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Building things in Minecraft is something that every player does in some way or another. Whether you are building a temporary shelter to weather the night, a mob grinder to harvest resources, a farm for food or a vast stone fortress, re-shaping Minecraft’s game world should be a familiar concept.
In this article, we will go over the steps to build a basic Minecraft tower, as well as some other helpful tips and tricks that can be useful in your future Minecraft projects.
Introduction to Minecraft
If you are reading this article, then the odds are good that you’re already plenty familiar with Minecraft already and don’t need a fancy introduction to it. As video games go, Minecraft is one of the most popular games, not just in the last few years but of all time.
And the game is getting better and better as time goes on.
In July of 2018, the 1.13 version of the game was released. Dubbed ‘The Update Aquatic,’ this latest update overhauled several aspects of Minecraft, most notably the game’s oceans. In addition to the seas, there were many technical improvements and bug fixes as well, showing that despite being in development for almost 10 years, the game is still being maintained by dedicated developers.
Much of the game’s popularity can perhaps be attributed to its free-form and open-ended gameplay. Beyond a basic goal of reaching the End and defeating the Ender Dragon, Minecraft as a whole leaves gameplay objectives solely in the hands of the player.
Benefits of Building a Tower
Back on topic, building a Minecraft tower (or any defensive structure for that matter) has several benefits, both tactically and appearance-wise. Keeping a degree of separation from your player avatar and the ground is a good idea, especially in Survival Mode.
Most of the game’s numerous hostile Mobs spawn on the ground, in poorly lit or unlit areas of the world. Therefore, having a measure of security in the form of distance and strong walls is a good thing. And this is best represented in the form of a tower made of stone bricks.
A Minecraft tower also looks good when designed properly. Through careful use of cosmetic blocks and greebles (the technical term for fine details that make something more visually interesting), you can transform an otherwise plain-looking tower into something visually striking and impressive.
How to Build a Minecraft Tower
What Tools You Will Need
Before we go out and get started, there are different items you are going to want in your inventory, especially if you are playing on Survival Mode:
- Weapons. Minecraft’s world is treacherous, so having a weapon to fend off those dangers should be common sense at this point. Bring an enchanted sword of you can.
- Armor. For the same reason as above, having a good set of armor protecting you can be the difference between life and death. We recommend iron armor or stronger.
- Tools. Pickaxes, lumber axes and shovels will all probably be necessary to some degree. Bring spares just in case your tools break.
- Food. It wouldn’t do you any good to starve to death while laying the groundwork of your next construction project, so bring along a stack of food. We recommend pork chops.
- Potions. If you can spare them, having a few Potions of Healing in your quick bar can be useful in many situations, especially combat.
- Torches. As mentioned above, Minecraft’s hostile Mobs spawn in poorly lit areas. So be sure to light your build area with plenty of torches.
What Blocks You Will Need
Understandably, your building materials are going to be the essential part of building a Minecraft tower. While these are recommended, they are just a guideline. This being Minecraft, feel free to substitute blocks for another kind if you desire it.
One tip we can offer you regarding this is replacing sandstone for the stone bricks if you are building in the desert.
- 5-6 Stacks of Stone Bricks. In this build, Stone bricks will form the majority of the tower, mainly the walls.
- 1 Stack of Stone Brick Stairs. Stairs can serve not only as stairs, but they can double as decorations in the forms of crenellations and arrow slits.
- 1 Stack of Cobblestone Blocks. Cobblestone blocks will serve as the base and first floor of the tower.
- 1-2 Stacks of Oak Wood Slabs. Oakwood slabs will serve as the floor of any levels between the ground floor and roof, as well as the roof itself.
- Other Blocks. A door, ladders, torches, a trapdoor, and a few other blocks are either necessary or optional. Refer to the instructions below.
With the above said, we can move on.
Step 1: A Flat Place to Start
Before you start your Minecraft tower, you are going to want to find a flat and level place to build on. Preferably, high on a hill or a mountain. The reasoning here is that when your tower is itself high up, it will be harder to reach by both hostile mobs and players alike.
