks, and do a lot more to take some tasks off your hands. While focusing on the same, our guide will go over the best uses of a dispenser in Minecraft, along with its crafting process. All you need to do is plan the best Minecraft house ideas to fit your dispenser. With that said, let’s stop beating around the bush and learn how to make a dispenser in Minecraft.
Make and Use a Dispenser in Minecraft (2022)
Dispensers have a variety of object interactions and game mechanics, and that’s why we have divided our guide into multiple segments for your ease. Use the table below to explore each of these sections and learn all about how to craft and use a dispenser.
What is a Dispenser in Minecraft
A dispenser is a solid block in Minecraft that also doubles up as a Redstone component. Its main purpose is to dispense or throw items when activated. Some of these items like TNT are activated when thrown. Meanwhile, items like arrows get shot out, similar to them being fired by a ranged weapon like a crossbow in Minecraft.
Note: Don’t confuse the dispenser with another Redstone component called “dropper,” which drops its contents only as an item that the player can pick. The dropper cannot activate or place items.
How to Get a Dispenser in Minecraft
Dispensers naturally spawn inside jungle pyramids or jungle temples in the jungle biome. But we’d suggest you stick with manually crafting the dispenser as the traps in these structures can be dangerous.
How to Activate a Dispenser
Similar to other Redstone components, you have to use a trigger to activate the dispenser. These triggers can include:
- Power components like Restone torches, Redstone blocks, etc.
- Activated Redstone repeaters and Redstone comparators
- Powered Redstone dust
- Lever, tripwire, button, target block, and other triggers
- Quasi connectivity (Java only)
Minecraft offers a variety of ways to activate its Redstone components. But if you want one good example of the usage of dispensers, you can check our guide on how to make a bee farm in Minecraft. It uses a dispenser for an important automation task on the farm.
Items Required to Make a Dispenser
To make a dispenser in Minecraft, you only need the following four items:
- 7 Blocks of Cobblestone
- 1 Piece of Redstone Dust
- 1 Bow
- Crafting Table (to combine the items)
Stone is one of the most common blocks in the overworld of Minecraft. You can break it with a pickaxe to get 7 blocks of cobblestone in the game. Compared to stone, Redstone is slightly harder to find and usually spawns underground. You can use our Minecraft ore distribution guide to find Redstone in no time.
Craft a Bow
With Redstone and cobblestone sorted, you only need to craft a bow to get all ingredients to craft a dispenser in Minecraft. To craft a bow, place 3 strings and 3 sticks inside your crafting area. You can find the placement of these ingredients in the crafting recipe screenshot below.
Minecraft Dispenser Crafting Recipe
Once you have all the ingredients, you just have to combine them to make a dispenser in Minecraft. Here’s how to do that:
1. First, place 3 cobblestone blocks in the first row of the crafting area.
2. Then, place the bow in the middle cell of the second row and a piece of Redstone dust in the middle cell of the bottommost row.
2. After that, place the remaining cobblestones on either side of the bow and Redstone dust in the second and third rows. And voila, you have successfully crafted a dispenser in Minecraft.
How to Use a Dispenser in Minecraft
After preparing the dispenser, you have to fill it with items you want to dispense. You can right-click or use the secondary action key on the dispenser to open its inventory. As for the items, we have covered a list of suitable items in the next section. Once it’s filled up, you just have to use any of the above-mentioned Redstone mechanics to activate the dispenser.
Once activated, you can use the dispenser for the following purposes:
- To quickly equip armor
- For security systems throwing projectiles at enemies
- To place various buckets, minecarts, and other entities when required
- For creating automatic farms
- To create an automatic item dispensing system to get items without opening a chest
Which Items Can You Put Inside a Dispenser?
Technically, you can put any in-game item inside the dispenser. But unless it’s an item on the list below, it will just act as a dropped item.
| Items | Action |
|---|---|
| Armor and Elytra | Equipped by player or entity standing next to dispenser |
| Armor Stand* | Placed in the direction that dispenser is facing |
| Arrow, Spectral Arrow, Tipped Arrow and Trident | Fired with normal speed |
| Boat | Placed as a vehicle if there's water in front of the dispenser |
| Bone meal | Utilized as a fertilizer if thrown on a crop |
| Egg, Bottle o' Enchanting and Snowball | Thrown |
| Lingering Potion and Splash Potion | Acts as a thrown potion bottle |
| Bucket* | Collects fire or water if empty; release its content if filled |
| Fire Charge | Acts as a blaze fireball |
| Firework rocket | Ffired in a way similar to getting fired by crossbow |
| Flint and Steel | Ignites or activates the block in front of it |
| Minecart | Placed but only if there's a rail in front of it |
| Heads | Equipped by player or entity with empty helmet slot; can be used to spawn mobs like iron golem |
| TNT | Places an ignited TNT |
| Shears* | Harvested the harvestable entity or block |
| Glass Bottle | Filled with compatible liquid |
| Horse Armor* | Equipped by the horse in front of dispenser |
| Carpet* | Placed on top of a tamed lama or any block |
| Saddle & Chest* | Equipped by compatible tamed mobs |
| Glowstone | Charged respawn anchor |
| Water bottle | Converted dirt block into mud |
*Full functionality of that action is only available in the Java edition
Make and Use a Dispenser in Minecraft
With that, you are now ready to take your Redstone builds to the next level by making a dispenser in Minecraft. But you have to be careful not to activate the dispenser as a weapon while standing next to it. Though, if you are using the best Minecraft armor enchantments, they can’t do much harm to you anyways. As for cool build ideas, you can start by building an automatic Allay farm in Minecraft to get started. Later on, you can test out more ideas and compete with some of the best Minecraft maps. But if this much Redstone work feels daunting to you, you can always use the best Minecraft mods. Do make sure to install Forge in Minecraft to use them without any trouble. Having said that, what are you most excited to use with a dispenser? Tell us in the comments below!
