What does a lightning rod do in Minecraft?

Lightning rods can be a huge boon for Minecraft players who enjoy building structures from more flammable materials (Image via Mojang)

Introduced to Minecraft's Java and Bedrock editions recently, lightning rods are a great way to keep flammable objects safe during a thunderstorm by diverting the landing location of lightning.

Not only do lightning rods attract lightning strikes, but they can also attract the lightning emitted from a thrown Channel-enchanted trident during a storm. They can even attract lightning emitted from commands in Bedrock Edition.

Additionally, lightning rods can even emit a redstone signal when struck with lightning bolts, allowing for intriguing new redstone circuitry applications during bad weather.

Lightning rods can be a huge boon for players who enjoy building structures from more flammable materials. They are, therefore, a wise investment to avoid fires in the long run.

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Crafting a lightning rod in Minecraft

In order to craft a lightning rod in Minecraft, players will need to stack six copper ingots in a 2x3 column in their crafting menu. Naturally, this means that Minecraft gamers will have to search for copper ore in order to have enough ingots to craft their lightning rod.

Much like the lightning rods themselves, copper is a new ore addition to Minecraft in the Caves & Cliffs update.

Raw copper can be found in orange and green veins from Y-axis layers 0 to 96. However, players are advised to look for copper in the middle layers between those two numbers (around Y=63) and work down the layers.

Players will need to bring a stone pickaxe or stronger to harvest the copper ore. However, if the copper vein is located between layers 0 and 16, the copper ore will take the form of Deepslate Copper Ore. This is tougher to break than usual and might require a beefier pickaxe to harvest quickly.

Once players acquire their copper, all they need to do is to return to a furnace and smelt the raw copper similarly to iron and gold. Once the smelting is completed, players will have their copper ingots ready for crafting. All that's left now is to craft the lightning rod itself and place it in a location away from the buildings that players wish to protect. The rod will attract lightning to its location in a 128-block radius in Bedrock Edition.

In addition to lightning rods, copper ingots can be used to create copper blocks. They can also be crafted with Amethyst to forge Spyglasses.