Having a height advantage against attackers is also advantageous, allowing you to fire arrows or throw potions down at them with ease. Water and lava buckets can also be used offensively from the top of the tower, adding yet another obstacle any would be attackers would have to contend with.
If the place you want to build isn’t flat and level to your liking, you can, of course, level it flat using your shovel and pickaxe, or by adding dirt and cobblestone to create a large and flat area. A roughly 9-by-9 block area should be adequate for this tower.
Step 2: Lay the Foundation
Once you have cleared or leveled out the appropriate area for your Minecraft tower, the next step is to lay the foundation. As outlined above, we are going for a foundation of cobblestone blocks, seven blocks in diameter.
If you are unsure at this part, the following website has a useful tool for checking circle size and shape in Minecraft: (https://www.plotz.co.uk/plotz-model.php?model=Ellipse). Otherwise, you’ll know you’ve got the right shape when the outermost sides are three blocks long, and the total number of placed blocks is 37.
Step 3: The Door and Walls
Next, begin placing stone bricks around the edge of the foundation, leaving a space for a door in the middle of one side of the ring. There are several doors to choose from here. We recommend using the spruce version of the wooden door as it helps to provide a nice medieval aesthetic to a given build.
Once the first two ‘rings’ of stone brick blocks are placed, continue adding rings of stone bricks upward. At four blocks high you should have used about 62 blocks, discounting the two blocks unused in place of the door.
This means that every four additional blocks of height in our tower will require at the most 64 blocks or one full stack of stone bricks.
The tower we will be building here will be 12 blocks in height, meaning about three stacks of blocks total. However, feel free to add or remove layers if you feel the need to.
Step 4: Stairs or Ladders?
Now that we’ve completed the lower and central portions of the Minecraft tower, we can work on the upper portion. First, however, we should add a way to reach the top from the ground more easily.
You have a couple of options here: You can use a simple wooden ladder that reaches from the ground floor to the top, or you can place a staircase going up and down.
Both of these approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but for simplicity’s sake, we recommend using ladders. Placing the ladder is straightforward: simply attach it to any of the interior walls of the tower, reaching up to the top.
Add or remove as many ladder blocks as you need to, depending on the height of the tower.
Step 5: Topping it Off
Once you are satisfied regarding the height of the tower, we can now go about topping the Minecraft tower off. First, start by using stone brick blocks to make a 9-block diameter circle around the top of the middle section of the tower.
Again, you can refer to the website linked above here. The 9×9 ring should be about 20 blocks in total. Fill the ring in with either up-facing wood slabs (wood slabs placed in the ‘upper’ portion of a block space) or more stone brick blocks, leaving space for either the ladder or the staircase as mentioned previously.
Once you’ve laid down the floor/roof of your tower, you can start to work on the crenelations. I.e., the decorative notches that form the tops of castle walls or battlements. These are easy and simple to do in Minecraft.
First, add a second 9×9 ring of blocks, forming a low wall around the top. Next, add alternating blocks around the rim of the top of the tower. There are a couple of different layouts, so feel free to experiment here to see what’s more comfortable with you.
We recommend placing blocks on the corners of the outermost sides.
Step 6: Finishing Touches
Congratulations! Your tower is complete. Now all you need to do is add the finishing touches. You can add furniture in the form of a bed, chests, furnaces and crafting tables. Add lighting by placing torches on the inner walls.
You can even go the extra step and add additional floors inside the tower, dramatically increasing the available space to build on. You can hang custom banners on the sides of the tower’s crown, as a way of giving your personal touch to the building.
Finally, if you want to add some variety and uniqueness to the outside, consider using vines or mossy stone brick blocks to give your tower an air of age and weathering. You can also add arrow slits in the walls of the tower by combining stone brick stairs with their upside-down variants.
Conclusion
There are many things to build in Minecraft. Whether it’s a house, a castle or something else, a degree of skill and some effort can make anything look good. With that said, we hope this guide for building a Minecraft tower is of help to you.