How to stop lightning from hitting your base in Minecraft

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the world of Minecraft. Occasionally, when thunderstorms occur in the game, lightning strikes at random places. Similar to real life, lightning can cause small explosions and fires in nearby areas. Hence, it is very important to protect one's base or house from it.

Many situations, including lightning strikes, will come as a surprise to players who are new to Minecraft. There have been instances where entire houses were burnt down simply because they were not prepared for lightning strikes.

A few updates prior, evading a lightning strike was slightly tricky. However, Mojang has now introduced an item to tackle the problem.

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Prevent lightning from hitting bases in Minecraft with lightning rods

How to craft lightning rods

Crafting recipe for lightning rod in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

In the Minecraft 1.17 Caves and Cliffs Update part 1, Mojang took the community by storm after they introduced copper and the items players can craft from it. Players can easily craft a lightning rod with copper and place it anywhere.

Players will first need to mine copper ores to obtain raw copper. Then, they need to smelt raw copper to obtain copper ingots. Finally, they can place three copper ingots in a vertical line configuration to craft a lightning rod.

A lightning rod occupies one block of space but is a thin rod of copper. Once players obtain this, they must know how to use it correctly in Minecraft.

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How to use the lightning rod and place it correctly

The rod essentially attracts the lightning (Image via Mojang)

Though this item can be placed anywhere, players must first understand what it does. Similar to real life, the lightning rod in Minecraft redirects lightning strikes to itself rather than being random. The occurrence and timing of lightning strikes will be random, but the location will not be.

Hence, if players have a house or base made up of wood, they can protect it by placing lightning rods a few blocks away from it on a stronger block like stone, cobblestone, etc.

Ideally, the rod should be placed away from the base (Image via Mojang)

First, since the rod will be placed away from the base, the lightning will not harm the settlement in any way. Second, lightning will not harm the surrounding area since the cobblestone underneath the lightning rod will absorb all the energy, preventing any fire hazards.

Players can place the rod on top of the base, but it should be on a stone block (Image via Mojang)

Alternatively, if players want to place a lightning rod on top of their base or house, they must ensure that it is placed above a strong block like stone, stone bricks, cobblestone, etc.

Even if lightning strikes the rod on top of the base, it will not affect the build in any way. The most ineffective way to use the rod is to place it on top of a base with a wooden roof or on top of a wooden block itself, setting the build on fire.