Fireworks are the one Minecraft item that is decoration, transport and weapon at the same time. They light up a build at night, they keep an elytra in the air across thousands of blocks, and loaded into a crossbow they hit harder than most arrows. The recipes are simple once you see them laid out, but the combinations of shape, colour, fade and effect are where people get stuck. This guide covers every recipe, the exact ingredient that produces each result, how to make flight duration 3 rockets for flying, and how to generate the command version instantly with the free firework generator.
The short answer
Firework rocket recipe
The base rocket is the easiest craft in the game. Open a 3x3 crafting table, place one paper and between one and three gunpowder in any slots, and you get three rockets per craft.
- 1 paper + 1 gunpowder = 3 rockets, flight duration 1
- 1 paper + 2 gunpowder = 3 rockets, flight duration 2
- 1 paper + 3 gunpowder = 3 rockets, flight duration 3
Flight duration decides how long the rocket flies before it bursts, and how far it pushes you while gliding. Paper comes from three sugar cane in a row; sugar cane grows on sand or dirt next to water and is worth a small farm if you fly often. Gunpowder drops from creepers, ghasts, witches and phantoms, and wandering traders sell it. See how to make paper in Minecraft if you need the paper step first.
How to make a firework star
A firework star is the ingredient that gives a rocket colour, shape and special effects. Craft it in a crafting table with one gunpowder plus at least one dye. Everything else is optional and stacks into the same craft.
Colour
Add one to eight dyes to set the burst colours. Each dye adds one colour to the explosion, so three dyes produce a three-colour burst. Any of the 16 dyes work, including ones you can farm yourself, such as green dye from smelting cactus.
Shape ingredients
Add exactly one of these to change the explosion shape:
- No shape ingredient — small ball, the default burst.
- Fire charge — large ball, the big round explosion.
- Gold nugget — star shape.
- Feather — burst shape, the soft drooping willow effect.
- Any mob head — creeper face shape.
Effect ingredients
Add either or both of these alongside any shape:
- Glowstone dust — twinkle, the crackling sparkle sound and flicker.
- Diamond — trail, a fading tail behind each spark.
Fade colours
Fade is a second craft. Take a finished firework star, put it in a crafting table with one to eight more dyes, and those dyes become the colour the sparks fade into. A red star faded to white gives a red burst that turns white as it dies.
Turning stars into rockets
Once a star exists, craft it into a rocket: 1 paper, 1 to 3 gunpowder, and 1 to 7 firework stars, all in the crafting grid. Every star you include fires in the same burst, so a seven-star rocket produces seven simultaneous explosions with different colours and shapes.
Flight duration 3 fireworks for elytra
This is the single most searched firework question, and the answer is short: one paper and three gunpowder, no stars. That craft gives three flight duration 3 rockets, the most efficient fuel for elytra travel.
- Equip an elytra in the chest slot and hold rockets in either hand.
- Jump from height, or from a block edge, and press the jump key again to start gliding.
- Right-click, or use the trigger on console and mobile, to fire a rocket and boost forward.
- Each flight duration 3 rocket pushes you roughly 30 to 40 blocks depending on your pitch angle.
- Glide at a shallow downward angle between boosts to stretch each rocket further.
Do not use rockets with firework stars for flying. The star makes the rocket explode, and the explosion happens right where you are, damaging both you and the elytra. Keep a dedicated stack of plain flight duration 3 rockets in your hotbar for travel and a separate stack of decorative ones for shows.
A sugar cane farm plus a creeper farm makes rockets effectively free. If you are building the gunpowder side, the mob farm guide covers the spawn mechanics, and the mob farm planner sizes the platform for you.
Fireworks as a weapon
Load a firework rocket with a star into a crossbow and fire it like an arrow. The rocket travels, then detonates on impact for area damage.
- Only rockets containing at least one firework star deal damage; plain rockets fired from a crossbow do nothing on impact.
- Base damage is between 5 and 6 hearts at the centre of the blast, dropping off toward the edge.
- Each additional firework star in the rocket increases damage, so a multi-star rocket hits considerably harder.
- Multishot on a crossbow fires three rockets at once from a single item, which is a large damage multiplier.
- Firework damage ignores most armour reduction, which makes it strong in PvP and against heavily armoured mobs.
- You take damage from your own rockets, so keep distance and never fire straight down.
For the rest of the crossbow kit, the best enchantments guide covers Quick Charge, Multishot and Piercing trade-offs.
Other uses for fireworks
- Decoration — a dispenser on a repeating redstone clock fires a show automatically at your base.
- Signals — a coloured rocket is a readable long-distance signal on a multiplayer server.
- Map making — dispensers loaded with themed rockets mark checkpoints and victory moments.
- Ceremonies — seven-star rockets with matching banner colours make a coordinated display.
- Farming light shows — rockets do not set fire to blocks, so they are safe over wooden builds.
Firework commands and the generator
Crafting every colour combination by hand is slow when you want a 20-rocket show. Commands build any rocket instantly in creative, and the firework generator writes the command for you: pick shape, colours, fade colours, twinkle, trail and flight duration, then copy the result into chat or a command block.
On Java 1.20.5 and newer, fireworks use item components, so a rocket looks like this pattern: /give @p minecraft:firework_rocket[fireworks={flight_duration:3,explosions:[{shape:star,colors:[I;16711680]}]}] 1. Colours are integer RGB values, which is exactly the part people get wrong by hand. The colour codes cheatsheet lists the matching values, and the command generator handles the general /give syntax.
Bedrock uses the older format and cannot apply custom colours or names through /give the way Java can, so on Bedrock the crafting table remains the practical route for custom stars.
Common mistakes
- Using a star rocket for elytra flight — it explodes on you. Carry plain rockets for travel.
- Expecting more gunpowder to make a bigger explosion — gunpowder only controls flight time.
- Adding two shape ingredients in one craft — only one shape per star is allowed and the craft will fail.
- Forgetting the dye — a firework star needs at least one dye or it cannot be crafted.
- Firing a crossbow rocket at close range — you take the blast too.
- Trying to fade a star that has no colour — fade is a second craft applied to a finished star.
Quick reference
- Rocket: 1 paper + 1-3 gunpowder = 3 rockets.
- Flight duration 3: 1 paper + 3 gunpowder.
- Star: 1 gunpowder + 1-8 dyes + optional shape + optional effect.
- Large ball: fire charge. Star: gold nugget. Burst: feather. Creeper: mob head.
- Twinkle: glowstone dust. Trail: diamond.
- Fade: re-craft a finished star with more dyes.
- Max stars per rocket: 7.
- Crossbow damage requires a star in the rocket.
Gunpowder buys you distance. Dye buys you the show. They are two separate purchases.
