Saddles have been in Minecraft since before it was officially released, and only now are they finally being given a crafting recipe. In version 1.21.6, players will be able to create saddles with three pieces of leather and one iron ingot. Previously, players had to travel to different structures or grind items to trade in order to get their hands on a saddle, but they now don't have to look far to gain a traveling companion in the early game.

Since the saddle went without a recipe for such a long time, we could see some more items receive the same treatment in future updates. Some items desperately need a crafting recipe, and others would drastically improve the experience of builders who want to use specific blocks in their survival world projects.

10 Bells Are Artificially Scarce

Good For Decoration And Rarely Used For Their Actual Purpose

Bells can only be obtained from villages or trading, but there's not really any need for them to be this scarce. The trades you can get for them are so extortionate that you're usually going to be better off finding another village, especially early on. They are most useful for keeping villagers safe during pillager raids, but this isn't helpful enough for a crafting recipe to be game-breaking.

The main use I find for them is for decorations, and I would appreciate not having to trek thousands of blocks to find more villages so I can complete my builds. Adding a recipe for the bell seems so obvious that a large portion of the community may already assume they can be crafted. Some gold ingots, a stick or iron ingot, and perhaps a gold nugget for the tongue of the bell should do the trick.

9 Enchanted Golden Apples Can Be A Hassle

Making Them Less Obtainable Was A Good Decision, But They Could Be More Of A Late-Game Reward

Enchanted golden apples used to be craftable with eight gold blocks and an apple, but this was later changed to make them a rarer find. Although this does make them feel more special, regular golden apples, which can still be crafted, aren't great. There are many better things to do with your gold, such as trading with piglins. Since the enchanted variant of the item is non-renewable, it's easy to feel discouraged ing them, so they often end up sitting in chests.

Players used to earn the "Overpowered" achievement from crafting or eating a golden apple, but this has since been removed.

If gold blocks are too easy to obtain, there are plenty of alternative recipes that could be used instead. An idea put forward by Reddit Minecraft's Ender Dragon before they can make enchanted golden apples a renewable item. This means that there wouldn't be much change to progression, but it would be less of a hassle to obtain them in the later game.

8 Sponges Don't Justify Their Rarity

Currently High Risk For Low Reward

Although some players have found some exploits to generate more sponges, they're not inherently renewable. Raiding ocean monuments and killing elder guardians is far too tedious for such a random niche item, so if they're not craftable, there should at the very least be a better way of obtaining them. I think a reasonable way to do this would be to have wet sponges spawn in coral reefs.

Another way could be having them appear more commonly in loot —they could be dropped by other aquatic mobs or be obtainable from fishing. If sponges were to have a crafting recipe, I think using coral would make the most sense. I'd argue that there's less need for sponges to be rare than anything else on this list, since their purpose of soaking up water adds next to nothing to the game other than a slight bit of convenience.

7 Horse Armor Has No Reason To Be Rare

Leather Horse Armor Is Craftable, But Iron, Gold, And Diamond Aren't

Horse armor is a strange one, given that leather horse armor can be crafted, but not the iron, gold, and diamond versions. Making the other three variants craftable would not be overpowered at all. Horses are barely used by players, and the addition of the Happy Ghast into Minecraft will probably cause them to be less popular in the later game. I understand the argument that Enchanted Golden Apples shouldn't be craftable because of their rarity, but horse armor becomes less of an exciting find after the first few days of a new world.

Making horse armor craftable would also be great for pet customization and could slightly improve quality of life. If you think your horse would look great in one type of armor, you wouldn't have to go exploring for hours just to improve cosmetics. I think players may feel more encouraged to use armor on their horses if there were an easier way to collect it.

6 Tridents Should Be Worth A Few Diamonds

A Balanced Crafting Recipe Wouldn't Change Progression

Obtaining usable tridents in Minecraft is quite a tedious process. Since they can't be crafted, the only way to obtain tridents is by killing mobs or finding them in trial chamber loot. Having one weapon in the game that isn't craftable does add some variety, but making tridents a little easier to acquire isn't going to be game-breaking.

A trident crafting recipe that involves three diamonds, one for each prong, would make a lot of sense, since the weapon is only slightly stronger than a diamond sword, which requires two diamonds to make. Tridents are also roughly the same color as prismarine, so that would be used to represent the base. Allowing tridents to be crafted wouldn't change much about the game, since by the time players are strong enough to confidently farm drowned zombies, they'll likely have a few diamonds under their belt anyway.

