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This post was last updated on April 1, 2026
Hanging chains are a popular decoration block in Minecraft, and can be placed in any orientation to decorate your base. To make a chain in Minecraft all you need is some iron ingots – but we’ll show you the full recipe later.
This guide shows you everything you need to know about the Minecraft chain, including step-by-step instructions for recipes, how their placement works, and where you can find them in the natural world.
How to Make a Chain in Minecraft?
It’s relatively easy to craft chains, although they do require a fair amount of iron ore for each piece.
To craft one chain, you need to put one iron ingot and two iron nuggets on your crafting table. The ingot goes in the middle box, and iron nuggets go above and below.
One Iron ingot creates nine iron nuggets.
The method to make a chain only yields one chain for each iron ingot and iron nugget pair.
Chains can be used either as vertical chains or horizontal chains.
How to Make the Iron Nuggets
There are several ways to make or find iron nuggets – the easiest method involves iron ingots.
Simply put an iron ingot in your crafting menu, and you’ll get the option to create 9 nuggets from it.
Alternatively, you can smelt any iron gear (weapons, tools, armor) down in a furnace to create an iron nugget.
Materials Required to Make a Chain
The only materials required for crafting chains are iron ingots and iron nuggets! Easy.
Best Uses for Chain in Minecraft
Minecraft chains have several cool uses, mostly revolving around decoration.
One of the most aesthetic uses for chains in Minecraft is hanging items and other blocks. You can hang lanterns and hang bells from the end on them, with a seamless connection. This also works for soul lanterns and other items.
Chains have unique placement mechanics, due to the fact they can be placed with either vertical or horizontal rotation.
Chains placed next to each other facing in the same direction will connect, giving the appearance of a single length of chain.
Chains can also be used to make bridges when placed horizontally. You can walk along them, although they are narrow and require precision.
Chains are also an ingredient for making a hanging sign – which is a new item introduced in the Minecraft V1.20 update. You just need to put two chains and six striped logs, stems, or blocks of stripped bamboo.
Where to Find Chains in Minecraft
Chains spawn in several natural places in Vanilla Minecraft.
Note, that if you don’t break chains with a pickaxe they won’t drop.
You can find chains at any of these locations in the game:
- Bastion Remnants
- Ruined Portals
- Above Magma Cube spawners
- Mineshafts – by the wooden bridge
The Chain Command
If you have commands or cheats enabled, you can give yourself chains using the following command:
/give Chain
Which Versions of the Game Have Chains
Chains have been in the game since version 1.16.
You can find chains in:
- The Java Edition of Minecraft
- Bedrock Edition
- Pocket Edition
Conclusion – Enjoy Your Chain!
Now you know how to make a chain in Minecraft you can start to decorate your cool base with a bunch of chains. These are one of the more useful decoration items and look really cool when used with lanterns and bells.
These are a lot of fun to use in your base, just make sure you collect a mine a lot of iron ore because it takes a tonne of iron!
FAQs
Why can’t you craft chain armor in Minecraft?
There isn’t much explanation why, but chain armor is not craftable in Minecraft chain. The only methods for obtaining chain armor is through trading with villagers, killing zombies, or killing skeletons.
Originally chainmail armor was only supposed to be in the game temporarily, but the developers left it in the game.
What do chains do in Minecraft?
Chains are a mostly decorative item in Minecraft. Many players like to use them to hang lanterns and other items in the game. You can also use chains to craft hanging fence signs.
