Dead bushes in Minecraft: Are they completely useless?

Dead bushes have been a part of Minecraft Java Edition since the game's early beta days and have remained prevalent ever since, generating inside a plethora of different biomes.

Although the majority of Minecraft players are familiar with dead bushes, new players are often easily confused as to practical uses for dead bushes other than aesthetics in certain biomes. This article will cover all potential uses for dead bushes in the latest version of Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition.

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What do dead bushes (shrubs) do in Minecraft?

There are a few uses for dead bushes within Minecraft. The most common is for aesthetic purposes when building. Players can farm dead bushes using shears and then place them down in their building projects. They can also place dead bushes within a flower bot, making for a neat ornament.

Another use for dead bushes is when they are broken without shears. They drop between 0 and 2 sticks, making for a quick way of obtaining sticks without having to destroy trees and craft them from planks.

Dead bushes are often found in deserts, badlands, or giant tree taiga biomes

Using dead bushes for sticks is a specific strategy often seen performed by top speedrunners, as it works out much quicker to break dead bushes rather than punching trees without tools. However, this can only be done if the player spawns within a desert, badland, or a giant tree taiga as dead bushes do not spawn in any other biomes.

Dead bushes can also be used for fuel in a furnace. Each dead bush will smelt exactly 1 item. As dead bushes are mined instantly with shears, players can quickly gather lots of them if they are in the correct biome. This might prove helpful in the case of not finding much coal or other sources of fuel available in the early stage of the game.

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Where can dead bushes be found in Minecraft?

Dead bushes can spawn on any of six certain blocks. These blocks are sand, red sand, podzol, dirt, coarse dirt, and terracotta. As mentioned earlier, dead bushes will only be generated in deserts, badlands, and giant tree taiga biomes.

They are 2x more likely to spawn in a desert than a giant tree taiga and 20x more likely to spawn in a badlands biome than a giant tree taiga. Other places where dead bushes are often found are within flower pots or chests in desert villages.