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.

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 MinecraftHow to Get a Dispenser in MinecraftHow to Activate a DispenserItems Required to Make a DispenserMinecraft Dispenser Crafting RecipeHow to Use a Dispenser in Minecraft

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.

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:

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.

To make a dispenser in Minecraft, you only need the following four 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.

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:

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:

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.

*Full functionality of that action is only available in the Java edition