How To Make A Dispenser In Minecraft (2022 Guide) - Beebom

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.

Minecraft Dispenser Crafting Recipe

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. Here is the complete recipe to craft one in the game, along with the items required.

Required Materials

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. Finally, to craft a bow, place 3 strings and 3 sticks on your crafting table.

Step-by-Step Dispenser Crafting Grid Layout

Once you have all the ingredients, you just have to combine them to make a dispenser in Minecraft. Here’s how to do that:

• First, place 3 cobblestone blocks in the first row of the crafting area.
• 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.
• 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.

Do note that you can always use a damaged bow in this crafting recipe to make a Dispenser. That is one way of recycling tools in Minecraft.

Dispenser vs. Dropper: What’s the Difference?

Many players 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. Here is a clear comparison between the two:

Feature	Dispenser	Dropper
Fires Arrows	Yes	No
Places Water/Lava	Yes	No (drops bucket)
Equips Armor	Yes	No
Pushes Items into Container	No	Yes
Redstone Component	Yes	Yes

How to Use 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 being fired by a ranged weapon like a crossbow in Minecraft.

Redstone Triggers & Activation

After preparing the dispenser, you have to fill it with the 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.

A dispenser can get activated using the following redstone components: lever, button, redstone torch, observer, repeater, comparator, tripwire, and a target block as well.

In the case of the Java edition, the Dispenser supports quasi-connectivity, has a 4 redstone tick delay (or 0.2 seconds), and can be activated indirectly through the block updates. Whereas in Bedrock, it has no quasi-connectivity and can be activated only from the player tick.

Vertical vs. Horizontal Placement

A dispenser can be placed in any direction, whether it is up, down, east, or west. It will always face the direction you’re currently looking while placing it.

While the horizontal placement is perfect for projectile throws such as arrows and fireballs, the vertical placement can be perfect for the crop farms or water flushing systems.

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

Also Read: How to Install Minecraft Shaders: A Step-by-Step Guide

5 Best Dispenser Ideas for Your Survival World

Here are the five best ways or ideas for using Dispensers in your survival world.

Arrow Trap Defense System

One of the most common ideas for using a dispenser in Minecraft is to create a classic arrow trap defense system. These are very common in the jungle temples, where the dispensers are hidden among the stone wall blocks, and a trip wire is added in front using strings and levers. Passing through this activates the dispenser, and it starts shooting arrows at the intruder.

Automatic Armor Equipment System

The second best idea can be to make an automatic armor equipment system. Place the dispenser loaded with armor at your base, and the moment you’re about to head out for some adventure, you can press a button, and the system will equip your character with a complete armor set just like an Iron Man suit.

Auto Crop Farm

Picking up crops on a massive field can sound very boring and time-consuming. So, you can consider placing a dispenser above the farm that flushes out water through the field and harvests all the mature crops.

TNT Launcher

Filling up a dispenser with TNT is the best way to prank your friends. You can be far from your friends’ base, but if you plan it correctly, using a redstone clock will spawn primed TNTs at their base and explode them into bits.

Honey and Shearing Farm

Another great idea of using dispensers is to make a honey extractor or a wool shearer. You can place this block near your sheep or bee farm and fill it up with a shear to do the job. Of course, it will require a bit of redstone engineering, but it won’t be too tough.

Troubleshooting: Why Your Dispenser Isn’t Working

A dispenser might not be working in your world due to the following reasons:

• You might be using a dropper instead, and it doesn’t work the same way.
• There might be no redstone pulse, and dispensers won’t work without a signal change.
• The dispenser might be facing the wrong direction, so check the orientation before placing one down.
• The dispenser might be empty with nothing to shoot out.
• The ticks for a dispenser in Bedrock are different from Java, so there will be a small change in the way they perform.

Pro Tips & Optimizations

While dispensers are a great way to automate things and prank your friends, here are the best ways to optimize them in builds.

Compact Dispenser Designs

Try pairing up your dispensers with observers and target blocks to make a compact build. This is because the observer can check the redstone signal efficiently and inform the dispenser to throw items.

Silent Dispenser Mechanisms

The dispenser always makes a sound when throwing out items. So, if you want to use them in the Ancient Cities and not wake up the Warden, try placing wool blocks around them to minimize the sound.

Server-Friendly Designs (Lag Reduction)

Sometimes, using complex redstone contraptions can quickly overload the server and cause lag. You can minimize this by avoiding fast redstone clocks, using hoppers where dispensers aren’t required, and limiting the TNT spam from them.

With that, you are now ready to take your Redstone builds to the next level by making a dispenser in Minecraft. So, what are you most excited to use with a dispenser? Tell us in the comments below!

Does bow durability affect the dispenser crafting?

No, you can craft dispensers even with broken bows.

Can dispensers be moved with pistons?

Dispensers can be moved with pistons in Bedrock but not in Java.

Why does my dispenser fire only once?

The dispenser in Minecraft needs repeated redstone pulses to fire continuously and not a single burst of power.

Can dispensers place blocks?

Dispensers can only place water, lava, shulker boxes and powdered snow in Minecraft.

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