The Ultimate 2025 Guide: 3 Ways How To Make A Lantern In Minecraft (Including The NEW Copper Lantern)

Are you tired of plain, unsightly torches cluttering your meticulously designed Minecraft builds? As of the current date, December 12, 2025, the humble lantern remains one of the most effective and aesthetically pleasing light sources in the game, offering superior brightness and a sleek, hangable design. This definitive guide breaks down not just the classic recipe, but also the spooky Soul Lantern and the exciting, newly added Copper Lantern, ensuring your world is illuminated with the latest and greatest blocks.

The standard Minecraft lantern is a significant upgrade from a simple torch, providing a higher light level and a professional, finished look for any structure, from a medieval castle to a modern city skyscraper. Understanding the three distinct lantern types—Iron, Soul, and Copper—and their specific crafting requirements is essential for any player looking to master interior and exterior decoration.

The Complete Guide to Minecraft Lantern Crafting Recipes

Lanterns were first introduced in the 1.14 Village & Pillage update and quickly became a staple for builders. The core crafting principle is simple: surround a light source with metal nuggets. The type of light source and the type of metal nugget determine the final lantern variant, each with unique properties and light levels.

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1. How to Make a Classic Iron Lantern (The Brightest Light)

The standard iron lantern is the most practical choice for general lighting, as it provides the highest light level available from a portable block, matching that of Glowstone and Sea Lanterns.

Required Materials:

• 1x Torch: Crafted from 1 Stick and 1 Coal (or Charcoal).
• 8x Iron Nuggets: Obtained by smelting Iron Tools/Armor/Weapons, or by placing an Iron Ingot in the crafting grid.

Crafting Process:

The recipe follows a simple, symmetrical pattern on a Crafting Table:

1. Place the Torch in the center slot of the 3x3 crafting grid.
2. Place an Iron Nugget in all eight remaining slots surrounding the Torch.
3. The result is 1x Lantern.

Key Entity Data: The Classic Lantern emits a light level of 15, which is the maximum in Minecraft and one level brighter than a standard Torch (Light Level 14).

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2. How to Make a Soul Lantern (The Spooky Decor)

The Soul Lantern is the perfect choice for creating an eerie, atmospheric environment. Its distinct blue flame and lower light output make it ideal for dungeons, crypts, and haunted house builds. It also has the unique property of repelling certain mobs, like Piglins, in the Nether.

Required Materials:

• 1x Soul Torch: Crafted from 1 Stick, 1 Coal/Charcoal, and 1 Soul Soil or Soul Sand.
• 8x Iron Nuggets: The same as the classic lantern.

Crafting Process:

The Soul Lantern recipe is identical to the Iron Lantern, substituting the regular Torch for a Soul Torch:

1. Place the Soul Torch in the center slot of the 3x3 crafting grid.
2. Place an Iron Nugget in all eight remaining slots.
3. The result is 1x Soul Lantern.

Key Entity Data: The Soul Lantern emits a light level of only 10. While this is dimmer, it is a key feature for builders aiming for a low-light, spooky aesthetic, and it is still bright enough to prevent most hostile mob spawning in the immediate area.

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3. How to Make the NEW Copper Lantern (1.21 Update Feature)

The latest major update, Minecraft 1.21.x (The Tricky Trials Update and subsequent patches), introduced a new metal variant: the Copper Lantern. This addition provides a unique, rustic aesthetic that perfectly complements the new Trial Chambers and builds utilizing the Copper Block family.

Required Materials:

• 1x Torch: The standard light source.
• 8x Copper Nuggets: Obtained by placing a Copper Ingot in the crafting grid.

Crafting Process:

The Copper Lantern follows the exact same pattern as the Iron Lantern, simply swapping the metal:

1. Place the Torch in the center slot of the 3x3 crafting grid.
2. Place a Copper Nugget in all eight remaining slots surrounding the Torch.
3. The result is 1x Copper Lantern.

Key Entity Data: The Copper Lantern emits the same light level of 15 as the Iron Lantern. Its defining characteristic is its ability to Oxidize over time, turning from a bright orange-brown to a soft, weathered verdigris (green-blue) color. This adds a dynamic element to your builds, allowing for a natural aging effect.

Lantern vs. Torch: Why Upgrade Your Lighting?

While a Torch is a fundamental and cheap light source, the Lantern offers several distinct advantages that justify the extra resource cost of Iron Nuggets or Copper Nuggets.

Superior Light Output

The most crucial difference is brightness. A standard Torch provides a Light Level of 14, which is sufficient to prevent mob spawning (which requires Light Level 0). However, the Iron and Copper Lanterns provide a Light Level of 15. This small increase means a brighter, more welcoming illumination for your base and a slightly larger area of effect for safety.

Placement and Aesthetics

Torches can only be placed on the side of a block or on top of a solid block. Lanterns, on the other hand, offer superior placement flexibility:

• Hanging: Lanterns can be placed on the underside of blocks, allowing them to hang from ceilings, beams, and chains, creating a much more realistic and appealing look.
• Standing: They can also be placed on top of any solid block, just like a Torch.
• Underwater (Bedrock Edition): In the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft, lanterns can be placed underwater, providing an effective, non-Redstone light source for ocean builds.

The New Copper Oxidation Mechanic

With the Copper Lantern, builders now have a dynamic decorative block. The oxidation process adds four distinct visual stages to the lantern, from freshly-made copper to fully oxidized. Players can use an Axe to scrape off the oxidation or apply Wax (using Honeycomb) to permanently stop the aging process at any desired stage.

Advanced Tips for Lantern Use

To truly elevate your Minecraft experience, consider these advanced uses for your newly crafted lanterns:

• Mob-Proofing: Since a Light Level of 8 is the minimum required to prevent mob spawning at night, a single Light Level 15 Iron Lantern can secure a large outdoor area. Place them 12 blocks apart for maximum coverage.
• The Nether: Use Soul Lanterns in the Nether to decorate your bases. Their blue light is atmospheric, and the blue fire is a nice contrast to the Nether’s red palette.
• Chains and Fences: For the best visual effect, hang your lanterns from a Chain block. Chains are crafted using 1 Iron Ingot and 2 Iron Nuggets and add a realistic, suspended element to your lighting.
• Redstone Integration: Unlike Torches, Lanterns are not Redstone components. They are simple light sources that are always on, making them a reliable option for permanent illumination without complex wiring.

By mastering the three recipes—Iron Nugget + Torch, Iron Nugget + Soul Torch, and the new Copper Nugget + Torch—you are now equipped to light up your world with style, efficiency, and the latest decorative blocks in Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.