The latest Minecraft preview builds add the new automated Crafter block

A few days ago, Mojang Studios and Microsoft held its latest Minecraft Live event. During the streaming event, details about the next major free update to Minecraft, version 1.21, were revealed. Today, players who are signed up to check out Minecraft preview builds can test out one of these new 1.21 features in an early stage.

Both the Minecraft Preview 1.20.50.21build for Windows 10/11, Xbox, iOS and Android can check out the new Crafter block, which is supposed to automate crafting items in the game. Here the part of the changelog that describes it:

• Added the Crafter block to the game
• Crafter can be crafted with Redstone Dust, Iron Ingots, Crafting Table, and Dropper
• Crafter uses distinct particles when crafting
• Crafter has distinct sounds for crafting and failing
• Crafter has a blast resistance of 3.5
• A Comparator connected to a Crafter now outputs a signal that is equal to the amount of non-empty slots plus disabled slots
• Moving items into crafter from Hopper or Dropper distributes them evenly instead of first filling the first stack
• Powering the Crafter with Redstone signal makes it craft and output the item

Also the Minecraft Snapshot 23w42a for the Java Edition has added its version of the Crafter block:

CRAFTER

• The Crafter is a new block that enables the crafting of items and blocks via Redstone
• The Crafter will eject one crafted item at a time when powered by a new Redstone signal / pulse (not a continuous signal)
• Upon receiving this new signal, the Crafter will eject the recipe result from the front face
• If the output result has multiple type of items all the result items will be ejected together
• The Crafter can be oriented in any direction when placed

CRAFTER UI

• The Crafter has a 3x3 interactable crafting grid
• The Crafter’s crafting grid slots are toggleable, meaning that the player can change the behavior of a slot by clicking or pressing on a slot with an empty hand
• A slot that is ‘toggled’ cannot hold any items, and therefore cannot have items placed into it by other blocks, such as Hoppers and Droppers
• Unlike the Crafting Table, the Crafter displays a preview of the crafted item which will be crafted and ejected on the next Redstone pulse but cannot be manually taken out by the player
• The Crafter UI is shared between all players interacting with the Crafter, meaning that multiple players can interact with the Crafter at the same time, similar to Chests and Hoppers

CRAFTER INTERACTION WITH OTHER BLOCKS

• The Comparator signal strength is 0-9, where each non-empty or toggled slot adds 1 strength
• Hoppers can be used to both insert and pull out items from the Crafter
• Droppers can be used to insert items into the Crafter
• Moving items in from another block (ex: Hopper, Dropper) prioritizes filling items into slots following these rules:
  • Prioritize the first empty slot (from left-to-right, top-to-bottom)
  • If there are no empty slots then prioritize the smallest stack of the same item (pick the first if there are multiple)
  • If there is a toggled slot it will be skipped. The item will then be moved into the container
  • If the item cannot be moved, it will be ejected into the world

The Minecraft 1.21 update should be launched sometime in 2024 and will include a number of other features including procedurally generated underground structures called Trial Chambers, a Copper bulb and more.