5 Cobwebs Are A One-Way Street

Cobwebs Can Be Turned Into String But Can't Be Crafted With It

Cobwebs are a surprisingly useful item. They can be used in certain mob traps, can be used to prevent fall damage, and are the perfect final touch to aged or spooky builds. Despite this, it's difficult to collect them in larger quantities - you either need to get lucky when looting, or use shears or silk touch on an existing cobweb. If you've picked all the cobwebs up from one structure, you may have to go exploring to find any more.

Considering spiders also drop string, that would likely be the only component needed to hypothetically craft them, perhaps with the addition of a slime ball. Also, in Bedrock Edition, placing a cobweb in the crafting menu will give you the option to turn it into nine pieces of string. Once again, this would mainly just be convenient for builders and wouldn't throw off the balance of the game.

4 Frog Lights Use A Bizarre Process

A Pretty Item Limited To A Strange Farming Method

The process of obtaining frog lights is unnecessarily convoluted. Dragging frogs into the nether to eat a magma cube is a very random process, and the average player wouldn't think to do so unless they check outside sources. A lot of players, like Reddit Rhainnno, find it far too much work just for some different types of decorative lights, especially as you also need to travel to different biomes for certain colors of frog light.

Magma cream could be involved in the crating recipe, but the magma cube mobs themselves being required to make them is a little too much for some players. This could be another use for glow sacs or glow berries, though the new firefly bush could also be of use here — perhaps different variants could grow in different biomes to create one of the three colors. Frog lights can add some real atmosphere to any build, and it's a shame that they're not easily accessible.

3 Gilded Blackstone Is Too Dangerous

An Uncommon Item That Would Be Great For Decoration

Gilded blackstone is a rarer block that can only be found in Bastion Remnants within the Nether. When mined, it has a small chance of dropping gold nuggets, but there are plenty of more efficient and safer ways of collecting gold, making it mainly decorative. The item is perfect for any gold or nether-themed builds, but obtaining it is too dangerous for what it's worth.

Mining gilded blackstone will usually drop the block, but there is a 10% chance it will just drop 2-5 gold nuggets instead. If you use a Silk Touch pickaxe on it, then it will always drop the block. The Fortune enchantment increases the chance of gold nuggets dropping.

Like the bell, the items that would be required to craft gilded blackstone are obvious. It should be created with blackstone and gold — probably gold nuggets, so that it's not too expensive. If the piglins were able to plate their blackstone, why can't we?

2 Name Tags Just Add Flair

Usually Used For Aesthetic

Name tags are always a welcome sight in loot chests, but they ultimately don't add that much to the game. Most of the time, naming is just going to be an aesthetic choice. On the other hand, it can be quite disheartening to find a mob that you really don't want to despawn while you're far from home and don't have any name tags on you. Saddles are a functional item and are required for most mounts, but name tags just add some optional flair to your world.

Bundles were originally going to require six rabbit hides to make, but this was later changed, and you now only need one piece of leather and string.

The recipe could consist of paper, an ink sac, and either a chain or a piece of paper. If this feels too cheap, I also like the idea of using rabbit hide, which was suggested by Reddit Mlakuss. Rabbits are very tricky to chase, and the only current use for rabbit hide is to turn it into leather. This isn't efficient at all, since you can just kill cows for it instead, so adding an actual purpose to the item would be an improvement.

1 Chainmail Aren't Worth The Investment

The Only Uncraftable Armor

Chainmail armor is possibly the most infamously uncraftable item set in the game. Ever since it was first added to Minecraft, fans have been craving a way to craft chainmail. There was a time when you could craft them with fire blocks, but this has since been removed, and it wasn't a viable way for survival players to make the armor anyway. Chainmail is only slightly sturdier than gold armor, so there's no reason for players to invest in a set when iron can be easily mined on day one.

Although chains might seem like the obvious choice to craft chainmail, this would actually be very inefficient, since it would be more expensive than iron armor. I think a better material to craft it with would be iron nuggets, unless the recipe for chains becomes cheaper in a future update. Saddles finally being granted a crafting recipe is a great start, but there are still a lot of items in Minecraft that would fare a lot better if they were craftable.

Source: Reddit (Reksew_Trebla, Rhainnno, Mlakuss)