You need sticks, flint, and feathers to craft an arrow

An arrow in Minecraft PC is made from three materials: one flint, one stick, and one feather. You place them in a specific pattern on your crafting table, and the game produces four arrows at once. This is the only way to make arrows — there is no alternative recipe.

Arrows are used by bows and crossbows. You can also brew them into tipped arrows by combining them with potions, but the basic arrow itself always starts with these three items.

Key Takeaways

  • Flint comes from gravel blocks when you mine them with a shovel, and you need one flint per four arrows.
  • Sticks drop from oak, birch, spruce, jungle, acacia, dark oak, and mangrove trees when you break their leaves or logs.
  • Feathers come from chickens when they die, or from the ground in jungle temples and other loot chests.
  • The crafting pattern places flint in the middle, a stick below it, and a feather to the right of the stick.

Where to find flint

Flint is the hardest of the three materials to locate. It drops from gravel blocks when you mine them with any shovel — a wooden, stone, iron, diamond, or netherite shovel all work. Without a shovel, gravel falls straight through and you lose it. Gravel appears in riverbeds, on beaches, under water, and in small patches on the ground in most biomes.

You do not need a pickaxe to mine gravel. A shovel is faster and is the correct tool. Mine gravel blocks until you have collected the flint you need. Each gravel block has a chance to drop flint, so you may need to mine several blocks to get one flint.

Where to find sticks

Sticks are the easiest material to gather. They drop when you break the leaves of any tree — oak, birch, spruce, jungle, acacia, dark oak, and mangrove all work. Walk up to a tree, hold down the left mouse button on the leaves, and collect the sticks that fall. You can also break wood logs and craft them into planks, then craft planks into sticks, but gathering from leaves is faster.

Sticks also appear in loot chests throughout the world, though gathering from trees is usually quicker. You need one stick per four arrows.

Where to find feathers

Feathers drop when chickens die. You can find chickens in most biomes during the day, or you can breed them by feeding two chickens seeds (wheat seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, or beetroot seeds). Each chicken drops one feather when it dies, so killing a few chickens gives you the feathers you need.

Feathers also appear in loot chests in jungle temples, desert temples, and other structures. If you are far from chickens or do not want to hunt them, exploring temples or other generated structures may be faster.

How to craft an arrow on a crafting table

Open your crafting table by right-clicking it. A 3×3 grid appears on your screen. Place your materials in this pattern: put the flint in the center square (the middle of the grid), put the stick directly below it, and put the feather to the right of the stick. The arrow will appear in the output slot on the right side of the crafting window.

Click the arrow in the output slot to pick it up. The crafting table produces four arrows from one flint, one stick, and one feather. Drag the arrows into your inventory. You can repeat this as many times as you have materials.

Crafting arrows without a crafting table

You can also craft arrows using your inventory crafting grid if you have already opened your inventory. Press E (or your inventory key) to open your inventory. A small 2×2 crafting grid appears in the top left of the inventory screen. Unfortunately, this grid is too small to craft arrows — you need the full 3×3 grid that only a crafting table provides.

If you do not have a crafting table yet, craft one from four wood planks (one in each corner of your inventory grid), then place it on the ground and use it to make arrows.

Using arrows once you have made them

Arrows are ammunition for bows and crossbows. Hold a bow in one hand and arrows in your inventory, then right-click to draw the bow. The longer you hold the button, the farther the arrow travels. Release to fire. Crossbows work the same way but fire faster and can be loaded in advance.

You can also make tipped arrows by combining regular arrows with potions in a cauldron. This adds potion effects to the arrow — for example, a poison arrow or a healing arrow. But the basic arrow is always the starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make arrows in Survival mode?

Yes. Arrows are made the same way in Survival, Creative, and Adventure modes. In Creative mode you can grab arrows directly from the creative inventory instead of crafting them, but the crafting recipe works in all modes.

What if I can't find flint?

Keep mining gravel. Flint does not always drop from gravel — sometimes the gravel block itself drops instead. Mine multiple gravel blocks in a row until you get flint. Beaches and riverbeds have large amounts of gravel, so those are good places to search.

Do I need a specific type of shovel to get flint?

No. Any shovel works — wooden, stone, iron, diamond, or netherite. A better shovel mines faster, but all of them produce flint from gravel. Without a shovel, gravel falls through and you get nothing.

How many arrows do I need?

That depends on how much you plan to use a bow. A single stack of 64 arrows lasts a long time in normal play. If you hunt with a bow often, make several stacks. Arrows that miss or hit mobs can sometimes be picked up again, so you do not lose every arrow you fire.

Can I craft arrows in the nether or the end?

Yes, if you have a crafting table with you. The recipe is the same everywhere. However, flint and feathers are harder to find in the Nether, so it is usually easier to craft arrows in the Overworld first.