Keeping the creepers out is a big part of staying safe in Minecraft. Since the 1.18 update, aggressive mobs can't spawn on any block with a light level above zero, which makes the whole process of zombie-proofing your base much less resource intensive. The exception to this rule is spawners, which can produce new enemies at any light level up to 11.

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However, this isn't 2009; there are loads of blocks and items that will keep an area above zero indefinitely, without having to resort to torches littering your beautiful builds.

10 Soul Lantern

Screenshot Minecraft Of Soul Lantern Recipe

Lanterns are a popular and aesthetic way to spruce up a space once you've got a little richer while also finding new uses for Torches once you outgrow them.

Less often seen are Soul Lanterns, requiring the same Iron Nuggets but a Soul Torch instead. These are a little more difficult to craft than a regular Lantern, as Soul Torches require a block of Soul Sand or Soul Soil in their construction.

Bringing a Shovel to a Soul Valley will provide you with enough blocks to light up a whole cave system though, and the eerie blue light Soul Lanterns emit can turn a cozy path through the woods into a creepy road to a ghostly end.

9 Campfires

Minecraft Campfire In Overworld With Shaders And Soul Campfire In Nether Soul Sand Wastes

Like Lanterns, Campfires have normal and Soul variants, both emitting between ten and 15 light, along with cool smoke effects. Not only can you create your own private camping spot with these items, but by placing them on your roof it can produce smoke like a chimney. For late-game players, a grandiose walkway deserves to be lit by Nether Quartz pillars supporting the blazing blue flames of a Soul Campfire.

Campfires can be lit using Flint and Steel, a flaming Arrow, or a dispensed Fire Charges, and snuffed out using water or a Shovel. They can be used like a real Campfire would, cooking food placed on them, pacifying bees, and burning any fool that steps on it. Putting a Haybale above a Campfire extends the reach of the smoke particles up to 24 blocks vertically.

8 Froglights

minecraft ochre froglight white warm frog in mangrove swamp

The Wild update brought with it Frogs and their magical power of turning baby Magma Cubes into inert Froglights. Their fungal texture and organic sound effects might lead you to wonder exactly what they're made of, but regardless they can light up the night very effectively. They emit the highest light level any block can produce of fifteen, and come in three pastel colors. The color you end up with depends on the type of Frog that did the digesting.

Getting Frogs to the Nether is a tricky ordeal, but the cute, mulchy lights they can get for you make the hassle of keeping them alive all worth it. Just make sure to cut the Magma Cubes down to size first.

7 End Rod

end rod attached to purpur block in end city

When you're battling your way through an End City, you would be forgiven for walking straight past End Rods as their light isn't very useful there. They're an awkward half-block, allowing players to occupy some of their space before you levitate off into the Void thanks to a pesky Shulker.

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While you can craft End Rods using a Blaze Rod and a Popped Chorus Fruit, the final product worth less than the sum of its ingredients. Collecting them from around a city is much easier and cheaper. They emit white particle effects like frost, and cast a radius of fourteen light levels which isn't to be sniffed at. Hide them under carpet for a mystical light effect.

6 Shroomlight

Minecraft Warped Blue Fungus Fungal Forest Shroomlight In Nether

The Nether was a gloomy place, aside from the abundant lava lakes, before the introduction of the Crimson and Warped Trees. If you've never looked up while chopping one down, you might not know about Shroomlights.

These are another organic, fungal light source, and they spawn within Nether trees as they grow. This ensures that even in the Overworld, mobs don't spawn on top of the teal and red blocks that make up the trees' leaves.

Their texture is that of a bundle of squishy, orange spores, each lit up from the inside, casting fifteen light levels. Breaking them isn't as simple as using the same tool for the wood; using a Hoe is the fastest way to collect these bright but lumpy light sources.

5 Glowberry

Minecraft Glowberry On Fence Trellis Growing

A surprisingly good place to find beautiful lights is deep underground in Lush Caves and mineshaft chests. Glowberries grow on hanging vines from mossy ceilings, and the berries found in chests can be right-clicked onto blocks above you to plant a new Cave Vine. As they extend down, there is a one-in-nine chance that Glowberries will ripen and emit light level fourteen. Using Bonemeal on a Cave Vine will spawn a new berry, guaranteed.

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The vines grow to a maximum of 26 blocks so long as there is a clear air block beneath them, and can be halted by using shears on the end of the vine. Pop these Glowberries on any ceiling to create a warm, natural ambience. This is one of the few light sources that can be used as an emergency snack too, restoring two hunger points. If you're very patient and gentle, you can feed them to Foxes to breed a cub that will be tame.

4 Jack O' Lantern

player crafting a jack o lantern from crafting table with a torch and a carved pumpkin

An often slept-on block is the Jack O' Lantern. These spooky vegetables can appear randomly among heaps of Pumpkins in Taiga or snowy villages, and during Halloween the mobs that spawn can be wearing one as armor.

Crafting them is super easy: just use Shears on a placed Pumpkin, then combine it with a Torch. It will shine out more light than the Torch used to make it, and Jack O' Lanterns can be placed underwater too.

If you decide to change up your decor, you can use your lights to create an army of Snow and Iron Golems to defend your land. Jack O' Lanterns are also the only source of light that can be cursed on an Enchanting Table too.

3 Sea Lantern

A beautiful soft light, the Sea Lanterns that generate within Ocean Monuments and Underwater Ruins can only be mined using a Silk Touch Pickaxe, or else they'll break. This might make them more trouble than they're worth at first, but once you've torn through a couple of Ocean Monuments, mining the Sea Lanterns is easy.

If you're dedicated enough, the entire Monument can be turned into a Guardian farm, which drops the ingredients necessary to make endless Sea Lanterns.

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They give off the highest light level of fifteen, and can be used to create the activation shell of a Conduit. If placed beneath a Note Block, it will produce the sound "Clicks and Sticks", which can be used to frustrate and confuse other players on a server.

2 Sea Pickle

minecraft drowned and sea pickle

Speaking of being under the sea, Sea Pickles are another organic source of light, and they only grow in Warm Oceans. They can be placed by right-clicking on a block, and more are grown when Bonemeal is added. Some Desert villagers have managed to harvest them and use Sea Pickles as decoration around their homes. Wandering Traders might sell them for two Emeralds if you're struggling to find any naturally.

They're most abundant atop living Coral blocks, and will only produce light when in water. A single Pickle gives off six levels, and each Pickle added to a block provides an additional four, up to the maximum of fifteen. If you have too many on your hands, they can be smelted into Lime Dye.

1 Lava

Minecraft Caves & Cliffs showing a new, giant, and empty cavern with dripstone, lava, and water spilling in.

Arguably the most abundant source of light in the Minecraft world is Lava, generating in vast lakes in both the Nether and caves deep underground. Utilizing Lava is trickier than other lights due to its flammable nature, but once the surrounding areas have been made fireproof, Lava adds both a sense of grandeur and malevolence to a build.

Whether rivers of lava break up the landscape, popping and roiling between Dripstone protrusions, or slide languidly down the walls like a vicious waterfall, Lava can be an ingenious way to add light to a fortress or compound.

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