The Crafting Table (or Workbench) is one of the most essential blocks in Minecraft. Right-clicking on a crafting table (on the ground, not while in your inventory) will open the 3×3 crafting grid which allows you to craft more items than with the crafting grid in your inventory. A crafting table is essential in order to advance at all in the game.

A Furnace is a also one important item in Minecraft, it is used too melt ores into bars. The furnace, when right-clicked, has its own menu where heating operations can be done. It consists of one field for the object that will be heated, one field for the fuel and one field for the output object. The main fuels are wood and coal.

Axes are tools used to ease the process of collecting wood, planks, chests and bookcases, but are not required to gather them. The axe is used to break wood and wooden items faster. An axe can also be used as a weapon, in which role it deals less damage than a sword.

Pickaxes are one of the most commonly used toolsin the game, being required to mine all oresand many other types of blocks. Different qualities of pickaxe are required to successfully harvest certain ores and blocks. For example, while stone can be mined with any pickaxe, gold ore must be mined with an iron pickaxe or better, or else the player will harvest no ore.

Shovels are auxiliary tools used to ease the process of collecting dirt, sand, gravel, clay and snow. Shovels are only necessary to collect snowballs from snow, all other blocks for which shovels are useful can be successfully harvested by hand. A shovel is not required to advance forward in the game, it only makes the removal and collection of some materials faster.

Swords are used to damage mobs and players, or to block attacks. Upon damaging a mob or player, the sword's durability will decrease. A sword can also be used to destroy certain blocks more quickly than any other tool. Using a sword to destroy any block decreases its durability by two uses.

The hoe is used to turn dirt and grass blocks into farrmland for producing wheat, melons or pumpkins. To till, right-click on a grass or dirt block while holding a hoe. The material used in the construction of the hoe has almost no effect on the utility of the hoe - the process of tilling is effectively instantaneous regardless of material and all hoes deal the same damage as fists if used in combat. As with all tools, the material used does, however, affect durability of the hoe.